In 1857, British rulers of India were able to brutally crush the first freedom struggle of India which for them was armed mutiny. The people were sad and demoralised.
Birth and Early Years
Only eight years later, a woman named Gulab Devi gave birth to a male child on 18th January, 1865 in Dodigram village of Ferozepur district, Punjab. The baby was later christened Lajpat Rai. At that time Gulab Devi was living with her parents away from her husband. The husband, Shri Radhakrishan was a school teacher posted at Ropar.
When Radhakrishan learnt the news of the arrival of a son, he rushed to his father-in-law’s house in Dodigram from Ropar. The birth of the baby, Lajpat Rai was celebrated with traditional gusto and customs in his maternal grand parent’s home.
After the ceremonies, Master Radhakrishan took his wife and the new born to Ropar with him. It was a small neglected town visited by one epidemic or other regularly. When the child Lajpat Rai was shifted to Ropar, malaria struck the town. The baby also suffered badly. It had some physical disorder from birth and was prone to diseases. All those combination of factors affected the health of baby Lajpat. His health could never recover from those early setbacks and Lajpat Rai had to bear the consequences of poor physical condition all his life. The good diet later on could not bring the good health.
It was not only Ropar but the entire country was suffering the neglect of the alien British rulers. It was their way of settling scores with India who had dared to raise an armed revolt against them in 1857. The failure of the revolt had demoralised the people. A defeatist mood had set in. All those who wanted freedom were humiliated and frustrated. Despair and hopelessness had become their lot. The whitemen were again firmly in control of the administration and the country. Their supporters were in upbeat mood. The (mutineers) freedom fighters were dead or in jails licking their wounds. Bahadur Shah Zafar, installed by the mutineers as the Emperor of India was sentenced to life imprisonment in exile and was sent to Rangoon (Mandlay Jail) where he was to die later.
Suffocating political conditions were not the only woes of Indians. The social conditions were even worse for which the society itself was to be blamed. Caste systems, untouchability, women burning in the name of Sati, dowry evil, blind faiths, orthodoxy and illiteracy were ravaging the society. The feudal exploitation was continuing on. All these factors put together were condemning the people to grinding poverty.
So much so that Hindus had lost their self respect and self belief. They were resigned to their fate as created by the priests and the religious figure heads. Master Radhakrishnan was a thinking person. He had become completely disillusioned with the religion of his birth. He was being drawn towards Islam which was simple and suffered no confusions compared to Hinduism which was an endless confusion created by 33 crore gods and goddesses.
Master Radhakrishan’s Islamic connections began at an early age when he took admission in a Madarsa, the school attached to the local mosque, for his primary education. The teachers there were clerics and Islam faithfuls. Needless to say that introduction of Islamic beliefs to the students was the primary object of the madarsas. Madarsas freely admitted Hindu students as the preaching there often resulted in the students embracing Islam influenced by the teachers.
Radhakrishan too was impressed with Islamic values. He had gradually become Muslim by thought. He started observing Roza and offered five prayers a day like a regular faithful of Islam. He had many other Hindu friends who were also going through the same religious metamorphosis. It was taken for granted that sooner or later Radhakrishan would convert to Islam. Only a matter of time, it was.
Meanwhile, Sir Sayyed Ahmad Khan had emerged as a great Muslim leader of liberal outlook. He didn’t subscribe to the rigid orthodox lines held by clerics. Cleric’s orthodoxy was proving a hurdle in the spread of Islam. Hindus who wished to convert faced the dilemma of leaving one orthodox group to get trapped in another. This prospect held many Hindus back who otherwise would have gone to Islam. Master Radhakrishan had become a fan of Sir Sayyed. He wrote letters to Sir Sayyed. He revealed to him that although he wanted to become a proper muslim yet he would prefer to retain his original name because religion was a matter of heart and not a name label. To his glee, Sir Sayyed agreed with him that the change of name was not essential. What mattered was the faith in Mohammad and Allah.
The readers should note that Master Radhakrishan was not the only religious aberration in the family. The entire family was a religious circus. Lajpat Rai’s mother, was a born Hindu but she was devoted to Sikhism and faithfully celebrated its beliefs. Her husband was close to Islam. Sikhism and Islam were two opposite values and had a volatile relationship historically. And as a Hindu wife she was supposed to take her husband as God.
The father of Radhakrishan was a Jain who was a patwari in Land Revenue department. For the villagers the patwari was the most important government official who ruled their lives. He was the symbol of the government’s power who held the records of all their landed holdings, the sole possession of a native. An arrogant stroke of his pen, the patwari could change the positions and the geography of the landed holdings. The patwaris were not paid any handsome salaries. Infact, they were given peanuts as monthly wages. Yet the patwaris made good money through pay offs for maintaining records straight or manipulate the records in favour of the payers. It posed no problems for the rulers. They turned Nelson’s eye to the corruption because it helped to keep the people in awe of the power of the government. At grass root level the people could experience how even patwari, the tip of the finger of the government machine could dictate their lives.
Radhakrishan’s father, the patwari also took it as his birthright to make money out of the peasants. The bribe money was legitimate income to him. Besides Jainism he held this belief firmly.
There is an interesting anecdote about it. There was a professor in a town college who had some landed property in the village where the patwari was posted. The professor needed some documentary verification done by the patwari. The patwari demanded his bribe. It angered the professor and he refused to part with any money. He went away. He complained to the village headman. The headman advised the professor to pay the money to the patwari. He revealed that the acting Governor of Punjab too had some lands in the village and he paid the bribe money to the patwari to keep his land records straight.
Radhakrishan’s mother, the wife of the patwari was an orthodox woman steeped in blind faiths. She didn’t greed for money. Whatever money her husband gave her went into charities. So, the patwari gave her little money.
Sometimes she claimed to be possessed by the spirit of her late sister and made predictions. Some people took those predictions seriously. Once in one such possessed states she is said to have predicted that her son who she was then carrying in her womb would convert to Islam but his son would redeem Hinduism.
The son she gave birth to was Radhakrishan. One of the closest friends of Radhakrishan was Duli Chand pleader who was also leaning towards Islam and thinking of converting to it. The matter of conversion was often the point of discussion between the friends. They goaded each other to take the final step by walking into the nearest mosque and formally become a muslim.
For a long time Gulab Devi was watching her husband’s growing tilt towards Islam and she dreaded the day when her husband would announce his final decision to convert. She had no objection to his observing Roza and offering Namaz without formally becoming a muslim. His doing so could create divisions in the family and problems for them. Islam was anti-Hindu religion. As far as Sikhism and Jainism were concerned, the both sects were the products to the same stream as Hinduism. If Radhakrishan became muslim the relatives could react and boycott them socially or break off ties throwing their lives in disarray.
As an antidote, Gulab Devi impressed upon her son Laj alias Lajpat the greatness of their religion of birth and the need to stick to it. She pictured Islam as barbaric invasion into the minds of Hindus. At the same time Master Radhakrishan taught his son the superiority of Islam. He made Lajpat observe Roza and offer Namaz. After a period Lajpat gave up Roza and Namaz. In the boy’s mind mother’s education was gaining upper ground.
Inspite of wife’s objections to his conversion to Islam, one day, Master Radhakrishan announced that he and his friend Dulichand were going to the mosque to embrace Islam formally.
Galab Devi froze. The moment she dreaded had arrived. She again begged to her husband to consider the social implications for the family his action would create.
The husband said, “Gulabo, I have given the matter enough thoughts. I have firm faith in Islam and not openly presenting myself as Islamic faithful would be cheating upon myself, the family and the society. I should be honest to all.”
“But what will happen to me, Laj, other children and the family?” the woman pleadingly asked.
“Insha Allah. As God will wish,” Radhakrishan said as a faithful.
The wife shivered. She was a simple woman of no intellectual prowess. She could not understand the mental conflict of her husband. For her, a Hindu becoming a muslim was the greatest act of treachery and betrayal. The religion for her simplistic mind was a rod of hot iron a child was born branded in the womb with.
There were tears in her eyes. She desperately ran inside. She came out holding the hand of her son almost dragging him. To her husband she addressed, “Master! Don’t do it at least for the sake of your son. Think of his future please.”
The boy, Lajpat started bawling instinctively. He saw his mother weeping and thought that his father was doing something terrible to his mother. Master Radhakrishan stopped in his tracks. His crying wife and wailing son were creating an upsetting scene. Greatly embarrassed, he led his wife and son inside lest it should attract the attention of the neighbourhood. He consoled them and wiped their tears. For the time being he gave up the idea of becoming a muslim for the peace of the family. He loved his wife and the child.
He decided to do it later on when his son grew up and understood things himself. No one could object to his having faith in Islam. At the same time the social evils of Hindu society kept disturbing him. He couldn’t help doing something about it.
During that period a reformist movement was being carried on by ‘Arya Samaj’ organisation. It was fighting against the evil practices that plagued the Hindu society. Master Radhakrishan was drawn to it. The ideals of the organisation set by Swami Dayanand Saraswati impressed and appealed to him. He joined the organisation after attending a lot of its meetings and started preaching its messages actively. In no time, he became a dedicated Arya Samaji reformist.
The father’s involvement with Arya Samaj movement deeply influenced the mind of his boy, Lajpat Rai. Infact, it shaped his mindset and the course of his life was charted out in advance. The ideals of Arya Samaj became guiding principles of young Lajpat’s life. And redemption of Hindu society crystalised as his mission. His mother, on the side, kept loading his mind with traditional values, culture, religion and heritage to keep him rooted to Hinduism inspite of all its faults. Such was the environment, that young Lajpat grew up in.
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