Lala Jagat Narain
Portrait of Lala Jagat Narain
Personal details
Born(1899-05-31)31 May 1899
Wazirabad, Gujranwala District, British India
Died9 September 1981(1981-09-09) (aged 82)
Jullundur, Punjab
SpouseShanti Devi
Children2 sons and 8 daughters: Romesh Chander, Vijay Kumar Chopra, Sudershan Trehan,
Alma materDAV College, Lahore
Law College, Lahore

Lala Jagat Narain (31 May 1899 − 9 September 1981) was an Indian editor, member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, Member of Parliament[1] and founder of the Hind Samachar media group.[2]

Early life

Lala Jagat Narain was born at Wazirabad, Gujranwala District (now in Pakistan) in 1899.[3] He graduated from D.A.V. College, Lahore in 1919, and joined the Law College, Lahore.

Establishment

He left his studies in 1920 at the call of Mahatma Gandhi to join the Non-cooperation movement. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. In jail, he acted as Lala Lajpat Rai's personal secretary.

In 1924 he became the editor of Bhai Parmanand's weekly Hindi language paper Akashvani. He participated in the Satyagraha movement and was in jail for about nine years on different occasions. His wife was in jail for six months and his eldest son, Ramesh Chandra, was arrested during the Quit India movement.

Political life

Punjab Kesari, header with the founders Lala Jagat Narain & Romesh Chander)

Narain was President of the Lahore City Congress Committee for seven years, leader of the Congress Party in the Lahore Corporation, a member of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee for more than thirty years and member of the All-India Congress Committee for about 30 years.

Lala Jagat Narain was detained under MISA during the Indira Gandhi's Emergency which was later on revoked on 4 January 1977.[4] Following this incident, he parted ways with the party.[5]

Narain had come to Jalandhar as a refugee from Lahore and started an Urdu daily, Hind Samachar in 1948. Urdu then was the language of the salaried urban men of Punjab, the people who could afford the time and money for a newspaper. But Urdu in independent India lacked government support. In 1965, he founded Punjab Kesari, a Hindi-language daily.

During the Punjabi Suba movement, he had resigned as minister in protest when the Regional Formula, a proposition to give the Punjabi and Hindi languages equal status in Punjab that the Akali Dal had provisionally accepted, had been implemented in 1956.[6] He would periodically opine when the Akalis and the government would appear to make progress on the issue of Punjab statehood, stating once that "the Hindus of Punjab would never accept the settlement."[6]

An Arya Samaji widely known for anti-Sikh communalism,[7] Narain had urged Hindus in Punjab to reply to disown Punjabi as their mother tongue. His paper played a significant role in "fanning the flames of communal hatred between Hindus and Sikhs,"[8] and the Hindi press based in Jalandhar consistently vilified Sikhs,[9] without making any distinction between Sikh groups.[10]

After the Punjabi Suba was nevertheless established, he would later denounce the Anandpur Sahib Resolution which sought to rectify perceived injustices in water allotment and state powers and development following its formation; he and other Arya Samaj leaders and editors like Virendra would continue to communalize demands for the welfare of the entire state of Punjab,[7] which would be further pursued during the Dharam Yudh Morcha. Again presuming to speak on behalf of the state's Hindus, he would assert in an article in the Indian Express that the primarily urban Hindu population in the state had nothing to do with the continuing state-center dispute over the proportionally unequal distribution of river waters, disregarding the influence on the state's economy of the water allotment amount, and in turn its social cohesion.[7]

Death and aftermath

Killers of Lala Jagat Narain, Dalbir Singh (second from left in top), Swara Singh Rode (second from left in bottom left), Nachhatar Singh Rode (bottom right)

Jagat was a critic of the Khalistan movement and he had earlier survived an assassination attempt in January 1981. However, on 9 September 1981, Narain was shot dead by a two-man team of assassins. Nachhatar Singh Rode, was arrested at the scene of crime. Dalbir Singh and Swaran Singh Rode are two others accused in the case.[11]

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who had accused Narain of portraying the Sikh gurus as "lovers of wine and women" in his newspapers in spite of protests,[12] was implicated in the assassination, though it was the Dal Khalsa which had likely committed it.[13] An Indian Airlines plane would be hijacked by them on 29 September 1981 to demand his release,[14] with no casualties.[15]

In 1981, Bhindranwale remained inside Gurudwara Gurdarshan Parkash at Mehta Chowk, but was persuaded to surrender on 20 September 1981. For 25 days, violence exploded all over Punjab, while Bhindranwale was jailed in Circuit House.[16]

India's Union Home Minister, Giani Zail Singh, announced to Parliament that there was no evidence that Bhindranwale was involved in Lala Jagat Narain's assassination, and was released on 15 October 1981.[16]

On 10 July 1984, The White Paper on violence in Punjab issued by the government of India mentioned that Narain was assassinated because of his criticism of Bhindrawale.[17] He was present during the clash that occurred between the Sant Nirankaris and Akhand Kirtani Jatha members, and stood witness at the Karnal trial against Bhindrawale.[18]

Legacy

Jagat Narain on a 2013 stamp of India

H.K. Dua, a former Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune, praised Narain's Hind Samachar Group for standing up against terrorism pointing out that 62 of his staff were gunned down over a period of time.[19]

A chair in the name of Narain was established at Kurukshetra University in 1998.

On 9 September 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a postage stamp in memory of Jagat Narain.[20][21][22][23]

References

  1. ↑ "'Pranab, I know of the consequences': Indira on storming Golden Temple | india". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  2. ↑ site admin (7 November 2013). "Lala Jagat Narain: An extremist killing | IndiaToday". Indiatoday.in. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  3. ↑ Lala Jagat Narain Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ "January 4, 1977, Forty Years Ago: No Poll Plans". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  5. ↑ "Ashwani Chopra Minna – The journalist now embarks on a political journey". Yes Punjab.
  6. 1 2 Grewal, J. S. (1998). The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India II.3) (Revised ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 199. ISBN 9781316025338. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 Dhillon, Kirpal S. (2006). Identity and Survival: Sikh Militancy in India, 1978-1993. London, United Kingdom: Penguin Books. p. 69. ISBN 9780143100362.
  8. ↑ Mark Tully, Satish Jacob (1985). Amritsar; Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle (e-book ed.). London: J. Cape. p. 66. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Pettigrew, Joyce (1987). "In Search of a New Kingdom of Lahore". Pacific Affairs. 60 (1): 24. doi:10.2307/2758827. JSTOR 2758827.
  10. ↑ Grewal, J. S. (1998). The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India II.3) (Revised ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 219. ISBN 9781316025338. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  11. ↑ site admin (7 November 2013). "Lala Jagat Narain: An extremist killing | IndiaToday". Indiatoday.in. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  12. ↑ Thukral, Gobind (30 April 1982). "What kind of man is Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale?". India Today. Living Media India Limited. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  13. ↑ Dressler, Markus; Mandair, Arvind (3 October 2011). Secularism and Religion-Making. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-978294-9.
  14. ↑ Kaufman, Michael T. (30 September 1981). "Sikh Separatists Hijack Indian Jetliner To Pakistan". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  15. ↑ ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-200 registration unknown Lahore Airport (LHE). Aviation-safety.net (29 September 1981). Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  16. 1 2 Albrecht, Schnabel; Rohan, Gunaratna (2014). Wars From Within: Understanding And Managing Insurgent Movements. World Scientific. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-78326-559-6.
  17. ↑ "White Paper on Punjab Agitation". New Delhi: Government of India. 10 July 1984: 40. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ↑ Jalandhri, Surjeet (1984). Bhindranwale Sant. Jalandhar: Punjab Pocket Books. p. 25.
  19. ↑ Plea to wipe out terror, The Tribune Archived 26 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine ...“We should be thankful to the Hind Samachar Group of Newspapers for two reasons. Firstly, it has initiated a fund for helping victims of terrorists and that of natural calamities and , secondly, for standing up against terrorism at a time when no other paper dared to do so. The family had not only lost two of its members — Lala Jagat Narain and Ramesh Chander Ji — but the newspaper lost 62 of its agents, hawkers, sub-editors and senior-sub editors. It is a remarkable contribution toward the country and in the interest of freedom of expression,” said Mr Dua
  20. ↑ "PM releases stamp on veteran journalist Lala Jagat Narain". Zeenews.india.com. 9 September 2013. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  21. ↑ "Prime Minister releases stamp on Lala Jagat Narain | India News". The Times of India. 9 September 2013. Archived from the original on 12 September 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  22. ↑ "News18.com: CNN-News18 Breaking News India, Latest News Headlines, Live News Updates". Ibnlive.in.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  23. ↑ "September 9, 2013 – PM releasing postage stamp on Lala Jagat Narain". The Economic Times. 9 September 2013. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
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