Lalaji: The Pen That Outlived the Bullet

There are lives that pass quietly, and there are lives that thunder across the ages. Lala Jagat Narain belonged to the latter. His was not a life of comfort or compromise — but of struggle, of defiance, and of service to the nation.

Born in 1899, he was among the noble generation who stood shoulder to shoulder with Mahatma Gandhi during the Quit India movement. He faced prison not once but many times, yet never yielded an inch of principle. When the struggle for freedom demanded sacrifice, he gave it gladly. When the battle for truth demanded courage, he gave it without hesitation.

As the founder of the Punjab Kesari Group, he turned the newspaper into a fortress of free expression. In an age of fear, his pen carried the power of a hundred cannons. He spoke not for the mighty, but for the millions without voice. He fought against forces that sought to divide the land by creed and by hatred, standing firm for unity and justice.

On this day in 1981, assassins struck him down. They thought a bullet could silence him. They thought terror would succeed where argument had failed. Yet in their crime they made a mistake: they turned a man into a martyr, and a voice into a movement. That very night, my grandfather picked up the pen and wrote words that still resound: “You may strike us down, but another will take his place.” And when assassins later struck my grandfather, my father, Ashwini Minna, rose in the same spirit, carrying the torch of truth forward. Three generations, one unbroken resolve: terror shall not dictate the course of our destiny.

Lala Jagat Narain’s life is our inheritance. His courage is our summons. His sacrifice is our charge. Let none imagine that freedom of the press is a gift — it is a duty, bought at the highest price. Let none believe that extremism can outlast the will of a united people.

We remember him not with grief alone, but with pride. Pride that we are the heirs of his legacy. Pride that one man’s truth can outlive the guns of his enemies. Pride that, even in martyrdom, Lala Jagat Narain proved that courage cannot be killed, and truth cannot be buried.