Bande Mataram

Lala Lajpat Rai

11-May-1907

We publish elsewhere the last letter we received from Lala Lajpat Rai previous to his sudden deportation. Great has been the good fortune of the Punjab leader in being selected as the first and noblest victim on the altar of Motherland. But for our part we may be pardoned if we indulge a feeling of regret and grief at the sudden parting from a friend. We have not been acquainted with Lajpat Rai for very long, but even these brief months of acquaintance and increasing friendship have been enough to make us feel the charm of his personality. There was always in Lajpat Rai a singular union of tenderness with strength, of quietness with fervour, a ready sympathy and kindly feeling which could not fail to attract. This sympathy and kindliness is evident in the warm phrases of appreciation he wrote to us. And there is a touch in his subscription to the letter which subsequent events have brought startlingly home to us—"an humble servant of the motherland, Lajpat Rai." Happy is he, for his Mother has accepted his service and given it the highest reward for which a patriot can hope, the privilege of not merely serving but suffering for her. When India raises statues to the heroes and martyrs of her emancipation, it will inscribe on his the simple and earnest phrase which remains behind to us as his modest boast and his sufficient message.

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