Ravi Rohmetra
” Tu nahi teri ulfat abhi tak dil me hai”
Bujh chuki hai shamma, Roshni abhi tak mehfil me hai”
Duggar land has produced politicians , academicians, Social workers and leaders of caliber. Prominent amongst them is Mohan Lal Motial. This is the tale of a towering personality who worked selflessly for the cause of the people.A personality who shared wear woes of needy .He was a friend, a guide and a social worker.
Ch. Mohan Lal Motial a man of strong will power ,conviction , honesty , dedication and social justice, a crusader who at the tender age of 18 years was turned out of his family kitchen because of his involvement in anti untouchability and anti conversion activities. One of the pioneer of Arya Samaj movement and insurance business in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Born in the year 1897 at Rajouri he married to Smt Rameshwari at the age of 14 years only . He had been close associate of Sher-e-Duggar Lala Hans Raj Mahajan a great social reformer , and had complete faith in his theory of social justice and social reforms . He was true believer of women education , liberty and equality and that is why he got all his six daughters highly educated and married in quite educated and socially upright families. He was father of three sons also who are placed quite high in the society.
Although he was born in an orthodox hindu family , he was a secular person in true sense. He had very strong ties with many muslim and sikh families with whom he had sisterly and brotherly relations which remained intact even after his death .
Himself being a student of urdu , he was a great protagonist of hindi language which he loved and adored very much . He got all his children educated in Hindi in their earlier years of education. He wrote good number of poems in Hindi and also remained President of All J&K Hindu Sahitya Mandal. For his service to Hindi Language he was honoured and awarded by the Revenue Minister of J&K State.
A staunch Arya Samaji he fought against the menace of conversion and untouchability for which he braved couple of threats to his life also He remained President of J&K Arya Pratinidhi Sabha a governing body of all Arya Samaj Units of the state.
He had been chairman of Shri. Sunder Singh Gurudwara Trust and did a commendable job in the improvement and maintenance of the property of that Trust both at Jammu and Haridwar.
Throughout his life he remained associated with RSS movement and had been their karyavah and sanghchalak at different times. For 28 long years he single handedly with the personal legal help of Lala Suraj Parkash advocate, he fought the case of prime property of Balmiki community upto supreme court , which is under the illegal possession of Christian community and won the cases for that neglected community.
He was jailed during emergency because of his nationalistic and democratic views . He had always been concerned about the upliftment of downtrodden people and with the help and inspiration of his wife solemnized the marriages of many orphan and handicapped girls.
After the partition of the country, the Pak army in the garb of invaders , invaded a large part of our state resulting into capturing the areas of Mirpur and Kotli besides other areas by them . They also succeeded in occupying Rajouri for some time. At Rajouri many people killed themselves by performing ” Hara Kiri” . The refugees from these areas who could survive during that carnage reached Jammu for refuge in very bad condition both physically and financially . Mr, Motial offered all of them his house and households for shelter by shifting his own family to some other place . He later on, donated most of his ancestral property at Rajouri for the benefit of civil society and social organization.
He was a highly esteemed and respected personality of the state who believed in doing his duty towards the organization he belonged to in particular and society in general without caring for the reward or position as it is evident that Bakshi Gulam Mohd, then prime Minister of J&K offered him reward in shape of two big plots at Gandhi Nagar and permit for two heavy vehicles which was considered to be a big favour at that time for his social contributions, but Mr. Motial politely refused this gesture saying that ” Whatever he does is his duty towards humanity and nation which does not deserve any remuneration or reward”
He always believed that service to humanity is service to God .This the basic resons that the poor masses remember him as their God father and his name is being taken with great love , respect and honour. During his life time he was counted amongst great personalities of Jammu.He would always prefer Gandhi cap and Khaddar Pajama kurta throughout his life and was a sewak of Mahtma Gandhi. He was like a saint and had settled at Purani Mandi Jammu.
No doubt Mohan Lal Motial ji is not with us but his selfless service for mankind his name will remain always alive in our hearts. He is still remembered among his friends and by those who were associated with him in his social activities for his untiring and selfless work for the cause of people . He will always remain alive in the hearts of those associated with social activities as their ” Guiding Star” Sh. Motial the elevated soul who fought for the betterment of the people of J&K all along his life proved himself a best guide. His departure from this world is great loss for the state.
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