Ravi Rohmetra
Duggar land has its own brilliant and unique history. It has given birth to veteran political, academicians, social workers and leaders of caliber. One product and prominent amongst them has been Sher-e-Duggar Lal Hans Raj Mahajan. He was a friend, a guide and a social worker. During his life time he was counted amongst the great personalities of Jammu.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, Jammu started experiencing reverberations of the political and social awakening in the rest of the country. Lala Hans Raj Mahajan was the most outstanding leader of that phase of Jammu’s history. He pioneered formation of associations of various communities like the Mahajan Sabha and the Rajput Sabha as also of the Anjuman-i-Islamia and acted as their honorary secretary which ensured their mutual cooperation in the common task of social reform. The first secular organization of the state, also non-political to start with, was Dogra Sadar Sabha in 1904. He dominated the entire social reform movement in Jammu region for half a century from 1892, when he entered public life, to 1944 when he died. His field of work included campaign for Swadeshi, rights of women, spread of education, economic betterment of backward areas, reform in ceremonies observed at marriage, death and other social occasions, help to widows and orphans, cow protection, cleanliness and redressal of grievances against omissions and commissions of administration. Needless to remind that these activities were vital adjuncts of the national freedom movement. Lala Hans Raj first started two monthly newspapers in the state named the Dogra Gazette and The mahajan Niti Patar in 1907.
Lala Hans Raj founder of Akhil Bhartiya Mahajan Shiromani Sabha and Dogra Sadar Sabha was a man of principles and freedom fighter. Lala Hans Raj Ji was born on 2nd October 1866 at Hamirpur Sidhar,- Tehsil. Akhnoor District Jammu in a well known family. His father’s name was Lala Harish Chand Mahajan. At that time standard of education was not so high so he got his education at Masjid of his village from Mian Innam Aldin in Persian and Urdu. Once Late Maharaja, Ranbir Singh (1857-1885 AD) the ruler of the state paid a visit to Mirpur village and met its inhabitants. Boy Hans Raj was also very curious to see the ruler. Maharaja became impressed on seeing Hans Raj who was with his father and asked Hans Raj a few questions which he answered very quickly and accurately . On account of this maharaja asked Harriya Shah to send his child to Jammu for further studies. He got his education from Choba Ganesh Prasad and Choba Janki Prasad.
After sometime, the same young boy got the title “Sher-eDuggar” He passed the degree of law in first, division. He was also interested in religious works and in 1916 he constructed the Ved Mandir Ashram. Besides preaching Vedas his motive was to improve the condition of Orphans and to stop cow slaughtering cow. After laying the foundation stone of,Dogra Sadar Sabha and Mahajan Sabha, Lala Ji under the supervision of Maharaja Amar Singh laid the foundation stone Of the Rajput Sabha for the upliftment of low caste people. When the movement spread from Bengal to whole of India, Lala Ji played his role in Jammu and Kashmir. After this, he adopted Khaddar and also urged ” the. people to wear “Khaddar”. For this, he started a workshop to make and dye “Khaddar” at Purani Mandi Jammu. After retirement from Government job, he as a lawyer helped people in one or another way.
Most. of time was spent in organizing rallies and helping poor, In October 1932 as Srinagar – riots started between Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits, Muslims -attacked the house of Pandit Amarnath Kak (elder brother of Pandit.. Ramchandra Kak, who was elected as Prime Minister of J and K. At the time Lala Ji was at Srinagar. He came to known about this and with the help of some of his associates he reached Amarnath’s house and saved the life of his family members and took them to Hazuri Bagh near Amira Kadal. After that with the help of a local Hindu leader Keshav Bandu he decided to hold a conference in which Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs could get united and work for the whole society.
He served the people of the state and different biradris for a long time in a various capacities and always worked for poor and down trodden section of society. Mahajan was a real friend of people and man of high stature. The contribution of sher-e-duggar in providing water to people of Kandi belt through tube wells was path breaking initiative and this system still holds key in meeting drinking water demands of these and other areas in Jammu. The best way of paying tributes to the late Sher-e duggar is to follow his style of providing service without self to people. No doubt Mahajan ji is not with us but due to his selfless service for mankind his name will always live in our hearts.
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