On the birth anniversary of one of colonial India's most daring revolutionaries, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini offered his respects to Lala Har Dayal — the firebrand thinker and founding member of the Ghadar Party — on Wednesday, 14 October 2026.

Posting in Hindi, CM Saini described Lala Har Dayal as a 'mahan krantikari, prakhar rashtravadi chintak' — a great revolutionary and ardent nationalist thinker — who dedicated his life to the freedom of Maa Bharati. He wrote that Har Dayal's 'indomitable courage, sacrifice and unwavering dedication to the nation will forever inspire countrymen to remain devoted to national service.'

The revolutionary who built a global uprising from San Francisco

Born in 1884 in Delhi, Lala Har Dayal stands apart in India's freedom struggle for the sheer geographic audacity of his resistance. While the mainstream independence movement operated from within the subcontinent, Har Dayal crossed oceans to organise. He became a founding force behind the Ghadar Party, established in 1913 in San Francisco by Indian expatriates — labourers, intellectuals, and soldiers alike — who resolved to overthrow British colonial rule through revolutionary means.

The party's name, drawn from the Urdu word for 'mutiny' or 'revolt,' was a deliberate provocation. Har Dayal used its newspaper and transnational networks to channel anti-colonial anger across North America, Southeast Asia, and back into Punjab. His path ultimately led to exile and restless intellectual wandering across Europe, but the movement he helped ignite left a permanent mark on India's revolutionary tradition.

BJP's consistent honouring of armed-resistance icons

CM Saini's tribute fits a wider, deliberate pattern. BJP leaders have made it a consistent practice to publicly commemorate revolutionary freedom fighters — particularly those associated with armed resistance rather than constitutional negotiation — on their birth and death anniversaries. Figures from the Ghadar Party tradition, alongside icons like Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose, feature prominently in this calendar of remembrance.

For Haryana, the resonance is local as well as national. Punjab and Haryana share deep historical ties to the Ghadar movement, which drew heavily from the agrarian communities of undivided Punjab. Invoking Har Dayal is, in that sense, both a national tribute and a regional one.

A century after the Ghadar Party's founding, its founder's anniversary still commands the attention of sitting chief ministers — proof that some flames, once lit, are not easily extinguished.