SOHAN LAL PATISAK
Sohan Lal was born on January 7, 1883. His father, P.L. Chanda Ram, was a poor Brahmin from Patti, District Amritsar. Sohan Lal was a brilliant student and won many scholarships and prizes while he was at the local school. However, he had to discontinue his studies after he passed the Middle examination and secured employment in the Irrigation Department. After a short tenure, he left this service and joined the Normal Training School, Lahore. Upon completing the course, he took up the work of a school teacher.
Sohan Lal had two brothers and one sister. At the age of 18, he was married to Shrimati Laxmi Devi of Kalanaur, District Gurdaspur. He was extremely devoted to his parents and brothers.
During his stay in Lahore, he developed strong leanings towards the national movement. The revolutionary uprising of 1905-07 created a deep impact on his mind. He resigned his job as a protest against the headmaster ordering him to break off his contacts with Lala Lajpat Rai and other national leaders. Thereafter, he became joint Editor of the Urdu journal Vande Mataram, working under Lajpat Rai. Simultaneously, he joined the classes which Data Hardyal had started at Lahore to inspire the youth of India with the aim of revolution. Around this time, his wife gave birth to their first child but within a week, both the child and the mother expired. This created a dismal and hopeless situation in the family. Among the survivors, his father was now too old to work and his elder sister was an issueless widow.
In such tragic circumstances, Sohan Lal left India in 1907 for Siam (Thailand) and the Philippines. After visiting India once in between, he left for America for higher studies in Pharmacy.
In America, he once again came in contact with Hardyal, who had set up the Ghadr Party in California with a view to raising a general rebellion in India. Sohan Lal lost no time in becoming an active worker of this party.
When the leadership of the Ghadr Party started sending bands of revolutionaries to India, Sohan Lal took upon himself the assignment of raising a revolt among Indian soldiers of the British army stationed in Burma, Malaya, and Singapore. As a result of his propaganda, Indian soldiers in Singapore revolted in March 1915 but were brutally put down and arrested. Many of them were shot dead.
However, Sohan Lal remained undaunted and shifted the field of his activities to Burma. Immediately, a search was started for the arrest of this “dangerous revolutionary.” It was not so easy to lay hands upon him, as he knew the local language and moved freely in the country in the guise of the native people. Eventually, the government succeeded in arresting him in August 1915 at Maymyo (Burma). He was detained in the Fort of Mandalay during his trial. The court declared him guilty and sentenced him to death. He died on the gallows on February 10, 1916.