The role of Lala Lajpat Rai in our freedom struggle is a romantic saga of more than three decades. At a young age, he engaged himself in the social work on the platform of the Arya Samaj and later on when he joined the Indian National Congress. He was deported and suffered imprisonment during the Non-Cooperation Movement. Indeed, the trio Lal-Bal-Pal had their successful innings at various levels, and their activities became a nightmare for the Raj. Lajpat Rai was elected to the presidential chair in the special Congress session held at Calcutta in 1920. He was critical of the British bureaucracy responsible for the ghastly tragedy in the historic Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar on 13 April 1919, and the repression of several army officials during the martial law. He appealed to the Congress leaders to generate a new spirit among the people of India for the attainment of Swaraj. Besides, his death was tinged with patriotic fervour when he and his several associates were brutally lathy-charged at Lahore in 1928, in anti-Simon Commission demonstration.

The Gandhian held in the freedom struggle of our country is an historic phenomenon. After a chequered career for about two decades in South Africa, he emerged as a leader of the Congress during the first global war a few incidents like the Champaran Satyagrapha, the Khilafat Movement and the Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy made him to involve himself more deeply at the political stage of the Congress. With the death of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, he became the unquestioned leader of the Congress and led the masses towards the goal of independence.

A votary of non-violence, supporter of the causes of Harijans and women, as he was, he launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Quit India Movement. The themes covered in this volume are the varied phases of his personality which speak of his incessant work in the long-drawn struggle for independence of our country.

Born in moderate zamindar family of Bihar, Rajendra Prasad played a dominant role in the long -drawn political struggle in our country. A true and dedicated Gandhian as he was, he spent his whole life in supporting the anti-Raj stance of Mahatma Gandhi in a non-violence way. He led a very simple life and was ever available to the peasants, labourers and Harijans in Bihar and elsewhere. His dedication and sufferings brought him on the presidential stage of the Congress in its session held at Bombay in 1934. He was the first President of independence India.

The themes covered in his work are his early career, his participation in the satyagraha movements, his socio-economic and political ideology, his mass contacts and leadership in Bihar, and an assessment of his work in the freedom struggle. Undoubtedly his name figures among the few dedicated patriots having deep linkage with several kinds of personal sacrifices.

In the long-drawn political struggle for complete independence of the subcontinent Jawaharlal Nehru's contribution is most significant. Not taken any interest in the legal practice after his law degree from England, he jointed the freedom struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. In his formative years, the ghastly and gruesome tragedy in the Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar greatly touched upon his sensitive mind which made him to formulate an anti-Raj stance in the coming three decades.

The coming years were most hectic for Nehru and several other leaders who were busy in three major movements in our country. His anti-raj stance tinged with sincere identification with numerous causes of the masses of India won for him spontaneous respect from one and all, In fact after the Lahore Congress, 1929, he assumed the leadership of the Congress along with Mahatma Gandhi who showered his love and respect for him in the later years. Thus after a long struggle for independence, he was the natural choice to head the Interim Government in 1946.