In memoriam

Lahore, Tuesday, September 9, 1924

THIS day 26 years ago, Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, the founder of this paper, was gathered to his fathers. This termination of his earthly career was, however, only the end of his physical life. The moral and spiritual parts of his life — the only parts of a man’s life that are of enduring value — still continue not merely in the traditional and philosophical sense of those terms, but in the more palpable sense, that the great work to which he dedicated his life is still alive and shows no signs of early decay. And that work, be it remembered, did not concern any particular or isolated aspect of his country’s life and activities, but was coextensive with its whole life. In politics, in the sphere of social reform, education and philanthropy, the Sardar associated himself with all that was beneficent and progressive in the forces around him. He was a pillar of the Indian National Congress, and the founder of the first distinctly political organisation in this province. He was one of the first men in this province to join the Brahmo Samaj which then, as now, stood for the highest ideals in the domain of social reform. He was the first among the wealthy men of this province to realise the supreme need of spreading the light of education among the people, not only general education such as is imparted to the youth of the country in schools and colleges, but education which is imparted to adults by means of libraries, reading rooms and newspapers. In much of this, he was distinctly ahead of his times in his own province. In all of it, he was abreast of the most advanced of his contemporaries in other provinces.