Whether I live or not, but this is my promise to you that after me there will be a flood of people dying in my country. With similar courage, the great freedom fighter Arjun Lal Sethi jumped into the freedom struggle. The story of freedom fighter Arjun Lal Sethi’s patriotism and fight against the British still inspires the countrymen.
Ajmer was a union territory in Rajasthan during British rule. The echo of every activity happening here reached the British authorities. The intersection of Kesarganj area of Ajmer has been witness to every activity of the revolutionaries who fought to free the country from the chains of slavery. Apart from the great revolutionary Arjun Lal Sethi, the command of the freedom movement in Ajmer was in the hands of local leaders. Once during a meeting against the British, a bullet was fired at the intersection.
Two major religious places of Hindus and Muslims, Brahma Temple of Pushkar and Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti are also in Ajmer. Therefore, revolutionary devotees used to come to Ajmer in disguise and return after serving their purpose. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose also came to Ajmer and stayed. Chandrashekhar Azad lived in a cottage on a hill in the garden of Athar. Bhagat Singh also came to Beawar.
Arjun Lal Sethi, the leader of the armed revolution in Rajasthan, also ignited the revolution by staying in Ajmer. Sethi opposed the partition of Bengal in 1905. In 1907, a school in the name of Jain Education Society was established in Ajmer. In the year 1908, this school was shifted to Jaipur under the name of Jain Vardhaman Pathshala. Its objective was to provide revolutionary training to the youth. Zorawar Singh Barhat and Pratap Singh, the revolutionaries who threw bombs at the procession of Governor General Lord Hardinge in Delhi on 12 December 1912, were trained in his school. It was Sethi who had hatched the conspiracy behind this bomb incident.
There was a secret passage on the hill in Ajmer. There was a big place in the middle of this secret passage where the revolutionaries used to make bombs. Arjun Lal Sethi prepared the young revolutionaries to fight on every front. On March 20, 1913, Sethi was sent to jail for the murder of a Mahant for the purpose of raising funds for the revolutionaries. On 5 August 1914, he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Sethi was released from jail in 1920 and made Ajmer his permanent home.
Arjun Lal Sethi took over the reins of the Ajmer-Merwara Provincial Congress in Rajasthan in 1922–23. It is said that during this time Mahatma Gandhi himself had reached Ajmer to meet Arjun Lal Sethi. The last part of Arjun Lal Sethi’s life was spent in anonymity. He said goodbye to the world on 3 December 1941. It is sad that there is not a single statue of a revolutionary like Arjun Lal Sethi in Ajmer. However, a colony named after him has developed outside the city. The name of this great revolutionary is written on a board in Ajmer.
