Lala Hansraj, also known as Mahatma Hansraj, was an educationist born in 1864 in a small town in Bajwara, in the Hoshiarpur district in Punjab. He was immensely influenced by the ideologies of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and his soul-stirring appeal to revitalise Aryan Hinduism through the Vedas.
Lala Hansraj's most notable achievement was the establishment of the first Dayanand Anglo-Vedic Schools System (DAV) in Lahore in 1886 in collaboration with Guru Datta Vidyarthi. For the next 25 years, he remained the Principal of DAV College in Lahore, and after retirement, he dedicated his life to social service. Hansraj is largely credited as being the person who proposed the inclusion of the Ashok Dharma Chakra at the centre of the Indian National Flag.
The DAV institutions were eventually drawn into the Indian Independence Movement. As per records, the DAV has over 669 schools, colleges and technical institutions today and produced the largest number of Punjab's nationalists during the freedom struggle.
Lala Hansraj, a visionary educationist and a man who lived a life of selfless service to society, passed away on 14 November 1938. The Hansraj College in Delhi has been named after him.
Source: Indian Culture Portal