Mahatma Hans Raj

Mahatma Hans Raj, the man in whose memory this college has been founded was a great nationalist at heart, besides being an educationist and a religious organizer. He was also an untiring relief worker and social reformer, organizing relief work during earthquakes at Kangra (1905), Quetta (1934), Bihar (1935), famines of Rajasthan (1905), Awadh (1907), and Garhwal (1918). He upheld widow remarriage and strongly advocated the abolition of early marriages and caste distinctions. By his efforts he turned Arya Samaj and DAV institutions into effective instruments of social upliftment and moral regeneration.

Mahatma Hans Raj was born on 19 April 1864 in the hamlet of Bajwara in district of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, in a family of modest financial means. His father Lala Chunnilal was an appeal nawis and mother Hardevi was a simple housewife. When Hans Raj was 12 years old his father died putting the family to severe economic strain. Fortunately for Hans Raj his elder brother Muluk Raj got a scholarship of Rs.8/- per month which also enabled Hans Raj to pursue his studies. He started his career as Honorary Founder Head Master of DAV High School Lahore in 1886 at the age of 22. In 1889 when DAV College was established in Lahore he became its honorary Principal, identifying himself completely with the college. DAV College Lahore became an important centre of learning, inculcating among its students the qualities of discipline and self-sacrifice. He opened many more institutions in other important places and guided the destiny of DAV institutions for fifty years. He breathed his last in 1938. Mahatma Hans Raj may truly be acknowledged as the founding father of the DAV movement
Hans Raj College lives up to the values and ideals of this great soul who lived and sacrificed his entire life for the ideals he believed in and practiced.