V P Hansrani

V P Hansrani was an Indian Freedom Fighter who was based in Britain. He held leading positions in both the Indian Workers Association and the India League. He was a prolific author who worked with Krishna Menon and Sardar Ajit Singh.

Early life Hansrani was born in the late 1910s in a Rurka Kalan, a village in the 'Jullunder' (Jalandhar) district of Panjab. During his birth a 'Sheshnag' (snake) appeared, a sign of good fortune. This good fortune served him well as despite being ill as a young child, he survived and lived a life of adventure. He studied in D.A.V. College, Lahore but due to the Great Depression of the 1930s yearned to travel abroad to make a living for himself. This would often stimulate discussions amongst those in the commune, and the highly political situation in Europe in 1939 would turn these men into revolutionaries. One IWA revolutionary in particular stands out and that is Udham Singh, the man who avenged the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

He was in touch with other revolutionaries such as Sardar Ajit Singh (Bhagat Singh's uncle) with whom he exchanged many personal letters and Krishna Menon.

After India won independence and then was hastily partitioned, Hansrani got involved with other activities of the IWA. Opting to make England his home, he worked on helping new migrants settle into English living. This involved ensuring that they were treated fairly at work and by landlords. He also got heavily involved with the India League and became a President of it, a position that he would cyclically have until 1975. Here he was focused on building bridges between the two communities in the U.K. This would entail putting on events to mark key dates such as Basakhi, Divali, and Gandhi's birthday, and additionally, providing free English classes to new arrivals from India and working on anti-racism campaigns. Hansrani had a love of penmanship and history, and thus documented everything. Unfortunately, he trusted a researcher from Canada with important documents relating to the IWA and the League, who then lost them.

Personal life Hansrani went back to India in 1949 to see his family and also got married. The newly weds soon arrived in England. In addition to his work in the 'Liberation of India', he successfully founded a wholesale knitwear business and was a member of the National Secular Society.