He was one of the trilogy of the three "Extremist" patriots of the Indian National Congress who had fought and gave his life during India's freedom struggle in the first half of the twentieth century. The other two were Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Together they were known as Lal-Bal-Pal.

They had advocated "extremist" means to get their message across to the British, like boycotting British manufactured goods, burning Western clothes made in the mills of Manchester and strikes and lock outs of British owned businesses and industrial concerns.