Munshi Ram, better known as Swami Shraddhanand (22 February 1856 – 23 December 1926) was an Indian independence activist and

Arya Samaj Arya Samaj () is a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement that promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda Saraswati founded the samaj in the 1870s. Arya Samaj was the first Hindu ...

sannyasi who propagated the teachings of Dayananda Saraswati. This included the establishment of educational institutions, like the Gurukul Kangri University, and played a key role on the ''Sangathan'' (consolidation and organization) and the '' Shuddhi'' (purification), a Hindu reform movement in the 1920s.

Early life and education

He was born on 22 February 1856 in the village of Talwan in the Jalandhar District of the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Province of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was the youngest child in the family of Lala Nanak Chand, who was a Police Inspector in the United Provinces (now

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

), then administered by the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. His given name was Brihaspati Vij, but later he was called Munshi Ram Vij by his father, a name that stayed with him till he took sanyas in 1917, variously as Lala Munshi Ram Vij and Mahatma Munshi Ram. He adopted

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

after a few incidents, such as when he was prevented from entering the temple while a noble woman was praying. He also was witness to a "compromising" situation involving a church's father with a nun,Autobiography http://www.vedpedia.com . the attempted rape of a young devotee by pontiffs of the

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

, and the suspicious death of a little girl at the home of a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

lawyer. All of these events cemented his

. He eventually passed mukhtari exams and began studying law from Punjab University Law College to become a lawyer.

Meeting Dayanand

He first met Dayanand Saraswati when Dayanand visited Bareilly to give lectures. His father was handling arrangements and security at the events, due to the attendance of some prominent personalities and British officers. Munshiram attend the lectures at his father's request. He originally went with the intent of spoiling the arrangements, then claimed to be strongly influenced by Dayanand's courage, skill, and strong personality. After completing his studies Munshiram started his practice as

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

Career

Mahatma Munshi Ram or Swami Shraddhanand Arya Samaj

Schools

In 1892

was split into two factions after a controversy over whether to make

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...

education the core curriculum at the DAV College Lahore. He left the organization and formed the Punjab

. The Arya Samaj was divided between the Gurukul Section and the DAV Section. Shraddhanand headed for Gurukuls. In 1897, when Pandit Lekh Ram was assassinated, Shraddhanand succeeded him. He headed the 'Punjab Arya Pratinidhi Sabha', and started its monthly journal, ''Arya Musafir.'' In 1902 he established a Gurukul in Kangri, India near Haridwar. This school is now recognized as Gurukul Kangri University. In 1917, Mahatma Munshi Ram took sanyas as "Swami Shradhanand Saraswati". Shraddhanand established Gurukul Indraprashtha in Aravali near Faridabad, Haryana.

Activism

In 1917, Shraddhanand left Gurukul to become an active member of the Hindu reform movements and the

Indian Independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

.G.S. Chhatra (2007)
Some Indian Personalities of the Time: Swami Shraddhanand
''Advanced Study in the History of Modern India'' Lotus Press. p. 227. He began working with the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, which he invited to hold its session at Amritsar in 1919. This was because of the Jalianwala massacre, and no one in the Congress Committee disagreed to have a session at Amritsar. Motilal Nehru presided over the session. He also joined the nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Act. The same year he protested in front of a posse of Gurkha soldiers at the Clock Tower in Chandni Chowk, then was allowed to proceed. In the early 1920s he emerged as an important force in the Hindu Sangathan (consolidation) movement, which was a by product of the now revitalised

Hindu Mahasabha Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (), simply known as Hindu Mahasabha, is a Hindu nationalism, Hindu nationalist political party in India. Founded in 1915 by Madan Mohan Malviya, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating th ...

.Chetan Bhatt (2001). Shraddhanand ''Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths'' Berg Publishers. . p. 62. He wrote on religious issues in both

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. He published newspapers in the two languages as well. He promoted Hindi in the Devanagri script, helped the poor and promoted the education of women. By 1923, he left the social arena and plunged whole-heartedly into his earlier work of the shuddhi movement (re-conversion to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

), which he turned into an important force within Hinduism. In 1922, Dr. Ambedkar called Shraddhanand “the greatest and most sincere champion of the Untouchables”. In late 1923, he became the president of ''Bhartiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha'', created with an aim of reconverting Muslims, specifically 'Malkana Rajputs' in the western United Province. This brought him into direct confrontation with Muslim clerics and leaders of the time.G. R. Thursby (1975)
Controversy
''Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India: A Study of Controversy, Conflict, and Communal Movements in Northern India 1923–1928'', BRILL. . p. 15. 1,63,000 Malkana Rajputs were converted back to Hindu fold due to this movement.

Assassination

On 23 December 1926, Shraddhanand was assassinated by an Islamic radical Abdul Rashid. Rashid was hanged to death in 1927.

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

objected to the hanging of Rashid (due to his stance against Hindu Awakening - Gandhi on word mentioned that he would fight for Rashid for free if asked). The 'Swami Shraddhanand Kaksha' at the archeological museum of the Gurukul Kangri University in Haridwar houses a photographic journey of his life. A statue of him was placed in front of Delhi Town Hall after

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

, replacing a statue of Victoria. This location in Old Delhi is termed ghantaghar because the old clock tower stood here until the 1950s.

Personal life

Shraddhanand and his wife Shiva Devi had two sons and two daughters. His wife died when Shraddhanand was only 36 years old. His granddaughter

Satyavati Satyavati (, ; also spelled Satyawati) was the queen of the Kuru Kingdom in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. Satyavati is married to king Shantanu of Hastinapura, and is a great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes. She is also the m ...

was a prominent opponent of the British rule in India.

Bibliography

* ''The Arya Samaj and Its Detractors: A Vindication'', Rama Deva. Published by s.n, 1910. * ''Hindu Sangathan: Saviour of the Dying Race'', Published by s.n., 1924. * ''Inside Congress'', by Swami Shraddhanand, Compiled by Purushottama Rāmacandra Lele. Published by Phoenix Publications, 1946. * ''Kalyan Marg Ke Pathik'' (Autobiography:Hindi), New Delhi. n.d. * ''Autobiography'' (English Translation), Edited by M. R. Jambunathan. Published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1961

References

External links

Postage stamp on Swami Shraddhanand
by the

India Post The Department of Posts, d/b/a India Post, is an Indian Public Sector Undertakings in India, public sector postal system statutory body headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is an organisation under the Ministry of Communications (India), Minist ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shraddhanand, Swami 1856 births 1926 deaths People murdered in 1926 People from Jalandhar People murdered in Delhi Indian Hindu monks 20th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians Indian independence activists from Punjab Province (British India) Punjabi Hindus Arya Samajis Hindu writers Indian murder victims 20th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian philosophers 19th-century Indian educational theorists 19th-century Indian philosophers