Mahan Of The Day :- Swami Shraddhanand

Swami Shraddhanand

Born February 2, 1856
Talwan Village, Jalandhar, India Died December 23, 1926 (aged 70)
Delhi, India

Swami Shraddhanand (1856–1926) was an Indian educationist and a Arya Samaj missionary who propagated the teachings of Swami Dayanand which included the establishment of educational institutions, like the Gurukul Kangri University, and played a key role on the Sangathan (consolidation) and the Shuddhi (re-conversion) a Hindu reform movement in 1920s.

His death at the hands of a Muslim fanatic caused religious strife in India.

He was born on 22 February 1856 in the village of Talwan in the Jalandhar District of the Punjab Province of India, and was the youngest in the family of Lala Nanak Chand, was a Police Inspector in the East India Company administered United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). His given name was Brihaspati, but later he was called Munshi Ram by his father, a name that stayed with him till he took Sanyas in 1917, variously as Lala Munshi Ram and Mahatma Munshi Ram. His school education began at Varanasi and ended at Lahore. His father, His early education was interrupted because of his father's frequent transfer to Mirzapur, Banda, Mathura and Bareilly. Due to this he finally ended up in the company of rich friends who were engaged in all type of evil activities. His mind was diverted towards atheism due to few incidents which he saw in his life like he was prevented while entering the temple as some noble lady was doing her prayer. compromising situation of a church's father with nun, attempt rape of young devotee by a pontiffs of Krishna cult, suspicious death of a girl child at the home of a Muslim lawyer. Due to all this incidents his atheism was grown stronger. After many efforts he passed mukhtari exams and started his studies to become a well known lawyer.

His first meet with Swami Dayanand Saraswati was when Swami Dayanand visited Bareilly for giving lectures, as his father was there for the arrangements and security as some prominent personalities and British officers were present there so he asked Munshiram to attend the lectures. Munshiram went there with the intention of spoiling the arrangements but watching and listening him he was influenced by Dayanand's courage, skills and strong personality. After completing the studies Munshiram started his practice as lawyer

In 1892, when Arya Samaj split into two factions over making Vedic education the main stay of the curriculum at the DAV College Lahore, he left the organization and formed Punjab Arya Samaj, and in 1902 established a Gurukul in Kangri near Haridwar which is now a recognized University known as Gurukul Kangri University.In 1916 he also established gurukul Indraprashtha in Aravali near Faridabad, Haryana. Previously in 1897, after the assassination of Lala Lekh Ram, he became his successor, and headed the 'Punjab Arya Pratinidhi Sabha', and started its monthly journal, Arya Musafir.

In 1915, upon his return from South Africa, M. K. Gandhi stayed at the university campus and met Swami Shraddhanand, it was during this visit that Swami Shraddhanand gave Gandhi, the title of Mahatma (great soul), after that he was best known around the world as Mahatama Gandhi to this day.

In 1917, Swami Shraddhanand, till now known as Mahatma Munshiram took sanyas, left Gurukul to jump full- fledged into Hindu reform movements and the Indian Independence movement , working with Congress, which he invited to hold its session at Amritsar in 1919 when due to Jalianwala tragedy no one in the Congress Committee agreed to have a session at Amritsar. Swami shraddhanand presided that session at Amritsar. He joined the nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Act, in the same year, defiantly protested in front of a posse of Gurkha soldiers, at the Clock Tower in Chandni Chowk, after which he was allowed to proceed. In early 1920s he emerged as important force in the Hindu Sangathan (consolidation) movement which was a by product of the now revitalized Hindu Maha Sabha

swami shradhanand was the only Hindu Sanyasi who addressed a huge gathering from the minarates of the main Jama Masjid New Delhi, for national solidarity and vedic dharma starting his speech with the recitation of ved mantras.

He wrote on religious issues in both Hindi and Urdu. 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), which he turned into an important force within Hinduism^. In late 1923, he became the president of Bhartiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha, created with an aim to reconvert Muslims specially 'Malkana Rajputs' in western United Province, this antagonized the Muslims against him irrevocably and brought him in direct confrontation with Muslim clerics and leaders of the time , and on 23 December 1926 he was assassinated by a Muslim fanatic named Abdul Rashid, who entered his home at Naya Bazar, Delhi, posing as a visitor. Upon his death, Gandhiji moved a condolence motion at the Guwahati session of the Congress on December 25, 1926^.

Today, the 'Swami Shraddhanand Kaksha' at the Archeological Museum, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar houses a photographic journey of his life

He married Shiwa Devi, but when he was only 35 years old she died and he was left with two sons and two daughters.

Swami Sraddhananda spearheaded a successful Shuddhi movement to bring back converted Indian Muslims back to Hinduism. Converting back tens of thousands of Muslims (whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Islam from Hinduism) to their original Hindu faith, Swami-ji and the Arya Samaj movement is a major inspiration for Hindu Samhati.

It is a unfortunate that with the passage of time, we are losing the memory of the noble sons of India and one of them is surely Swami Sraddhananda. How many of us are familiar with the name of Swami Sraddhananda? He should have been one of the most revered personalities in the history of Indian freedom struggle and termed as one of the true liberators of the Hindu society as well. We draw vital inspirations from the life history of this venerated sage.

Swami Sraddhananda was the founder of "Gurukul Kangri", positioned in the religious city of Haridwar, and played one of the most vital roles in the national freedom struggle. His life was full of a lot of ups and downs but it was his intrinsic virtues that helped him to overwhelm all forms of adversities. Here is a brief analysis of his successes as a leader. Swami Sraddhananda is regarded as the pioneer in women’s education and it is said had there been no such person, the cause of womens' education would not have reached the present level. The same is said regarding his pioneering work in widow remarriage and class reformation.

Nevertheless, the aforesaid acts were only a miniscule in his biography. He had the dream of setting up a new form of Gurukul and this can be found from his arduous performance in implementing the same in several parts of pre-partition India. In due course, especially the arrest and deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai, his association with the national freedom struggle got deeper.

While on one hand he was transformed into a savior of Arya Samaj, on the other hand he was transformed into a leader of national importance. He had good relations with Mahatma Gandhi in the initial days, strong differences of opinions started to rise between the two in the end. Indian National Congress was involved in wooing and appeasing the Muslim community in the whole of India earning strong criticism of Swami-ji.

The Shuddhi step pioneered by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and adopted by Arya Samaj under guidance of Swami Sraddhananda saved millions of Hindus not even from being lost and also opened doors closed from centuries for entry of countless brothers and sisters who were lost with the cruel passage of time. On 13 Feb 1923 in Agra Swami-ji established Bhartiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha of which he was elected president and Lala Hansraj as vice president.

An example of the Shuddhi work done by Swami-ji involved over 30,000 Malkana Rajputs and their restoration in the Hindu society and saving of thousands of Hindus from conversion, a strong and hidden agenda of Muslims in the subcontinent.

All these notable and revolutionary successes were too much for the fanatic Muslims to withstand and on 23 rd December 1926 he was assassinated by Abdul Rashid, a Muslim fanatic. The assassin entered his home at Naya Bazar, Delhi, in the form of a visitor and fired two bullets point-black into his chest in due course. Thus ended a great life.

25th Dec, 1926 witnessed a wave of emotions in the streets of Delhi as millions of people assembled to have the last glimpse of Swami ji who dedicated himself for the Vedic Hindu Dharma. Shraddhananda Park in Kolkata was named after the saint. Hindu Samhati, a major Hindu force in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, has held major meetings here. Numerous other memorials were also erected across India to commemorate the great saint and his deeds.

We offer a million salutes to this Great Warrior-Saint of our community, and do prarthana that we will be guided by leaders like him for our future work.