Swami
Dayanand, Arya Samaj and
his contribution in Dalit Upliftment
By Dr. Vivek Arya
Swami Dayanand,
great scholar of his times who started reformation movement in our country in
view of degradation of Vedic values and propagation of various myths on name of
dharma. Child marriage, polygamy, casteism, Brahmins
supremacy, ignorance towards Vedic scriptures, killing of cow, lack of
education, poverty, unemployment, superstitions etc. were common and widely
prevalent during his time. Worst among them was Casteism
or Jativad which had created differences between
humans. Almighty God gave birth to all of us; the humans degraded themselves by
claiming themselves as superior or inferior on basis of birth in certain caste.
During his times a rigid caste system was in practice, the Brahmins enjoyed
supremacy over others. The condition of the shudras was
deplorable and womanhood was also considered as inferior. The Muslims and
Christians were proselytizing the Hindus and consequently the Hindu fold was
becoming thinner day by day. Dayanand minutely
observed these ill practices and founded that casteism
was not even mentioned in Vedas and whatever thing was anti Vedic was false for
Dayanand.
Casteism
denied a great number of shudras from social justice.
It caused a great loss to society. Casteism had shut
the door to competition and had given rise to class jealousies and animosities.
Swami Dayanand
was first in modern India to claim that we all are one Jati
i.e. humans and there exists no castes, what exists is Varn
Vyasthawhich is entirely based on qualities, merits
of any person not on basis of birth.
Ignorant pundits started
misinterpretations of famous mantra of purush sukt to prove casteism in Vedas.
The mantra was translated as “Brahmans were born out of the Brahma’s mouth,
Kshatriyas out of the arms, Vaishyas out of his
stomach and Shudras out of Brahma’s feet. ” so, Shudras being Brahma’s feet are
inferior in society.
Swami Dayanand,
great Vedic scholar propagated that Brahmins are like head as they guides the
society, Kshatriyas are like arms as they protects the society, Vaishyas are like stomach as they prospers the society and
Shudras are like feet as they serves the society. This classification is based
on actions not on the basis of birth.
Swami Ji
acknowledged the division of society into four classes. He in chapter four of
his famous work Satyarth Prakash writes that a
Brahmin must be righteous, truthful, learned of the Vedas and of all knowledge.
A Kshatriya must be endowed with the virtue of protecting people, fearlessness,
boldness and dutifulness. A Vaishya should serve society by doing business,
going overseas, farming etc. A shudras should serve
Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya without disrespect, jealousy and conceit and
they all must respect each other with equal honor and rights.
All these are Varna’s not castes and
they are not based on basis of birth. The individuals should be placed in
different classes according to their qualifications, accomplishments and
character. According to Swami Dayanand shudras can be promoted to Brahmins on basis of his
qualities. A person who is born to a Brahmin and if engaged in meat eating,
adultery and is uneducated is a Shudra while a person born to a Shudra and is
educated, qualified and learned in Vedas should be promoted to be a Brahmin. In
olden days there was no casteism and society was
based on Varn Vyastha and
so our country Aryavrata was supreme in the world.
Later on when people left learning Vedas, few Brahmins started this ill
practice of casteism. They even confined the Vedic
knowledge to their own families only so that no others will ever know the
truth.
Swami Ji
holds that people will advance by adopting this system as higher class will be
in constant fear of their sons being degraded into lower classes whilst the
lower class will be promoted to exert them to enlist into the superseding
classes. He also exhorted the rulers and responsible persons to see that all
the four classes performed their duties honestly. The caste system according to
swami ji was not religious or natural distinction but
a socio-economic institution, castes were not created by god. The Varn Vyastha is a social order
for better discharge of different functions.
Swami Ji
was so much perturbed by the degrading condition of the depressed classes that
he sometimes spent sleepless nights worrying over their lot. “The Christians
are doing all they can to convert the kolis and bhils, depressed classes of the Hindus, while the religious
leaders of the Hindus are sleeping like kumbhkaran.”
He condemned the atrocious treatment meted out to the lower classes and
publically declared that all men are equal. He taught the truth that none was
born to rule and none to be ruled. He explained that crores of people had
become Muslims or were being converted to Christianity and unless the nation
was aroused by candid advice and unless the society was purged of evils, there
was little doubt that the Hindu race would die. He advocated that Brahmans,
Kshatriyas and Vaishyas should eat food cooked by shudras.
Swami Ji
life history gives us many examples that although he was himself born in a
Brahmin family he rejected casteism. In 1867 we find
swami ji eating half bread from hands of a manjhi (boatman). In 1869 in farrukhabad
we find him eating from hands of Shri Sukhwasilal sadh. In 1872 inAnoop sahar we find him eating from hands of a barber in general
public. In pune when shri Govind Mang, Gopal Chamar, Raghu Mahar requested him for a lecture in Sudra
school on Vedas he willingly accepted their proposal and went for lecture on
Vedas on 16th July 1875. In 1879 in a during a public lecture a Muslim postman
criticized a majhabi Sikhs presence among general
public calling him as shudras are not allowed among
high castes. Swami Ji called that person and asked
him to daily attend his lectures. In 1878 in Ajmer when swami ji got news that the huts of poor Chamars
near Anasagar lake had burned he urgently appealed to
public to collect funds for the poor one so that they could rehabilitate, his
appeal was widely accepted by all Hindus.
In 1880 in Banaras one Brahmin
debated with swami ji giving a shalok
from Mahabharata 4/1/48 that Brahmin caste is based on knowledge, practice and
birth. Even if a person is having no knowledge and no practice he can be
Brahmin on basis of his birth. Swami ji replied a shalok from Manu Smriti 2/157
that as a toy made of wood in form of elephant , as toy made of leather in form
of deer are name sake toys only similarly an uneducated person is a Brahmin by
name sake only.
In Banaras again when a person
debated with him on casteism on basis of birth he
said if two sons of a Brahmin are not considered as Brahmin if they are
converted to Islam or Christianity then how you could say that son of a Brahmin
is a Brahmin.
In a letter dated 13th November 1903
Pandita Ramabai accepted
that I was disciple of swami ji in 1880 in Meerut and
I was deeply impressed from his teaching as his teachings allows reading of
Vedas by womanhood.
In brief Swami Dayanand
had propagated the following measures for Dalit upliftment
Swami Ji was first in modern times to raise voice for
right of women and shudras to chant Gayatri mantra. The ignorant Brahmins had banned women and shudras to listen Vedic mantras from centuries.
Swami Ji
was first in modern times who advocated right of wearing yagnopavit
for women and shudras.
Swami Ji
was first in modern times who advocated right to perform yajnas
by shudras and women hood.
Swami Ji
was first in modern times who advocated inter-dinning of all high castes with shudras.
Swami Ji
was first in modern times who advocated 100% education for all irrespective of
caste or gender or status in society. He even advised that those parents who
did not admit their kids to schools for education must be punished by the king.
He even advised that son of a king and son of a poor should be given same
cloths and same facilities in his teaching Gurukul.
Swami Ji
was first to advocate that marriage of a girl and boy must be done on basis of
their qualities not on basis of their caste.
Swami ji was first to reject interpolations in Manu smriti. He said I do not believe in interpolations in Manu smriti which supports casteism
and inferior status for womanhood and are thus not in accordance with the
Vedas. This stand of swami Dayanand on Manu smriti is also applies on other texts like Ramayana,
Mahabharata and Puranas.
Due to his demise swami Dayanand was not able to do much work at ground level for
Dalit upliftment but his writings, his speech, his
organization Aryasamaj caused great consciousness
among general public and the organization Aryasamaj
and its leaders carried his agenda of Dalit upliftment
to ground level.
DALIT UPLIFTMENT WORK BY ARYASAMAJ
After swami Dayanand
leaders of Aryasamaj paid special attention or upliftment of depressed classes.
The first notable worker in this
field was pundit Ganga Ram of Muzaffargarh. He started work in odes, a low
caste. He offered sacred threads to them and opened a school name Arya Dalitoddhar Pathshala.
Lala Munshi Ram later Swami Sharddhananda
was forerunner among Vedic missionaries. He first started eradication of
untouchability from his own home. In 1910 He married his own daughter Amrit Kala out of caste despite objections from his own
family.
Swami Sharddhananda
opened Gurukul Kangri near
Hardwar in view of fulfilling the dreams of Swami Dayanand
that son of a king or a poor farmer should get education from one common
platform with equal facilities for both and without any discrimination of
caste. He got his both sons admitted in the same Gurukul.
Later thousands of Gurukul were established all over
country following his example which imparted education of Vedas and other
streams for all irrespective of castes.
In 1920 Swami Sharddhananda
most important work among untouchables was to secure for them permission to
draw water from wells. Swami Ji went with his several
followers and untouchables in a procession outside Ajmeri
Gate at the Angoori wala
well. His procession was first attacked by both castist
Hindus and Muslims but with his continuous effort many wells and temples were
opened for untouchables.
In 1921 Swami Sharddhananda
established Dalitoddhar Sabha at Delhi. Its aim was
to preach true conduct among the untouchables, to safe guard them from
onslaughts especially from Christians and Muslims, to make them offer the right
hitherto lost by them, to open Pathshala for them and
to educate them. The biggest problem was of unemployment which was mostly in
Zamindari areas. Zamindars treated the depressed
classes very badly. This Sabha severely denounced this atrocity and succeeded a
great deal in diminishing the misery of the depressed classes.
In 1924 a great conference was
organized in Delhi which was attended by thousands of people. Ten proposals in
connection with social reforms were passed by this conference. At the end, a
big feast was organized in which the leading public men of the city
participated and partook the food cooked by Bhangis, Chamars and Jatavas. Dalitoddhar Sabha instigated the untouchables to draw water
from wells; where this was not possible new wells were constructed.
In 1923 in Bulandsahar Pundit Sohan Lal Gaur got depressed classes to join Ramlila
Procession. The sweepers offered arti to Lord Ram
with singing of bhajans.
On 4th Jan 1924 in Palwal a great panchayat was organized in which depressed
classes pledged not to touch meat and wine and also not to eat food cooked by
Muslims.
In 1924 in Raysina Valmiki Aryasamaj
Chaudhary Jai mal Singh Gujar, a rais of dist.
Saharanpur permitted the Jatavas to draw water from
his three wells even in the teeth of the opposition of the others.
In 1926 in fifth Dalitoddhar
conference presided by Motilal Nehru, pundit Nehru
said “none else, before Aryasamaj, had taught of
making an attempt to eradicate this inequality.”
Mahashaya Ramchandra was great social worker among untouchables in
Jammu region. His work was not appreciated among high caste Hindus. They
attacked him with sticks and beat him to death on 20th Jan 1920. His death
changed the mind of all high caste Hindus. They adopted the mission left by him
and started upliftment work in his memory among dalits. Several Pathshala were
opened in Jammu, Butcher and Udhampur for educating dalits.
In 1922 at famous freedom fighter
Bhai Parmanand residence in Lahore Jat Pat Todak Mandal was
established with Bhai Parmanand, Swami Bhuamanand and Pundit Sant Ram as
its prominent members. The aim was to promote intercaste
marriages among different castes so that the conflict of castes could be
eradicated. The Mandal was able to perform thousands of intercaste
marriages.
In 1941 census Sardeshik
Arya Pratinidhi Sabha the apex body of Aryasamaj
urged to fill column of caste as Arya (Vedic dharmi)
to discard casteism.
His highness maharaja of Baroda Sayaji Rao Gaekwad 111 was deeply
impressed by Dalit upliftment work of Aryasamaj. He was personally impressed by Swami Nityanand of Aryasamaj and did
constitutional amendment to give equal rights for all dalits
as higher caste in his reign. He also opened schools and hostels for free
education of dalits. His reformation drive was
criticized by upper caste Hindus. The biggest problem was that no upper caste
Hindu was ready to teach Dalit students in those schools. The Muslims and
Christians teachers were more interested in conversion of poor dalits in way of education. Maharaja of Baroda discussed
this problem with Swami Nityanand ji.
Nityanand ji send master Atma ram Amritsari from Amritsar
for Dalit upliftment work. Master Atma
ram was appointed as warden of Dalit hostel and inspector to all schools for dalits. Despite being upper caste Hindu master Atma ram faced social boycotts by high caste Hindus being
inspector to Dalit schools. He was constantly denied accommodation in high
caste communities. At last he made his office in a building which was
considered as ghost house from decades. With his missionary reformation work he
succeeded despite many difficulties. The high caste students in different
schools insulted him by verbal abuse for his missionary work but he ignored all
of them. Well known writer Saint Nihal Singh was so
much impressed from master Atma ram work that he got
some articles printed in British newspapers praising Atma
ram’s work. Pundit Atma ram get students who had
passed primary classes to admit for higher classes in cities and few of his
students became even engineers. Once maharaja Baroda sends Mr. Shinde his officer for reposts of Dalit schools and
hostels. Mr. Shinde reported that all the food was
being cooked by Dalit girls and Dalit boys were seen chanting Vedic mantras.
The person whom you had appointed as inspector is true Dalit sympathizer in
every sense. Master Ji success can be easily
understood by the fact that number of schools he opened was 400 in number with
over 20000 dalits as students including both boys and
girls. Pundit ji family also continued his work his
daughter Smt. Sushila kumar
was president of first Bhangi parishad
of Baroda.
Master Atma
ram ji is considered as forefather of Dalit upliftment work in Gujarat.
Kohla pur Naresh Chatrapati
Rajshri Sahu ji Maharaj adopted similar
measures in his state after inspiring from views of swami Dayanand.
Sahu maharaj is credited
with doing much to further the lot of the lower castes, and indeed this
assessment is warranted. He did much to make education and employment available
to all: he not only subsidized education in his state, eventually providing
free education to all, but also opened several hostels in Kolhapur for students
hailing from many different non-Brahmin communities, thereby facilitating the
education of the rural and low-caste indigent. He also ensured suitable
employment for students thus educated, thereby creating one of the earliest
affirmative action programs in history. Many of these measures were affected in
the year 1902.
Shahu’s
other initiatives included restricting child marriage in his state and the
encouragement of intercaste marriage and widow
remarriage. He long patronized the satya shodhak samaj but later moved
towards the Aryasamaj. Under the influence of these
social-reform movements, Sahu arranged for several
non-Brahmin youths to be trained to function as priests, in defiance of
timeless convention which reserved the priesthood for those of the Brahmin
caste. However, he faced opposition from many, including Lokamanya
Bal Gangadhar Tilak , the very famous patriot of that time.
In 1911 a thread giving ceremony was
performed among Vashisht, a Dalit community in khairpur, nathamshah in Sind. The
upper caste Hindus out casted many Aryasamaj members
and they branded one vashistha with symbol of sacred
thread with hot iron. Aryasamaj condemned this animal
act on national level in its newspapers.
The education work of Aryasamaj also got large success in whole country. In
Bombay presidency in 1912 there were 27 educational institutions working in
Dalit societies with 1231 students enrolled.
Four middle schools and over thirty
five upper and lower primary schools, a few girl schools and a few night
schools for adults were running to impart education to the namasudra
and other communities in districts of Dacca, Mymensingh,
Noakhali, Chittagong, Jessore
and Barisal.
In Punjab region hundreds of schools
were established under D.A.V. school chain which
imparted education to thousands of pupils from each fraction of society.
In Jalandhar pundit Somdat started Dalit upliftment
work. He was socially boycotted from Brahmin community and denied use of water
from well. He started using impure water from river. His mother fell ill.
Doctors advised use of clean water from well. He was in confusion what to do.
One is way to say sorry to his community members and stop all Dalit upliftment work. But his own consciousness does not permit
to stop this mission. But life of own mother is also important. His mother
understood whole situation and asked her to carry his mission saying that one
day she have to die why he stops his mission because of her. She sacrificed her
life but Dalit upliftment work was not stopped. How
great mother she was.
Nayak
community in united provinces engaged their daughters in prostitution. Aryasamaj distributed pamphlets to stop this evil. Aryasamaj married those girls in respectable families and
send other girls to schools. It offered scholarships to boys to educate them. Nayak girl’s protection act was passed by efforts of Thakur
Mashal Singh and just whole community was uplifted
with efforts of Aryasamaj.
Reforms were done in so called
criminal tribes in united provinces. More than fifty thousand criminal tribe
members were rehabilitated outside luck now in colony name Arya nagar settlements. They were educated and a dispensary was
also opened.
The reformation drive by Aryasamaj also influenced others. In kumbh
fair of 1927 Pundit Madan Mohan Malviya in All India Sanatan Dharma Sabha passed proposal of permission of all
untouchables to go to temples and also to draw water from public wells.
On 17th April 1927 an All India achhutoddhar conference was organized under the president
ship of Lala Lajpat Rai
wherein he appealed to the people to allow the untouchable to draw water from
public wells.
On 17th July 1932 the untouchability
removal day was celebrated at Bombay by Aryasamaj.
The untouchables drew water from the wells and the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas drank it willingly.
On 19th sept 1933 at a grand meeting
organized at Bombay Aryasamaj appealed to the people
to treat untouchables as their equal and to assure them that they were parts of
Hindu community only.
Swami Sharddhananda and congress
Since his joining politics Swami Sharddhananda was continuously motivating Indian national
congress to deal with the problem of untouchability at national level with
extensive measures. In his chairman address of Amritsar congress (1919) he
strongly expressed his feelings as “Is it not true that so many among you who
make the loudest noises about the acquisition of political rights, are not able
to overcome their feeling of revulsion for those sixty millions of India who
are suffering injustice, your brothers whom you regard as untouchable ? How
many are there who take these wretched brothers of theirs to their heart?…give
deep thought…and consider how your sixty million brothers-broken fragments of
your own hearts which you have cut off and thrown away- how these millions of
children of mother India can well become the anchor of the ship of a foreign
government. I make this one appeal to all of you, brothers and sisters. Purify
your hearts with the water of the love of the motherland in this national
temple, and promise that these millions will not remain for you untouchables,
but become brothers and sisters. Their sons and daughters will study in our
schools, their men and women will participate in our societies, in our fight
for independence they will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us, and all of us
will join hands to realize the fulfilment of our national goal” (Quotations
from original Hindi texts of the swami’s Amritsar conference address obtained
from Gandhi memorial museum, Delhi)
Swami Ji
difference with Gandhi Ji increased with the passage
of time when he draw attention of the congress towards the harassment of
Christian Chamars by police in environs of Delhi who
had accepted Shuddhi and returned back to Hinduism by
Aryasamaj. In April 1919 he published a booklet of
eighty pages entitled ‘jati ke
dinon ko mat tyago’ (do not abandon the poor of our nation). Books first
seventy pages dealt with the methods used by Christian missionaries in India.
Nearly half of the book was taken up by translations from an article in the
theosophist about the nefarious activities of Portuguese missionaries and the
inquisition, followed by an indictment of protestant missionary work, in
particular that of the Delhi Cambridge mission. Thus nearly ninety percent of
the pamphlet was aimed at demonstrating missionaries had always used unfair,
immortal and underhand mean. The last ten pages deled with constructive point.
Since the untouchables were becoming Christians for other than religious
reasons, the way to prevent those happenings was by educating their children,
by protecting them from the police, and by helping them to achieve social
uplift. Since the orthodox would not take up that task, it had become a duty of
the aryas to be a crucial one because the greatest
danger of the conversion of the untouchables to Christianity was that they
became denationalized and supporters of the raj. The swami wrote “if the seven
crores of untouchables of India, exasperated by the attitude of the twice born,
become Christian , then our orthodox leaders, supporters of independence, will
not be able to do anything, except be very sorry.” (Jati
ke dinon ko mat tyago.
P-72)
In 1920 Calcutta congress session
Swami Ji proposed three-point program with special
section on the untouchables, but congress declared consideration of this
inopportune.(shraddha 13 august,14,17 sept. 1920).
Swami Ji writes in liberator that “even Mahatma
Gandhi had not realized its importance and was taken up with his resolution of
non-violent non-cooperation resolution had been passed by the khilafat committee and Mahatma Ji
threatened to sponsor it outside the congress, if it was not passed there. I
thought it to be a misfortune if Mahatma Ji would be
obliged to sever his connection with the oldest political movement in India” (INCON-p 121)
Swami Ji
was surprised on hearing Maulana Shaukat
Ali’s doings in Calcutta session in hearing of more than 50 persons, while the
merits of non-violence were being discussed. Maulana
said “Mahatama Gandhi is a shrewd bania.
You do not understand his real object. By putting you under discipline, he is
preparing you for guerrilla warfare. He is not such an out-an-out non-violencist as you all suppose” (INCO P-122) Swami Ji forwarded his message to Gandhi Ji
secretary that his motives were being misrepresented by his trusted colleagues.
The next year 1921 Nagpur session Swami Ji again
noticed the same pranks being played by the big Ali brothers. In Delhi the Aryasamaj had been working for the depressed classes, and
the swami tried to get the local congress to allow them access to the wells.
But it was in vain………..
Swami Ji
reached Delhi on 17th august, 1921 and found that the question of removal of
untouchability was becoming very acute. He called a few of chief chaudharies and asked the full story. They gave the
following story- “The secretary of the Delhi congress committee called the chaudharies of the Chamars and
requested them to give to the congress as many as four-Anna paying members as
they could. The reply of the elders was that unless their grievance as regards
the taking of water from the public wells was removed, they could not induce
their brethren to join the congress. The secretary was a choleric man of hasty
temper and said they wanted Swarajya at once but the
grievance of the Chamars could wait and would be
removed by and by. One of the young men got up and said-our trouble from which
we are suffering for centuries must wait solution, but the laddu
of Swarajya must go into your mouth at once! We shall
see how you obtain Swarajya immediately!!”
He wrote to Gandhi Ji after Nagpur session in sept. 1921-
“I wired from Lahore that I would
apply for financial aid through the Delhi provincial congress committee but on
reaching the deli I found that the uplift of the depressed classes through the
congress was difficult. The Delhi and Agra Chamars
simply demand that they be allowed to draw water from wells used by the Hindus
and Mohammedans and that water be not served to them through bamboos and
leaves. Even that appears impossible for the congress committee to accomplish.
Not only this; a Muslim trader of sadr went to the
length of saying that even if Hindus allowed (these man) to draw water from
common wells, the Muslims would forcibly restrain them from drawing water
because they (the Chamars) ate carrion. I know that
there are thousands of these Chamars who do not
either drink wine or eat flesh of any kind and few of them who eat carrion are
being weaned by the aryasamajists from that filthy
habit. But I ask – do Hindu and Muslim meat eaters devour flesh of living
cattle? Do they not eat the flesh of the cattle when they are dead?
At Nagpur you laid down that one of
the conditions for obtaining Swarajya within 12
months was to give their rights to the depressed classes and without waiting
for the accomplishment of their uplift, you have decreed that if there is a
complete boycott of foreign cloth up till 30th September, Swarajya
will be an accomplished fact on the 1st of October. The extension of the use of
Swadeshi cloth is absolutely necessary but as long as
six and half crores of our suppressed classes are taking refuge with the
British bureaucracy so long will the extension of Swadeshi
be impossible”. (INCO.P-134,135)
Swami Ji
in his letter dated June 30th 1922 wrote to general secretary of all India
congress committee that the following demands of the depressed classes ought to
be complied with at once namely that -
1. They are allowed
to sit on the same carpet with citizens of other classes
2. They get the
right to draw water from common wells and
3.Their children get admission into national schools and colleges
and are to mix freely with students drawn from the so-called higher castes.
Swami Ji
went to the Luck now A.I.C.C. meeting of June 1922
especially to push a plan of action for the removal of untouchability. His
proposal to appoint a sub-committee on untouchability was accepted, but some
parts of it were amended. The sum of two lakhs of rupees was first substituted
for the original five lakhs proposed and then even that was watered down by
substituting the phrase ‘as much as could be spared’. But misunderstandings
kept cropping orally, but when he started preparatory work and asked for some
money, he was informed that the working committee had appointed until a report
had been received from the sub-committee. It was all a sorry mess, letters came
and went, nothing was being done, and the swami resigned in disgust. His
postscript to the whole story as follows- The subcommittee did no business in
placing the annul report of the congress before its
session at Gaya; the secretary simply remarked that no work could be done by
the sub-committee as no substitute for Swami Shraddhananda
could be found. (INCO.P-181) Swami Shraddhananda did
not receive any support from the congress and Mahatama
Gandhi for eradicating the sin of untouchability. Instead of that he received
the message from cocanada session of congress in
which Maulana Mohammad Ali the president of that
session proposed to divide the so-called untouchables in equal halves between
Hindus and the Muslims. (INCO.p-188)
Palghat Court Verdict
On 13th Nov. 1925 name of aryasamaj and swami ji published
in all major newspapers of south India. On the opening day of car festival the
divisional magistrate promulgated an order prohibiting aryasamaj
converts from entering the orthodox Hindu streets. This led to a public protest
meeting, which passed among others the following resolution. That “this meeting
begs to express its unqualified condemnation of the utterly illegal procedure
and policy of religious interference adopted by the madras government in
extending its order of prohibition to the aryasamaj
converts from the depressed classes while such converts to Christianity and
Mohammedanism are not so prohibited ” (leader 19.Nov,1924)
The leader of 21st Nov., 1925
condemned the intolerant and wholly short sighted attitude of the orthodox
Hindus and praised Swami Sharddhananda for taking up
their cause and valiantly leading the movement.
Swami Ji
in response started a new weekly name liberator in English for special purpose
of communicating his views to the intelligentsia of south India where the evil
of untouchability existed in most objectionable and inhuman form (leader 5,
April 1925) Its aim was strongly stated by swami ji-
The uplift of the untouchables and their assimilation in the Hindu polity is
the very plinth on which alone the edifice of free India can be constructed.
Therefore, the liberator will make the cause of the so-called untouchables its
main concern. This doctrine of untouchability is the gangrene of Hindu polity.
Die hard vanity, deep- rooted prejudice, degenerating ignorance and doping
superstition are the germs that feed this gangrene. Each one of these has to be
attacked for getting rid of this gangrene. (Leader 4, April 1926)
Thus we reach an
inference that the later part of swami ji life was
devoted entirely for the upliftment of the depressed
Hindus.
The above mentioned are few glimpses
of work of aryasamaj and its great leaders after
Swami Dayanand. The foremost point is that many those
who were born in high castes were out caste, faced social boycott, physical and
death threat, prevented from using wells , prevented from marrying in community
, they faced all sort of consequences but did not stopped their missionary
work. They were true soldiers of Swami Dayanand. Many
reformers had arrived in last centuries to eradicate the evil of untouchability
like Jyotiba Phule, Dr Ambedkar etc
but most unique about soldiers of swami Dayanand is
that they are only examples of high caste Hindu working for down trodden and
untouchables.