December 23^rd is the Shardanand Balidhan Divas

Swami Shardhanand Sarswati

1856-1926.

SHARDHA SE SHARDHANAND NE SEENE PE KHAYI GOLIYAN

Born on February 22, 1856 in village Talwan in Jalandhar district of the Punjab province, he was named Munshiram. His father, Lala Nanak Chand, was a police officer in the East India Company. The young Munshiram was a pampered child, moved from place to place on his father’s transfers and was lacking of formal education in the formative years of life. A little lack of attention from a busy father and excessive indulgence in affection of a doting mother resulted in the young Munshiram leading a wayward life.

At that time a sanyasi (Named Swami Dayanand) was visiting Bareilley and at encouragement of his father he went to meet him for mental and spiritual cleansing. That was a turning point in the life of Munshiram. After a long intellectual discourse with Swami Dayanand Saraswati there was a gradual change of heart in Munshiram. Munshiram gave the credit to Swami Dayanand Saraswati for putting him back on the real life. Munshiram was transformed into a man with a mission who became Mahatma Munshiram.

Lahore, the then capital of the undivided Punjab, and Jalandhar were the main places of action in initial years of a reformed Munshiram. He became a very successful lawyer. He was quite active in the Arya Samaj circles and took the Reformation movement seriously. He promoted movement of education of girls in the right earnest. As a matter of fact, when he saw his own daughter Ved Kumari, came under the influence of Christianity while studying in a Christian Missionary school, he made up his mind to wean away children of his compatriots from the external influence by providing them good education in schools run by the Arya Samaj.

He had a vision to educate young Indians in the Indian educational institutions run on the ancient Vedic system. The Gurukul system of education was the new mission of Munshiram.

History too had a major role to play therein. Arya Samaj was established by Swami Dayanand in Bombay in 1875. After the passing away of Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1883 in Ajmer, The Aryas of Punjab decided to commemorate his singular contribution to the new Awakening in India by opening a chain of schools and colleges for our young men and women to the teaching of the culture and traditions of Vedic Dharma. The Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) School was founded in 1886 in Lahore. A young Arya Samajist by the name of Lala Hansraj, volunteered to work as its Headmaster without charging a single Rupee as a salary.

However, Lala Munshiram and Pundit Gurudatt felt that in the DAV School, the Anglo element was dominating the Vedic element. The new educational venture was far away from realizing the dreams of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. The Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab went with them. It was decided in Lahore to launch a scheme for the Gurukul system of education. Munshiram spearheaded the movement. A large sum money was needed. A determined Munshiram was able to raise Rupees 40.000.00. The Gurukul was officially inaugurated on 16 May 1900 at Gujaranwala in the West Punjab, now in Pakistan. Twenty young boys formed the first batch of students among them were the two sons of Munshiram Ji – Harishchandra and Indra. Later the Gurukul was moved from Gujranwala to Kangri- Haridwar n the midst of dense jungles, on the banks of the Ganga river it was indeed an idyllic surrounding in spite of all the hazards like the wild animals, difficult terrain and the absence of hospital facilities. Over a period of time the Gurukul produced many patriots, journalists, teachers and writers.

Mahatma Munshiram made a debut in the world of journalism with his writings in Urdu and Hindi on both religious and social subjects. He wrote a large number of tracts too. Propagation of the Vedic Dharma was his mission and he never deviated from this path. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the Mahatma gave precedence to Hindi in Devnagari script in his writings. His paper, Sadharm Pracharak, was initially published in the Urdu language and became very popular.

Mahatma Munshiram entered the Sanyas ashram of his own volition after the life span of three scores and ten, half of which he lived as a widower. He started the Shuddhi movement, that is, bringing back to the Vedic Dharma those men and women who had strayed away into other religious folds.

It was also a turning point in the religious and political history of India which was struggling for freedom from the British Empire. Mahatma Munshiram dabbled in politics of the country and the Indian National Congress for a brief while. It was for the noble cause of India’s independence. Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati’s name motivated millions of men and women to join the struggle for independence of India. His towering image, both moral and physical, moved the masses. The masses comprised all classes and castes and creeds, regions and religions. He surmised that it was the duty of every Indian to free the motherland from the British rule. It was this mission that saw him leading processions in New Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area against the oppressive Rowlatt Act. In 1919, he bared his chest inviting the soldiers to fire on him first made him a darling of both Hindus and Muslims. On 4 April 1919.from the pulpit of Jama Masjid, New Delhi, where a huge congregation of Muslims had gathered to mourn the dead and provide succor to the living patriots who were protesting against oppressive policies of the British rulers, stood an Arya Sanyasi who had been invited by the Muslim leaders to encourage them in their mission of freedom. The Sanyasi recited a Ved mantra invoking blessings of the Almighty and praying for success of the struggle. The Rigved mantra ran thus:

AUM tvam hi nah pita vaso tvam mata shatkrato babhuvith.
Aghate sumnimahe.

Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati’s mission of Shuddhi to bring back the Hindus who had been forced to convert to Islam during Moghul Empire became very strong and was a roaring success, notwithstanding strong opposition of no less a person than Mahatma Gandhi himself. Muslims could not bear it. They turned intolerant. The social situation became volatile. The Urdu newspapers of Muslims fanned the fire by their biased writings. Mahatma Gandhi did little to bring in the peace. His anti-shuddhi statements only aggravated the situation. Even the Muslim leaders of the Congress party like Mohammed Ali and Shaukat Ali did little to bring the two communities together. Swami Shraddhanand realized the gravity of the situation and distanced himself from it.

On 23 December 1926.Swami Shraddhanand was at his Naya Bazar residence in Delhi He was convalescing after an attack of bronchial pneumonia. At 4 PM a man of Islamic background came to discuss some religious matters with the Swami ji and asked for a glass of water and as the attendant was away to fetch the water the man, whipped out a revolver and fired two rounds at the swami pointblank. As the attendant came in he was also shot. Swami’s secretary, Dharmpal, came running and overpowered the assassin and held him until the police arrived. The assassin was tried and hanged till death.

Kewal Ahluwalia.