DAYANAND SARASWATI

1. Context

2. Dayanand Saraswati

3. Hinduism under 19th century colonial Rule

• From the 18th century, as the British got ever so entrenched in India, they brought with them missionaries to spread the Christian faith.
• A part of the West’s “civilising mission”, missionaries provided an ideological justification to what was an exploitative imperial project.
• Furthermore, through their growing influence, they also created a degree of subservience to the Empire, especially in certain sections of the population.
• A reason for the success of Christian missionaries in the Indian subcontinent was the nature of native culture and belief systems at the time.
• As Dayanand Saraswati himself put it, over the centuries, Hindus had moved away from the teachings and traditions of the Vedas, which were the source of the “ultimate truth” in the world.
• This departure from the true Sanatan Dharma (what he referred Vedic religion as) resulted in practices such as idolatry, untouchability, sectarianism, sati, primacy of the priestly class, etc. becoming commonplace.

4. Arya Samaj

• It aims to reestablish the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, as revealed truth.
• He rejected all later accretions to the Vedas as degenerate but, in his own interpretation, included much post-Vedic thought.
• During the 1920s and early 1930s tension grew around a number of issues.
• Muslims were angered by “music-before-mosque”, by the cow protection movement, and by the efforts of the Arya Samaj to bring back to the Hindu fold (shuddhi) those who had recently converted to Islam.
• The Arya Samaj has always had its largest following in western and northern India.
• The Samaj opposes worship of murtis (images), animal sacrifice, shraddha (rituals on behalf of ancestors), basing caste upon birth rather than upon merit, untouchability, child marriage, pilgrimages, priestly craft, and temple offerings.

5. Contribution to the society

• He was an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj.
• Arya Samaj is a reform movement of Vedic dharma and he was the first to give the call for Swaraj as “India for Indian” in 1876.
• He was a self-taught man and a great leader of India leaving a significant impact on Indian society. During his life, he made a prominent name for himself and was known among a wide array of Prices and the public.
• The first Arya Samaj unit was formally set up by him at Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1875 and later the headquarters of the Samaj were established at Lahore.
• His vision of India included a classless and casteless society, a united India (religiously, socially and nationally), and an India free from foreign rule, with Aryan religion being the common religion of all.
• He took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them to be ‘India’s Rock of Ages’, the infallible and the true original seed of Hinduism.
• He gave the slogan “Back to the Vedas”. He subscribed to the Vedic notion of chaturvarna system in which a person was not born in any caste but was identified as a brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya or shudra according to the occupation the person followed.

6. Contribution to the Education system

• He introduced a complete overhaul of the education system and is often considered as one of the visionaries of modern India.
• The DAV (Dayanand Anglo Vedic) schools came into existence in 1886 to realize the vision of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. The first DAV School was established at Lahore with Mahatma Hansarj as the headmaster.

For Prelims & Mains