Swami Shraddhanand
(22 Feb 1856 – 23 Dec 1926), also known as Mahatma Munshi Ram Vij, was an
Indian educationist and an Arya Samaj missionary 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 (re-conversion), in the
1920s.
He was born in 1856 in the village of Talwan in the Jalandhar
District of the Punjab Province of India. He was the youngest child in the
family of Lala Nanak Chand, who was a Police Inspector in the United Provinces
(now Uttar Pradesh), then administered by the East India Company. He first met Dayanand Saraswati when Dayanand
visited Bareilly to give lectures. He after
completing his studies practised as
lawyer. He headed the 'Punjab Arya Pratinidhi Sabha',
and started its monthly journal, Arya Musafir. In 1902 he established a Gurukul in Kangri,
Indianear Haridwar. This school is now recognized as Gurukul Kangri University. In 1917, Mahatma Munshi Ram took sanyas as
"Swami Shradhanand Saraswati".
He was actively
involved in reforms as also in Independence movement. He also joined the nationwide protest
against the Rowlatt Act. In the early 1920s he emerged as an important force in
the Hindu Sangathan (consolidation) movement.
Wikipedia reports that Swami Shradhanand was the only Hindu Sanyasi who
addressed a huge gathering from the minarets 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.
On 23 Dec 1926 he
was assassinated by a person named Abdul
Rashid. Two days after his death, Gandhi
moved a condolence motion at the Guwahati session of the Congress. An excerpt from the speech in relevant part
reads "If you hold dear the memory of Swami Shraddhanandji, you would help
in purging the atmosphere of mutual hatred and calumny. You would help in
boycotting papers which foment hatred and spread misrepresentation. I am sure
that India would lose nothing if 90 per cent of the papers were to cease today.
. . Now you will perhaps understand why I have called Abdul Rashid a brother
and I repeat it. I do not even regard him as guilty of Swamiji's murder. Guilty
indeed are all those who excited feelings of hatred against one another. .. it
reads that Gandhi did not condemn the killing but spoke of hatred !
A statue of him was
placed in front of Delhi Town Hall after independence, replacing a statue of
Queen Victoria.
Pic : By
Varun Shiv Kapur from New Delhi, India - Town Hall, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30105177
Now
the case AIR 1927 Cal 747 before Calcutta High Court - Ishwari Prasad
Sharma And Anr. vs King-Emperor on 13 July, 1927
The petition
had been made by Iswari Prashad Sharma, the editor of a weekly
newspaper published in the Debnagri character in Calcutta called "Hindi
Punch"; and Mukund Lall Burman, its
printer thereof. They had been convicted by the Chief Presidency Magistrate of
Calcutta under Section 153A, I.P.C., and sentenced to suffer rigorous
imprisonments.
The
subject-matter of the charge against the two petitioners was the publication of an article in the form of a
drama called Balidan (sacrifice) at page 109 in the issue of the newspaper in
question dated the 27th Jan 1927. The immediate occasion, as claimed by the
Govt for the publication of the drama in question was the murder of Swami
Shradhanand at Delhi in 1926. The murder according to the Magistrate was an
event which deeply moved the Hindu world and not only the Hindu world but all
classes and conditions of men, and there can be no question that the Hindu
community in particular all over India was intensely agitated after the
assassination. In the drama the murder of Pandit Lekhram in
Lahore in 1897 by a Mahomedan is recalled apropos of the assassination of Swami
Shradhanand, and the writer after indulging in an attack on the miscreants,
urges in support of his argument that the salvation of India lies in what is
called the Suddhi movement, the fact that at diverse times the Hindus have not
received at the hands of Mahomedans the treatment which they thought they had a
right to receive from them. The last words are our paraphrase of many of the
expressions used by the writer in the drama.
The
Judge held that the intention of the
writer has to be judged not only from the words used in scene 4 of the drama
but from the drama taken as a whole. The drama taken as a whole, as has been
pointed out, is one which was written at a time of great public excitement. It
is possible that the writer may have without any malicious intention and
honestly thought that he should express himself in the manner in which he did
with a view to the removal of causes which according to him were promoting or
had a tendency to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different
classes of His Majesty's Indian subjects, to wit, the Hindus and Mahomedans.
Bearing that in mind and reading the article as a whole from that point of view
it is difficult to say that the intension of the writer of this drama was to
promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of His Majesty's
Indian subjects. We think that the writer was quite honest in the view which he
took (it may be that it was a wrong view) that the only way to prevent murders
like those referred to above was to take steps in the direction indicated in
the concluding portion of the drama. If that was so, the writer could not in
our opinion be brought within the mischief of Section 153A, I.P.C.; at any rate
there is much in the drama which entitles to us to give the benefit of the
doubt to the accused.
The
Court opined that the conviction and sentence of the petitioners must be set
aside. The petitioners who are on bail should be discharged from their bail bonds.
Interesting
but forgotten piece of history ~ also makes us understand the views of Gandhi,
Congress, the way our history has been written and more !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
17th May
2019.
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