Swami Shraddhananda: The pioneer of Shuddhi Movement

Swami Shraddhananda

Swami Shraddhananda alias Lala Munshiram Vij was the pioneer of Shuddhi (Ghar Vapsi in present parlance) Movement in the early 20th century. Born in the family of Lala Nanak Chnad of Talwan village in Jalandhar District of Punjab on 12th Feb 1856 he was the youngest child in the family. His father served as a police officer in UP under the East India Company government.

Lala Munshiram came in contact with Swami Dayananda Saraswati founder of Arya Samaj and was greatly influenced by his teachings. He took sanyas in 1917 and adopted the name Shraddhananda. He first attended Swami Dayananda’s lecture at Bareilly. Swami Dayananda’s courage, skill and strong personality left an indelible impression on his mind.

Arya Samaj was active in the field of education and had opened many schools known as Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) schools for promoting and propagating indigenous education on Vedic lines. Following the assassination of Lala Lekhram, Swami Shraddhananda succeeded him as head of the Punjab Arya Pratinidhi Sabha and started a monthly journal “Arya Musafir”. In 1902 he established a Gurukul in Kangri near Hardwar which was later came to be known as Gurukul Kangri University. After taking sanyas he set up Gurukul Indraprastha in Aravali near Faridabad in Haryana.

Swami Shraddhananda actively took part in the freedom struggle and became an active member of the Hindu reform movements also. He started working with the Congress and presided over its Amritsar session in 1919. Joining the countrywide protest against the infamous Rowlatt Act and in the early 1920s he rose to a stature of an important personality in the Hindu consolidation movement under the patronage of the Hindu Maha Sabha.

Swami Shraddhananda was probably the first to deliver a speech at Delhi’s Jama Masjid in 1922. He recited the Ved Mantras and gave an inspiring speech which proved to be an extraordinary moment in the world history.

Swamiji was erudite scholar and had command over Hindi and Urdu languages. He founded two newspapers – ‘Tej’ in Udru and ‘Arjun’ in Hindi. He insisted on using Devnagari script for Hindi and also promoted the cause of Women’s education.

In 1923 he freed himself from the religious and spiritual issues and dev oted whole-heartedly into his earlier work of “Shuddhi Movement’ i..e. bringing back people of Hindu community who were converted to other religions by any way.

In 1923 he became the president of Bharatiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha and launched a campaign for bringing converted Hindus back into the fold of Hindu Dharma. There were many Rajputs in and around Agra where he had opened his office, who had been converted to Islam but eager to come back to their ancestral dharma. Five lakh Rajputs were ready to come back to their original dharma and Swami Shraddhananda led them in fulfilment of their quest.

He organized a huge gathering for this purpose and brought them back into their original religion. The success of this mission created a new consciousness and injectred a renewed energy and enthusiasm in the Hindu society. A Muslim woman called Aigari Begum tfrom Karachi was also re-inducted into Hindu Dharma which caused much flutter and furore among the Muslims.

Dr. B R Ambedkar called Swami Shraddhananda “the greatest and most sincere champion of the Untouchables”. But it was this success of Shuddhi Movement that invited wrath of fanatic Muslims for Swami Shraddhananda and one Abdul Rashid reached the residence of the Swami where he was lying in bed due to pneumonia and shot him dead from a close range silencing the voice against forceful conversions forever.

This happened on 23rd December 1926. Abdul Rashid entered Swamiji’s residence under the pretext of discussing Islam with him. He secretly carried a gun with him. He asked Dharampal who was serving the ailing Swami for a glass of water and soon after he went inside Rashid shot the Swami. However, Dharampal got hold of the assassin. But by the time people gathered Swamiji was no more. Swami Shraddhananda was the victim of fanatic Islam and laid his life at the altar of Mother Bharat. He will be remembered for his invaluable contribution in bringing back thousands of converted Hindus to their original Dharma.                                                              (With Inputs from Vichar Vinimay Kendra)