Sahajanand Saraswati

Sahajanand Saraswati
Born	(1889-02-22)February 22, 1889 Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, British India
Died	June 25, 1950(1950-06-25) (aged 61) Patna, India
Occupation	Linguist, Polymath, Sociologist, Historian, Philosopher, Nyaya, Writer, Grammarian, ascetic, Revolutionary, Marxist

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati ( listen; 1889–1950), born in a Bhumihar Brahmin family of Ghazipur of Uttar Pradesh state of India, was an ascetic (Dandi Sanyasi) of Dashnami Order (Dasanami Sannyasi order) of Adi Shankara Sampradaya (a monastic post which only Brahmins can hold) as well as a nationalist and peasant leader of India. Although he was born in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), his social and political activities centered mostly in Bihar in the initial days, and gradually spread to the rest of India with the formation of All India Kisan Sabha. He had set-up an ashram at Bihta, near Patna and carried out most of his work in the later part of his life from there. He was an intellectual, prolific writer, social reformer and revolutionary.

Books

1. Bhumihar Brahmin Parichay (Introduction to Bhumihar Brahmins), in Hindi.
2. Jhootha Bhay Mithya Abhiman (False Fear False Pride), in Hindi.
3. Brahman Kaun?
4. Brahman Samaj ki Sthiti (Situation of the Brahmin Society) in Hindi.
5. Brahmarshi Vansha Vistar in Sanskrit, Hindi and English.
6. Karmakalap, in Sanskrit and Hindi.

Autobiographical works

1. Mera Jeewan Sangharsha (My LIfe Struggle), in Hindi.
2. Kisan Sabha ke Sansmaran (Recollections of the Kisan Sabha), in Hindi.
3. Maharudra ka Mahatandav, in Hindi.
4. Jang aur Rashtriya Azadi
5. Ab Kya ho?
6. Gaya jile mein sava maas
7. Samyukta Kisan Sabha, Samyukta Samajvadi Sabha ke Dastavez.
8. Kisanon ke Dave
9. Dhakaich ka bhashan

Ideological works

1. Kranti aur Samyukta Morcha
2. Gita Hridaya (Heart of the Gita)
3. Kisanon ke Dave
4. Maharudra ka Mahatandav
5. Kalyan mein chapein lekh

Works related to peasantry and Zamindars

1. Kisan kaise ladten hain?
2. Kisan kya karen?
3. Zamindaron ka khatma kaise ho?
4. Kisan ke dost aur dushman
5. Bihar prantiya kisansabha ka ghoshna patra
6. Kisanon ki phasane ki taiyariyan
7. On the other side
8. Rent reduction in Bihar, How it Works?
9. Zamindari kyon utha di jaye?
10. Khet Mazdoor (Agricultural Labourer), in Hindi, written in Hazaribagh Central Jail.
11. Jharkhand ke kisan
12. Bhumi vyavastha kaisi ho?
13. Kisan andolan kyun aur kya?
14. Gaya ke Kisanon ki Karun Kahani
15. Ab kya ho?
16. Congress tab aur ab
17. Congress ne kisanon ke liye kya kiya?
18. Maharudra ka Mahatandav
19. Swamiji ki Diary
20. Kisan sabha ke dastavez
21. Swamiji ke patrachar
22. Lok sangraha mein chapen lekh
23. Janta mein chapein lekh
24. Hunkar mein chapein lekh
25. Vishal Bharat mein chapein lekh
26. Bagi mein chapein lekh
27. Bhumihar Brahmin mein chapein lekh
28. Swamiji ki Bhashan Mala
29. Krishak mein chapein lekh
30. Yogi mein chapein lekh
31. Kisan sevak
32. Anya lekh
33. Address of the Chairman, Reception Committee, The All India Anti-Compromise Conference, First Session, Kisan Nagar, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, 19 & 20 March 1940, Ramgarh, 1940.
34. Presidential Address, 8th Annual Session of the Kisan Sabha, Bezwada, 1944.

Translations into English

• Swami Sahajanand and the Peasants of Jharkhand: A View from 1941 translated and edited by Walter Hauser along with the unedited Hindi original (Manohar Publishers, paperback, 2005).
• Sahajanand on Agricultural Labour and the Rural Poor translated and edited by Walter Hauser Manohar Publishers, paperback, 2005.
• Religion, Politics, and the Peasants: A Memoir of India's Freedom Movement translated and edited by Walter Hauser Manohar Publishers, hardbound, 2003.

Official recognition

The Government of India issued a commemorative stamp on 26 June 2000.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has an award Swamy Sahajanand Saraswati Extension Scientist/ Worker Award instituted in his honour. In 2001, a two-day Kisan Mahapanchayat was organised on the occasion of the 112th birth anniversary of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati.

Bihar Governor R. S. Gavai released a book on the life of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati on his 57th death anniversary in Patna. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, along with other Bihar leaders celebrated the 119th birth anniversary of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, the architect of the farmers' movement.

See also

• Debt bondage in India

Further reading

• Sahajanand on Agricultural Labour and the Rural Poor, edited by Walter Hauser, Manohar Publishers, paperback, 2005, ISBN 81-7304-600-X
• Swami And Friends: Sahajanand Saraswati And Those Who Refuse To Let The Past of Bihar's Peasant Movements Become History By Arvind Narayan Das, Paper for the Peasant Symposium, May 1997 University Of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
• Bagchi, A.K., 1976, `Deindustrialisation in Gangetic Bihar, 1809- 1901' in Essays in Honour of Prof. S.C. Sarkar, New Delhi.
• Banaji, Jairus, 1976, "The Peasantry in the Feudal MOde of Production: Towards an Economic Model", Journal of Peasant Studies, April.
• Bandopadhyay, D., 1973, `Agrarian Relations in Two Bihar Districts', Mainstream, 2 June, New Delhi.
• Banerjee, N., 1978, `All the Backwards', Sunday, 9 April, Calcutta. Bihar, 1938, Board of Revenue, Average Prices of Staple Food Crops from 1888, Patna.
• Brahmanand, 1971, Rahul Sankrityayana, in Hindi, Delhi.
• Judith M. Brown, 1972, Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics, 1915–1922, London.
• Datta, K.K., 1957, History of the Freedom Movement in Bihar, Patna.
• Devanand, Swami, 1958, Virat Kisan Samaroh (Massive Peasant Convention), in Hindi, Bihar Kisan Sangh, Bihta.
• Diwakar R.R, ed., 1957, Bihar Through the Ages, Patna.
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1921, `The Zamindar and the Ryots', Young India, Vol. III (New Series) No. 153, 18 May.
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1940, An Autobiography or The Story of My experiments in Truth, Ahmedabad.
• Maharaj, R.N., 1976, `Freed Bonded Labour Camp at Palamau', National Labour Institute Bulletin, October, New Delhi.
• Mishra, G., 1968. `The Socio-economic Background of Gandhi's Champaran Movement', Indian Economic and Social History Review, 5(3), New Delhi.
• Mishra, G., 1978, Agrarian Problems of Permanent Settlement: A Case Study of Champaran, New Delhi.
• Mitra, Manoshi, 1983, Agrarian Social Structure in Bihar: Continuity and Change, 1786–1820, Delhi : Manohar.
• Mitra, N., ed, 1938, Indian Annual Register, July–December 1937, Vol. II, Calcutta.
• Jawaharlal Nehru, 1936, An Autobiography, London.
• O'Malley, L.S.S., 1913, District Gazetters, Calcutta.
• Pouchepadass, J., 1974, `Local Leaders and the Intelligentsia in the Champaran Satyagraha', Contributions to Indian Sociology, New Series, No.8, November, New Delhi.
• Prasad, P.H., 1979, `Semi-Feudalism: Basic Constraint in Indian Agriculture' in Arvind N. Das & V. Nilakant, eds., Agrarian Relations in India, New Delhi.
• Rajendra Prasad, 1949, Satyagraha in Champaran, Ahmedabad.
• Rajendra Prasad, 1957, Autobiography, Bombay.
• N. G. Ranga, 1949, Revolutionary Peasants, New Delhi.
• N. G. Ranga, 1968, Fight For Freedom, New Delhi.
• Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, 1943, Naye Bharet ke Naye Neta (New Leaders of New India), in Hindi, Allahabad.
• Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, 1957, Dimagi Gulami (Mental Slavery), in Hindi, Allahabad.
• Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, 1961, Meri Jeewan Yatra (My Journey through Life), in Hindi, Allahabad.
• Shanin, Teodor, 1978, "Defining Peasants: Conceptualisations and Deconceptualisations: Old and New in a Marxist Debate", Manchester University.
• Anugrah Narayan Sinha, 1961, Mere Sansmaran (My Recollections), in Hindi Patna.
• Indradeep Sinha, 1969, Sathi ke Kisanon ka Aitihasic Sangharsha (Historic Struggle of Sathi Peasants), in Hindi, Patna.

External links

• Swami Sahajanand Saraswati images