DAYAN AND SARASWATI AND THE ARYA SAMAJ

DAYAN AND SARASWATI AND THE ARYA SAMAJ

A major social reform movement, Arya Samaj, was begun under the aegis of Moolshankar or Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1875. Hailing the Vedas as the root of all knowledge, Dayanand gave the call of 'Back to the Vedas' to inspire Indians to take pride in their past. He was the first Hindu reformer to deal with attacks on Hinduism by launching a counter-attack and challenging the other reli­gions on their own ground. 'India for the Indians' was the political slogan of Dayanand Saraswati. He translated the Vedas and wrote the Satyartha Prakash, Veda Bhasya Bhumika and Veda Bhasya.

With a pan-Hindu revivalist framework and ideology, the Arya Samaj was an aggressive assertion of the Hindu faith over other religions. But it denounced its rites and supremacy of the Brahmins. Idolatry and superstitions were also discouraged. Its social reform programme stood for a varna system based on merit, not birth, besides rights to women and opposition to child marriage and untouchabil­ity. For the spread of western education, it established the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) schools. The Samaj kindled national pride among a large following in Punjab, UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat. But the Samaj's militant attitude in the 'Cow Protection Movement' (1882), and its controversial 'Shuddhi Movement' for allowing converts to come back to Hinduism earned the Samaj unpopularity.