Arya Samaj and Consciousness in Punjab in the Second half of the Nineteenth Century

Arya Samaj and Consciousness in Punjab in the Second half of the Nineteenth Century

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Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1875. It became very popular Socio-Religious Reform Movement in North India. This study material is important for the students of History and available free of cost.

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Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, which loomed large on the intellectual and social scene of the late nineteenth century North India. The Punjab Arya Samaj was founded in 1877. The Arya Samaj quickly spread roots in Punjab. The principles of the Arya Samaj, ten in number, were written down and this ten point credo became the doctrinal basis for the Arya Samaj Movement. While the Arya Samaj established in Lahore which had emerged as the urban intellectual centre in the Punjab provided the leadership and served as the model, the organizational network of Arya Samajes had a great deal of autonomy. Arya Samaj continued to gain in strength even after the death of its founder and no personality cult around Swami Dayananda developed to hinder the activities of the organization. Newspapers, Periodicals, pamphlets constituted the main forms of communication resorted to by the Arya Samaj. Street preaching was also resorted to. The Arya Samaj held out hope of revitalization and regeneration of society and country. It held out prospects for upward economic and social mobility for the locally dominant groups. Dayanand Saraswati gave the clarion call of “Back to the Vedas” in which he held out the vision of a glorious past of Hinduism which had degenerated through the ages due to priestly exploitation and the introduction of various rituals and corruptions. These had weakened the moral and spiritual fibre of society leaving them susceptible to succeeding invasions culminating in the then prevailing British colonial rule. Dayanand’s ideas and beliefs were written down in his book ‘Satyarth Prakash’ (Light of truth) brought out in 1875. 

Among his major ideas was that of the infallibility of the Vedas which he held to be divinely revealed. From his interpretation of the Vedas he derived the idea of monotheism and the unity of God, rational stic monotheism and the rejection of popular rituals and superstitions which he held to be corruptions which had crept into Hinduism. He argued that social and religious reforms were needed to rid Hindu society of the stagnation which it found itself in and to regain its golden past. He also argued for reform of customary law which he said should be based on reason and for a complete reform of Hindu society.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati attacked Brahmin exclusivities and prerogatives, a Brahmin he said was one who possessed true knowledge. True knowledge could be got from the correct interpretation of the Vedas. Neither birth nor caste was a bar to one who sought true knowledge. His attacks on 'Brahmanical' privileges and his active espousal of the cause of education appealed to the upwardly mobile Vaishya community in Punjab and he found in them a major source of support.

 Source : Autobiography of Swami Dayanand Saraswati.