Sahajanand Saraswati (pronunciationⓘ, 22 February 1889 – 26 June 1950) was an ascetic, a nationalist and a peasant leader of India. Although born in United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh), his social and political activities focussed mostly on Bihar[1] in the initial days, and gradually spread to the rest of India with the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha. He had set up an ashram at Bihta, near Patna, Bihar 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.
Biography
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was born in Deva Village near Dullahpur, Ghazipur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh Provinces in 1889 to a family of Bhumihar.[2] He was the last of six sons and was then called Naurang Rai. His mother died when he was a child and he was raised by an aunt.[3]
The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights, and thus sparking the farmers' movements in India.[4][5]
Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with Saraswati elected as its first President[6] and it involved prominent leaders such as N. G. Ranga and E. M. S. Namboodiripad. The Kisan Manifesto, which was released in August 1936, demanded abolition of the zamindari system and cancellation of rural debts. In October 1937, the AIKS adopted the red flag as its banner.[7] Soon, its leaders became increasingly distant with Congress, and repeatedly came in confrontation with Congress governments in Bihar and United Province.[citation needed]
Saraswati organised the Bakasht Movement in Bihar in 1937–1938. "Bakasht" means self-cultivated. The movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands by zamindars and led to the passing of the Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land Tax.[8][9] He also led the successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill at Bihta, where peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic.[10]
Subhash Chandra Bose, leader of the Forward Bloc, said:
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati is, in the land of ours, a name to conjure with. The undisputed leader of the peasant movement in India, he is today the idol of the masses and the hero of millions. It was indeed a rare fortune to get him as the chairman of the Reception Committee of the All India Anti-Compromise Conference at Ramgarh. For the Forward Block it was a privilege and an honour to get him as one of the foremost leaders of the Left movement and as a friend, philosopher and guide of the Forward Block itself. Following Swamiji's lead, a large number of front-rank leaders of the peasant movement have been intimately associated with the Forward Block.[11]
Three reformist leaders, namely, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, and Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, each in his own way, played a modernizing role in our socio-cultural tradition.[13] Both Dayananda and Vivekananda established their own socio-religious sects.[13] But they had shied away from direct involvement with the political processes of the country, though they had become a major source of inspiration for Indian nationalism.[13] On the other hand, Sahajanand did not found any religious sect.[13] He engaged in social work for a while.[13] Soon, he got directly involved in the national movement and even spent a number of years behind bars.[13] Besides, he was not only instrumental in founding the organized peasant movement in India but also later assumed the role of its putative progenitor.[13]
Khet Mazdoor (Agricultural Labourer), in Hindi, written in Hazaribagh Central Jail.
Jharkhand ke kisan
Bhumi vyavastha kaisi ho?
Kisan andolan kyun aur kya?
Gaya ke Kisanon ki Karun Kahani
Ab kya ho?
Congress tab aur ab
Congress ne kisanon ke liye kya kiya?
Maharudra ka Mahatandav
Swamiji ki Diary
Kisan sabha ke dastavez
Swamiji ke patrachar
Lok sangraha mein chapen lekh
Hunkar mein chapein lekh
Vishal Bharat mein chapein lekh
Bagi mein chapein lekh
Bhumihar Brahmin mein chapein lekh
Swamiji ki Bhashan Mala
Krishak mein chapein lekh
Yogi mein chapein lekh
Kisan sevak
Anya lekh
Address of the chairman, Reception Committee, The All India Anti-Compromise Conference, First Session, Kisan Nagar, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, 19 & 20 March 1940, Ramgarh, 1940.
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.
Walter Hauser, along with K.C. Jha, (editor and translator of Swami Sahajanand's autobiography Mera Jivan Sangharsh – My Life Struggle) Culture, Vernacular Politics and the Peasants: India, 1889–1950, Delhi, Manohar, 2015.
Ramchandra Pradhan (editor and translator), The Struggle of My Life: Autobiography of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2018.
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.
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.
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.
