Swami Shraddhanand (Aged 70) also known as Mahatma Munshi Ram Vij, was born on 22 February 1856 in Talwan, Jalandhar District, Punjab, India. He was the youngest child of Lala Nanak Chand, who worked as a Police Inspector in the United Provinces, which was then administered by the East India Company. Initially named Brihaspati Vij, his father later called him Munshi Ram Vij, a name that stayed with him until he took sanyas (renunciation of worldly pursuits) in 1917, after which he was known as Lala Munshi Ram Vij and later as Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati.
As a young man, he became an atheist due to several incidents, such as being denied entry into a temple while a noble woman was praying, witnessing a compromising situation involving a church father and a nun, attempted rape of a young devotee by pontiffs of the Krishna cult, and the suspicious death of a little girl at the home of a Muslim lawyer. Shraddhanand eventually passed mukhtari exams and started studying to become a lawyer.
He first met Dayanand Saraswati when Dayanand visited Bareilly to give lectures. In 1917, Shraddhanand established Gurukul Indraprashtha in Aravali near Faridabad, Haryana. However, he left the Gurukul to become an active member of the Hindu reform movements and the Indian Independence movement.
Shraddhanand invited the Indian National Congress to hold its session at Amritsar in 1919, following the Jalianwala Bagh massacre, but initially no one in the Congress Committee agreed to hold a session there. However, he presided over the session after the Congress agreed to hold it. He also joined the nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Act. He passed away on 23 December 1926.
Swami Shraddhanand
(1856 – 1926) – (Punjab)
Swami Shraddhanand (Aged 70) also known as Mahatma Munshi Ram Vij, was born on 22 February 1856 in Talwan, Jalandhar District, Punjab, India. He was the youngest child of Lala Nanak Chand, who worked as a Police Inspector in the United Provinces, which was then administered by the East India Company. Initially named Brihaspati Vij, his father later called him Munshi Ram Vij, a name that stayed with him until he took sanyas (renunciation of worldly pursuits) in 1917, after which he was known as Lala Munshi Ram Vij and later as Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati.
As a young man, he became an atheist due to several incidents, such as being denied entry into a temple while a noble woman was praying, witnessing a compromising situation involving a church father and a nun, attempted rape of a young devotee by pontiffs of the Krishna cult, and the suspicious death of a little girl at the home of a Muslim lawyer. Shraddhanand eventually passed mukhtari exams and started studying to become a lawyer.
He first met Dayanand Saraswati when Dayanand visited Bareilly to give lectures. In 1917, Shraddhanand established Gurukul Indraprashtha in Aravali near Faridabad, Haryana. However, he left the Gurukul to become an active member of the Hindu reform movements and the Indian Independence movement.
Shraddhanand invited the Indian National Congress to hold its session at Amritsar in 1919, following the Jalianwala Bagh massacre, but initially no one in the Congress Committee agreed to hold a session there. However, he presided over the session after the Congress agreed to hold it. He also joined the nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Act. He passed away on 23 December 1926.
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