Union Home Minister addressed the ‘Kisan-Mazdoor Samagam’ organized on the occasion of the Janm Jayanti of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati at Patna, Bihar on 25 February 2023.
About Swami Sahajanand Saraswati
- Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (1889-1950) was a sanyasi as well as a revolutionary, who dedicated his life to the cause of political and economic independence of the Indian people. He was born in the district of Ghazipur of Uttar Pradesh.
- He played a prominent role in organizing the non-cooperation movement in the Shahabad district of Bihar and the adjoining district of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.
- From 1924 to 1928 his activities centered on the propagation of Khadi and prohibition, the two most important items of Mahatma Gandhi‘s constructive program.
- Swami Sahajanand was a powerful agitator and propagandist, and his speeches moved and moulded millions of peasants in the defence of their rights.
- Swamiji came to be addressed as ‘Kisan Pran‘ (life of Kisans) by his Kisan Sabha followers. Such was his popularity that Sahajanand Day was observed throughout Bihar on 19 April 1940 in protest against his arrest.
- In 1949, only a year before his death, the country honoured him by celebrating his Diamond Jubilee and presenting him with a purse of Rs. 60,000/- on the occasion.
- He was also a forceful writer and ran the Hindi weekly Hunkar from Patna.
- Saraswati organised the Bakasht Movement in Bihar in 1937–1938. “Bakasht” means self-cultivated.
- He opposed the Zamindari system and led the laborer class. Rising above caste, religion, creed and sect Swami ji worked to unite the farmers across the country.
