Explained:Swami Shraddhanand and Arya Samaj

News:Recently,Arya Samaj observed the death anniversary of Arya Samaj Missionary Swami Shraddhanand who was assassinated on December 23, 1926.

Facts:

About Swami Shraddhanand:

• Swami Shraddhanand was born on February 22,1856 at village Talwan in Jalandhar district in Punjab province.
• In the early 1880s, he came into contact with Swami Dayanand, the founder of the Arya Samaj.Shraddhanand also wrote a book called Hindu Sangathan.
• By 1923, he focussed primarily on the shuddhi movement(reconversion to Hinduism).
• Shuddhi Movement was started by Arya Samaj to bring back the people who had converted to Islam and Christianity from Hinduism.Swami Dayanand Sarawati played a prominent role in the shuddhi movement.
• In 1923, he also became the president of Bharatiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha created with an aim of reconverting Muslims specifically Malkani Rajputs in the western United Province.
• He was also against the then prevailing social inequality in Indian society particularly untouchability which he termed as a curse and a blot on the reputation of the Hindus.

About Arya Samaj:

• Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement that was founded by Dayanand Saraswati in 1875 in Bombay.The movement believes in the infallible authority of the Vedas.
• The central objectives of Arya Samaj is to eradicate Ignorance (Agyan), Indigence or Poverty (Abhav) and Injustice (Anayay) from this earth.