Swami Omanand Sarswati
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Swami Omanand Sarswati (1910 - 2003) was a freedom fighter, educationist, historian and a social worker from Haryana in India. He was
born in March 1910 in village ‘Narela’ near Delhi. He was only son of his father. His father was Chaudhari Kanak Singh, a Khatri clan Jat. He was a zamindar and ‘numberdar’ of villages Pana, Mamoorpura, and Narela owning 350 bighas of land.
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[edit] Education
Swami Omanand got his primary education in his village ‘Narela’ in Musaddi Lal High School. He got Higher education from Sent Stefan College Delhi. After the sacrifice of Shahid Bhagat Singh, he left his education of BA midway and joined the Indian freedom movement. He studied Vedas and Puranas at Gurukul Dayanand Ved Vidyalaya Delhi, Gurukul Chittor and Gurukul Pothodar, Rawalpindi. He knew 18 languages including ancient languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi etc.
[edit] Joined Freedom Movement
The parents of Swami Omanand wanted to finish his college education, get married and settled down as rich Jat landlord. But this Young boy was inspired by the freedom fighters Shahid Bhagat Singh and Sir Chhotu Ram.
Swami Omanand left his higher education incomplete and joined the Indian freedom movement. Swami Omanand was sent to jail in 1939 for taking part in Nizam Hyderabad Satyagrah. Later he went to jail many times.
[edit] Consecrated in Brahmcharya
Swami Omanand’s real name was Bhagwan Singh. He decided not to marry got consecrated in Brahmcharya principles. He was named Brahmchari Bhagwan Dev in 1939. He performed hard self-mortification. He left the use of salt, sweets, spices etc. He started wearing clothes of khadi only. He sacrificed everything, almost everything for the up-liftment of the Jats. He had his own values and principles and always lived with them.
[edit] Social Services
Swami Omanand left home in 1942 and accepted the post of ‘Acharya’ and ‘Mukhya Adhishthata’ of Gurukul Jhajjar on the occasion of Diwali on the special requests of Arya Samaj. He had started & managed 55 Gurukuls in Haryana and all over India.
In 1947 he did a great service to the refugees who came from Pakistan on the division of India. He has been always at the service of human kind during famines, floods, earthquakes etc. He started the cancer hospital at Jhajjar & giving away free medicines to all.
Swami Omanand did a great struggle for the eradication of social evils like dowry, intoxication, and extravaganza on social occasions etc. He believed that the social evils could be eliminated through democratic Panchayat System. He started many social movements like ‘Nasha Mukti Andolan’, ‘Goraksha Andolan’, Anti - dowry Movement & ‘Sudhi Andolan’.
He visited a number of countries like Japan, Germany, England, Australia, Russia, Marishus, Africa, Java, Sumatra, Thailand, Taiwan, China etc. for the spread of Vedic education. He carried the message of peace, love & brotherhood to every corner of the world.
He was engaged in number of social organizations. Such as Chief of Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Haryana, Advisor of All India History Council, Vice Chancellor of Gurukul Jhajjar University, member of the senate of Maharishi Dayanand University Rohtak and Gurukul Kangra University, associate of Arya Pratinidhi Sabha etc. He was president of World Arya Samaj Propkarini Sabha Ajmer.
He was the founder of Kanya Gurukul Narela. He donated his 70 acres of land at village Narela to Kanya Gurukul Narela. He was also the founder of Jhajjar Gurukul University. His collection in the museum is awesome. Besides, there are many books on Jats written by him which one can find in Gurukul's library.
[edit] Awards
Swami Omanand was awarded ‘Rashtriya Pandit’ by the government of India and ‘Sanskrit pundit’ by the Haryana government for the services rendered by him. He was also awarded ‘Vidyamartand’ by Gurukul Kangra Haridwar.
[edit] As Author
He was a great reformer, Educationist, Social worker & historian. He has written many books on history. The important books written by him are:
- Haryana ke Vir Yodha
- Bharat ki Prachin Mudrayen
He Died at Jaipur Golden Hospital, Delhi on Sunday 23 March 2003 at the age of 93.
[edit] Reference
- Jat Samaj: Agra, June 1999
