Shraddhanand, Swami

(b. Lala Munshi Ram, d. 1926) Key figure
in the development of the Arya Samaj, a
modern Hindu reformist movement.
Shraddanand was born in Punjab and
got a law degree from the Government
College in Lahore, but was most influential through his support for the Arya
Samaj’s educational institutions. His
greatest work was establishing the
Gurukul Kangri near the sacred city of
Haridwar in 1901. The Gurukul
(“teacher’s household”) was a boarding
school where Arya Samaj children could
be raised with “progressive” Arya values,
far from the corrupting influences of traditional mainstream Hindu society. This
model was based on the Vedas, the earliest Hindu religious texts, which the
Arya Samaj took as the sole religious
authority, and in which a student would
live as a member of his teacher’s family.
Educationally, the curriculum stressed
the arts and sciences necessary for a
“modern” education, but also traditional
Sanskrit learning, particularly of the
Vedas. Shraddhanand became a Sanyasi
in 1917 but continued to support political causes, particularly Indian social and
political leader Mohandas Gandhi’s
1919 call for non-cooperation with the
British government. His fervor and
strength of character made him an
unpopular figure, and he was assassinated by a Muslim in 1926.