Raghu vIra
Scholarship
Raghu vIra was a great wide-ranging scholar.
His grandfather and father were in the British service - both taught English grammar, but were led to sanskrit grammar.
Edited jaiminIya brAhmaNa, was an expert in gAndhAran statues, Indo European linguistics, Japanese, Tibetan.
Created a tibetan printing press. Later collaborated with Tibetan refugees regarding their education system.
He admired perfection of European editions, systematic collation of variant readings, attention to details, comparitive study etc..
Founded the International Academy of Indian Culture (Saraswati Vihar) where many foreign students studied. SarasvatI vihAr was shifted to nAgpur in 1946, then to delhi in 1956.
He visited China and returned with many artefacts and manuscripts from the silk route.
Nationalist activity
Used to lecture on bhagavadgItA in the local temple; liked reading upaniShats.
He was a freedom fighter, influenced by lAlA lAjpat rai.
Still, the British liked him - so used to send a Hindu v1 inspector arrest him as he didn’t like to be handled by muslims; and used to be sentenced to spend the entire days at a court; rather than in prison.
MK Gandhi consulted with him about official language; sent a japanese monk with him to see gAndhAran stUpa-es etc.. He influenced some wording in the drafted constitution - and it’s hindI name - saMvidhAna.
He created modern administrative and scientific term dictionaries.
After the Brits left, he tried to alert the government to form an anti-china and anti-commie front - but failed. Had to leave after clashes with nehru.
Died in a car accident during an election campaign.
Piety
Would not eat or drink anything made by a उ३ - 31:00. Source: TW
Hindu consolidation
Even before RSS work began in Lahore, he started his Hindu Rakshak Sangh, and used to hold daily drills in DAV College grounds. He visited jammu and opposed sheikh abdullah’s repressive policies. Tried to improve slum people lives.
Escape from lAhore
He was in pre partition TSP. He knew population exchange was coming. So he sent all his family to mainland bharat ahead of time.
They had land and property. He didn’t want to abandon those just like that. So wanted to see which direction wind blew. He stockpiled weapons. Rifles, pistols etc..
Sullas came to his neighborhood. But didn’t expect he was prepared. Before abandoning his property for good, he wanted to inflict as much damage as possible. His house got surrounded. He loaded up with pistols and rifles, escaped from the house. Shot his way through the border and escaped to india.
Lokesh chandra
It is no wonder that the great scholar Lokesh Chandra is his son. The son was made to memorize pANini sUtras, tarka-sangraha, kAvya-dIpikA etc.. Was taught English by an Irish convert to Hinduism. By himself he studied Tibetan, Javanese etc.. He travelled to Indonesia, Netherlands, Japan, Soviet Union etc..