द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

30 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE Bengal is concerned, Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalist movement. He died very young in 1902, but since his death his influence has been even greater. About the time that Ramkrishna Parama- hansa flourished in Bengal, another prominent religious personality flourished in North-Western India. He was Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj. The Arya Samaj movement had the largest following in the Punjab and the United Provinces. Like the Brahmo Samaj it advocated a return to the early Hindu scriptures and it condemned all latter-day accretions and impurities. Like the Brahmo Samaj it also advocated the abolition of the caste-system which did not exist in the oldest times. In short, according to Swami Dayananda Saraswati, people were to go back to the pure Arya religion and live the life of the Aryas of old. His characteristic slogan was: 'Back to the Vedas.' Both the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj attempted proselytisation but the Ramkrishna Mission never made any such attempt, for Ramkrishna was against 'the creation of a new sect. But while the Brahmo Samaj was influenced to some extent,by Western culture and Christianity, the Arya Samaj derived all its inspiration from indigenous sources. None of the three societies had any political mission, nevertheless, whoever came under their influence rapidly developed a sense of self-respect and a spirit of patriotism. The Brahmo Samaj was founded in 1828. By that time British rule in India had spread through a large portion of the country and people had begun to realise slowly that the new invaders were different from the old. They had come not merely to make money or to preach religion, but to con- quer and to rule—and unlike the invaders of old they were not going to make India their home but were going to rule as foreigners. The realisation of this national menace quickly roused the masses to a sense of the danger that threatened them. Thus occurred the revolution of 1857. It was by no means merely a revolt of the troops—a sepoy mutiny—as English historians are wont to say—but a real national revolution. It was a revolution in which both Hindus and Mohammedans joined and they all fought under the flag of