Introduction

• Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (1889-1950) was a sanyasi, social reformer, and kisan leader of Bihar, significantly influencing the region’s politics and society in the first half of the 20th century.
• At 18, he became a sanyasi, but his spirituality was deeply connected to the empowerment of the masses, focusing on their material advancement rather than personal moksha.
• His interpretation of the Gita was rooted in the idea of lok sangraba (welfare of the people), emphasizing the peasants as agents of change rather than passive participants.
• His mission was the empowerment of the masses, initially focusing on tenants, then small and marginal landholders, and later on khet mazdoors (landless agricultural workers).
• The peasant movement in Bihar during the late 1920s and 1930s gained mass support across various social groups, including middle castes like the Yadavs, Kurmis, and Koeris, as well as formerly untouchables like Dusadhs.
• Swami Sahajanand founded the West Patna Kisan Sabha in 1927 in response to the exploitation of middle-caste farmers by local zamindars.
• He was from a peasant background and spoke the language of the peasants, avoiding colonial intellectual traditions and instead articulating their demands and ideas for their benefit.
• His work “Khet Mazdoor” is the first major tract addressing the condition of landless agricultural laborers and proposing practical legal and economic solutions for their upliftment.
• He is credited as the first to use the term Dalit to describe oppressed sections of Indian society, contrasting with Gandhiji’s use of Harijan.
• In 1941, Swami Sahajanand wrote “Jharkhand ke Kisan,” discussing the exploitation of the tribal population of Jharkhand, who were forced into indentured labor and lost their lands due to indebtedness.
• Long before formal disciplines like sociology and anthropology emerged in India, Swami Sahajanand conducted significant fieldwork and empirical research, especially in the early 20th century.
• He authored works like “Aaj ke Brahman Samaj ki Sthiti,” “Bhumibar Brahmin Parichay,” and “Jhoota Bhay aur Mitbya Abbiman,” which integrated both classical Dharmasastras and modern English works, alongside his own field-based research.
• Despite having no formal training in the British educational system, he made important contributions to native social anthropology.
• A portion of his writings has been compiled in the “Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Rachnavali” (edited by Raghav Sharan Sharma), which includes a selection of his works in six volumes.
• Some of his other writings, including his commentary on Nyaya, Mimansa, and his diaries, letters, and articles in journals like Janata and Hunkar, remain unpublished.
• The Swami Sahajanand Papers, which weigh about 200 kilograms and were recently returned from the USA, have not yet been fully classified or published, but will provide a deeper understanding of modern India.
• Bihar State Archives has published eight volumes on the Kisan Movement in Bihar, edited by Vijoy Kumar, but these remain underutilized by researchers.
• Raghav Sharan Sharma also edited “India’s War of Independence through Kisan Documents,” a three-volume work that has yet to be fully explored by scholars.
• Swami Sahajanand primarily wrote in Hindi, with some works in Sanskrit and English. Most academic research on him is in English, limiting access to his work for non-English readers.
• A few of his writings have been translated into English by Walter Hauser, and recently, Ram Chandra Pradhancompleted a lucid English translation of Mera Jeevan Sangharsh.