Reforms in Northern India
Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883)
- Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born in the old Morvi state (Gujarat) in a brahmin family.
- In 1875, he founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay to reform Hinduism. Later, its branches were established in different places, including Lahore, in 1877.
- His vision of India included a class-less and caste-less society, a united India (religiously, socially, and nationally), and an India free from foreign rule, with Aryan religion being the common religion of all.
- Dayananda’s slogan of ‘Back to the Vedas’ was a call for a revival of Vedic learning and Vedic purity of religion and not a revival ....