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