Bhai Parmanand
Encyclopedia
Bhai Parmanand was an Indian nationalist
.
, descended from the family of the famous Sikh martyr, Bhai Mati Das
. His father, Bhai Tara Chand Mohyal, came from Kariala, Jhelum District
and was an active religious missionary with the Arya Samaj
movement, a major Bhai Hindutva
icon and one-time President of the Hindu Mahasabha
Following the British announcement of the partition of Bengal (1905)
, he demanded that 'the territory beyond Sindh
should be united with Afghanistan
and North-West Frontier Province into a great Musulman
Kingdom. The Hindu
s of the region should come away, while at the same time the Musulmans
in the rest of the country should go and settle in this territory'. This preceded the Muslim League's Pakistan Resolution by over three decades.
In October 1905, Parmanand visited South Africa and stayed with Mahatma Gandhi
as a vedic
missionary. Parmanand visited Guyana
in 1910 which was the centre of the Arya Samaj movement in the Caribbean
. His lectures increased their following there. In 1911, he visited Lala Hardayal when he was on retreat in Martinique
. Parmanand persuaded Hardayal to go to the United States to found a centre for the propagation of the ancient culture of the Aryan Race
. Hardayal left for America, but soon located himself in Hawaii, where he again went on retreat on Waikiki Beach. A letter from Parmanand prompted his departure for San Francisco where he became an activist in the anarchist movement
.
Parmanand toured several British
colonies in South America before rejoining Hardayal in San Francisco. He was a founder member of the Ghadar Party
. He accompanied Hardayal on a speaking tour to Portland
in 1914 and wrote a book for the Ghadar Party called Tarikh-I-Hind. He returned to India as part of the Ghadar Conspiracy
claiming he was accompanied by 5,000 Ghadarites
. He was part of the leadership of the revolt, and was sent to promote the revolt in Peshawar
. He was arrested in connection with the First Lahore Conspiracy Case and was sentenced to death in 1915. The sentence was later commuted to one of transportation for life: he was imprisoned in the Andaman Islands
until 1920 and subjected to hard labour. In protest against such harsh treatment of political prisoners, Bhai Parmanand went on hunger strike for two months. The King-Emperor, George V
, released him in 1920 as the result of a general amnesty order.
In 1930, he was the chair of the Sind Provincial Hindu Conference, where he expressed concern that Muslim creation of Pakistan
would divide India. He met Gandhi again in 1933 where he analysed India as being composed of three elements: Hindus, Muslims and the British
. He suggested that Gandhi had tried to bring the first two together to drive out the British, but that the British had succeeded in gaining the support of the Muslims. Gandhi replied that he was an optimist, and look forward to the day when Muslims would join with Hindus. Parmanand suggested that only if Hindus organised amongst themselves would Muslims join them as nobody associates with the weak.
Bhai Parmanand died on 8 December 1947 of a heart attack. Bhai Parmanad is survived by his son Dr. Bhai Mahavir
, a prominent member of the Jana Sangh and BJP.
An Institute of Business Studies was named after him in New Delhi, a Public School in East Delhi
and a hospital also in Delhi.
Bhai ji is also survived by his grand children from his daughter, Shakuntala Bali who recently passed away. Shakuntala's children – Bhai Ji's Grand Daughters: Meena Datt lives in Houston, USA, Renuka Sharma lives in Chicago, USA, Sadhna Joshi lives in Los Angeles, USA: Bhai ji's Grand Sons: Shiv Bali lives in Portland, USA and Ravi Bali lives in Washington DC, USA. Bhai ji's son-in-law, Shakuntala's husband, S.L.Bali passed away few years back and he used to live in Delhi.
Indian nationalism
Indian nationalism refers to the many underlying forces that molded the Indian independence movement, and strongly continue to influence the politics of India, as well as being the heart of many contrasting ideologies that have caused ethnic and religious conflict in Indian society...
.
Biography
Parmanand was born into a prominent family of the PunjabPunjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, descended from the family of the famous Sikh martyr, Bhai Mati Das
Bhai Mati Das
Bhai Mati Das Bhai Mati Das Bhai Mati Das (Punjabi: ਭਾਈ ਮਤੀ ਦਾਸ, is one of the greatest martyrs in Sikh history. He along with his younger brother Bhai Sati Das and Bhai Dyal Das, all disciples of the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, were executed along with him at the Kotwali(police-station)...
. His father, Bhai Tara Chand Mohyal, came from Kariala, Jhelum District
Jhelum District
Jhelum District is in the Punjab province of Pakistan. According the 1998 census the district had a population of 936,957, of which 31.48% were urban. Jhelum is known for providing a large number of soldiers to the British and later to the Pakistan armed forces due to which it is also known as...
and was an active religious missionary with the Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
movement, a major Bhai Hindutva
Hindutva
Hindutva is the term used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. Members of the movement are called Hindutvavādis.In India, an umbrella organization called the Sangh Parivar champions the concept of Hindutva...
icon and one-time President of the Hindu Mahasabha
Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha
The Akhil Bhārat Hindū Mahāsabhā is a Hindu nationalist political party in India. It was founded in 1915, as an alternative for Hindus who were not attracted to the secular Indian National Congress and sought to oppose the Muslim separatism of the Muslim League.-Hindutva:The Mahasabha promoted the...
Following the British announcement of the partition of Bengal (1905)
Partition of Bengal (1905)
The decision of the Partition of Bengal was announced on 19 July 1905 by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The partition took effect on 16 October 1905...
, he demanded that 'the territory beyond Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
should be united with Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and North-West Frontier Province into a great Musulman
Musulman
Musulman is a synonym for Muslim. This term is modified from Arabic. It is the origin of the Spanish word musulmán, the Portuguese word muçulmano and the Greek word μουσουλμάνος...
Kingdom. The Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s of the region should come away, while at the same time the Musulmans
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
in the rest of the country should go and settle in this territory'. This preceded the Muslim League's Pakistan Resolution by over three decades.
In October 1905, Parmanand visited South Africa and stayed with Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
as a vedic
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
missionary. Parmanand visited Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
in 1910 which was the centre of the Arya Samaj movement in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. His lectures increased their following there. In 1911, he visited Lala Hardayal when he was on retreat in Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
. Parmanand persuaded Hardayal to go to the United States to found a centre for the propagation of the ancient culture of the Aryan Race
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
. Hardayal left for America, but soon located himself in Hawaii, where he again went on retreat on Waikiki Beach. A letter from Parmanand prompted his departure for San Francisco where he became an activist in the anarchist movement
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
.
Parmanand toured several British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
colonies in South America before rejoining Hardayal in San Francisco. He was a founder member of the Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
. He accompanied Hardayal on a speaking tour to Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
in 1914 and wrote a book for the Ghadar Party called Tarikh-I-Hind. He returned to India as part of the Ghadar Conspiracy
Ghadar Conspiracy
The Ghadar Conspiracy was a conspiracy for a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 formulated by the Ghadar Party...
claiming he was accompanied by 5,000 Ghadarites
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
. He was part of the leadership of the revolt, and was sent to promote the revolt in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
. He was arrested in connection with the First Lahore Conspiracy Case and was sentenced to death in 1915. The sentence was later commuted to one of transportation for life: he was imprisoned in the Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
until 1920 and subjected to hard labour. In protest against such harsh treatment of political prisoners, Bhai Parmanand went on hunger strike for two months. The King-Emperor, George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
, released him in 1920 as the result of a general amnesty order.
In 1930, he was the chair of the Sind Provincial Hindu Conference, where he expressed concern that Muslim creation of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
would divide India. He met Gandhi again in 1933 where he analysed India as being composed of three elements: Hindus, Muslims and the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. He suggested that Gandhi had tried to bring the first two together to drive out the British, but that the British had succeeded in gaining the support of the Muslims. Gandhi replied that he was an optimist, and look forward to the day when Muslims would join with Hindus. Parmanand suggested that only if Hindus organised amongst themselves would Muslims join them as nobody associates with the weak.
Bhai Parmanand died on 8 December 1947 of a heart attack. Bhai Parmanad is survived by his son Dr. Bhai Mahavir
Bhai Mahavir
Dr. Bhai Mahavir is a former governor of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. He was governor of the state from April 1998 to March 2003. He is a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party. He has authored many books and he was earlier member of Rajya Sabha.A simple, vegetarian Arya Samaji, Dr...
, a prominent member of the Jana Sangh and BJP.
An Institute of Business Studies was named after him in New Delhi, a Public School in East Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
and a hospital also in Delhi.
External links
Bhai ji is also survived by his grand children from his daughter, Shakuntala Bali who recently passed away. Shakuntala's children – Bhai Ji's Grand Daughters: Meena Datt lives in Houston, USA, Renuka Sharma lives in Chicago, USA, Sadhna Joshi lives in Los Angeles, USA: Bhai ji's Grand Sons: Shiv Bali lives in Portland, USA and Ravi Bali lives in Washington DC, USA. Bhai ji's son-in-law, Shakuntala's husband, S.L.Bali passed away few years back and he used to live in Delhi.
Further reading
- The Story of My Life by Bhai Parmanand, translated by N. Sundra Iyer and Lal Chand, The Central Hindu Yuvak Sabha, Lahore, 1934