Mahavarat Vidyalankar S/O Har Dayal Singh Saini was a prominent Indian Freedom Fighter and scholar. He was a close advisor and comrade of Subhas Chandra Bose and a founding member of the All India Forward Bloc

All India Forward Bloc

The All India Forward Bloc is a leftwing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party after the independence of India...

, a leftist party which held the most uncompromising position on India's Independence. Contrary to the position of the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

, Forward Bloc demanded complete Independence from the British Empire

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...

 and severance from the British Commonwealth. Great Britain was so threatened by the party that they outlawed the party and arrested all of its leaders including Mahavarat Vidyalankar, who was imprisoned in the famous Red Fort prison.

Early life

As a young man Mahavarat Vidyalankar was sent by his father to study Engineering at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 in Scotland. There he came in contact with many leftist scholars and was highly influenced by Marxist philosophy. After obtaining his degree he secretly left England to further study Marxist-Leninism in Russia. He spent almost 17 years in Russia and became a scholar of the Russian language translating Russian literature into Hindi. During that time he travelled extensively to Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 and translated literature from Mongolian to Hindi as well. While in Mongolia he came in contact with Borjigin Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj a Mongolian poet and writer. They became close friends and later he translated many of Natsagdorj's works into Hindi.http://education.nic.in/cd50years/12/8i/6U/8I6U0K01.htm He returned to India with a unique understanding of imperialism

Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

 and believed that only socialism could give India meaningful and true Independence.

Later Lifer

After working many years with Congress members he met Subhas Chandra Bose and sharing a common vision for India's future and a common understanding of India's needs the two formed a close friendship. He convinced Bose to travel to Russia for assistance in India's struggle. Mahavarat Vidyalankar was also a writer of many books on both politics and Sanskrit. As a scholar of Sanskrit, Russian, and Mongolian and he has also translated many books from these languages into Hindi and English. He died in 1965. He had 3 children all of whom eventually left India.

Homeland

Mahavarat Vidyalankar lived in Pahari Dhiraj in Old Delhi

Old Delhi

Old Delhi , walled city of Delhi, India, was founded as Shahjahanabad by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in 1639. It remained the capital of the Mughals until the end of the Mughal dynasty....

. His house, known as "Dayal Vas" named after his father Har Dayal Singh Saini was known to be the hub and hiding placed of many prominent Indian Freedom Fighters such as Sheel Bhadra Yajee

Sheel Bhadra Yajee

' was a freedom fighter from Bihar who was associated with the non-violent and the violent form of freedom struggle.Yajee's participation in the freedom movement began in 1928 when, as a student, he attended the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress. He joined the Congress Socialist...

, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Maulana Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed was an Indian Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement, who lived from 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on...

, Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu , also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet...

, Mahavir Tyagi

Mahavir Tyagi

Mahavir Tyagi was an Indian independence fighter and famous parliamentarian from the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.Early life=Tyagi was educated in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He joined the British Indian Army and was posted in Persia but resigned after the Amritsar Massacre, or Jallianwala Bagh...

, and many I.N.A heroes such as Dhillon and Sehgal

Sehgal

Sehgal is a family name, originally from the Punjab region in South Asia. Variant spellings include Sahgal, Saigal, Saihgal, Saigol and Sehgol...

. In fact, when he was imprisoned by the British it was Sarojini Naidu who arranged for his daughter, Indira, to be sent to live in Hyderabad with her son Jayasuria and her daughter-in-law, as her mother had died many years earlier from tuberculosis. The historic house is still standing in Old Delhi

Old Delhi

Old Delhi , walled city of Delhi, India, was founded as Shahjahanabad by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in 1639. It remained the capital of the Mughals until the end of the Mughal dynasty....

, in Mandir Wali Gali .

Children

His three children all emigrated to America in the 50's and lived in Northern Pennsylvania. Indira Kumari, his only daughter became a professor of Botany and Biology in Scranton. She married Gokran Nath Srivastrava who was a prominent professor of Physics at the University of Scranton and one of the first Physicists to work with the electron microscope.