RECLUSE TO REVOLUTIONARV SAHAJANAND SARASWATI (192940)

Abstract

In the annals' of' peasant struggles/activism in the first half of the 20'h century in India, and probably in the entire third world, Sahajanand Saraswati11889-1950176ccupies a pre- eminent position. Re-inventing ceaselessly; especially in terms of ideas, throughout his life, Sahajanand, a contemporary of likes of Gandhi on the one hand and Maotse- Tung on the other, radicalized a large chunk of agrarian setting/segment of then undivided Bihar by mobilizing the peasantry and other marginal’s on questions of land and other aspects impacting the rural power matrix and inspired them to make serious bid for the reconstruction of contempory social order in Bihar on egalitarian lines.

ve-nots. Even today to hoodwink depressed rural segments to derive crucial electoral mileage, political formations/leaders do talk about protecting sharecroppers' rights to again ultimately capitulate to a neo feudal-capitalist combine. The recent example being the nice burial given to the recommendations of Bandyopadhyaya commission set up by NDA led government in Bihar. And as a consequence asymmetries in social relations in rural hinterland not only remain a huge social fact, despite mandalization of politics since 1990s, but engenders much of unrest and amdable blood-letting. It is in this context that thoughts and positions taken by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati 11889-1950), though placed in a different temporal frame, on question of how to organize peasants and formulate a vision to reorder agrarian society becomes insightful and deserves critical revisitations.