Arya Samaj
- LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399318-0302
- LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399318-0302
Introduction
Founded in 1875 by Dayanand Saraswati (b. 1824–d. 1883), the Arya Samaj (the Society of Nobles), became one of the most influential Hindu socio-religious reform movements in north India in the twentieth century, gaining widespread popularity in Punjab and the United Provinces. The Arya Samaj was born of Hinduism’s encounter with British colonialism and Christianity, which sparked multiple efforts to redefine Hinduism in accordance with Abrahamic conceptions of religion. Responding to colonial-missionary criticisms of Hinduism for its polytheism, excessive ritualism, idolatry, and caste system, the Samaj redefined Hinduism as a simplified monotheism, free of idol-worship and the notion of hereditary castes. The Arya Samaj’s efforts to reform Hinduism brought it into conflict with self-proclaimed “orthodox” Sanatanist Hindus, who defended idol-worship, Brahmin-led ritualism, and hereditary caste hierarchy as integral to Hinduism. The Samaj’s central message was “Back to the Vedas”; it saw itself as reviving the original Hinduism supposedly found in the Vedas. Whether the Samaj advocated Hindu “revival” or “reform”—terms often standing in for conservatism and progressivism, respectively—has been a matter of debate among historical actors and scholars. Education has been vital to Arya Samajist agenda, with disagreements even contributing to the Samaj’s split in 1893. The two factions, the College faction and the Gurukul faction, were named after the educational institutions they supported: the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) College and Gurukul Kangri, respectively. The DAV College aimed to provide a balanced Western and Vedic education, becoming the center of a vast educational network. Less influential, Gurukul Kangri formed the core of a smaller network invoking the traditional gurukul education, and strongly prioritized Sanskrit and Vedic studies. Samajist reform involved the education of women and “Untouchable” and “low” castes. Arya Samaj’s caste-related reformism entailed efforts to admit low-castes into caste Hindu society by investing them with the sacred thread. The Samaj also aimed to convert low-caste Muslims and Christians to Vedic truth and caste Hindu society. These conversions challenged the caste hierarchy, but were driven by Hindu majority-making, entailed attacks on Islam and Christianity, and contributed communal conflict in the 1920s. Indeed, the Samaj’s relationship to Hindu nationalism is the subject of scholarly debate, with many arguing that it laid ground for the later Hindu nationalism represented by the Hindu Mahasabha, V.D. Savarkar, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Apart from Hindu nationalism, scholars have highlighted the Samaj’s entanglement in anti-colonial national politics.
General Overviews
Heimsath 1964, a chapter on the Arya Samaj, was for long the standard reference for the foundation, development, and basic doctrines of the Arya Samaj. Jones 1976 now constitutes the most comprehensive historical and sociological account of the origin, growth, and activities of the Arya Samaj in Punjab. Jones 1989 gives a briefer overview of Punjab’s Arya Samaj movement in context of other socio-religious movements in the province. Fischer-Tiné 2013 provides a crisp seven-page overview, distinctive for its section on the Arya Samaj’s activities overseas and in post-independent India, and valuable for providing readers with a foundational bibliography up to date until the date of its publication. Rai 1915 is a valuable primary source for the history and development of the Arya Samaj written by the anti-colonial nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai, a prominent Samajist who became associated with the organization within the first decade of its foundation in 1875. Jordens 1978 remains the authoritative biography of the Arya Samaj’s founder, Dayanand Saraswati. Saraswati 1984 is the English translation of Dayanand Saraswati’s most important work, Satyarth Prakash, the key text for gaining insight into the Arya Samaj’s foundational ideology.
Fischer-Tiné, Harald. “Arya Samaj.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, Helene Basu, Angelika Malinar, and Vashudha Narayan, 389–396. Handbook of Oriental Studies 5. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013.
A useful seven-page entry on the Samaj’s origins, doctrinal basis, early development; its emphasis on education, caste reform, and women’s uplift; entanglement with the Congress-led anti-colonial national movement and Hindu nationalism (through its promotion of Sanskritized Hindi and a past that emphasized Hindu pride); and role in promoting antagonism with other religious communities. This short overview is distinctive for its sections on the Samaj’s activities after Indian independence in 1947 and overseas.
Heimsath, Charles. Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.
The standard reference for Hindu reform movements, including the Arya Samaj, before the publication of Kenneth Jones’s Arya Dharm. Chapter 5 provides an overview of the Arya Samaj, which it considers the most important reform movement in 19th-century north India (Punjab and the United Provinces). An account of Dayanand’s beliefs and teachings, and the Arya Samaj’s foundation, spread and growth, particularly in Punjab.
Jones, Kenneth. Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in Nineteenth Century Punjab. Delhi: Manohar, 1976.
The seminal, specialized history of the Arya Samaj referenced by most scholars. A richly detailed account of its foundation and development; structure, ideology, contextual and social background; differences between the Arya Samaj and other Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Sikh movements; differences between its College and Gurukul factions; and the Samaj’s connections with the rise of wider Hindu consciousness in the early 1900s and 1910s. See the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism article “Reform Hinduism.”
Jones, Kenneth. Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Chapter 4 provides a ten-page overview of the Samaj, cataloguing its foundation and fundamental beliefs; attitudes to other Hindus and non-Hindu religions; development and geographical spread; internal tensions; and involvement in proselytism, famine relief, education, and widow remarriage reform. This is contextualized against “the setting” and “colonial milieu” wherein the Samaj took root, and other Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim socio-religious movements of colonial Punjab. See the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism article “Reform Hinduism.”
Jordens, J. T. F. Dayānanda Sarasvatī: His Life and Ideas. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978.
The best extant biographical account of the Arya Samaj’s founder, Dayanand Saraswati. Carefully scrutinizes Dayananda’s writings, and traces the development of his ideas in relation to precolonial Hindu beliefs and practices and 19th-century intellectual trends. Also analyzes Dayanand’s reformism in relation to its regional and historical contexts, and the social backgrounds of his followers. See the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism article “Reform Hinduism.”
Rai, Lala Lajpat. The Arya Samaj: An Account of Its Origin, Doctrines, and Activities, with a Biographical Sketch of the Founder. London: Longmans, Green, 1915.
An important primary source for the Arya Samaj’s history until 1915, written by a prominent active member of the Arya Samaj in Punjab, Lala Lajpat Rai. Contains sections on the life, ideology and death of Dayanand; the foundation of the Arya Samaj, its religious and social ideals, internal disagreements, organization; and involvements in education, philanthropy and politics. See the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism article “Reform Hinduism.”
Saraswati, Dayanand. Light of Truth. Translated by Chiranjiva Bharadwaja. Delhi: Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, 1984.
This core text of the Arya Samaj contains Dayanand Saraswati’s distinctive interpretation of the Vedas, a comprehensive statement of his reform agenda, his criticisms of contemporary Hinduism and Jainism, and controversial attacks on Christianity and Islam. The original text was first published in 1875 in Hindi.
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