Dialectics of Sahajanand Saraswati: <i>Khet Mazdoor</i> and the Other Agrarian Discourses

Lokasamgraha (welfare for all) in India from the ancient scripture Bhagavad Gita has been a central interlocutor in the significant debates during the nationalist struggle for independence. Nationalist leaders such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Aurobindo Ghosh, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi have interpreted the philosophy of lokasamgraha based on their political needs and cultural outlook. Its presence was crucial during the nationalist struggle for independence to address the ethical basis of general welfare and social existence. Each of them engaged with the concept of lokasamgraha in their enterprise of the struggle for independence. To them, independence from colonial rule was as much a spiritual goal as it was a political objective. Unlike the other nationalist leaders of his time, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (1889–1950), a Hindu ascetic cum peasant leader, used the concept of lokasamgraha to address unequal economic relations within the society. Instead of looking at the dichotomies solely as a product of British rule, he came to challenge the hegemony of the dominant section using the notion of lokasamgraha . He made it a necessary axiom to transform rural society from within by incorporating the lessons of the Gita to justify his exposition of keeping the khet mazdoor together with the remaining cultivating class.