Swami Dayanand Saraswati as Viewed by West

Book excerpt: The present work is an humble attempt to gather together different views of western scholars expressed by them from time to time in the form of research works, research papers, writings, contribution into Encyclopaedia, Journals, Magazines and invited papers/articles that appeared from time to time in different Arya Magazines . Through these views we discover in Dayananda a great nationalist, great socialist, great democrat, great humanist, great animist, great egalitarian, great utilitarian, great liberator even before the birth of these ideas in the Indian state. He was a staunch supporter of human rights, social justice and equality irrespective of gender, caste, class, race, religion and region. At the same time he was a great philosopher, great thinker, great Vedic scholar and what not. This book should not be taken as merely a compilation of western scholars' views about Rishi Dayananda, but a compendium of live telecast of the Dayananda's movement in India in 19th century and his domination of Indian scenario enslaved then politically and economically by Christians, religiously by Muslims and culturally by Hindu Pundits. One will find how Rishi Dayananda frustrated the political motives of British rulers, evangelical agenda of Christian missionaries and Muslim Maulvis and exposed the dogmatic Hindu Priesthood by virtue of his sharp intellect, indomitable oratory, brave and bold attacks and formidable spiritual power. The readers of this book should not expect always a phraseology of praise from the western scholars and thinkers in respect of Dayanand. They have their own understanding of Dayanand. Sometimes they are led by their own misconstrued notions and prejudices. Sometimes they try to understand Dayanand in the light of their own philosophical, cultural and religious background which stands in sharp contrast to that of the East. Their disputed observations have been duly answered by the author of the present lines in the footnotes. The footnotes supplied by the by the author of present lines contains author's name. The footnotes that do not contain any mention of a name have been contributed by the original reviewers of Dayanand. Through the observations of western scholars, one thing is clear that the western scholarship could not afford analysis of India without analysing Dayanand's role. Dayanand was hailed as a seer and Rishi. This shows the importance Dayanand had in the eyes of western scholarship not only for the making of modern India but for the entire humanity in the 19th century.