| Great Personalities |
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| Biographies of Great Indians & Hindus |
MADANA MOHANA MALAVIYA |
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RevolutionaryAlthough at first glance Malaviya
appeared to be an idealist clinging old attitudes to life, he was a great revolutionary.
On the 13th of April 1919 a great tragedy was enacted in Jaiwala Bagh of Amritsar (Punjab). Helpless audiences at a meeting were dead. The government's army butchered the people-old and young, men and women alike. The slaughter was work of an army commander by name Colonel Dyer. The whole nation shocked and disturbed. When the Central Legislature met at Simla, Malaviya spoke brilliantly and with deep emotion for six hours about the slaughter. Even Englishmen who were members of the legislature were full of admiration for his eloquence. India attained independence in1947. One year before that a grim tragedy - a tragedy which should never have taken place - shook the then Bengal Province. A large number of Hindus suffered terribly. In a place called Naokhali there was gruesome slaughter. Innocent and helpless people had to endure great hardships. The provisional government watched the happenings in helplessness. When Malaviya heard about the happenings he was shocked. When he was asked how Hindus, who had been converted to Islam could be reconverted to Hinduism, he said, "Ram Nam and the holy water of the Ganga - these will do." He toiled without rest to organize the Hindus. At the same time he worked for Hindu - Muslim unity. He proclaimed that if the lot of the 'Harijans' did not improved India could never progress. He was always thinking of the ways to uplift the backward classes, the poor people, the young widows and illiterate villagers. He was a great man whose dream was that India should grow stronger in every way |
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