Thread by @marineravin

How many of us know about Swami Sahjanand Saraswati and his contribution to kisan aandolan !
A long thread.
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati and the Kisan agitation were synonymous with each other. On March 04, 1928, he formed the Western Patna Kisan Sabha 1/n

and in November of 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha. He was unhappy and worried over the pitiable condition of the farmers and considered the landlords and the British government responsible for this. His peasant organization included farmers of all castes.2/15

Kisan Sabha used to raise their demands only. In 1934, he was elected President of the All India Kisan Sabha constituted by the Left leaders twice and remained General Secretary for the rest of the time. Between 1936 and 1938, he organised three strikes against the sugar mill 3/n

owner Birla of Bihata and demanded victory for the farmers and laborers. At the same time, a massive Satyagraha movement was launched in villages like Barhiya, Majhiwaan, Amwari, Revda etc. 4/15

Thousands of farmers created a new history by participating in the movement. Congress party was not happy with this movement. In February 1938, the Executive of Bihar Congress Party under the chairmanship of Babu Rajendra Prasad passed a resolution 5/15

condemning Sahajanand and Kisan Sabha. Swamiji resigned from the Provincial Executive. This was the beginning of his disillusionment with the Congress. In 1940, along with Subhash Babu and Yaji Ji, he addressed 438 general meetings in 27 days. 6/15

He was eventually arrested on 29 April 1940 and lodged in Hazaribagh Central Jail. While in jail, he wrote "My life struggles", "What farmers do", "How farmers fight", "Memoirs of Kisan Sabha", "Khetamajdoor and Farmers of Jharkhand", "Revolution and United Front" etc. 7/15

When Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, he supported the Soviet Union against Hitler and called on the public to turn it into a people's war. In 1941, the Socialist from the ABK and the Forward Bloc in 1942 and Pro. the right-wing factions led by NG Ranga split. 8/15

In 1939, the number of members of the Kisan Sabha was 8 lakh, in 1942 it was reduced to 2 lakh 25 thousand. In 1945, the Kisan Sabha was divided into two factions. The Communists held a separate session of the ABK Sabha in Netrakona village of Mamansingh 9/15

district and elected Muzaffar Ahmed as their president. In 1946, Sahajanand took the initiative to form a new Kisan Sabha called Hind Kisan Panchayat by taking Purshottam Das Tandon, Sampurnanand, Harshadeva Malaviya, Mohanlal Gautam, Sheelabhadra Yaji etc. 10/15

It was formed in Bombay in July and Tandon was elected president and Swami ji was its general secretary. Sahajanand stood firm on Red flag and Marxism. Therefore, unity could not be maintained in this new organisation.11/15

Within ten days of independence, he called for a united front of all leftist powers for the peasant-worker state, criticizing the policies of the Congress. In this connection in February 1948,he organized a conference in Patna,in which 18 representatives of the Left parties, 12/n

excluding Socialist parties, attended. In this sequence, a meeting was held under his chairmanship on 15 - 16 April 1948, in which an Akhil Bhartiya unified Kisan Sabha was formed by dissolving the Kisan Sabhas of these leftist parties. 13/15

It included Sheelabhadra Yaji of Forward Bloc and Karyanand Sharma of Communist Party. Sahajanand was elected its general minister. On 6 December 1948, he resigned from the Congress from all forms of membership. 14/15

After that, he was busy working day and night in preparing the front of the leftist powers of the country. But his effort remained incomplete. On the night of June 26, 1950, he suddenly worsened and slept in sleep. 15/15