Sahajanand Saraswati

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was born in Deva Village near Dullahpur, Ghazipur district in eastern
[2][3]
North-Western Provinces in 1889 to a family of Jujhautiya Brahmin. He was the last of six sons and was then
[4]
called Naurang Rai. His mother died when he was a child and he was raised by an aunt.

The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the
Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on
[5][6]
their occupancy rights, and thus sparking the farmers' movements in India.

Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments
on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of
[7]
the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with Saraswati elected as its first President and it involved
prominent leaders such as N. G. Ranga and E. M. S. Namboodiripad. The Kisan Manifesto, which was released
in August 1936, demanded abolition of the zamindari system and cancellation of rural debts. In October 1937,
[8]
the AIKS adopted the red flag as its banner. Soon, its leaders became increasingly distant with Congress, and
[citation needed]
repeatedly came in confrontation with Congress governments in Bihar and United Province.

Saraswati organised the Bakasht Movement in Bihar in 1937–1938. "Bakasht" means self-cultivated. The
movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands by zamindars and led to the passing of the
[9][10]
Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land Tax. He also led the successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill
[11]
at Bihta, where peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic.

On hearing of Saraswati's arrest during the Quit India Movement, Subhash Chandra Bose and All India Forward
Bloc decided to observe 28 April as All-India Swami Sahajanand Day in protest of his incarceration by the British
[12]
Raj.

[citation needed]
Saraswati died on 26 June 1950.

Subhash Chandra Bose, leader of the Forward Bloc, said: