Indian Political Science Association

SWAMI DAYANAND'S CONTRIBUTION TO INDIAN NATIONALISM AND HIS POLITICAL

PHILOSOPHY
Author(s): Ram Prakash Sharma
Source: The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 19, No. 1 (JANUARY-MARCH 1958),
pp. 25-34
Published by: Indian Political Science Association
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 SWAMI DAYANAND'S CONTRIBUTION TO INDIAN
NATIONALISM AND HIS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
By
Ram Prakash Sharma

Head of the Department of Political Science

D. A . Vã College , Hoshiarpur {Punjab)

The life of Swami Dayanand has been a source of great inspiration

guidance to a very large number of our countrymen in various spheres o
activities and it is natural, therefore, that the people desire to know me
more of his life and ideals in all parts of the country. Further Swami
been widely known as a religious and social reformer only. As pion
the Indian nationalism and as a great political thinker his contri
tion has received very little attention. So with the aim of acquai
ing my countrymen with Swami Ji's contribution to Indian Nationalis
his political philosophy I venture to write this article.
Nationalism as understood in ancient India was in the sense of havi
common soul-life., a common culture, a common social organization an
common political head. It is wrong to presume that nationalism of the
is an attempt at achieving cultural, social and political homogeneity for
ing the west. The essence of nationalism is unity. . . .social, religious, cu
and political. Nationalism understood in this sense we find its traces in
Vedas. The famous hymn of the Atharva Veda which says, "The ear
the mother, I am her son", is interpreted to be an incipient formulati
the concept of the country as the mother-land. Asoka, Ghandrag
Maurya, Gupta rulers and Harsh are rightly regarded as the leaders of n
lism in Ancient India. For them Arya Varta was above everything. Tho
I have doubts regarding the nationalism of Maratha and Rajput r
they were inspired by local and segmental consciousness of their own
and its expansion. They never thought in terms of 'India first and
above all5, which is the very essence of the psychology of nationalism.
never thought of curing or eradicating those evils, social, religious or
tical,, which were responsible for political subjugation of their motherla
foreigners. India continued to be subjugated by foreign invaders one a
the other. So much so that with the advent of the British rule Indian nation-
alism had reached its lowest ebb. But we must not forget the eternal saying
of Shrimad Bhagwat Gita that 'Whenever religion (dharma) is on the decline
and evils or vices multiply in the sacred land of India, God incarnates himself
and comes to the rescue of the men so that righteousness and truth may
prevail'. 'One may accept this view or not, but the past history of India
justifies the view that at every critical moment in our history God has always
sent us a great man to change the current of thought, social, religious or
political. That is true of even other countries. If nineteenth century Italy
produced Cavour and Garibaldi to bring her unity and if nineteenth century
Germany produced Bismarck to consolidate the German States into one and
march her on the road to progress, the nineteenth century India too pro-

1 Shrimad Bhagwat Qjta. Chapter IV Shaloka 7.

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26 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

duced in the personality of Swami Dayanand a great man who led India out
of darkness to light and gave her first lesson in self-government. Dr. B. M.
Sharma writes thus : "At a time when India was passing through a
gigantic political convulsion, and at a time when the vast fabric of the great
Hindu society with all its ancient heritage and inspiring tradition, was
crumbling down, the coming in of Swami Dayanand was undoubtedly a
matter of ihe greatest relief. He worked, lived and died for the good of his
country and the world. .. .Swami Dayanand may rightly be called the
founder of Indian Nationalism in the modern age. His activities were great,
and his achievements were still greater. The Arya Samaj is the one institution
of India to which Hindus look as the saviour of the society and therefore the
nation.3'2 Before we actually study Swami Ji's contribution to Indian nationa-
lism we must be aware of the fact that unlike great personalities in the west
one unique feature of Indian personalities has been the wide scope of their
activities. They did not confine themselves to one particular field only but
tried to reform every branch of man's life, social, religious and political. The
Indian culture treats man's life as a whole and it makes no distinction bet-
ween religion and politics. So Swami Dayanand attempted to reform Indian
life as a whole.

As already stated by me India had fallen to the lowest depths on the eve
of Dayanand's starting his great work. It was a time when India was passing
through a great political upheavel. The power of the Marathas had been
finally shattered and East India Company had come to be acknowledged as
the over-lord by almost all the states of India. The Mughal Emperor living
in Delhi was virtually impotent and the small state of Nepal had been
humiliated beyond repairs by a defeat on them in 1814-15. Nawab of Oudh
was virtually a prisoner in the hands of the Company. Only in the Punjab
Maharaja Ranjit Singh had some independence whose friendship was sought
by the English. But after the death of the Maharaja the Sikh power greatly
declined and ultimately Punjab too came to be conquered by the Company.
India was thus in the hands of foreigners - who had come with the primary
object of trading with the East. By the time Swami Dayanand left Swami
Virjanand, the great precepter, in 1862, India had completely passed into
English hands. The great war of Independence of 1857 had been suppressed
by the British forces and the rule of the Company had ended and the crown
had assumed the rule directly. Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858
marked the peak of Indian degeneration. Indian Nationalism had received
more or less a death blow. A strong and courageous hand was needed to
revive it. It came in the form of Swami Dayanand.

On the social side the whole fabric of Hindu society was crumbling down.
Foreign rule had demoralized the people much. As a matter of fact the
whole of Hindu society was in a chaotic state. In place of four varnas
hundreds of castes and sub-castes had sprung up. The lot of women was
pitiable. They were even denied the benefits of education. Child marriage
was common. There were seen all around beggars and orphans. Dr. B. M.
Sharma writes about the social life thus:3 c;In short, illiteracy, caste spstem,
early marriage, diversion from the vedic system and consequent neglect of
duty, the ever-increasing number of widows, the criminal neglect of orphans,
and the swelling number of so called Sadhus had disrupted Hindu society to
a disquieting degree." The spread of Chirstianity had weakened the belief
of the Hindus and Orthodox Hindus were not prepared to take back coverts.

2 Dr. B. M. Sharma: Swami Dayanand - His Life & Teachings , Preface pp iii & iv.
• Sawami Dayanand - His Life & Teachings. Chapt. VI. p. 68.

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 SWAMI DAYANAND'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 2*J

Dark clouds of ignorance, petty-mindedness, poverty and foreign influence

had covered the sky. There was all-round darkness. But the heart of the
Hindu community was still sound. It was asleep and not dead. Some firm
hand was needed to awaken it. There was still the material for reform. The
need was the presence of some fearless, truthful, steadfast and stout reformer.
Swami Ji filled that need.

Swami Dayanand wished to live for the emancipation of his nation -

politically, socially and religiously. He spent a few years in learning the
situation - full five years after he had left Virjanand. He fully diagnosed the
causes of India's slavery and knowing them he set out to remove them first
and thus pave the way for India's freedom. According to him "The
causes of foreign rule in India are mutual feud, differences in religion, want
of purity in life, lack of education, child marriage, marriage in which the
contracting parties have no voice in the selection of their life partners,
indulgence in carnal gratification, untruthfulness and other evil habits, the
neglect of the study of Vedas, and other malpractices. It is only when
brothers fight among themselves that an outsider poses as judge

Aryas are still treading the wicked path of t

the destroyer of his race, the enemy of his co
of misery. May God through His mercy r
disease. ... It is only when men remain honou
are politically great; when they become wick
tely ruined"4. Swami Dayanand was thus thor
evils and irreligiousness were at the root o
thus unless these evils were removed, the cou
self-government or swaraj. So he started a
in order to pave the way for political inde
that at the root of India's downfall was the g
of the people. So he pleaded for the openin
the cause of compulsory education of child
state. In his Satyarth Prakash he gave a comp
including the study of the science of governm
and military.

Swami Dayanand fully realized that the cause of Indian Nationalism

required some common national language. So he was the first among the
Indian publicists to advocate the cause of Hindi or Aryabhash as a national
language of India. He abandoned Gujerati, his mother tongue, in favour
of Aryabhasha. According to Pt. Ram Rattan, "He felt that a sound
system of education was one which made a student feel proud of his language,
his country, proud of his nation's past, proud of her glory. This could never
be achieved if Hindi and Sanskrit were relegated to the background".5 It
was at his suggestion that Maharana Sajjan Singh, ruler of Udaipur intro-
duced Devnagari script in his state as official script.
Swami Ji thought that unity among the followers of different faiths was
very essential for the attainment of political freedom which was always
destroyed by the intervention of third power- the British who could maintain
their power by the policy of divide and rule. Towards the end of 1876
Swami Ji left Deccan for Delhi to attend the great Darbar held in January,
1877. He called a Unity Conference there of the greatest men of India
4 Light of Truth. (Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash) Edited by Dr. Bharadwaja 1927),
p. 303.
6 Ram Rattan : Dayanand Commémoration Volume , p.

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28 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OE POLITICAL SCIENCE

for bringing together all heterogenious elements of the Hindus and Muslims
in India. There were Munshl Kanahya Lai Alakhdhari of Punjab,
Babu Navin Ghander Roy, Keshav Ghander Sen, Munshi Indramuni, Sir
Sayyad Ahmad Khan and Babu Harish Ghander. Swami Dayanand urged
them to forget all differences and unite together to work out the salvation
of the country. Although this conference failed Swami Ji pointed out
the need of unity for the freedom of the motherland.

Swami Ji was an ardent lover of Swadeshi which later on became the

pillar of our national movement for freedom. He fully realized the economic
dependence of Indians and by his example, writings and lectures he
encouraged and preached the use of Indian made articles. He encouraged
the Indians to travel abroad, learn trade and increase their own trade.
He writes in his Satyarth Prakash thus: "The ancient Indians used to go
abroad to all parts of the world for the purposes of trade, travel, or on
political business. ... Those who do not hesitate to go abroad, and thereby
associate with peoples of various foreign countries, study their customs,
manners, increase their trade, and augment their political power, become
fearless and bold, and attain great power and prosperity by studiously
imbibing their good qualities, and adopting the good customs and manners
of the foreigners, and rejecting their faults and evil habits and bad manners. .
There can be no harm or sin in learning trade, arts and other good qualities
from the foreigners .... Can a country make any progress unless its people
trade with or extend their rule over other countries ?"6

Swami Ji attacked the conservative views of the priestly class and blamed
them for India's degradation. He preached against idol worship and laid
stress on Unity of God. He was against caste system and was a great advocate
of Shuddhi - taking back those people who had embraced other faiths* He
stood for the rights of women. "He preached against untouchability. In
short, he laid stress on character-building. He was a great lover of truth.
It is character that builds a nation. According to Aurobindo Ghosh
"Dayanand brings back an old Aryan element into the national character".7
According to T. L. Vaswami "he created a new pride in India. When
he went upon his mission, the people were immersed in tamas - in inertia,
in mental and spiritual darkness. The masses were engulfed in superstition.
The educated turned westward for light and strength. Dayanand raised
the cry: 'back to yourselves!' With the vision of a Rishi, he saw the
greatness of Aryan civilization and culture."8
It is not improper to call him by the name of the Rishi of modern India.
There was a beautiful song often sung during the Swadeshi movement of
1906-8 in Bengal and it said:
One Country, one God
One nation, one mind,
and Swami Dayanand lived to achieve this end. T. L. Vaswami in his
book C1 orch-bearer'9, calls him by the name of an exponent of Aryan India,
a symbol of Aryan India, a prophet of the dawn, a herald of the future.
Swami Dayanand believed neither in caste nor in sect. He had faith in
universal brotherhood. His heart was full of love for the poor and the down-
6 Light of Truth : Eng.Tr. of Satyarth Prakash bv Dr. G. Bharadwai nn. 2QQ-30n_
Aurobindo Ghosh : article on ( Dayanand , the Man and his Work 1 in Swami Dayanand
òaraswati a collection of articles, published bv Arva Samai Calient. 1Q94
8 L#. Xaswani ; an article on s A Prophet of the Dawn' published in 1926 by Arya 7
Samaj Calient 7
• T. L. Vaswani : T

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 SWAMI DAYANAND'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 29

trodden and without such love you cannot build a great nation. He
kindled a new nation's consciousness. He aimed to rebuild Indian national
life on knowledge and sacrifice. His heart felt that there was no rest
him until India was re-awakened and the Aryan race rejuvenated. His
message for the Indian people was inspired by the spirit of the Aryan ra
and Indian nationality. He got from the Vedas three slogans - the mothe
tongue, the race-culture, the motherland. These three are the source
blessings and Swamiji stood for all the tnree. He advocated Hindi as
the lingua franca of India, he advocated the Vedic culture based on oneness
of God and he preached love and adoration for mother country. Very
few people know it that Swamiji used the word Swaraj long before it was
used by great patriots like Dadabhoy Naoroji and Lokamanya Tilak. It was
Swami Ji who first declared the native rule as the best government. He
wrote in Satyarth Prakash , "Say what you will, the indigeous native rule
is by far the best. A foreign government, perfectly free from religious
prejudices, impartial towards all the natives and the foreigners, kind bene-
volent and just to the natives like their parents though it may be, can never
render the people perfectly happy".10 Do not these words express the very
philosophy of Swaraj - self-government is better than good goverment ?

The greatest asset of a nation are its pioneers and prophets. One of
them was Swami Dayanand. He is that personality of whom any nation and
any age may be proud. He was definitely very hard for Hindu orthodoxy
but 'all creators are hard, must be hard' as said by the German philosopher
Nietzsche. He was the real nation-builder who led India out of darkness
into the light and showed her the way of freedom - which was to be lighted by
the torch of vedic wisdom. According to T. L. Vaswani "He had a vision of
India purged of her superstitions, filled with the fruits of science, worshipping
one God, fitted for self-rule, and honoured as the primeval source of the
world's science and religion"11 Swami Ji firmly believed that Independence
could not be got by mere begging. It could be got by building character
based on knowledge and sacrifice. He wanted the youths of India to develop
their mental and physical powers. His advocacy for the study of vedic
wisdom was with a view to liberating both Hinduism and India. Cultural
Swaraj must fulfil political Swaraj. His message to the people was that of
Unity and sacrifice- the two pillars of Indian Nationalism. According to
Maharaj Anand Swarup Ji, "He was the first to raise his voice against the
denationalization and to think of openly fighting the causes responsible for it,
as Hindus were lost to their religion, to their culture and tradition"12. As a
matter of fact Swami Ji believed that if Indians became physically strong,
religiously pure and socially simple, their political freedom will follow. By
successfuly driving out the social evils from Hindu society, he laid the found-
ations of strong Indian Nationhood. He loved the people of India with the
fervour of Mazzini and Wallace. He was the true nation-builder, father of
modern nationalism. According to G. F. Andrews, "He revealed in a
living and inspiring form by his own magnetic personality what in truth
ancient India was, what in truth she stood for, what was the vital spirit of her
past."13 Even Romain Rolland has acknowledged Swami Ji's great contribu-
tion to the cause of Indian Nationalism. He writes: "He (Swami Dayanand)
was in fact the most vigorous force of the immediate and present action in
10 Light of Truth : Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash by Dr. G. Bharadwaia p.
11 T. L. Vaswani : Touch-bearer . Pasre-28.
12 Sahib ji Maharaj Anand Swarup in Dayanand Commemoration Volume . p. i4.
13 C. F. Andrews: - Swami Daynand , an article in Swami Dayanand Saraswati (Arva
Samaj Calient 1924) page 41.

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3o THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

India at the moment of the rebirth and reawakening of the national conscious-
ness. His Ary a Samaj, whether he wished it or not, prepared the way in 1905
for the revolt in Bengal. He was one of the most ardent prophets of recons-
truction and of national organisation. I feel that he was he who kept the
vigil. . . .His purpose in life was action and its object his nation."14

SWAMI Jl's POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Now we come to the second part of this article, that is, Swami Dayanand
as a political philosopher. If Swami Ji had an idea of free India, he also had
a vision of the form of government that he wanted India to have. He is not,
of course, original in his political philosophy. His ideas are from the Vedas,
a few chapters of Manu, Vidurprajagar, Rajadharma, Apatdharma and a
few chapters of Mahabharata. He gives his political philosophy in Chapter
VI of his Satyartha Prakash and he is ardent follower of dx^mocracy, though
he supports a limited benevolent monarchy as pattern of government for his
ideal state.

Swami Ji wanted the King to rule with the help of three assemblies -
Religious, Legislative and Educational. He got this idea from Rigveda which
says: - "Let there be for the benefit of the rulers and the ruled three
Assemblies: Religious, Legislative and Educational. Let each discuss and
decide subjects that concern it."15 He then wishes the three Assemblies,
Military Councils, and the Army to work harmoniously together to carry on
the government of the country. He was a great democrat and believer in the
conception of popular sovereignty. According to him "No single individual
should be invested with absolute power. The King who is the President of
the Assembly and the Assembly itself should be inter-dependent on each other.
Both should be controlled by the people, who in their turn ¡should be governed
by the Assembly."16 Swami Dayanand was against absolute power and he
describes the evils of the king being independent and enjoying absolute
power. For it he quotes Shatpatha Brahman which says, "that an absolute
king would impoverish the people - being despotic and hence arrogant - and
oppress them, aye, even eat them up, just as a tiger or any other carnivorous
animal pounces upon a robust animal and eats it up. A despotic ruler does
not let any one else grow in power, robs the rich, usurps their property by
unjust punishment, and accomplishes his selfish end. One man should, there-
fore, never be given despotic power."17
Dayanand regards the King as the Chief official of the state and quoting
from Manu prescribes his qualifications for being elected: "He should be
powerful as electricity; as dear to his people's hearts as their very breath, able
to read the inmost thoughts of others, and just in his dealings as a judge. He
should enlighten people's hearts by the spread of knowledge, just and righte-
ousness, and dispel ignorance and injustice as the sun illuminates the world.
He should be like one who consumes wickedness like fire, keeps the wicked
and the criminal under control like a jailor, who gladdens the hearts of the
good like the moon, who makes the country rich and prosperous as a trea-
surer keeps his treasury full, who is powerful and majestic like the sun, keeps
the people in fear and awe, and on whom no one in the whole world dares
to look with a stern eye. He alone is then fit to be the head of the state who
11 Romain Rolland: The life of Rama Kiishna , Chapter VI pp. 164, and 165.
15 Rigveda II 38, 6, quoted in Light of Truth : (Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash ) by Dr. G.
Bharadwai p. 141.
16 Light of Truth, (Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash by Dr. C. Bharadwaj) p. 150.
17 Shatpath Brahman . XII, 2S 3, 7, 8.

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 SWAMI DAYANANDS' POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 3 I

is like fire, air, the sun, the moon, a judge, a treasurer, a gaoler, in keeping
the wicked under control, and like electricity in power."18 Swami Ji further
quotes Yajur Veda, saying. "O ye, learned men! Proclaim that man with one
voice your king - the President and head of the State - who is just, impartial,
well-educated, cultured, and friend of all."19

Swami Dayanand was a great advocate of the Rule of Law and quoting
from Manu he proclaims its supremacy. He writes : "The Law alone is
the real king, the dispenser of justice, the disciplinarian. The Law is consi-
dered as the surety for the four classes and orders to discharge properly their
respective duties. The Law alone is the true governor that maintains order
among the people. The law alone is their protector. .. .When rightly
administered the law makes all men happy but when administered wrongly,
i.e. without the consideration as to the requirements of justice, it ruins the
king. All the four classes would become corrupt, all order would come to
an end. There would be nothing but chaos and corruption if the law were
not properly enforced. Where the law rules supreme, there the people never
go astray, and consequently live in happiness if it were administered by a just
and learned man. He alone is considered a fit person to administer the law
by the wise who invariably speaks the truth, is thoughtful, is highly intellectual
and very clever in the attainment of virtue, wealth and righteous desires ....
Great is the power and majesty of the law. It cannot be administered by a
man who is ignorant and unjust."20 After describing the majesty of the Rule
of law Dayanand calls upon the people to obey the law passed by the Assem-
bly, if they wish to be happy and prosperous. The members of the Legisla-
tive Assembly must be well-versed in the four Vedas, keen logicians, masters
of language and men conversant with the science of religion.
Following the ancient shastras Swami Dayanand prescribes certain
qualifications for being elected to the membership of the Assembly. He also
describes the qualifications and duties of such officers as ambassadors in details.
He quotes Manu for it which says: "Those men alone are fit to fill such
high offices, as of the president or a member of the political assembly, who
have learnt the three kinds of knowledge of good deeds and their practice, of
elevation of mind by meditation and contemplation of abstruse subjects and of
that superior wisdom that results from the first two - from the scholars of the
four Vedas - the true system of government, the science of logic, the Divine
Science and the arts of elocution and debate."21

With regard to the question of the Executive^ Swami Ji while entrusting

the king with the headship of the state and so also of the executive, quotes
Manu in support of "the very great necessity of the king's having seven
or eight good righteous and clever ministers who are natives of the country,
are thoroughly conversant with the Vedas and the Shastras, are very brave
and courageous, whose judgment seldom errs, who come from good families and
are well-tried men."22 Swami Ji gives reasons for assigningt he work of
government to a council of seven or eight. He says: "Even an act easy in
itself becomes difficult to be accomplished by a man when single handed.
How much more so is the great work of government of a country by a
18 Manu, VII, 4, 67.
19 Tajur Veda IX, 40.
Light of Truth (Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash) by Dr. G. Bharadwaj. pp. 152,
I53-
21 Manu. VII, 43-53.
22 Manu VII, 54-57, 60, 64.
23 Light of Truth (Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash) by Dr. G. Bhardwaj Page 57,

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32 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

single-handed man. It is, therefore, a most dangerous thing to m

man a despotic ruler, or trust the affairs of the state to one single m
Swami Dayanand makes it compulsory for the king to consult his mi
on the affairs of the state and after attaining the opinion of all, he
abide by the majority opinion. What more democratic there can be !
Ji also deals at length with the various duties of ministers and other
officials. Even such subjects as training of the army, the behaviour
armed forces, administration of the conquered territories, treatment of ne
and aliens are not neglected by the great Swami.
As regards levy of taxes Swami Dayanand was fully conversed wi
principle of 'no taxation without representation' - the principle which
very foundation of democracy. In support of this principle he quote
saying, "Let the king in conjunction with the Assembly, after full c
deration, so levy taxes in his dominions that they may conduc
happiness of both the rulers and the ruled."24

His treatment of administration of justice, was very exhaustive an

based on ťRule of law' and other democratic principles. Here ag
follows the teachings of Manu, saying, "Let the king, the court
judges daily decide justly law suits - which are classified under e
heads - according to the laws of the land and the teachings of the d
shastras."25 Swami Ji was of the definite opinion that a judge must
the eternal law of justice and decide all cases of disputes among men
that is, without partiality. He says, "Where justice is destroyed by i
and truth by untruth under the very nose of the judges whilst they simp
on, all the judges in that court are as if dead, not one of them i
Justice being destroyed shall destroy the destroyer. Justice being p
shall protect the protector. Let no man, therefore, violate the laws of
lest justice, being destroyed, destroys him."26 Swami Ji allows only those
to appear as witnesses who are men of character, learned, straight-f
who know their duty properly and who are truthful and free from c
ness. He wants the jugde not to examine the witnesses very strictly
of violence, theft, adultery, the use of abusive language and assau
these things are done in private and witnesses are not easily available
cases. The present system of law lays too much stress on witnes
silly it appears that the police or court may ask a lady in whose prese
was outraged or a person whose property has been stolen may pr
witness for the fact that a theft took place in his presence. It so ha
many a times that there is contradictory evidence. What should
do in that case? Here again Swami Ji's ideas are democratic. He
"If there be contradictory evidence let him (the judge) accept as
evidence of the majority, if the conflicting parties are equal in numb
of those distinguished in good qualities; on a difference between
distinguished witnesses, that of the best among t{ie twice-born, viz
seers and Sanyasis - altruistic teachers of humanity."27 Swami j i was p
in prescribing the oath to be taken by the witnesses before giving their e
in the name of truth and God.

With regard to punishment Swami ji's views are not in conformit

modern times. He seems to be reactionary in that respect. He ha
in the deterrent theory of punishment. He was an advocate of in
si Manu VII, 128, 129, 139, 140, 142, 144.
25 Manu VIII, 3-8, 12, 19. _
26 Light of Truth. Eng. Tr. of Satyart
«7 Ibid, p. 181,

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 SWAMI DAYANAND'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 33
severe punishments with an aim to set an example for others. On this issue
he says, "Whosoever calls it severe punishment is ignorant of true
principles of Right government. The infliction of a heavy punishment on
one man prevents others from committing similar crimes, and tends to keep
them steadfast in righteousness."28 But where lies the justice when a man is
punished in excess than is required in conformity with the seriousness of the
crime? The aim of punishment is to reform the criminal, and make him a
useful citizen of the state and not to create terror and awe in the hearts of
others. Has the death sentence decreased the number of murders in any
state? The case is rather the reverse. Swami Ji here seems to have failed in
understanding the psychology of the criminal mind. We would have expected
a highly reformatory theory from such a Rishi.

Violation of law is to be punished. All are equal before the law and all are
under the law. There is no special law for the governors as administrative
law in the countries of Europe. He is most democratic here. Quoting
Manu he says: "Whosoever - be the father, tutor, friend, wife, son or
spiritual teacher - deviates from the path of duty, becomes liable to punish-
ment."29 He wants the king and state officials to be punished more heavily
than ordinary people. He says, "Punishment inflicted on a king should
be a thousand times heavier than that of an ordinary man, the king's
minister eight hundred times, the official lower than him seven hundred, and
one still lower six hundred and so on; even the lowest official such as a
constable, should be punished not less than eight times as heavily as an
ordinary man would be, for if the government officials or servants be not
punished more severely than ordinary people, they would tyrannise over
them".30 He further says, "What is a king but a man endowed with virtue
and favoured by fortune. Were he to go unpunished, why would others obey
the law? Were the king and other high personages to go free, the king,
ministers and other men of influence and power would simply set justice and
righteousness at naught, sink into the depths of injustice and, ruin the people
as well as themselves".31

Swami Ji requires from the ruler an exemplary conduct. He wishes

that the proverb "As the king, so shall the people be," should never be lost
sight of. He says, "It, therefore, behoves the king and other high
personages never to misconduct themselves. Instead let them always set a
good example to others in the matter of just and righteous living."32 Alas!
our present rulers learn a lesson from this saying of Swami Ji and set an
example of selfless service before the people. As Swami Ji invoked Divine
assistance for the performance of state duties, I would invoke Divine
assistance in making wisdom dawn on our present rulers and enable
them to become means of advancing His eternal justice.

Such were the views of Swami Dayanand Ji regarding the form of state
and the system of governmrnt. Though all his views may not be acceptable
in the present day secular state but nonetheless they are full of
wisdom and provide many a good lesson for our people - both governors and
governed. He has given to us a sketch of an ideal state in accordance with
the lines of ancient Indian culture and this very fact makes him a political
28 Light of Truth : - Eng. Tr. of Satyarth Prakash by Dr. C. Bhardwai p. 188.
29 Ibid, p. i 88
30 Ibid, p. 185
31 Ibid, p. 187
32 Ibid, p. m

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34 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

philosopher of first rank. He was the man whose highest am

greatest delight was to revive good old days - fully free from fo
He was a true nationalist who gave the clarion call to the sl
to wake up and shake off their social evils and superstitions
emancipations of their motherland. All homage to him - th
philosopher»

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