Swami Agnivesh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Swami Agnivesh

• Agnivesh was born in an orthodox Hindu family.

• At the age of 4, he lost his father and was raised by his maternal grandfather who was a Diwan of a princely state called ‘Shakti’ (Now in Chhattisgarh).

• Having completed his study, he became a lecturer at St Xavier’s College in Kolkata.

• For some time, he practiced law as a junior to ‘Sabyasachi Mukherji,’ who later became Chief Justice of India.

  

• In 1968, he joined the Arya Samaj in Haryana and two years later, on 25 March 1970, he vowed to take ‘Sanyas’ (renunciation).

• He was the Education Minister in Haryana government from 1979 to 1981. However, he resigned from the post in the protest against the Haryana government’s inaction against police who had opened fire at workers opposing bonded labour.

• In 1994, he was appointed the Chairperson of the United Nations Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.

• Agnivesh received the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize ‘the Right Livelihood Award‘ for his service against bonded labours.

• He was the president of the World Council of Arya Samaj from 2004 to 2014.

• In 2005, Agnivesh took part in a two-week campaign against female foeticide that travelled across India to raise awareness.

• In 2011, he took part in Anna Hazare‘s anti-corruption movement in Delhi, but a video was leaked in which he was allegedly talking to the then cabinet minister Kapil Sibal, the video exposed him that he was working for the government and not for the protestors.

• In 2018, he, along with his group, was lynched by the alleged Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha.

• Agnivesh had also authored many books: Vaidik Saamajvad (Vedic Socialism), Religion Revolution and Marxism, Harvest of Hate: Gujarat Under Siege, Hinduism in the New Age, etc.

• He had also been a chief editor of  ‘Rajdharma’ magazine (fortnightly) from 1968 to 1978 and Kranti Dharmi (monthly) from 1989 to 1991.