Ishwardatt Medharthi facts for kids

Ishwardatt Medharthi (1900-1971) was an important leader from India. He worked to change society, especially against the caste system, and was part of the movement to make India independent from British rule. He was born into a family that followed the Arya Samaj religion, which believed in equality. He studied for 14 years at a special school called Gurukul Kangri.

Medharthi was even sent to prison for joining peaceful protests like the Bardoli Satyagraha (1929) and the famous Salt March (1930) led by Mahatma Gandhi. After he was released, he started a school and wrote books that spoke out against unfair treatment based on caste. In the 1930s, he became interested in Buddhism. He even taught Pali language, which is used in many Buddhist texts, to the famous leader B. R. Ambedkar in the 1940s. Later in his life, he explored the Baháʼí Faith and then returned to the Arya Samaj.

Early Life and Education

Ishwardatt was born in 1900 in Kanpur Cantonment, a town in India. His family belonged to the Gareria caste, which was considered a lower caste. His father, Fakireram, joined the British Indian army to become a doctor because it was a way to get an education that was usually too expensive for people from lower castes. Fakireram spent 10 years in Burma, far from his family. During this time, Ishwardatt was raised as an only child.

Ishwardatt's father was a follower of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement that taught against caste discrimination. When his father returned from Burma, he opened a clinic in Kanpur. In 1908, Ishwardatt started attending the Gurukul Kangri, a residential school run by the Arya Samaj. He stayed there for 14 years. This school taught science and languages, along with physical training and social work. Ishwardatt was a brilliant student and was given the name Medharthi, which means "one who uses their mental powers well." At school, he learned English, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Pali. He was proud to speak Sanskrit perfectly, knowing that some old Hindu texts said people from his caste shouldn't study it.

In 1922, Medharthi finished his studies at Gurukul Kangri. His father had hoped he would lead a school he had started, but Medharthi first worked for a newspaper and then studied Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) in Calcutta. He also worked as a private teacher for a year.

At his graduation, the founder of Gurukul Kangri, Swami Shraddhanand, talked about how important it was for people from different castes to marry each other to end discrimination. Medharthi promised to marry someone from a different caste, and he did so in 1928. This marriage upset his father. Medharthi and his wife had two children.

Activism and Teaching

In 1929, Medharthi became deeply involved in the Indian independence movement. He joined the Bardoli Satyagraha, a protest against high taxes, and was jailed for six months. Right after his release, he joined Mahatma Gandhi's civil disobedience movement. He even lived at Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram for a while. In 1930, he took part in the famous Salt March at Dandi, which led to him being imprisoned for three years.

After being released in 1933, Medharthi returned to Kanpur and made up with his father. That year, he wrote a book in Hindi called Varna Vyavastha ka Bhandaphor: Varn Vyavastha Vidhvans ("The Caste System Exposed: Demolition of the Caste System"). The book called for an end to the varna system and caste-specific surnames. It also encouraged marriages between different castes. Medharthi believed that India could only become a strong nation if people united by ending social divisions. He argued that the ancient Vedas did not support caste discrimination and that the problems came from later texts like the Manusmriti.

His School for Equality

In 1933, Medharthi took charge of the school his father had started. He named it Sri Dayanand Bharatiya Vidyalaya, after Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj. He designed the school like Gurukul Kangri, teaching physical education, crafts, science, and languages. It was special because it was the only school in Kanpur where students from lower castes could learn Sanskrit. The school focused on social equality, making sure all students participated in activities together. Students were called by their first names, and their caste-revealing surnames were not used.

Medharthi believed that all religions teach peace, equality, and kindness. The school's prayers included traditions from Arya Samaj, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Islam. He invited leaders from different faiths to lead morning prayers. He was also inspired by Kabir, a 15th-century saint who spoke against the Brahmin caste. Medharthi even invited a Muslim weaver to teach spinning to his students, which was unusual for an Arya Samaj school at the time. He also became interested in Buddhism and named five of his favorite students after the first five followers of Gautama Buddha.

Connection to Buddhism

Even though the founder of his old school, Swami Shraddhanand, didn't think highly of Buddhism, Medharthi had Buddhist teachers there. This introduced him to Buddhist ideas early on.

At first, Medharthi criticized the caste system but not Hinduism itself. However, in the 1930s, he became more drawn to Buddhism, seeing it as a religion that was open to everyone and didn't discriminate. It's not clear exactly when he became a Buddhist, but after doing so, he changed his school's name to Bharatiya Ved Vidyalaya and its area to Buddhpuri (meaning "Buddha's city").

In his 1939 booklet Bharat ke Adivasi-Purvanjan aur Sant Dharm ("The Primitives and Ancestors of India and the Sant Religion"), Medharthi wrote that low-caste people were the original inhabitants of India, and that Aryan invaders had enslaved them. He believed these original people followed "Sant Dharm" ("the religion of saints"), which taught equality and kindness. He saw the Vedic religion as the oppressive religion of the Aryans. This booklet became very popular among the Dalit communities in Kanpur.

Working with Ambedkar

Medharthi became friends with B. R. Ambedkar, a very important leader who fought against the caste system and for the rights of Dalits. Medharthi had dedicated his 1933 book to Ambedkar, calling him a "fearless leader." He knew about Ambedkar's famous act of burning the Manusmriti in 1927, and like Ambedkar, he blamed Manu for promoting caste discrimination.

Medharthi was known as an Acharya (a respected teacher). He taught Ambedkar the Pali language, which is important for studying Buddhist texts. He became Ambedkar's Pali teacher when Ambedkar was a government minister (1942–1946), traveling to Delhi on weekends to teach him.

In 1943, Ambedkar visited Medharthi's school and donated a cement statue of Buddha for its entrance. Medharthi, along with one of his students, attended Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism in Nagpur on October 14, 1956.

Later Years

Even though he was close to Ambedkar, Medharthi did not join Ambedkar's political groups for Dalits. He was a member of the Forward Bloc, a part of the Indian National Congress political party.

Later in his life, Medharthi explored the Baháʼí Faith, still searching for a universal religion. Towards the end of his life, he returned to the Arya Samaj. He passed away in 1971. By this time, his school and its Buddhist beginnings were largely forgotten.