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Late Shri Sajjan Singh vishnar Former minister of Madhya Pradesh and veteran Dalit leader ( 1915 - 1988 ) Writer: Prof. Dr Arun vishnar

Mr Sajjan Singh vishnar was a great Dalit leader of his time, he had dynamic personality with multidimensional vision. Very few leaders have this type of quality. Irrespective of political parties he always joined hands with leaders who raised problems of dalits. He was elected as member of legislative assembly of holkar state of Indore kingdom in years 1942 and then onwards he worked efficiently as minister in madhya Bharat state of free India and then served as minister in Madhya Pradesh government from 1952 to 1967 and later as member of legislative assembly of Madhya Pradesh till 1977. He was born in very poor dalit family of Indore in poverty somewhere in year 1910 .Those days were of early nineteenth century of British rule.His mother Jammuna bai was a pious god fearing lady, she used to work in English families of residency area of Indore. His father Kanhaiya Lal was a poor but honourable person in society, he had very good relations with British officers. Sajjan Singh vishnar as a kid was bought up under the influence of personality of his mother and father. His parents brought up him and his other brothers and sisters in poverty. Being very poor they earned there livelihood as labourers in British families. Era of casteism and untouchablity In those days casteism was at the peak in Hindu society, Dalits were treated as untouchables. They were not allowed to sit with upper caste Hindus in the schools, even in some schools they were not allowed to take admission. Dalits used to take water from separate public tap. Even in schools a separate tank of water was filled for Dalits. They were not allowed to worship in temples. In those days Dalits were called as Chamar, bhangi , dhedeia and Balai. In such a worst condition of Hindu society his family was attracted towards the English society and Christianity. As Sajjan Singh attained the young age and got admission in the school he faced many such problems of society. His heart was broken, he always fought against the atrocities done by upper caste traditional Hindus right from primary school level. Looking to his zeal a British officer and one of the great arya samaji leader, social reformist and freedom fighter Pandith Brijnarayan Haksar advised kanahaiya lal father of Sajjan to bring his up as a wrestler. Than onwards Pandith Haksar tought him techniques of wrestling. He was engaged in exercises and maintaining a good physique. Pandith Haksar in those critical days started a school for Dalits in Suraj compound of Indore chawanni. Sajjan Singh vishnar as a kid of 8 to 9 years got admission in Haksarji’s school. Under guidance of Pandith Brijnarayan Haksar he felt very relaxed in school as Pandith ji controlled over the bad traditions of Hindu society. Graudually he grew up under the influence of his mother, father and pandit Brijnarayan Haksar. Panditji also built a Shiva temple in Suraj compound for Dalits, in this temple young Sajjan Singh was a pujari. He used to do puja and distribute Prasad to all people irrespective of caste. People who took Prasad from his hands were suspended from their caste but some good Gandhian and arya samaji Hindus inspite of this all supported young Sajjan Singh. I believe it was the beginning of his career as a Dalit leader. Many of the upper caste Hindus gradually became his followers and supported him with whole heart. Being a very good wrestler people of that era of 1920’s became his fan. Now he had least untouchablity with him. This difference developed after 5 to 6 years of his struggle. Now at the age 17 years he was recognised as Dalit leader of Indore. He got admission in Shivaji Rao high school of Indore, there again he suffered the same untouchablity behaviour of upper castes but very soon he overcomed this situation within a year. In these days he became a renowned wrestler of school and defeated many top wrestlers of Indore, now the wrestlers were afraid of competing with him. Again one upper caste principal became a hinderence in his wrestling career and stopped him from proceeding to international school wrestling competition at Baroda just because of caste. Now in this situation one of his Arya samaji friend Lalaram Arya suggested him to go ahead with wrestling and make it tool for fighting against casteism and untouchablity. Now young Sajjan Singh with his arya samaji friend Lalaram arya and a group used to visit various villages of Indore, nimad, Barwani and Dewas. They used to go on bicycles at all these places and worked against casteism and untouchablity. At many places in villages wrestling competition was conducted by Sajjan Singh’s arya samaji friends and without knowing about caste of Sajjan Singh the upper caste wrestlers competed with him and got defeated within minutes. Gradually Sajjan Singh vishnar became a famous wrestler of his times and everyone irrespective of caste became his follower. Sajjan Singh vishnar as a orator He was a brilliant orator. In his childhood his father and his teacher pandit Haksar taught him how to give speech publicly. His father always said that public oration is the best way to attract people, he kept this in mind and became the best debater of school and later in villages people used to gather to listen to his speech , as a worker of Harijan sevak sangh and later as a minister. In those days when ever he reached the villages holiday was declared in schools and students went to listen him in meeting. In state assembly as a minister and member he used to give speech for hours in favour of Dalits and projected their problems in house.

A meeting with Mahatma Gandhi At a very young age of 15 years he met Mahatma Gandhi at Indore railway station in year 1930 with his mother in a deputation lead by Ratan Lal ji upadhyay. Here his mother Jammuna bai asked Gandhi ji, that can he do anything to remove words like Bhangi , Chamar, chuda , dhedh and Balai from dictionaries and in public use , Gandhi ji remained quiet and then said that he will try , he was very much impressed but appeared incapable.

Sajjan Singh vishnar and his honesty It was a incidence of somewhere in 1945 when he was contesting for ligestlative assembly of holkar state one of most reputed industrialist of those days Sir Seth Hukumchand offered a bribe of Rs 10,000/- to withdraw his name, he and his mother refused and told the agent of Seth that how such idiotic thought came to his mind. There was also a incidence when he was minister in Madhya Pradesh when a businessman offered some amount for sanctioning a government contract, he became very angry and thrashed that businessman and turned him out of his banglow. People will be amazed to know that he had only 500 rupees in bank account when his demise occurred in year 1988. Till the end he lived in his parental house in Indore.

Sajjan Singh vishnar and Baba saheb Ambedkar During the era of his struggle against casteism and untouchablity he came in contact with Baba Saheb Ambedkar who was fighting against the same activities. He called Baba saheb to Indore for a public meeting. Baba saheb was amazed and became emotional, tears started drooling from his eyes when he saw such a huge crowd of Dalits in his meeting in Indore and mhow, he gave a immemoriable speech in which the whole crowd started crying. Baba saheb appointed Sajjan Singh head of his movement in Indore. Sajjan Singh vishnar as a journalist and editor As a journalist he published news paper “ vishwabharti “ a weekly news paper. He and his brother Shyamlal Vishnar were the editors. They used to project undergoing problems of Dalit community and tried to educate them about how to improve themselves in field of education and create job for themselves.They also projected views of great leaders of the country, so as to improve way of thinking of Dalits.This news paper was altogether different from other news papers.

Sajjan Singh vishnar as Harijan sevak sangh volunteer

He was a volunteer worker of Harijan sevak sangh in the villages of Devas, Khatgaon, Kannoud, Malwa region, he used to go cycling through these regions at the17-18 years of age and worked against atrocities and untouchability, he tried to fill enthusiasm in the SC through his speeches. It was a very difficult task, but in collaboration with his Arya Samaji friends he was able to do a lot. During this time, he met Gandhian leaders Mr. Kanhaiya Lal Ji Khadivala, Ratanlal Jee Upadhyay and Rameshwar Dayal Tatlah, Badri Bhola Agarwal, they also touched the anti-protest campaign. As a consequence of this side, they were fired from their caste, but these people did not care about it and remained connected to the movement.

Sajjan Singh Vishnar’s work against wrong practices

After the Holi festival in Villages a dirty practice called Gavrang and Zhamra, was carried out, as in a procession on heads of women of the Balai scheduled caste community, cow dung was kept and these ladies were forced to dance in procession, apart from this they were not allowed to wear gold and silver ornaments. Against these practices, he organized the movement, which included Girhardhalal Ji (Mhow Gaon) Sitaram sadhu (Maheshwar) and many others from the Balai community, through his speeches. He established many organizations such as Dalit-worker Federation, Untouchable navyuvak Mandal, Dalit Varan Sangh, Municipal Worker Union and Scheduled Caste Federation, among these institutions, Girdhari Lal Dhiman, Gangaram Duldhoye, Sitaram Sadhu, Shankar Rao Majade, Munna Lal Dagar, Lalji Ram Arya, Kishan Lal Chandele, Balaram Lot, Munna Mahant, Gopikrishna Gauhar, Chogalal Ustad Munshilal Chauhan joined with many workers.

Sajjan Singh vishnar and hotel and temple entry movement

After seeing his movements people took a firm look, and then shook the kings government.Between 1937 and 1938, there were movements such as temple entrance, hotel entry, at the same time, in the Gopal Mandir Rajwada, even thousands of Dalits entered with a procession under his leadership,Brahmins made heavy stone pelts on them but they went on moving, With him were thousands of people.There were thousands people, but they did not carry out any violence that kept the law system secured, the King Yashwant Rao holkar was scared and sent his English I .G. (Mr )Hartman, He allowed to worshiped us with haughtiness on Brahmins .Hartmann thanked Sajjan Singh for maintaining law and order. It did not mean that Sajjan Singh had to go to the temple to worship in it, no not at all, he had done this only for equal rights. He did not hurt anyone's religious sentiments for this, which is the reverence of the temple, else god is everywhere.

Political life of Sajjan Singh vishnar

His political life seems to have evolved from the fact that the time was of the passion of social reforms. People of that time were fearless and oppressed, self esteem and full of their rage. He did not believe in touching the feet and flattering. He had completed most social work according to his wishes till the age of 34-35. Now the country stood on the verge of independence When the country was liberated in 1948, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel merged all the princely states with his strong and decided determination, He thought that no one other than Sardar Patel could have done this work. However, as soon as Indore's Holkar State merged with the country, here means that the Legislative Assembly of Central India was formed, of which he became a member. From here there was beginning of his political life in independent India. He was elected on April 30, 1948, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the state. Even before that he was a member of the holkar state assembly. After the liberation of the state, when the merger of the state was done in central India, at that time he was Arya Samaji, congress and socialist with ideology, he was not in any party, he was independent. But the Congressmen supported him because he was from a dalit class. He remained independent from 1948 to 1951 and during this time he supported the Congress for passing the Bill of Elimination of the Zamindari system and passed the bill. As the country became independent, under the leadership of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, it became a central government, but it seemed as if the country started going to the hands of the capitalists and the feudalists, the voice of the dalits was only Babasaheb, Babu Janjivan Ram was not as rigorous and revolutionary. But even then he thought that the rise of Dalits without the help of capitalists and feudalists is not possible, so from time to time he took their help and when it came time to criticize he did too much of criticism too. The point of fun here is that, Hiralal, son of Sir Seth Hukumchand, a very big industrialist, tried to put him out of the Legislative Assembly, for this he tried to give me 10,000 rupees (that was a huge amount at that time) but he was unsuccessful to buy me,when Seth's representative came home with this proposal, his mother told him that she did not have any love with money because money does not live forever, only our struggle will be good for us; listening to her Ratna Lalji Upadhyay, who had been sent by Seth, became very embarrassed, but later he praised my mother, Seth Hukmachanad also gave himself on this move of his son Felt embarrassed. In the meantime Gandhiji was shot dead by a young man named Godse, Godse was probably associated with the RSS. After the assassination of Gandhiji the whole country was thinking of Congress as the only political party that could run the country. At that time, there were honest, good personality leaders in the Congress, which were essentially associated with the freedom movement. Due to political differences, the party named Jan Sangh was born, but this party had no existence, there were some good personality in this party and leaders of good thoughts. At that time, Jana Sangh leaders used to debate issues, not like the leaders of today.

After this, the Central India state was formed, the general elections were announced, He took a ticket from the Congress party from Indore Rural Area, looking at his works, the famous Gandhian leader Mr. Bhai Saheb Kotwal wrote a letter to Mr. Kanhaiya Lalji Khadiwala on 1/10/51, recommending his name for the Congress ticket from the rural area of Indore. Bhai Sohab was the first Satyagrahi in South Africa with Gandhiji. He resided in South Tukoganj Nath Temple campus in a small hut .His eyes went away in the freedom movement. He used to teach children in his cottage. Bhai saheb Kotwal had suggested to work for Dalits and for that he should get the membership of the Congress, otherwise it will be difficult to do with socialist ideology & ideology of Arya Samaj or by staying independent. He had said that he will be able to do the work of dalits only by staying in the government that is what Sajjan did. In the first election, he won the Indore Rural Area (Depalpur) in 1952 and became a Minister in Madhya Bharat Council of Ministers. He started with PWD, construction and Harijan Adivasi Welfare Department in the beginning. As soon as he got the department, he first appointed Tehsildars at Panchayat level in different districts whose main job was to look at the work of redressing untouchability in his directions he reviewed it every week. While ordering for constructing roads and bridges in the villages, when the PWD and construction department was with him. He provided services in several departments of central India in the Ministery of Mr. Mishrilal gangwal, Mr.Bhagwant Rao Mandloi, Takhtamal Jain, Nandlal Ji Joshi. While being the Minister of Power, Chambal and Betwa power grids were built in his direction, the electricity was sent to thousands of villages, which was reviewed with him by the Secretaries and the concerned officers every week so that the work could be completed. At that time there were two capital cities of Central India - Both Gwalior and Indore, he had to stay 6-6 month at each place. It is in the year 1954- 55 when Mr. Miishrilal Gangwal was the Chief Minister, Mr Takht Mal Ji had lost the election from Vidisha, Manohar Singh Mehta was the minister of the home minister, He was in the cabinet, he was given health and forest department. In that time Bhind Murraina in Gwalior the dacoit Mansingh and other pirates, had created terror, these people used to oppress the Dalit Jatav people, burn their homes, he and chief minister gangwalji used to go to those areas alone and he used to keep a pistol for his protection, (The Chief Minister and Ministers did not got the security guards in those days ) they both tried to solve the problems of jatavs, these areas were already very backward, in which he tried to make ideological reform and also tried to make Jatavs bold and fearless. In this areas untouchablity was at the extreme limit, he gathered the Dalits in this area and started the movement against untouchablity. Late Mr Prabhulal Jatava and Shri Ram Sahay had very supportive role and successfully the movement was spreaded upto Agra. Meanwhile, the merger of central India has taken place in Madhya Pradesh. Elections took place in 1957 and he again won from Depalpur. Right after the Madhya Pradesh was formed, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla became chiefminister, he became minister in his Council of Ministers. After the formation of Madhya Pradesh, the principality started working in the leaders, all the Congressmen .The leader started making their own faction which caused the loss to poor people, from here it started to make money in politics. As a way to earn, the dream of equality and development of Prime Minister Pandit Nehru was coming down slowly, and in 30 years after that today, when he saw and thought was right. One incidence happened in 1959, in the election of AICC ( all India congress committe ) deligate three people stood in the election, he ,Bhaiya Mishri Lalji Gangwal and Prakash Chandra Sethi from the capitalists, Shri Sethi thought that he will create conflict between him and Gangwalji, but it did not happened, Bhaiya Gangwalji was a kind hearted person, he was a true Gandhian, he withdrew his name in his favor and established a precedent for the dalit class, now you can not find such people in the Congress.The inparty election occured and he was elected as dellegate. Now his motive was to provide some solid work for the dalits and the poor and liked to 1. Recruit Harijan youth’s (which were very few in number) in government departments so that these societies could develop intellectually. 2. Provide electricity to Dalits in villages. 3. To provide landless poor people free of cost forest land for farming, as till now these people used to work in the fields of the Jamindars. On this plan, I established Jagjivanram vun gram Village and Nehru vun gram Village which were inaugurated by Chief Minister Mr. Kailash Nath Katju. 4. To get the right benefits of reservation in the constitution to Dalits, so that they could develop intellectual growth. He believed that only by intellectual development, the dalits can connect to the high caste society. He believe that intellectual development can only fight with social upliftment and untouchablity, although it is not so easy to repair the old evil, but it is not even impossible. 5. In that time Indore's rural areas did not have roads, wells, bridges & electricity, it was necessary to work for it. 6. At that time, after the independence, the status of Dalits was very miserable, people of the Harijans community were not allowed to take water from common wells. Barbers did not make their hair cut & shavings. Under the government programs, the Harijans were given the flour mill, given the hotels for business and bored the wells for them. But he said with great sorrow that some Congress leaders also opposed this work, but majority of Gandhian leaders promoted his plan. He did this kind of work in such backward areas like Bhind Murena, Gwalior, Agra and succeeded. This work was already done in Indore by him before independence in association with Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar. He started working for all these problems, even though many Dalit youth were reduced in their qualification criteria, giving support to reservation, Tahsildar, deputy collector, DFO, Ranger, Officer and Inspector, Police Inspector, Doctor and Engineer, as RTO .It is to be remembered that there were no entrance exams in that time, only interviews were done. In 1962 after when he assumed the office as a minister he gave permanent land near the Pandarinath temple of holkars, to Valmiki community and inauguration was done by then Chief Minister Mr. Kailash Nath Katju. After this, in 1962 again he was elected from the Sanwer in the Assembly election, in the elections the Congressmen defeated Mr. Kailash Nath Katju from Jawara in the election by conspiracy, after that the post of chief minister was taken up by Bhagwantrao Mandloi for few months, later Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru gave Pt Dwarka Prasad Mishra a ticket from Rampura (Shahdol) for Legislative Assembly, he won the election, after the election, Dwarka Prasad Mishra was elected as chief minister after contesting with Mr Takhatmal. He was minister in his Council till 1967. He was entrusted the responsibility of several departments in which the electricity department was main. He was given the target of electrifying power in villages of 500 to 2000 population which he had completed in just one year. In 1965 when he was in the ministerial board of Pt Dwarka Prasad Mishra, he called him at that time he had the Ministry of the Narmada Valley development & department of electricity, Mishra ji wanted the electricity to reach every village in the state of madhyapradesh, he desired to supply Narmada river water to Indore and surrounding areas. Under his leadership, the chairman of the Board of Electricity Mr. P.N. Mehna completed the plan and implementation started. The beginning of the Narmada valley project started in his leadership when he was minister. His signature is officially there on documents of this project. Jangsanghi and some Congress leaders called a Narmada project and bringing Narmada to Indore would be a fad. Later, when Narmada's water came to Indore, Prakash Chandra Sethi told as his achievement, all the Congressmen forgot his name. A Congress convention was held in Ashok Nagar, Guna on 28-29 November 1975, in which PV Narasimha Rao was the chief guest, Sajjan Singh made it clear in his speech that whatever he is, was his own hard work, not by someone's favor, Whatever work he has done so far, is the work done on ideology of Mahatma Gandhi, Baba Sohab Ambedkar, Pandit Nehru & Lal Bahadur Shastri. He had further worked on Indira Gandhi's policies and the five-year programs. He never used to be a caste statesman, even if it was a poor person of any class, he considered their upliftment as his duty, but while he was in the government he worked for the problems and rights of the downtrodden people, fought with the government and the chieftains and the feudal lords holding the power, fighting was in his nature After 1967 time was changing, the Congress was being occupied by sycophants and greedy people, in central government politics such people occupied positions as a result there was hampering of implementation of Five Year Plan, the total position of congress was now going on slope. Since 1967, he started to feel that there had been a lot of hoaxes in Politics of our country, it will not be good for the country ahead. According to Sajjan Singh ji no the Congress, the leaders who were connected to people, who were down to earth were been neglected, the supremacy of the Sychophants had increased and this increasing trend was very bad for the future of the Congress.Now it seemed that our era of ideology was ending, good leaders were sitting at home. Further as per thought of Sajjan singhji there was good progress in some castes of the dalit class, but as they were developing, they were forgetting their past, the dalits have become weak, and they have become arrogant after getting lots money. Along with the progress, fearlessness and self respect had gone to end, the intellectual development that was required according to Sajjan singhji was not happening, the Dalit castes were still backward, they were not getting any help from the developed Dalits, it is not good for the country's progress .Therefore, he believe that for the developed dalit families reservation must be reduced, which will lead to their intellectual development and they will further become fearless. He clearly stated in the session of Ashok Nagar that even the top leadership of the Congress is lacking in the leaders of high intellect due to which neither the development plans are being formed nor the correct implementation of the five-year plans, this was not good for Congress's future. He said that by listening to his speech, the so-called Congress leaders felt very bad and started cutting him off, not only did they try unsuccessfully to remove me from the Congress. But PV Narasimha Rao agreed to his speech, asked others to think over it .But in 1987 i.e after 10-12 years he said that it seems that there has been no effect on the Congressmen, the extent of the foolishness was increasing, he felt that in after some years the Congress will become leaderless, without power In 1967, he fought the election from Sawer in the Assembly elections in which Shri Prakash Chandra Sethi together with the capitalists and the Jan Sangh goons with incorrect propaganda, spread out loud that he killed a priest, not only this his government car in which his children were sitting was attacked byJansanghi scoundrels.Jansanghi  scoundrels did life threatening attack on him and his sister Munni Bai, was followed by incorrect voting and succeeded in defeating him. From this time onwards there was entry to scoundrels and goons in politics. Against him Jan Sangh promoted caste propaganda. Very sorry to say that, for the dalit people whom he dedicated his whole life, supported Jana Sangh and capitalists with caste spirit. Till than he understood that there is no reason to blame them, their intellectual development had not yet occurred, these dalits were also responsible for defeat of Baba Sahab Ambedkar in the election. But he did not gave up, and in the high court and the Supreme Court appealed against wrongly contested election by opposition and succeeded. Again there was a by-election from sanwer, in the election, the Chief Minister Shyama Charan Shukla supported him sincerely by heart. Jansangh Leader Mrs. Vijaya Raje campaigned as Maharani and went from one place to other by the helicopter, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had done many meetings, but with no effect, because most of the effective Villagers were with him and they campaigned from the heart, so he won. Sethi then got disturbed to see this and tried unsuccessfully to cut his ticket in the 1972 Assembly elections, but because there were many leaders like Babu Jagjivan Ram and P.V. Narasimha Rao in the central government, the effort of Sethi failed. But still Sethi succeeded in changing his constituency to Janasang’s stronghold Sarangpur, thinking that he will loose. But he won from Sarangpur by a huge majority, seeing that Sethi's mind again got disturbed. Again he contested a parliament election from Ujjain under banner of congress party in 1980 which he lost merely by 2000 votes because of sabotage of congress people and his own relatives whom he helped a lot. After that he withdrew from politics and his demise occurred in June 1988. At the end he said that he was very sorry that he couldn’t complete the work for Dalits.