Bhai Parmanand


Bhai Parmanand was a Hindu nationalist, a prominent leader of the Hindu Mahasabha and a leading member of Arya Samaj. He was also one of the founders of Ghadar Party. In 1908–09, he advocated partition of India along the religious lines. Parmanand declared that followers of Hinduism and Islam in India were two different nations. Parmanand specialized in writing popular literature in Urdu in which he emphasised that Hindus were true sons of India and Muslims were outsiders.
In 1915, he was arrested by the British government in connection with Lahore Conspiracy Case and was later sentenced to death which was commuted to life imprisonment. He was imprisoned on the Andaman Islands till 1920, after which he was released. He died of heart attack on 8 December 1947.

Early life

Parmanand was born into a prominent family of the Punjab, Mohyal Brahmins. His father, Tara Chand Mohyal, came from Kariala, Jhelum District and was an active religious missionary with the Arya Samaj movement.

Political career

In October 1905, Parmanand visited South Africa and stayed with Mahatma Gandhi as a Vedic missionary. Parmanand visited Guyana in 1910 which was the centre of the Arya Samaj movement in the Caribbean.
Parmanand toured several British colonies in South America before rejoining Hardayal in San Francisco. He was one of the founder member of the Ghadar Party. He accompanied Hardayal on a speaking tour to Portland in 1914 and wrote a book for the Ghadar Party called Tarikh-I-Hind. He returned to India as part of the Ghadar Conspiracy claiming he was accompanied by 5,000 Ghadarites. As one of the leaders of the Ghadar revolt, he was sent to promote the revolt in Peshawar. However, he was arrested in connection with the First Lahore Conspiracy Case and was sentenced to death in 1915. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and he was imprisoned on the Andaman Islands and was subjected to hard labour until 1920. In protest against such harsh treatment of political prisoners, Bhai Parmanand went on hunger strike for two months. The King-Emperor, George V, released him in 1920 as the result of a general amnesty order.

Partition of India

In 1908–09, Parmanand advocated partition of India along the religious lines. He declared that followers of Hinduism and Islam in India were two different nations. He called for total exchange of Hindu and Muslim population in two specific areas. According to his plan elaborated, in his autobiography,
This preceded the Muslim League's Pakistan Resolution by over three decades.
In the early years of the 20th century, Parmanand had also proposed partiton of Punjab province in order to save the Hindu minority from the Muslim majority in the province.
Bhai Parmanand along with Rajnarayan Basu, Nabagopal Mitra and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar believed that religion was the most fundamental thing about people. National identity is based on faith of people. Therefore, Hindus and Muslims could not live together in India.

Death

Parmanand died on 8 December 1947 of a heart attack. He was survived by his son Dr. Bhai Mahavir, a prominent member of the Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party.

Legacy

An Institute of Business Studies was named after him in New Delhi, a Public School in East Delhi and a hospital also in Delhi.