<h1 class="ql-align-center"><strong style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">Swami Sahajanand Saraswati</strong></h1><p class="ql-align-center"><br></p><h3><strong>Context</strong>&nbsp;</h3><ul><li class="ql-indent-1">The <strong>Union Home Minister</strong> will take part in a celebration commemorating farmer leader <strong>Swami Sahajanand Saraswati’s</strong> birth anniversary in Patna, Bihar.</li></ul><h3><br></h3><h3><strong>﻿About</strong>&nbsp;</h3><ul><li class="ql-indent-1">He (real name <strong>Navrang Rai</strong>) was an ascetic, a nationalist and a peasant leader of India.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Although born in present-day UP, his social and political activities focussed mostly on Bihar in the initial days, and gradually spread to the rest of India.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The<strong> Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) was founded by Saraswati in 1929</strong> to address peasants’ complaints about zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights, and served as the foundation for the farmers’ movements in India.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The <strong>All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) was established at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936,</strong> with Saraswati chosen as its first President.</li><li class="ql-indent-1"><strong>Subhash Chandra Bose and the All India Forward Bloc decided to observe April 28 as All-India Swami Sahajanand Day</strong> in protest of his arrest by the British Raj during the Quit India Movement.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Saraswati organized the <strong>Bakasht Movement in Bihar in 1937–1938.</strong>&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-indent-2">"Bakasht" means self-cultivated.&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-indent-2">The movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands by zamindars and led to the passing of the Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land Tax.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">He also led the <strong>successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill at Bihta</strong>, where peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic.</li></ul><p class="ql-align-center"><br></p><h1 class="ql-align-center"><strong>PRELIMS NOTES:</strong><a href="https://sunyaias.in/notes/prelims-2023" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);"><strong>CLICK HERE</strong></a></h1>