Lajja Ram Tomar or Lajjaram Tomar was a schoolteacher and educationist. He was the head of
Vidya Bharati, the education wing of
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), from 1979 until his death in 2004.
Life and career
Tomar was born on 21 July 1930 in a peasant family. He studied in a Baptist Mission School in Agra and joined the RSS as a
swayamsevak
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family") ...
from his childhood. He received
M. A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
and
B.Ed. degrees and worked as a lecturer.
In 1957, he founded the
Saraswati Shishu Mandir
Vidya Bharati (short for Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan) is the educational wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It runs one of the largest private network of schools in India, operating 12,000 schools with over 3.2 Millio ...
in Agra, working as its principal. In 1961, he founded a ''Saraswati Vidya Mandir'', senior secondary school in the RSS schools network. In 1972, he was appointed as the secretary of the entire schools network of RSS in Uttar Pradesh, called the ''Bharatiya Siksha Sansthan''. He became an
RSS pracharak
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian Right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hind ...
in 1977 and was appointed as the Organisational Secretary of
Vidya Bharati, the all-India schools network of the RSS, in 1979. He worked from its registered office in Lucknow.
In 1990, he was promoted as the ''Rashtriya Margadarshak'' (National Guide) of Vidya Bharati, with
Dinanath Batra succeeding him as the Organisational Secretary. In the new role, he worked from the ''Sanskriti Bhavan'' in
Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra (, ) is a city and administrative headquarter of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty ") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita".
Legends
According to the Pura ...
, until his death in 2004.
Ideas
Superiority of "ancient Hindu knowledge"
In ''The Path of Vidya Bharati Thought'', Tomar claims that ancient Hindu knowledge predated Western scientific advances; that
Rigvedic
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one S ...
verses provide the speed of light,
Samkhya
''Samkhya'' or ''Sankya'' (; Sanskrit सांख्य), IAST: ') is a Dualism (Indian philosophy), dualistic Āstika and nāstika, school of Indian philosophy. It views reality as composed of two independent principles, ''purusha, puruṣa' ...
scholars dated the universe to 2 billion years old, and sage
Bharadwaja wrote a text on aviation engineering.
Reception
Tomar's views have been criticised. According to Akshay Bakaya:
Bakaya goes on to say that:
Publications
* ''Vidya Bharti Chintan Ki Disha'' (The Path of Vidya Bharati Thought, 2001), Kurukshetra:Vidya Bharati.
* ''Pracheen Bhartiya Shiksha Paddhati'' (The education methods of ancient India, 2014), Suruchi Prakashan, .
* ''Bhartiya Shiksha ke Mool Tatva'' (The philosophy of Indian education, 2014), Suruchi Prakashan, .
Note
References
Sources
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External links
*
Indian schoolteachers
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks
20th-century Indian educational theorists
Scholars from Haryana
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