Virtually addressing an event organized to mark the 200th birth anniversary of Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati at his birthplace Tankara in Morbi district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that an education system based on Indian values is the need of the hour.
“An education system based on Indian values is the need of the hour. Arya Samaj schools have been a centre for this. The country is now expanding it through the National Education Policy. It is our responsibility to connect to society with these efforts,” the PM said.
Commenting on the times when Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born, the PM said, “Swami Dayanandji used to speak about how our stereotypes of orthodoxy and superstitions had engulfed the country and weakened our scientific thinking. These social evils had attacked our unity.”
“At a time when British rulers tried to make our people look inferior by using our social evils as a pawn and their rule was justified by some people citing social evils, the arrival of Dayanand Saraswati shocked such conspirators,” he told the gathering.
Revolutionaries like LalaLajpat Rai, Ram Prasad Bismil and Swami Shraddhanand among others stood up who were influenced by the Arya Samaj, he said, adding, “Swami Dayanand Saraswati dreamt of a bright future for India, and taking inspiration from him, we all have to take India towards modernity in this Amrit Kaal and make it a developed nation.”
The PM appealed to the Arya Samaj, which runs more than 2,500 schools, colleges and universities in the country and abroad and teaches students in more than 400 gurukuls, to take up the task of nation building in the current decade of the 21st century with renewed vigour.