Swami Agnivesh (English: Swami Agnivesh, born- 21 September 1939, Madras; died- 11 September 2020, New Delhi) was an Indian social worker, reformer, politician and Arya Samaji. While working for the Arya Samaj, in 1968 he formed a political party named ‘Arya Sabha’. Later in 1981, he founded the ‘Bandhua Mukti Morcha’ in Delhi.
Swami Agnivesh contested elections from Haryana and also became a minister, but after an incident of lathi charge on labourers, he resigned from politics. There have been many different opinions about the personality of Swami Agnivesh, who fought a long battle for bonded labourers and received the ‘Right Livelihood Award’, which is considered as prestigious as the Nobel.
Swami Agnivesh was born on 21 September 1939 in Madras (now Chennai). Born in a South Indian family, Swami Agnivesh was a teacher and lawyer, but he also worked as an anchor for a TV program and was also a part of the reality TV show Bigg Boss. In 1970, he started a political party ‘Arya Sabha’ and was also a minister in the government formed in Haryana after the Emergency. Being an Arya Samaji, he always opposed idol worship and religious evils. He often spoke openly about things that religious people may find very unpleasant.
Swami Agnivesh’s decades-long campaign against bonded labour is well known. He started an organisation called ‘Bandhua Mukti Morcha’ and always claimed to fight against conservatism and casteism. In the eighties, he also led a movement against the ban on Dalits’ entry into temples.
Swami Agnivesh breathed his last on Friday evening, 11 September 2020, in a hospital in Delhi. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment of liver disease. The team of doctors treating him said that ‘Swami Agnivesh, suffering from liver cirrhosis, had several major organs stop working, due to which he had to be put on ventilator at the last moment, but he could not be saved.
Javed Akhtar wrote in his tweet on the demise of Swami Agnivesh – “This world has lost another great person in the form of Swami Agnivesh. His voice against bonded labour gave a new life to millions of men, women and children. Good bye Swami Ji”.
