Prithvi Singh Bedharak
From Jatland Wiki
Chaudhary Prithvi Singh Bedharak (चौधरी पृथ्वीसिंह बेधड़क) was a poet and folk-singer from village Shikopur (शिकोपुर) in Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh. He was born on in Tanwar gotra Jat family.
He was a strong follower of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and played very important role in spreading the doctrines of Arya Samaj to the remotest villages in north India. He was a nationalist poet, singer, social reformer and a preacher.
He toured almost every village in north India and preached there to eradicate the social evils and superstitions prevalent at that time in the Jat Samaj as well as other rural communities. He created social awakening in the society through his influential speech. He devoted his entire life for the public welfare and did not marry to achieve this objective. He was very actively participating in the freedom movement for India. He had to go to jail several times for this purpose.
Layalpur (Punjab) adhiveshana had declared Sir Chhotu Ram as rahbare ajam. Similarly in Sonipat and Delhi adhiveshana of All India Jat Mahasabha vajir-e-ajam Punjab Sir Sikandar Hayat, in presence of Sir Chhotu Ram, awarded the title Bedharak to Chaudhary Prithvi Singh. [1]
His area of operation was north India. So he selected the strong characters of this area only in his poetry. His heroes were Maharaja Surajmal, Maharaja Jawahar Singh, Durgadas, Amar Singh Rathore, Hammeer, Shaheed Bhagat Singh etc. His poetry is mainly based on rhythm. He has used local proverbs and phrases of Braj, Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Arabi-Farsi, and English very frequently in his poetry. [2]
He served Arya Samaj for about 45 years and wrote 48 books. He was not highly educated but achieved every thing through self-study. [3]
Death
During last days of his life he was suffering from a severe illness. He developed wounds in legs which could not be cured. He was probably suffering from diabetes. His last book was 'manavata' (मानवता) published in 1972. This book reveals his great sufferings of the last days of his life.[4]
He died on 10 February 1973.[5]
Jat Samaj Agra had dedicated the January-February 2005 issue to this nationalist poet. There is a strong need to collect all his publications and digitize and preserve them for the future generations.
References
- ↑ Jat Samaj Agra, January-February 2005, p. 11
- ↑ Jat Samaj Agra, January-February 2005, p. 5
- ↑ Jat Samaj Agra, January-February 2005, p. 14
- ↑ Jat Samaj Agra, January-February 2005, p. 14
- ↑ Jat Samaj Agra, January-February 2005, p. 11
Back to The Reformers
