22 Facts About Swami Achootanand

Swami Achootanand was raised at the Devlali military cantonment in present-day Maharashtra, where his father was employed.

Swami Achootanand became an enthusiastic participant in the Arya Samaj social reform campaigns.

Swami Achootanand adopted the name "Harihar", and worked on the Shuddi ritual campaigns, that sought to prevent the lower castes from converting to Islam or Christianity.

Swami Achootanand came to believe that the Hindu social reformers were only concerned about the declining strength of the Hindus in the colonial census: they had no intention of working towards actual social equality.

Swami Achootanand opposed the Arya Samaj and the Indian National Congress using sharp rhetoric.

Swami Achootanand started campaigning against the Arya Samaj through his writings and protests.

Swami Achootanand was invited to Delhi and successfully debated with Arya Samaji leader, Swami Akhilanand over scriptures.

In 1922, Swami Achootanand led Chamars out of Arya Samaj to establish the Adi Hindu movement.

Swami Achootanand thus pioneered the first social reform movement for Dalits in the Hindi belt.

Swami Achootanand portrayed the untouchables as "Adi Hindus", the original, peace-loving, and cultured inhabitants of India, who had been enslaved after the Aryan conquest.

In 1925, Swami Achootanand settled at Kanpur, where several Dalit entrepreneurs and businessmen lived.

Swami Achootanand held eight All India Adi Hindu Conferences at Delhi, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Madras, Allahabad, Bombay, Amravati, and again, Allahabad.

Swami Achootanand organized three special Adi Hindu Conferences at Delhi, Meerut, and Allahabad.

Swami Achootanand welcomed King Edward VII, the Prince of Wales and even demanded proposals for Depressed Classes which was going to be submitted before Simon Commission.

On 30 November 1928, Swami Achootanand met Ambedkar in Lucknow, during the Simon Commission hearing.

Swami Achootanand strongly opposed the use of the term "Harijan", coined by the Congress leader Mahatma Gandhi, to refer to the untouchables.

In 1932, when Gandhi declared a fast-unto-death to oppose the separate electorates granted to untouchable Hindus through the Communal Award, Swami Achootanand advised Ambedkar to compromise with Gandhi, fearing reprisals against untouchables in case of Gandhi's death.

Swami Achootanand initiated a new stream of Dalit pamphlet literature in Hindi language, in the 1920s.

Swami Achootanand was one of the pioneers of Dalit literature in Hindi.

Swami Achootanand's health worsened after the Virat Adi Hindu Conference held at Gwalior in 1932.

Swami Achootanand died in 1933 at Zhabar Idgah in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Swami Achootanand was buried in a graveyard near the Nazirabad Police Station in Kanpur.