->ElliAWB at 18:20, 2 October 2021

2021-10-02T18:20:36Z

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{{Use Indian English|date=December 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Amarnath Vidyalankar
| image = Amarnath Vidyalankar.jpg
| office = Member of [[Parliament of India]], [[5th Lok Sabha]]
| term_start = 15 March 1971
| term_end = 18 January 1977
| office2 = Member of [[Parliament of India]], [[3rd Lok Sabha]]
| term_start2 = 2 April 1962
| term_end2 = 3 March 1967
| office3 = Minister [[Punjab Legislative Assembly]]
| term_start3 = 1957
| term_end3 = 1962
| office4 = Member of [[Parliament of India]], [[1st Lok Sabha]]
| term_start4 = 15 April 1952
| term_end4 = 4 April 1957
| birth_date = {{birth date|1901|12|8|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Bhera]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|9|21|1901|12|8|df=y}}
| death_place = [[New Delhi]], [[Delhi]], [[India]]
| party = [[Indian National Congress]]
| spouse = Shanta Devi
| alma_mater = [[Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya]]
| other_names =
| notable_awards =
| nationality = [[India]]n
| footnotes =
| relations = [[Ro Khanna]] (grandson)
}}
'''Amarnath Vidyalankar''' (8 December 1901 – 21 September 1985) was an Indian member of Parliament, social worker and journalist. He was involved in the [[Indian independence movement]] and a member of the [[Indian National Congress]] since before independence. After independence, Vidyalankar was Minister of Education, Labor and Languages in the [[Government of Punjab, India|Government of Punjab]] from 1957 to 1962 and a member of the [[1st Lok Sabha|First]] (1952–56), [[3rd Lok Sabha|Third]] (1962-67) and [[5th Lok Sabha|Fifth]] (1971-1977) [[Lok Sabha]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bioprofile of Amarnath Vidyalankar|url=http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/biodata_1_12/1098.htm|publisher=Fifth Lok Sabha Member's Bioprofile|accessdate=9 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105211206/http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/biodata_1_12/1098.htm|archive-date=5 November 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Vidylankar was born in [[Bhera]], [[Shahpur District]] (now [[Sargodha District]]), in pre-partition India on 8 December 1901. The only son of Aruri Mal urf-Parmanand, he was born into a lower-middle-class family. Vidylankar's father was involved in the [[Arya Samaj]] movement, frequently attending lectures of Arya Samaj leaders such as [[Lala Lajpat Rai]].

Vidyalankar was educated at [[Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya]], an Arya Samaj educational institution, for 14 years.

His school influenced by Mahatma Munshiram, later known as [[Swami Shraddhanand]]. Munshiram, a political progressive, was a follower of [[Dayananda Saraswati]] and believed in a free India. Many revolutionaries from Bengal and Punjab were sheltered at Vidyalankar's school, influencing the students. When Viceroy [[1st Viscount Chelmsford|Chelmsford]] visited the school, a condition of his visit (after the Delhi bomb case) was that no officers accompanying him could be armed; according to Vidyalankar, the students were proud of their insistence on nonviolence.

They were also influenced by [[Lokmanya Tilak]] and the [[Indian National Congress]] freedom fighters. According to Vidyalankar, Munshiram kept in touch with his students and influenced their character and behavior. Leaders such as Swami Shraddhanand, [[Lala Lajpat Rai]], [[Madan Mohan Malaviya]] and [[Mahatma Gandhi]] maintained relationships with young students and were interested in developing their lives and character.

== {{anchor|Involvement in Indian Freedom Movement}}Indian independence movement ==
After Vidyalankar completed his education, his parents encouraged him to enter a relative's textile business. At this time Gandhi was organizing a boycott of foreign cloth, and protesters were collecting foreign cloth to burn it; Vidyalankar could not, in good conscience, continue selling foreign cloth.

Lala Lajpat Rai issued a call to young men in his English weekly ''People''<ref>{{cite web|title=Lala Lajpat Rai as a journalist|url=https://www.sarcajc.com/lala_lajpat_rai.html|publisher=Sarcajc.com|accessdate=9 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219024742/https://www.sarcajc.com/lala_lajpat_rai.html|archive-date=19 February 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> telling them that even if they advanced according to British rules in commerce and business, they would still bear the stigma of citizenship of a slave nation; their first duty was to free the motherland. He founded the [[Servants of the People Society]], whose members pledged to work for the country for five years.

[[Lal Bahadur Shastri]], [[Balwantrai Mehta]], Harihar Nath Shastri, [[Purushottam Das Tandon]] and about 20 others, including Vidyalankar, became life members of the society. He worked in the organization from 1926 to 1946, when it was announced that India would become independent in August 1947. Lala Lajpat Rai gave Vidyalankar the job of teaching history at Lahore National College. In this position he came to know [[Bhagat Singh]] and his young associates, most of whom were graduates of the college. According to Vidyalankar, "Sardar Bhagat Singh was full of humor, and his heart was pulsating with the anxiety to serve India at all costs. He wanted to do something tangible to arouse the sentiments of the patriotic youth".{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} Others, including [[Sukhdev Thapar]] and [[Yashpal]], founded [[Naujawan Bharat Sabha]] to further the cause of Indian independence.

After the National College closed Vidyalankar worked with the [[Harijan]], and Lala Lajpat Rai sent him to [[Hisar (city)|Hissar]] in the state of [[Haryana]] for six months to assist famine victims in remote areas. In Haryana he worked in the [[labour movement]], edited the Hindi weekly ''[[Punjab Kesari]]'' and in 1931 was sentenced to two years in jail for his editorial on the failure of the [[Round Table Conferences (India)|Round Table Conferences]]. Two years before Lala Lajpat Rai's death Vidyalankar was his secretary, helping him revise some of his works (particularly his history books) and witnessing the [[baton charge]] by a British sergeant which [[Lala Lajpat Rai#Protests against the Simon Commission|may have contributed to his death]].

During the Hindu-Muslim clashes of the post-independence period, Vidyalankar was general secretary of the district congress in [[Amritsar]]. With other Congress Party workers, he organized rescue squads of Hindus and Muslims for people of both communities and organized refugee camps.

For a number of years Vidyalankar was president of the Punjab branch of the [[Indian National Trade Union Congress]], organizing industrial and agricultural workers in Lahore and Amritsar. In Amritsar he organized Kissan schools, [[study circle]]s and seminars. Vidyalankar was jailed three times: in 1931–32, 1941–42 and 1942-1945 (when he, Gandhi and others were arrested on 9 August, launching the [[Quit India Movement]]).

== {{anchor|Political career after independence}}Post-independence political career ==
In 1949, Vidyalankar was appointed by [[Rajendra Prasad]] (later the first President of India) permanent secretary in the [[All India Congress Committee]] (AICC) office in Delhi. After a little more than a year, [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] asked him to run for the [[Punjab Legislative Assembly|Punjab Assembly]]. Winning the seat by a large margin, Vidyalankar resigned as AICC permanent secretary.
[[File:AmarNath Vidyalankar with Indira Gandhi.jpg|thumb|alt=Vidyalankar and Indira Gandhi, standing and smiling|Vidyalankar with Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]], 1975]]

In 1951 he stood in the [[1951 Indian general election|first Indian parliamentary election]] as the Indian National Congress candidate from [[Jullundur]] against [[Shiromani Akali Dal]] candidate Ajit Singh Sarhaddi, winning by a wide margin.<ref>{{cite web|title=Detailed Results of 1951 General Election |url=http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1951/VOL_1_51_LS.PDF |publisher=Election Commission of India |accessdate=9 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304120817/http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1951/VOL_1_51_LS.PDF |archivedate=4 March 2016 }}</ref>
In 1956 Vidyalankar won the [[Punjab Legislative Assembly]] from Jagadhri, and was asked to serve as a minister.<ref>{{cite web|title=Detailed Results of 1956 Punjab Legislative Assembly Election 1956|url=http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/SE_1957/StatRep_Punjab_1957.pdf|publisher=Election Commission of India|accessdate=9 June 2013}}</ref> From 1957 to 1962, he was Minister of Education, Labor and Languages and Health for the State of Punjab under Chief Minister [[Pratap Singh Kairon]].

In 1957 the central government sent Vidyalankar to an international labor conference in Geneva as chairman of the Indian delegation, and he chaired a goodwill mission to Yugoslavia. In 1961, he went to Afghanistan as chairman of the Indian goodwill mission during the country's national celebration. Vidyalankar was invited by the All India Federation of Educational Associations to deliver addresses to their annual sessions.

In 1962, he won the parliamentary election from Hoshiarpur.<ref>{{cite web|title=Detailed Results of 1962 General Election|url=http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1962/Vol_I_LS_62.pdf|publisher=Election Commission of India|accessdate=9 June 2013}}</ref>

In 1971, Vidyalankar stood for parliament from [[Chandigarh]] and was elected for a third time.<ref>{{cite web|title=Detailed Results of 1971 General Election |url=http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1971/Vol_I_LS71.pdf |publisher=Election Commission of India |accessdate=9 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718175452/http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1971/Vol_I_LS71.pdf |archivedate=18 July 2014 }}</ref> During this period, he chaired three parliamentary committees appointed by the government: committees to study and improve the Information and Broadcasting Department and the Department of Supply and Disposal and a committee to study the national library in [[Calcutta]]. Vidyalankar was a member of the Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.

In 1977, he decided not to continue in the legislature and informed Indira Gandhi that he no longer wished to pursue elected office due to the death of his eldest son in a plane crash and his need to care for his family and business. Vidyalankar was active in the [[Indian National Congress]] until his death in 1985.

== Writings ==
During his imprisonment during the 1930s and 1940s, Vidyalankar led worker study circles on political, social and economic subjects. He believed that workers should develop an Indian national feeling, regarding every Indian (regardless of caste, creed, language or ethnicity) as a brother. While he was in jail, he wrote four books in Hindi (''Aaj Ki Duniya'', ''Aaj Ka Manav Sansar'',<ref>Vidyalankar, Amarnath, Aaj Ka Manav Sansar, Chandra Gupt Vidyalankar Asha Niketan, 12A Tap Road, Lahore, November 1941</ref> ''Bharat Ka Naya Itihas'' and ''Manav Sangharsh'') and one in English (''Evolution and Progress of the Human Race''). Vidyalankar
later wrote ''National Integration and the Teaching of History''.<ref>{{cite web|title=National Integration and the Teaching of History|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/2433779|publisher=Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee,1968}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://eci.nic.in/ Election Commission of India]
* [http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ Official website of the Parliament of India]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidyalankar, Amarnath}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sargodha District]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians]]
[[Category:1st Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:3rd Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:5th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]

Amarnath Vidyalankar - Revision history

->ElliAWB at 18:20, 2 October 2021