CletaMacfarlane at 18:42, 7 February 2026

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{{short description|Indian author and activist}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name= Dharampal
| image =File:Dharampal.jpg
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1922|02|19}}
| birth_place = [[Kandhla]], [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2006|10|24|1922|02|19|df=yes}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cisindus.org/2020/06/02/introducing-dharampal/ |title=Introducing Dharampal - Center for Indic Studies |access-date=5 September 2020 |archive-date=7 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607061354/https://www.cisindus.org/2020/06/02/introducing-dharampal/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite web |url=https://www.cisindus.org/2020/06/02/introducing-dharampal/|title=Introducing Dharampal - Center For Indic Studies|date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607061354/https://www.cisindus.org/2020/06/02/introducing-dharampal/|archive-date=7 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://indiafacts.org/remembering-dharampals-seminal-contribution/|title=Remembering Dharampal's Seminal Contribution|first=Ankur|last=Kakkar|date=19 February 2019}}</ref>
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'''Dharampal''' ({{langx|hi|धरमपाल}}) (19 February 1922 – 24 October 2006) was an Indian historian, historiographer, and a [[Gandhians|Gandhian]] thinker.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Life Sketch: Shri Dharampal |url=https://www.dharampal.net/life-sketch |access-date=2023-02-10 |website=www.dharampal.net}}</ref> Dharampal primary works are based on documentation by the [[British Raj|colonial government]] on Indian education, agriculture, technology, and arts during the period of colonial rule in India.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.indictoday.com/reviews/dharampals-the-beautiful-tree-indigenous-traditional-indian-education-in-the-eighteenth-century/|title=Dharampal's 'The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century|date=22 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/446501?journalCode=cer|title=Comparative Education Review Volume 29, Number 1 Feb. 1985|journal=Comparative Education Review|date=February 1985|volume=29|issue=1|pages=137–140|doi=10.1086/446501|last1=Basu|first1=Aparna|url-access=subscription}}</ref> He is most known for his works ''The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century'' (1983), ''Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century'' (1971) and ''Civil Disobedience and Indian Tradition'' (1971), among other seminal works, which have led to a radical reappraisal of conventional views of the cultural, scientific and technological achievements of Indian society at the eve of the establishment of [[Company rule in India]]. Dharampal was instrumental in changing the understanding of pre-colonial [[Education in India|Indian education system]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kakkar|first=Ankur|date=2019-02-19|title=Remembering Dharampal's Seminal Contribution|url=http://indiafacts.org/remembering-dharampals-seminal-contribution/|access-date=2020-12-27|website=IndiaFacts|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

In 2001, he was named chairman of the National Commission on Cattle and Minister of State by the Government of India.<ref name="auto1"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/National-commission-on-Cattle-to-be-set-up/articleshow_new/1136006699.cms|title=National commission on Cattle to be set up - Times of India|website=The Times of India}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://dahd.nic.in/related-links/chapter-ii-exective-summery|title=CHAPTER II {{sic|nolink=y|reason=error in source|Exective Summery}} {{pipe}} Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying|website=dahd.nic.in}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Kandhla]], in the present [[Shamli district]],<ref>Shamli district was earlier part of [[Muzzarfnagar district]]</ref> UP (then in [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]]), his family shifted to Lahore in the late 1920s, where he studied at moved to Lahore in the late 1920s, where he went on to complete his schooling from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School, Lahore. In 1938, he joined Government College, Lahore, to study B.Sc.in Physics, though in 1940, he transferred to [[Meerut College]] but soon left education altogether in October 1940 to join the [[Indian independence movement]]. Later he also took part in the [[Quit India movement]].<ref>{{cite web| title=Dharampal, Babri Masjid and the bitter fruit of victimhood| url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/dharampal-birth-centenary-celebrations-7558993/|website=Indian Express|date= October 9, 2021 }}</ref>

==Career==
In 1944 he joined [[Mirabehn]], Kisan Ashram near Roorkee-Haridwar, followed by Bapugram near Rishikesh. In 1950 he left the field to start research and writing.<ref name=chrono>[https://www.dharampal.net/dharampals-life-and-work-chronology Life and Chronology]</ref>

He was married to Phyllis Ellen Ford in 1949, and the couple had three children Pradeep, Gita and Anjali. Gita Dharmpal (b. 1952), retired as Professor and Head of, the Department of History, South Asia Institute, [[Heidelberg University]], and became Council Member of [[Indian Council of Social Science Research]] and Honorary Dean of Research at the [[Gandhi Teerth|Gandhi Research Foundation]] (GRF), Jalgaon <ref>[https://icssr.org/council-members/dr-gita-dharampal Professor Dr. Gita Dharampal] ICSSR Official website.</ref>

Post [[Indo-China War of 1962]], wherein India suffered losses, he along with N.N. Datta and Roop Narain, signed an open letter against the response of the Jawaharlal Nehru government on November 21, 1962. This led to the arrest of all three, and subsequent imprisonment in the [[Tihar Jail]] in Delhi for 2 months, causing much public debate.<ref>{{cite book|title=Essential Writings of Dharmpal|author=Dharmpal |year=2015|pages=6, 382}}</ref>

Post 1981, he largely lived in Mahatma Gandhi's ashram [[Sevagram]] Ashram Pratishthan near Wardha. His wife died in 1986, later he died in 2006.<ref name=chrono/>

==Relevance==
Dharampal's pioneering historical research, conducted intensively over a decade, led to the publication of works that provide evidence from extensive early British administrators' reports of the widespread prevalence of educational institutions in the Bombay, Bengal and Madras Presidencies as well as in the Punjab, teaching a sophisticated curriculum, with daily school attendance by about 30% of children aged 6–15. Dharampal highlights the indigenous education system in India during the pre-colonial and around the eve of [[British Empire|British colonial]] era.<ref name="auto"/>

In 1818, the fall of [[Maratha Empire]] led to large parts of India coming under direct [[British Empire|British]] rule.<ref name="Keerthi Publishing House">{{cite book |title=The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century|pages=6–26 |date=1995 |publisher=Keerthi Publishing House |language=en}}</ref> During the decade of 1820–30, following instructions from authorities in London, various provincial governments in India carried out detailed surveys of the indigenous education system prevalent in their provinces. The survey in Madras Presidency, which was perhaps the most detailed, was conducted by A.D Campbell, the collector of Bellary, during 1822–25. A survey in some selected districts of the Bombay Presidency was first conducted during 1824–25, followed by another similar survey in 1828–29. In 1835, on instruction from the Governor-General [[Lord William Bentinck|William Bentinck]], William Adam, a missionary of the Unitary Church, conducted a survey of indigenous education in five districts of the Bengal Presidency: Birbhum, Burdwan, South Bihar, Tirhut and parts of Murshidabad. Adam also personally carried out a detailed statistical survey of the area under the Thana of Natore in the district of Rajshahi.<ref name="Keerthi Publishing House"/>

G.L. Prendergast, a member of the Governor's Council in Bombay Presidency, recorded the following about indigenous schools on 27 June 1821:<ref>{{cite book |title=The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century|pages=73 |date=1995 |publisher=Keerthi Publishing House |language=en}}</ref>

{{blockquote|''"I need hardly mention what every member of the Board knows as well as I do, that there is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one school, and in larger villages more; many in every town, and in large cities in every division; where young natives are taught reading, writing and arithmetic, upon a system so economical, from a handful or two of grain, to perhaps a rupee per month to the schoolmaster, according to the ability of the parents, and at the same time so simple and effectual, that there is hardly a cultivator or petty dealer who is not competent to keep his own accounts with a degree of accuracy, in my opinion, beyond what we meet with amongst the lower orders in our own country."''}}

===Sociological Data===
These survey data also reveals the wide social strata to which both the students and the teachers in these schools belonged. Survey records teachers were represented by all caste groups, including a minority of teachers from now former untouchable castes.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century|pages=54 |date=1995 |publisher=Keerthi Publishing House |language=en}}</ref>

The more interesting and historically more relevant information provided by the caste-wise survey of this data is that of the students, the majority of whom belonged to the Shudra caste. This is true not only as regards boys but also concerning the rather small number of girls who, according to the survey, were receiving education in schools.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century|pages=26–29 |date=1995 |publisher=Keerthi Publishing House |language=en}}</ref>

==Works==
*''[https://archive.org/details/TheBeautifulTree-Dharampal The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century]'' (1983).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/TheBeautifulTree-Dharampal|title=THE BEAUTIFUL TREE - DHARAMPAL|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="auto"/> Translated into Kannada by Madhava Peraje with the title ''Cheluva Taru''<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/603344/gandhian-thinker-dharampal-has-not.html|title='Gandhian thinker Dharampal has not got due credit'|date=27 March 2017|website=Deccan Herald}}</ref>
*''[https://archive.org/details/IndianScienceAndTechnologyInTheEighteenthCentury Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century]'' (1971)
*''[https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12624 Civil Disobedience and Indian Tradition]'', Sarv Sewa Sangh, Varanasi. (1971)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/BhartiyaChittManasAurKaal-Hindi-Dharampal Bharatiya Cit Manas Kala]'' (Hindi), 1991.
* ''Angrazon se Pehale ka Bharat'' (Hindi)
* ''Bharat ka Svadharma, Itihas Vartaman aur Bhavishya ka Sandarbha'' (Hindi), Vagdevi Prakashan, Bikenar, 1994.
*''Despoliation and Defaming of India - The Early Nineteenth Century British Crusade'', Bharat Peetam, Warda, 1999.
* ''[https://archive.org/details/BharatKiPehchanDharampalKiDrishtiSe-Hindi/mode/2up Bharat Ki Pehchaan]'' (Hindi). Siddh Publication, 2003
* ''[https://archive.org/details/RediscoveringIndia-English-Dharampal Rediscovering India]'', SIDH, Mussoorie, 2003.
* ''Understanding Gandhi'', Other India Press, Goa 2003.
*'' [https://archive.org/details/the-british-origin-of-cow-slaughter-in-india-with-some-british-documents-on-the- The British Origin of Cow-slaughter in India]'' (2003) By Dharampal, T. M. Mukundan. SIDH, Mussourie. 2002, ISBN 8187827041.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/999955530202121|title=The British origin of cow-slaughter in India: with some British documents on the Anti-Kine-Killing Movement, 1880-1894|date=6 September 2002|publisher=Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas|via=University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Catalog}}</ref>
*''Understanding Gandhi'' (2003)<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-MxywAACAAJ|isbn = 9788185569598|title = Understanding Gandhi|year = 2003|publisher = Other India Press}}</ref> Essays on Gandhi.
* [https://archive.org/details/DharampalCollectedWritingsIn5Volumes/1DharampalJiCollectedWritings-Indian-science-and-technology/ Dharampal Collected Writings in 5 Volumes] Other India Press, 2000. [https://archive.org/details/essentialwriting00dhar at Archive.org]
**Vol 1: Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century
**Vol 2: Civil Disobedience in the Indian Tradition
**Vol 3: The Beautiful Tree Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century
**Vol 4: Panchayat Raj and India's polity
**Vol 5: Essays on Tradition, Recovery and Freedom (which included the Bharatiya Chit, Manas and Kaal)
* [http://gandhifoundation.net/pdf/EssentialWritingsofDharampal2015_introduction.pdf Essential Writings of Dharampal], ed. Gita Dharampal, Gandhi Foundation, Pub Division, 2015. ISBN 978-81-230-2040-2.

===Works in Translations===
* The book "The Beautiful Tree" is translated into Kannada as "Cheluva Taru".<ref name=":0"/>
* The Book "The Beautiful Tree"" is also translated into Tamil as "அழகிய மரம்" By Mr. B. R. Mahadevan author and Kilaku Pathipagam(கிழக்கு பதிப்பகம்).

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Wikiquote}}

==External links==
* [https://www.dharampal.net/ Dharampal]
* [http://www.samanvaya.com/dharampal/ Dharampal's India – Samanvaya]
* [http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_es/t_es_agraw_dharampal_frameset.htm Dharampal – Infinity Foundation]
* [http://www.avard.in/ AVARD - Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development]

{{Modern Hindu writers}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:New Imperialism]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:People from Muzaffarnagar]]
[[Category:Writers from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Historiographers]]
[[Category:Quit India Movement]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian scholars]]
[[Category:Public historians]]
[[Category:Historians of science]]
[[Category:Historians of education]]

Dharampal - Revision history

CletaMacfarlane at 18:42, 7 February 2026