https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Lajja_Ram_TomarLajja Ram Tomar - Revision history2026-07-31T08:12:33ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Lajja_Ram_Tomar&diff=43066&oldid=prev>Tassedethe at 21:12, 27 January 20192019-01-27T21:12:38Z<p></p>
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'''Lajja Ram Tomar''' or '''Lajjaram Tomar''' was a schoolteacher and educationist. He was the head of [[Vidya Bharati]], the education wing of [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS), from 1979 until his death in 2004.{{sfn|Organiser|2004|p=40}}{{sfn|Bakaya|2004}}<br />
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== Life and career ==<br />
Tomar was born on 21 July 1930 in a peasant family. He studied in a Baptist Mission School in Agra and joined the RSS as a [[swayamsevak]] from his childhood.{{sfn|Organiser|2004}}{{sfn|Bakaya|2004}} He received [[Master of Arts|M. A.]] and [[B.Ed.]] degrees and worked as a lecturer.{{sfn|Organiser|2004}}<br />
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In 1957, he founded the [[Saraswati Shishu Mandir]] in Agra, working as its principal. In 1961, he founded a ''Saraswati Vidya Mandir'', senior secondary school in the RSS schools network. In 1972, he was appointed as the secretary of the entire schools network of RSS in Uttar Pradesh, called the ''Bharatiya Siksha Sansthan''. He became an [[RSS pracharak]] in 1977 and was appointed as the Organisational Secretary of [[Vidya Bharati]], the all-India schools network of the RSS, in 1979. He worked from its registered office in Lucknow.{{sfn|Organiser|2004}}<br />
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In 1990, he was promoted as the ''Rashtriya Margadarshak'' (National Guide) of Vidya Bharati, with [[Dinanath Batra]] succeeding him as the Organisational Secretary. In the new role, he worked from the ''Sanskriti Bhavan'' in [[Kurukshetra]], until his death in 2004.{{sfn|Bakaya|2004}}<br />
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== Ideas ==<br />
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===Superiority of "ancient Hindu knowledge"===<br />
In ''The Path of Vidya Bharati Thought'', Tomar claims that ancient Hindu knowledge predated Western scientific advances; that [[Rigveda|Rigvedic]] verses provide the speed of light, [[Samkhya]] scholars dated the universe to 2 billion years old, and sage [[Bharadwaja]] wrote a text on aviation engineering.{{sfn|Bakaya|2004|pp=33-34}}{{refn|group=note|The text attributed to sage Bharadwaja, [[Vaimānika Shāstra]], was analysed by aeronautical engineers from the [[Indian Institute of Science]], who concluded that it dates from no earlier than 1904 and that the craft described there are not capable of flying.{{sfn|Mukunda|Deshpande|Nagendra|Prabhu|1974|p=5–12}}}}<br />
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===Reception===<br />
Tomar's views have been criticised. According to Akshay Bakaya:<br />
{{quote|Tomar’s writings are rich only in the RSS' usual, rather un-spiritual glories, despite the claims that spirituality lies at the basis of all Hindu life.{{sfn|Bakaya|2004|pp=33-34}}}}<br />
Bakaya goes on to say that:<br />
{{quote|In fact, the RSS, like the [[Arya Samaj]] before it, seems essentially to generate Hindu-golden-age fantasies as mirror images parasitic upon a rival’s 'original', in every field [...] The delusion is that the world will be impressed with the claim that ancient Indian sages propounded 'scientific' theories similar (indeed identical) to what is now standard in the West, only much earlier.{{sfn|Bakaya|2004|pp=33-34}}}}<br />
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== Publications ==<br />
* ''Vidya Bharti Chintan Ki Disha'' (The Path of Vidya Bharati Thought, 2001), Kurukshetra:Vidya Bharati.{{sfn|Bakaya|2004|loc=note [7]}}<br />
* ''Pracheen Bhartiya Shiksha Paddhati'' (The education methods of ancient India, 2014), Suruchi Prakashan, {{ISBN|9381500150}}.<br />
* ''Bhartiya Shiksha ke Mool Tatva'' (The philosophy of Indian education, 2014), Suruchi Prakashan, {{ISBN|9381500312}}.<br />
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==Note==<br />
{{reflist|group=note}}<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist|30em}}<br />
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==Sources==<br />
{{Refbegin}}<br />
* {{Citation |first =Akshay |last=Bakaya |title=Lessons from Kurukshetra - The RSS Education Project |editor=Anne Vaugier-Chatterjee |work=Education and Democracy in India |publisher=Manohar |location=New Delhi |year=2004 |isbn=8173046042 | url =http://www.sacw.net/article852.html}}<br />
* {{Citation | last =Mukunda | first =H. S. | year =1974 |last2=Deshpande |first2=S. M. |last3=Nagendra |first3=H. R. |last4=Prabhu |first4=A. |last5=Govindraju |first5=S. P. | title=A critical study of the work "Vyamanika Shastra" |journal=Scientific Opinion | pages=5–12| url = http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Publications/ReferedJournal/ACriticalStudyOfTheWorkVaimanikaShastra.pdf |accessdate= 2007-09-03}}<br />
* {{Citation | last =Organiser | title=Lajja Ram tomar passes away: A life dedicated to education |newspaper=Organiser |date=28 November 2004 |accessdate=2014-09-16 |url=http://organiser.org/archives/historic/dynamic/modules9970.html?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=52&page=40}}<br />
{{Refend}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{cite web |title=Preprint of Akshay Bakaya (2004) |url=https://www.academia.edu/7244589/RSS_Schools_The_Hindu_Nationalist_Agenda_in_Education |publisher=academia.edu |date=21 April 2009 |accessdate=2014-09-16}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomar, Lajja Ram}}<br />
[[Category:Indian schoolteachers]]<br />
[[Category:Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]<br />
[[Category:Scholars from Haryana]]<br />
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