Give due credit to Baba Ram Singh for launching Swadeshi movement: Ex-MP to NCERT

New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) Former Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh has written to NCERT, urging that due credit be given to Baba Ram Singh, chief of the Namdhari sect of Sikhs, for launching the "Swadeshi movement" way back in 1860.

Baba Ram Singh was the founder and 12th Guru of the Namdhari sect of Sikhism, known for launching the Kuka Movement in 1857 against British rule. He was a social reformer who promoted boycotting British goods, using indigenous products and promoting vegetarianism and widow remarriage.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has released special modules on swadeshi, a theme that has featured prominently in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches.

"People in India at large and the students are not aware that how in British rule Swadeshi Movement was launched to promote India-made goods and to boycott the imported ones. Clothes made in Khadar were the first such attempt... for the first time in India, this movement was launched by Baba Ram Singh of Namdhari Sect of the Sikhs in 1860," Singh said in the letter to NCERT Chief Dinesh Saklani.

"He went to the extent of introducing his own postal delivery system in Punjab. This was recognised as part of Freedom Movement by Government of India. The Ministry of Culture has already taken decision to celebrate his two hundredth birth anniversary. Commemorative stamp and coin have already been released in his honour by government," he added.

Singh, also former chairman of the National Minorities Commission, noted that the new NCERT module mentions the origin of the Swadeshi Movement in India at Kolkata in 1905.

"I request you to please make the necessary correction and to give due credit to Baba Ram Singh, Chief of the Namdhari Sikhs," he said in the letter. PTI GJS GJS KSS KSS