Ram Narayan Chaudhary (1 August 1895 – 4 April 1989) was a Gandhian social reformer, anti-colonial nationalist, writer, and publisher, from Rajasthan in India who contributed over three decades of his life to the Indian independence movement.
He employed protest techniques such as satyagraha, non-cooperation, and non-violent resistance during Indian independence movement and in his crusade to abolish taxes on landless labourers and farmers imposed by feudal lords in Rajputana region. Chaudhary was closely associated with Harijan Sevak Sangh and toured the southern parts of India with Gandhi in the latter's campaign to rid the evil of untouchability.
He spent almost six years in prison serving five different jail terms due to his civic rights activism in pre-independent India, including over two years during the Quit India movement.
Chaudhary wrote and edited 13 books, and translated over 65 canonical texts by Mahatma Gandhi and his close associates given his vast knowledge of languages viz. English, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Persian, and Sanskrit. A renowned journalist, Chaudhary established and ran several newspapers in Hindi and English, including Rajasthan Kesari, Naveen Rajasthan, Navjyoti (weekly), and Naya Rajasthan during various phases in his lifetime. Born into a family of privilege in present-day Rajasthan, Chaudhary, as a graduate student in Jaipur, was initially drawn towards revolutionary activities against British Raj inspired by the writings of Aurobindo Ghose, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
However, increasingly in his twenties, he adopted Gandhi's ideological repertoire in his political activism. He and his wife, Anjana Devi, gave up family wealth and settled for a life of self-austerity on the principles of aparigraha. In the 1920s, Chaudhary was one of the leading figures of Bijolia Satyagraha demanding revocation of feudal taxes on farmers, labourers and bonded slaves in Rajputana princely states. His wife, Anjana Devi, too, was an equal partner in this endeavour, especially in mobilising women. Later, he worked to spread agricultural knowledge and formal education among the deprived Bhils, a tribal group in Rajasthan.
His social work took place on the direct advice and instructions of Gandhi. He stayed at Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad a couple of times in the late-1920s and 1940s. At Gandhi's ashram at Wardha, where he resided for three years with his family, Chaudhary handled Gandhi's correspondence besides managing important administrative duties at the ashram as Gandhi's trusted aide.
After India's independence, Chaudhary lived for a decade in Delhi working to remove social discrimination and promoting knowledge of governance among public servants and elected local-level leaders. In Delhi, he grew close to Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, frequently interviewing him and exchanging letters. He lived the last two decades of his life in Ajmer in his home state of Rajasthan.
Early life (1895–1914)
Birth and family background
Ram Narayan Chaudhary was born on 1 August 1895 at Neem Ka Thana, a town in Sikar district of present-day Rajasthan state. His father, Muralidhar Chaudhary, served as the chief advocate estimating taxes on the farm produces in Sikar princely state. His mother, Chhotibai Chaudhary, was the daughter of Manikaran Harbhajanka, a panch of Shrimadhopur, a municipality in Rajasthan's Sikar district. Ram Narayan was third of his parents’ seven children, four of whom were boys and three girls. Durgaprasad, one of his younger brothers, was a Gandhian nationalist and publisher who was jailed during the Quit India movement.
Chaudhary was born into a wealthy Marwadi with nobility background. His father, Muralidhar Chaudhary, inherited his aristocrat position in Sikar state from his elder brother, Chainsukhji, who had shifted from Kanwat to Neem Ka Thana to become a zamindar’s legal counsel. Due to their services to the princely state, they were endowed with the titular surname of Chaudhary, generally associated with the Jat caste in northern India. Muralidhar Chaudhary was also involved in agriculture and money lending business.
Education
Chaudhary's formal education began at a maktab near his family home. At this maktab, he learnt Urdu under Mirza Rahim Baig, a strict disciplinarian. Soon, his study of Sanskrit language began under a local Brahmin priest living in Neem Ka Thana.