Shivanand ji called this morning. Shivanandji has been to jail five times, twice for protesting the use of English in government work. The slogan was:
” Angrezi mein kaam na hoga/Phir se desh goolam na hoga”
(Work will not be in English/The country’s enslavement must finish).
A recently retired Rajya Sabha MP, Shivanand Tiwari was the student leader who had pullled Lalu Prasad into politics. Shivanand ji had filed a case against the Shankaracharya under the Harijan Atrocities Act. The Shankaracharya had refused to debate the shastras with Rajneesh in a Patna meeting on the grounds that only the “Twice-Born” ie Brahmins had the authority to debate the religious texts. Aryavarta, one of the leading Patna papers, took the side of the Shankaracharya. A young Lalu was enlisted into the Socialist Youth Federation by Shivanandji. His first protests and sloganeering was outside the office of the Aryavarta.[Read full article here]