Late Vaidya Guru Dutt

Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Delhi Pradesh 1951-1954

Guru Dutt ji was born in an Arora Kshatriya family in Lahore on 8 December 1894. His father Shri Karm Chand was a person of lower middle class. Their family has been practicing medicine for many generations. His father Hakim Karm Chand used to work as an apothecary in Pippal Behra. Guru Dutt adopted the profession of medicine after some time. His father was a simple and God fearing Arya Samaji. His mother Suhaavi was extremely devoted to Vaishnava beliefs. As a result, the feelings of tolerance, hospitality and coordination were maturing in Guru Dutt ji since childhood. Guru Dutt ji was born in a poor family. Hence, his childhood and adolescence were spent like normal people. His mother Suhaavi loved children a lot. Guru Dutt ji was very fond of reading and writing since childhood. Due to his participation in cultural, religious and educational events of Arya Samaj, his interest and ability to understand the lives of people and study their problems kept developing. This is the reason that his personality has a perfect combination of the creativity of a novelist, the farsightedness of a political leader and social and spiritual pride.

He is called the Guru of revolutionaries. When he was the headmaster of National College, Lahore, Sardar Bhagat Singh, SukhdevandRajguruwere his most loved disciples, who later became immortal by kissing the noose of the gallows in the freedom struggle.

Through his novels, Guru Dutt has praised the ancient Indian culture, civilization and religion and has tried to establish its superiority. He was a harsh critic of Congress and Nehru. He was an ardent devotee of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and was a writer-literaturer brought up in the cradle of Arya Samaj.

Vaidya Guru Dutt, blessed with a multifaceted personality, has served Hindi by writing his entire literature in it. He was a shining star of Hindi literature. On the strength of his unique sadhana, he wrote about two hundred novels and discussed Indian culture in simple and understandable language. His efforts to spread the knowledge of Vedas to the masses through literature have undoubtedly been commendable.

The plots of all his novels are very interesting, the language is very simple and the objective is mass education along with entertainment. According to the United Nations literature-culture organization 'UNESCO', Shri Gurudutt ji has been the most read author in Hindi literature in the decades of 1960-1970.

Gurudutt ji has written so much that people cannot even read in a lifetime. In 1942, at the age of 48, Gurudutt ji's first novel 'Swadhinata Ke Path Par' was published. This book was published by Vidya Mandir Limited in 1942. Encouraged by the success of this novel, he continued writing throughout his life. Before his journey in the world of novels ended with 'Astachal Ki Or' in three parts after about two hundred novels, it was proved that Vaidya Gurudutt was the uncrowned king of the world of novels. Vaidya Gurudutt not only wrote novels, but also wrote extensively on all contemporary problems. He filled the Hindi literature by giving many original works on many subjects like history, science, sociology, politics, religion, philosophy, etc.

Gurudutt was a nationalist thinker and a thinker of Indian cultural ideology. He was considered to be the ultimate worshipper of Indian civilization and culture. His ideology was full of national sentiments. He was a clever painter of Indian culture. In his view, only Vedic ideology is capable of binding India in unity. His novels depict the society, politics, culture and economic life of ancient, medieval and modern India.

The essence of the analysis of Indian life presented by Gurudutt ji in his novel literature is as follows. The ancient Vedic culture of India was meaningful, under it the people and society developed by helping each other. Later some elements of this culture started decaying. The element of Varnashram system proved to be the most harmful. This system was initially based on the convenient division of labour in the society. According to this, the people of the society were classified into four major classes on the basis of their professions. But later the value of physical labour decreased in the eyes of the privileged classes. Those who took service called those who served as low and those who took service called themselves high and big. Those who were big, due to negligence, completely forgot their duty. To preserve their greatness in their progeny also, they made the birth of a person fixed by not considering karma as the basis of caste distinction.