Dayananda Saraswati

Dayanand Saraswati born Mool Shankar Tiwari, was a Hindu philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of Hinduism. His book Satyarth Prakash has remained one of the influential texts on the philosophy of the Vedas and clarifications of various ideas and duties of human beings. He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as "India for Indians" in 1876. The word swaraj in the modern political sense, however, does not appear in his written communications. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship, he worked towards reviving Vedic religion. Subsequently, the philosopher and President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, addressed him one of the "makers of Modern India", as did Sri Aurobindo.