Arya Samaj in a dilemma

08.05.10 Mangalore : In the press meet arranged today at its Balmatta office, Arya Samaj established in 1918 on the Arya Samaj Road, led by its current president, M. Lokananda told reporters about what happened in the executive meetings held on 16-01-2010 and subsequently on  21-04-2010, with special reference to a subsidiary unit called Sharddhananda Ashram on land disputes.

During the British era, the Arya Samaj Chief recalled, the English rulers put this Indian Social Reforms Organisation into a lot of hardships, yet Arya Samaj had survived the tests of fire to conduct inter-caste marriages, protection to helpless women, lands to till for the Harijans being provided and such other progressive acts. The Sharddhananda Seva Samithi had been closed in those early days and Arya Samaj had taken over the properties. However, the members of that Seva Samithi were not inclined to close down the old Sharddhananda Ashram. M. Lokananda informed. But then, the Ashram had no significant programme to take up either.

The Arya Samaj, its present chief asserted, was a legal body, not an illegal outfit. No one should interfere in our present social reforms and progressive activities. There are no internal feuds, nor sex discrimination in matters of Arya Samaj as a whole, he told reporters.

Secretary Purushottam Shetty and deputy secretary Dharmendra and Hon. President K. Bhawanishanker were present on the occasion.

M. Lokananda had faced charges of misuse of funds, as per letter dated 02-12-2008 from K. Krishna Kamath, the then President.

Pictures of Arya Samaja Properties