Bhagwan Das

Bhagwan Das (12 January 1869 – 18 September 1958) was an Indian Theosophist and public figure. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest. As an advocate for national freedom from the British rule, he was often in danger of reprisals from the Colonial government. He was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1955.

Quotes

• T have been reliably informed that a number of youths of the RSS...were able to inform Sardar Patel and Nehruji im the very nick of time of the Leaguers’ intended ‘coup’ oF September 10, 1947. whereby they had planned to assassinate all Members of Government and all Hindu officials and thou- sands of Hindu citizens on that day and plant the flag of ‘Pakistan’ on the Red Fort and then seize all Hind. “< _If these high-spirited and self-sacrificing boys had 0% given the very timely information to Nehruji and Patelji, there would have been no Government of India today, the whole country would have changed its name into Pakistan, tens ° Millions of Hindus would have been slaughtered and all the rest converted to Islam or reduced to stark slavery.
  • as quoted in https://archive.org/stream/the-tragic-story-of-partition-hv-sheshasdri/The%20Tragic%20Story%20of%20Partition%20-%20HV%20Sheshasdri_djvu.txt

Annie Besant and the Changing World (1934)

Annie Besant and the Changing World (Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Chennai 1934)

• Indians would do well to remember that A. O. Hume, the father of the Indian National Congress, was first led into work for the uplift of India, fifty years ago, by the inspiration of Theosophy.

• Theosophy now needed to be carried into practice, and not to remain confined to easy-going study or even strenuous preaching of theory and doctrine.

• She (Annie Besant) was indeed a great leader in every respect, with the soul of fire, the burning eloquence that could melt stones, the imaginative vision, the great and high aspiration, the quick decision, the generous and trustful nature, the scrupulous discharge of promises made, the exceeding considerateness for juniors and subordinates, the anxious fulfilment of their hopes even casually aroused by any words of hers, and, above all else, the mystic power of magnetic personality, which inspire and attract and keep followers.

About Bhagwan Das

• The only Theosophist who really stood for sarva-dharma-samabhâva came from the heartland of Indian Islam, U.P. in North India. That was Dr. Bhagwan Das. But anyone who has studied different religions in right earnest can say without any hesitation that Bhagwan Das' magnum opus, Essential Unity of All Religions, is not much more than silly and sentimental humbug. He has missed the forest for the trees in the case of all religions when he picks up stray sentences from different scriptures and strings them together without any reference to context or their real meanings beyond the literal. Rather than studying and understanding all religions he is out to foist his own pet and preconceived notions on all of them.
  • Sita Ram Goel, Freedom of expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy (1998)