Press Release
NEW YORK (Press release by Vishnu Dutt): Some 450 Arya Samajists from eight Arya Samaj organizations in the tri states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut culminated an entire week of celebrations to mark the 137th anniversary of the worldwide Arya Samaj movement with an open air multi kunda havan services in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York city last Sunday.
The New York City celebrants who were overwhelmingly from Guyana, Trinidad and Surinam also had participation from four other Indian originated Arya Samaj groups. It was coordinated by the Tri State Arya Samaj Foundation executive Sati Gurdial. India’s vigilant independence movement to remove the British motivated the Arya Pratinidi Sabha as the Arya Samaj umbrella organization to enhance worldwide fortification of Vedic Hindu values. They actively dispatched Vedic missionaries overseas to the Caribbean, South Africa, East Africa and Fiji but after Indian independence the practice was discontinued.
Professor Bhaskaranad had the most significant impact on the growth of Arya Samaj in Guyana and the Caribbean. His converts carried Vedic values and practices whenever they moved to England, Canada, Holland and the USA. Many Arya Samaj Pandits later became active public figures in fighting for independence of British Guiana. They included Pandit Sama Persaud, Pandit Budhram Mahadeo, Pandit Ramnath Dwarka,Pandit Ramlall and Pandit Ragobeer.