The Arya Samaj Movement was a great socio religious movement which aimed at reconstructing the modern Hindu society on the ideas contained in the four Vedas. It was founded by Swami Dayanand ideas on April 10, 1875 in Bombay. Two years later, he started the Arya Samaj at Lahore and its rapid growth quickly enabled it to eclipse the Bombay Arya Samaj and Lahore became the headquarters of the movement

Dayanand started his active career of missionary work in 1866. He appealed to the people by public lecture and discourses against idolatry. polygamy and rigid caste system , pointing that these practices were not permissible by the ancient Dharma. The example of Keshub Chandra and Brahma Samaj persuaded him to carry on propaganda in the language of the people i.e., Hindi and not in Sanskrit. He published in 1874 his chief work, Satyarath prakash, in which he propounded his doctrines and set forth a critical examination of the various Indian creeds.
Dayanand’s watch word was “Back to Vedas”. He dreamed of a world order in which the Vedas would be accepted as the only revealed knowledge of God, the Arya nation would assume the leadership of all other nations and Aryavarta would have suzerainty over all other countries. Max Muller remarks,” he considered the Vedas not only divine inspired but as pre historic and prehuman.” to him everything continued in the Vedas was a perfect truth. He believed in unity of Godhead and held that there was no polytheism in the Vedas which are divine knowledge, that god should be worshiped spiritually and not images, and that salvation is emancipation from transmigration and Karma. He condemned Sharadhas as also pilgrimages. He sanctified Agni which plays a prominent part in the Arya Samaj rituals of which the Havana sacrifice is the most characteristic feature.
Dayanand was first and foremost a great social and religious reformer. He was neither a political philosopher nor a politician. But there is no denying the fact that he occupies a great place in the development of political thinking in India. He gave the slogan of Swaraj or India for Indians. He wrote in Satyarath Prakash that no foreign government howsoever good can be equal to self government. He was the first to give the lesson of Swadeshi to the Indians, which was later followed by national leaders like Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi.

The Arya Samaj was essentially a socio religious movement but it cannot be denied that it inspired political thought and action on many occasions. The early Arya Samaj threw a good number of leaders who took living interest in political matters and gave full support to Indian freedom movement. The first to welcome the Indian National congress were the Arya Samajis. They took to Swadeshi long before the Swadeshi movement that arose out of Curzon’s partition of Bengal. The first political agitation in the Punjab against the agrarian laws was led and inspired by the Arya Samajis in 1898. The first deportees from the Punjab on sedition charges were Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Sing who had been brought up in the Arya Samaj. . In 1909, a large number of Arya Samajists including Raja Jawala Prasad were prosecuted at Patiala for their anti government activities. Bhai Parmanad who was an ardent Arya Samajists was imprisoned on the change of possessing a description of making bombs.
The government from the very beginning looked upon the Arya Samaj with an eye of doubt and suspicion. It disliked its independent attitude, its propagation on self confidence and sense of self reliance. Some of the active members of the Arya Samaj who were in government service were the victims of the government policy of distrust. They were debarred from promotions and their transfer became frequent. There were made to understand that unless their attitude towards the government changed, they would continue to suffer. The government could not find fault with their official conduct so in open reports; they were always spoken of in high terms but in secret reports, their political morality and private propaganda were condemned. Their patriotism thus brought them into official disgrace. After suffering from persecution and discrimination they admitted their defeat and professed loyalty to the government.