Biographical letter from a Hindu villager
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-21 - 1 clipping

Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Daya Ram Malviya, Biographical letter from a Hindu villager, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Biographical letter from a Hindu villager

Daya Ram Malviya

William Garlington, translator

1974

Below is a translation of a letter I received while I was in India in 1974 from Daya Ram Malviya, one of the early villagers in Malwa to "declare" himself a Bahá'í and who in the mid to late 60s became a leading "traveling teacher." I thought his own story, limited in length and somewhat disjointed though it is, might be of interest, especially as reads his own form of istikharih. -W.G.

A number of important Bahá'ís came to my home in Harsodan(1) including the
Holy Lotus Feet of Hand of the Cause Amutul- Baha, Ruhiyyih Khanum, Hand
of the Cause Dr. Muhajir and several others whose names escape me. Earlier,
during her trip to India, Dorothy Baker came to Harsodan and gave me her
blessing.

At one time a famous Hindu pandit lived in Harsodan. He had composed a
famous discourse about Satya-Narayan(2) which is still recited throughout the
region today. His sons have accepted the Bahá'í Faith.

My father was fairly prosperous, but because of his jati(3) the wealthy and
powerful jatis(4) became upset. One day these people came prepared to attack us
and divide up our land amongst themselves. At this time I was 15 or 16 years old.
But my father saw them coming with their sticks and guns and became terribly
angry. He grabbed a sharp sword from the house and went out to meet them.
When they saw him in this rage they quickly fled. I was also with my father. For
some time we were fearful of our enemies, and on occasions they brought harm
to us. Today, however, there are Rajputs and Kulmis who are Bahá'ís.(5)

I first heard the message of the Bahá'í Faith in 1941 when Mr. Boman(6) Shirin
Mummy(7) and Dr. Munje(8) came from Bombay (via Ujjain) for the first visit
to Harsodan. My father immediately accepted the Faith and with him two or
three other members of his jati. I also accepted. I was twenty-one or twenty-two at
the time. In 1944 my father became seriously ill with tuberculosis and could not
be saved. At this time although I had accepted the Bahá'í Faith I was not aware of
its complete truth or the depth of its teachings. I only knew that the path of all
religions is the same, but this truth was not apparent to me from observing the
followers of different religions. They said the words and they called Ishvar's
name(9) but they often deceived others in various ways. Having seen all of these
things I became very sad and wondered why Bhagavan(10) had created people
who for their own gain and benefit cheated and deceived others.

After seeing this type of deception I slowly began to think how I might become
more wealthy and make myself more comfortable in life. And as a result I began
to think of some evil things. I was tested. It happened in this way. I had gone to
the home of Kishan Lal Malviya(11) in Shajapur (the Malwa villager who had
first come to Harsodan with Mr.Boman and Shirin Mummy) where we were
discussing different ways and means of making money. In the process I thought
of some not-so-proper ways. Then I thought of making separate pieces of paper
with the name of a different occupation on each and in the name of Bhagavan,
without looking, I would draw one piece of paper, and whichever one I picked,
that would be my life's career. Among these were: thief, bandit (dacoit), pimp and
other thugi-like(12) occupations. On other pieces I worte more respectable
occupations such as hotel owner, shop keeper, farmer etc. And on one piece of
paper I wrote: "Service to the Bahá'í Faith." In this fashion, having recited
Bhagavan's name, I picked out one of the papers and opened it. And this is what
I saw: "Service to the Bahá'í Faith." When I saw this I became anxiety free. A year
later Shirin Mummy and Dr. Muhajir made me a traveling teacher. Then I had
the opportunity of reading the holy books and came to understand the depth of
truth within them.

But now the chance of my serving God's religion has been stopped. Therefore I
pray that Bahá'u'lláh might again give me the power of serving Him.(13)

Notes

The village of Harsodan is located approximately 15 miles from Ujjain in the
central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The region in which it is located is
commonly referred to as Malwa.

Satya-Narayana is a form of the Hindu deity Narayana. During the medieval
period under Muslim influence the god Narayana became known as Satyapir
(satya = true + pir = saint). This deity was a syncretic fusion of Rahim and Rama.
At a later date he was calle d Satya-Narayan.

The family were Balais who in Malwa are classified as "unclean" They are
one ranking above "untouchable" but are considered a "scheduled" caste because
they are on the government list for special compensations = something like af
firmitive action (at least this was the case in the mid 70s) Their low status derives
from their traditonal occupation (weaving) which brought them into close
contact with leather.

Rajputs and Kulmis

When I was in Malwa 4 Rajputs and 5 K ulmis were said to be Bahá'ís in
Harsodan. There were 65 Balai declarants.

Mr. Boman was Shrin Boman Meherabani's husband. He died in the mid 60s
in a jeep accident while teaching the Faith in the Gwalior area.

Shirin Boman was known throughout Malwa as "Mummy"

Dr. Munje and his wife came to Ujjain from Bombay at the same time as the
Bomans. He later moved to Varanasi where he practiced homeopathic
medicine.

Ishvar(Who is able) is a *generic* Hindu title for the personal aspect of
God

A name for the Supreme Being, often related to both Vishnu and
Krishna.

Kishan Lal Malviya was a scheduled caste leader from Shajapur district. He
became very significant during the mass teaching era, as it was at his village of
Sangimanda that the now famous Bahá'í Conference was held in 1961 (at which
Dr. Muhajir was present) which really initiated the flood of declarations in
Malwa over the next decade.

Originally the word "thug" in Hindi referred to a member of a secret fraternity
of assassins who were associated with the goddess kali. In common usage it has
come to refer to a "tough guy" as it has in English.

I was never quite sure about what happened, but apparently Daya Ram
Malviya lost his position (and perhaps his voting rights?) This was not
uncommon apparently, as a number of village teachers were felt to have either
abused their positions financially or otherwise.

METADATA

Views13738 views since posted 2001; last edit 2025-03-06 07:21 UTC;

previous at archive.org.../garlington_malviya_letter;
URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
Language
English
Permission
translator
Share

Shortlink: bahai-library.com/663
Citation: ris/663

select Collection:
Archives
Articles
Articles-unpublished
Audio
Bibliographies
BIC
Biographies
Books
Chronologies
Compilations
Compilations-NSA
Compilations-personal
Documents
East-asia
Encyclopedia
Essays
Etc
Excerpts
Fiction
Glossaries
Guardian
Histories
Introductory
Letters
Maps
Music
Newspapers
NSA-documents
NSA-letters
Personal
Pilgrims
Poetry
Presentations
Resources
Reviews
Scripts
Software
Statistics
Study
Talks
Theses
Transcripts
Translations
UHJ-documents
UHJ-letters
Video
Visual
Writings

home

sitemap

series

chronology

search:
author

title

date

tags

adv. search
languages

inventory

bibliography

abbreviations

links

about

contact

RSS

new
-- Biographical letter from a Hindu villager (Used by permission of the curator)