Munshi Ram, better known as Swami Shraddhanand (22 February 1856 – 23 December 1926)[1] was an Indian independence activist and Arya Samaj sannyasi who propagated the teachings of Dayananda Saraswati.

This included the establishment of educational institutions, like the Gurukul Kangri University, and played a key role on the Sangathan (consolidation and organization) and the Shuddhi (purification), a Hindu reform movement in the 1920s.

He was born on 22 February 1856 in the village of Talwan in the Jalandhar District of the Punjab Province of India.

He was the youngest child in the family of Lala Nanak Chand, who was a Police Inspector in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), then administered by the East India Company.

He also was witness to a "compromising" situation involving a church's father with a nun,[2] the attempted rape of a young devotee by pontiffs of the Krishna cult, and the suspicious death of a little girl at the home of a Muslim lawyer.

His father was handling arrangements and security at the events, due to the attendance of some prominent personalities and British officers.

[2][3] In 1892 Arya Samaj was split into two factions after a controversy over whether to make Vedic education the core curriculum at the DAV College Lahore.

The same year he protested in front of a posse of Gurkha soldiers at the Clock Tower in Chandni Chowk, then was allowed to proceed.

[7] In late 1923, he became the president of Bhartiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha, created with an aim of reconverting Muslims, specifically 'Malkana Rajputs' in the western United Province.

[11] The 'Swami Shraddhanand Kaksha' at the archeological museum of the Gurukul Kangri University in Haridwar houses a photographic journey of his life.