Rajvansh Biradari: Rajvansh Biradari is a comparatively small community of Vaish Agrawals. Rising initially from Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor and Morradabad districts of Uttar Pradesh they have gradually moved to almost all parts of the country and in most of the developed countries of the world. Members of the Rajvansh Biradari, by and large belong to the middle class of society with a flair for pursuit of higher education and professional studies. Before independence a substantial number of rajvanshis were land owning zamidars, fond of developing farms and orchards. As time rolled on, a large section of rajvanshi people opted for government jobs and could be found working in dominant roles at all levels of the administration. Quite a good number of rajvanshis went in for the teaching and legal professions and distinguished themselves in their respective fields. Business was also a major draw for the members of rajvansh biradari, where starting from small beginnings, they were able to develop large scale enterprises. There was also a sprinkling of rajvanshis in politics and other major fields.
Rajvansh Sabha: Rajvansh Sabha was a forum for providing opportunities to members of the rajvansh community to communicate and interact with each other and to work for progressive growth and development of the community. It took formal shape in 1894, followed by nomination of office bearers of the central body and constitution of some of the local units. The deliberations during the earlier meetings of the central body and the local units were mostly related to the social practices and welfare activities of members of the community. With the turn of the twentieth century, some of the distinguished persons of the community helped in the constitution of Vidya Sabha for providing financial support to promising students of the community, under the overall guidance of the central body. It is heartening to note that some of the beneficiaries of Vidya Sabha during the first twenty to thirty years of the twentieth century rose to the highest ranks in public service, business and professions.
From the very beginning, the offices of Vidya Sabha and the central body of Rajvansh Sabha were located at Meerut City. Meerut City was also an active local unit of Rajvansh Sabha. Central body was also publishing ‘Prakash”, a monthly newspaper of the community from Meerut. Apart from local unit of Meerut city, the other active units of Rajvansh Sabha were Muzaffarnagar, Roorkee, Dehradun, Najibabad, Allahabad, Lucknow and Bikaner.
Lucknow unit of Rajvansh Sabha: In 1952, Lucknow Unit of Rajvansh Sabha had a membership of about twenty to thirty families. Monthly meetings were regularly held by rotation at the residences of different members of the community. The meetings were like social get-togethers and all members of the families including elders, ladies and children participated enthusiastically in the meetings. The informal interaction between the families and individual members of the families gradually helped in the development of fraternal bonds and everybody anxiously looked forward for these meetings. During the second world war and in the aftermath of the war the activities of central body of Rajvansh Sabha had slackened and for some years the annual sessions of Rajvansh Sabha could not be organised and even the community paper “Prakash” could not be published. Under these circumstances, Lucknow unit of Rajvansh Sabha invited the central body to convene its annual session at Lucknow in 1952. The session at Lucknow was organized with all the fanfare and put in fresh life in the activities of the central body and Vidya Sabha. Lucknow Unit also undertook to revive and publish “Prakash” from Lucknow.
Revival of Prakash: There was an interruption of two to three years in the publication of Prakash. When the threads were picked up again at Lucknow in 1952, everything had to commence from the beginning. The paper was got registered as a newspaper. Size and format of the paper was finalized. Initially, all known addresses of members of the community were included in the list of subscribers. First issue was edited and six hundred copies were printed and sent to all known addresses. The subscriptions started pouring in and within a year the number of members on the subscribers list exceeded twelve hundred. Everybody seemed to be happy that Prakash was in circulation again. Ladies and children regularly contributed photographs, stories, games and titbits for publication in Prakash and that made it a sought after community paper. The activities of Vidya Sabha, central body of Rajvansh Sabha and local units got a tremendous boost with the revival of Prakash. The paper was published from Lucknow for about three years.
Our heritage: A village in a rural area may have about 100 families. In the good old days, almost everybody knew each other in the village, which helped in the development of fraternal bonds and family relations among the members. All members of the village willingly and enthusiastically organized and participated in all religious functions, festivals, marriages and other social ceremonies. People worked with each other, shoulder to shoulder and through thick and thin. Even the economy of the village was intimately linked to each other and was interdependent on mutual trust and goodwill. Needs of almost everybody were satisfied and everybody seemed to be happy. The children, boys, girls and youth grew under an environment of regard, love, affection and concern for each other. Living with each other and working for each other was gradually soaked in their psyche and became normal part of their daily routine and culture.
Social Networks: With the fast growth and development of technology distances have shrunk and millions of people are talking or chatting with each other through social networks. The people connected by social networks may not be physically in contact with each other. They may join the network from different places, different regions, different countries and perhaps from different continents. Their language, their ideology, their socio-economic conditions, their aspirations and their dreams may vary widely. Still they are mad about networks, keep talking and chatting off and on and gradually the networks manage to carve out a significant slot in their lives and day to day working . Most of people think that social networks are a distraction, as most of the talks, chats and postings are of a casual nature and some are absolute shit or trash. But the people continue to cling to the networks feverishly for change, relaxation and excitement. However, there is a silver lining almost everywhere in whatever you think or whatever you do. Social networks or associations, on line or off line, bring diverse people to-gether and help in weaving an invisible thread of love, affection and understanding.