A swami, a historian and the Ganga — why an American family journeyed to Patna to scatter ashes in the river

Indian Express

6 hours ago

For the Hauser family, June 26, 2025, will forever be momentous. It's the day their father, the late American historian Walter Hauser, will 'join' his mentor — ascetic, peasant leader and social reformer Swami Sahajanand Saraswati.
Hauser devoted almost 60 years of his life to researching Saraswati's life and ideology. Now, six years after his death, the family has travelled over 13,000 kilometres from the United States to Patna to fulfil his one wish — to scatter his ashes in the river Ganga.
'He (Hauser) would often tell us that his last wish was to have his ashes immersed in the Ganges — the river that had been very close to the Swami's socio-agrarian-cultural cause of the ascetic,' his son Michael Hauser, a professor at the Duke University, told The Indian Express as two urns — one containing Hauser's ashes and one containing his wife Rosemary's — stood on a table.
While Hauser died in 2019, Rosemary died in 2001. The date of the immersion is significant – June 26 this year marks the 75th death anniversary of Saraswati, a Bihar leader credited with being instrumental in leading a movement that led to the abolition of the zamindari system in India. Patna, meanwhile, holds a special place in the heart of the Hauser family – it's where they spent a significant portion of their early life.
To mark the occasion, two generations of the family – Michael, his sister Sheela, wife Elizabeth and niece Rosemary – have come down to India. Accompanying this group are two of Hauser's most prominent students, historians William R Pinch and Wendy Singer.
At Patna's Gola Road – the house of Indian scholar and Hauser's close associate Kailash Chandra Jha – the seven Americans discussed Walter Hauser, the Swami and their great Indian connection.
'There's something divine about the month of June,' Michael said. 'My father was born and died in June. My mother was also born in June. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati too died in June.'
Jha chimed in, 'Americans usually prefer to travel to India in the winters, but they (the Hausers) came calling in sweltering June to be part of a momentous occasion.'
'One more thing that could have brought them here in June is mangoes,' he added in jest.
It was in 1957 that Walter Hauser first came to India. A scholar deeply interested in 'peasant studies', Hauser chose undivided Bihar for his thesis.
What fascinated Hauser most was the peasant mobilisation in Bihar in the 1920s and 30s under Saraswati. Born as Naurang Rai in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, Saraswati, who set up Shree Sitaram Ashram in Bihta near Patna, founded the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in 1929 and spearheaded a peasant movement that culminated in the setting up of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in 1936.
After that first visit in 1957, Hauser's travels to India became more frequent, including visits to Barhiya Tal in Bihar's Lakhisarai – the epicentre of the Barhiya Tal Bakasht Land Movement for tenancy rights in the 1930s.
Despite having written his thesis on the peasant movement, Hauser was reluctant to convert it into a book, his family said. It was Kailash Chandra Jha, now chairman of the Shree Sitaram Ashram that Hauser once frequented and a historian in his own right, who finally convinced him to do so in 2018, thus leading to the publication of The Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha 1929–1942: A Study of an Indian Peasant Movement.
The same year, Hauser and Jha translated Saraswati's autobiography, Mera Jeevan Sangharsh, into English. Co-authored by Hauser and Jha, the book, My Life Struggle, has been cited as a seminal work that helped the American scholar understand and analyse Saraswati's contribution.
Hauser's children, Michael and Sheela, recalled their father's stories of Saraswati's 'extraordinary fight for the ordinary men'.
'I remember how we would have meetings with Southeast Asian scholars on many Fridays. My father was so immersed in the Swami's principles that every discussion at these meetings would veer around his (Saraswati's) life and times and the lasting impact he had on the lives of common folks,' Michael, who went to primary school in Patna, said. Sheela added, 'My father's legacy has now been transferred to the third generation with my daughter Rosemary Hauser Jose.'
At the mention of her name, Rosemary, who's in her early 20s, smiled and said, 'I have grown up listening to stories of Swami from my grandparents. Swami is a part of our lives now.'
Hauser's students William R Pinch and Wendy Sinder, too, have been greatly influenced by Hauser's ideological leanings, with both focusing their work on Indo-centric studies. Pinch, a professor of history and Global South Asian Studies at Wesleyan University, has authored several books on Indian history, including Warrior, Ascetics and Indian Empires and Peasants and Monks in British India. Likewise, Singer is an associate professor of South Asian history and director of international studies at Kenyon College in Ohio's Gambier, whose body of works includes books such as Independent India and Creating Histories: Oral Narratives and Politics of History Making.
Talking about Saraswati's legacy, Pinch said, 'Monks have been instruments of social and political changes. Even Mahatma Gandhi visited Allahabad once to attend the Kumbh Mela and understand the social and religious connect of ascetics and sanyasis. Monks would leave behind their family but still talk of and work for society.'
Saraswati's impact can be seen in how the farmers' protest in Punjab forced the central government to withdraw the contentious farm laws, Singer, who returned to India after 40 years, said. 'Swami's life and works show the vibrancy of democracy in India. Walter was drawn to Swami because he led a social change in Bihar — the land of movements,' she added.
Jha, who has been instrumental in keeping the social reformer's legacy alive, talked about the time Hauser sought an audience in the 1950s with the then President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad.
'His first request was rejected outright. Then he wrote another letter saying that as a Fulbright scholar, he wanted to pay his respects to the President. This time, he got 15 minutes. Dr Rajendra Prasad came to meet him wearing his signature cap. But the moment he started discussing peasants and the Swami, Prasad removed his cap, squatted on his sofa and talked to Hauser for 75 minutes,' he said.
Dr Satyajit Singh, a leading Patna doctor and a trustee of the Bihta ashram, said: 'We are so overwhelmed at the Hauser family coming to Patna to pay an unusual tribute to Swami's memories on his 75th death anniversary. This has motivated us to make the ashram more vibrant and keep Swami's legacy alive'.
Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte. Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
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