T.L. Vaswani

Founder

T.L. Vaswani is the founder of Sadhu Vaswani Mission [1], an Indian non-profit working on faith-based service, education, healthcare and animals from Pune.

Thanwardas Lilaram Vaswani (1879–1966), generally known as Sadhu Vaswani, was an Indian educationist, writer and spiritual teacher. He founded the Mira Movement in Education and established St Mira's School in Hyderabad, Sindh; his work is continued by the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, based in Pune.

Early life and education

Vaswani was born in Hyderabad in Sindh, then part of British India and now in Pakistan. He took a BA from the University of Bombay in 1899 and an MA in 1902.

Career

He worked as a professor of history and philosophy at colleges in Calcutta and Karachi before devoting himself to education and religious teaching.

He was an early supporter of Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement and took part in the Indian independence effort, writing books on Indian society and nationalism including India Arisen and Apostles of Freedom. He founded the Mira Movement in Education, which emphasised the education of girls, and started St Mira's School at Hyderabad in Sindh.

Vaswani taught respect for all religious traditions, saying that he was made so as to rejoice in the many rather than to believe only one thing at a time. He was also a lifelong advocate of vegetarianism and non-violence towards animals.

After the partition of India he moved to Pune in 1948, where he continued his educational and spiritual work until his death in 1966.

Legacy

The Sadhu Vaswani Mission in Pune carries on his educational, medical and charitable work. His birth anniversary is observed by the mission as International Meatless Day. The Government of India issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honour, and the Darshan Museum, devoted to his life and teaching, opened in Pune in 2011.[2][3]

Sadhu Vaswani Mission

The Sadhu Vaswani Mission is headquartered in Pune and carries forward the work of Sadhu T L Vaswani, later led by Dada J P Vaswani and now by Didi Krishna Kumari. Its institutions include St Mira's schools and college, the Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital, a skill development institute, animal welfare programmes and free food distribution. It observes Sadhu Vaswani's birth anniversary on 25 November as Meatless Day.

Sadhu Vaswani Mission reports the following, on its own site:

As of September 2025, more than 500 women from underprivileged backgrounds had successfully completed courses at the Sadhu Vaswani Mission's Dada Vaswani Skill Development Institute in Pune, many of them going on to earn a living.