The man who made the RSS to grow in Mangalore/Karnataka during 1940s, Gopal Bakrey passed away in Pune, Maharashtra, on May 28. He was 90.
Born in 1922 in Nagpur Gopal Bakrey was one of the child Swayamsevak of early RSS in Nagpur during 1927. In 1942, as per the call of the then Sarsanghachalak of RSS, Shri Guruji, he became a Pracharak. He was Pracharak in Mangalore Vibhag of Karnataka from 1942 to 1955, for 13 long years. When new Bellary Vibhag was formed, he received new responsibility as Bellary Vibhag. Hence he contributed to spread the RSS work across North and South Karnataka, during its origin. In 1958, after serving Sangh Shiksha Varg in Nagpur, he was assigned the responsibility of Patna. But in 1960, he retired from Pracharaks life and entered back to personal life after his marriage. He was residing with his family in Ahmedabad and Pune for the last few decades. Karnataka’s top RSS functionaries including Shri K Suryanarayana Rao, Shri Mai Cha Jayadev, Shri Nagabhushan Bhagwat, Shri Chandrashekar Bahdary, Shri Mangesh Bhende and several others expressed their condolences on the demise of the former Pracharak. (VSK, Karnataka)
