Girish Chandra Mishra
PT. Deendayal Upadhyaya was born on 25.9.1916 in Nagla Chandrabhan, a village near Mathura district. He lost his parents when he was only nine years old. After their sad demise, the maternal grandfather and maternal uncle (Nana and Mama) of Deendayalji brought him up and helped him to continue his education. Since they held the post of station masters in Rajasthan they were transferred from place to place. So Panditji studied in various schools.
Deendayalji was a very brilliant student. He passed his high school examination from Birla College Pillani securing not only first division but also got first rank with a gold medal in the whole Rajputana Board. Similarly, in the Intermediate Examination he got the same rank with gold medal. Birlaji was so much pleased on hearing about his meritorious position that he also gave him a gold medal. He passed his BA Examination from SD College, Kanpur securing First Division. He also passed L.T. Examination from Allahabad.
Deendayalji had also appeared in Provincial Civil Services (PCS) examination. The candidates who had come wearing tie and suit were surprised to see this simple dressed youth only wearing dhoti, kurta and a cap was selected in PCS. But he did not join the service to serve the British masters because they were foreign rulers. He resolved to serve his nation throughout his life by becoming a full time Pracharak of the RSS. The then Prant Pracharak of RSS of Uttar Pradesh was Shri Bhau Rao Deoras who had great influence on Deendayalji. He was also very much impressed by Deendayalji’s simplicity, brilliance and selfless devotion and dedication.
His first posting in RSS was in Lakhimpur-Kheri (UP) as District Pracharak. There he came in contact with prominent persons in the RSS like Pt. Shyam Narayan Mishra and Kunj Bihari Lal Rathi advocates and dozens of such persons.
Later on RSS decided to start a publishing centre in Lucknow known as Rashtra Dharma Prakashan in 1947 on August 15. Its first publication was Rashtra Dharma a monthly magazine. Deendayalji was managing director of the Prakashan and Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pt Rajiv Lochan Agnihotri were joint editors. Whenever they asked for his advice Pt Deendayalji not only guided the editors but also guided printing workers and even accountants. Rashtra Dharma during his regime worked as a family. The first issue of Rashtra Dharma when appeared in the market, its articles and editorial comments surprised even great literary persons, and prominent journalists. Deendayalji wrote in the magazine anonymously. Later on, Panchjanya a Hindi weekly was started in January 14, 1948 on ‘Makar Sankranti day’ under the editorship of Atal Behari Vajpayee. This also made a mark.
Later on, unfortunately due to Mahatma Gandhiji’s assassination on January 30, 1948, both the papers were banned by the government and the Press was sealed.
We know that RSS was also banned by the government after Gandhiji’s assassination on February 3, 1948. This ban was lifted on July 13, 1949. Thousands of RSS workers were put behind the bars during the ban along with RSS Chief Shri MS Golwalkar (Guruji). Deendayalji had also suffered during this period.
