Facing death of close ones at an early age leaves one disinterested in life. But one amongst them who surpassed all the sorrows and moved ahead to become the leader of one of the most distinct and powerful political parties in Bharat was Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Known to be an important activist in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (now Bharatiya Janata Party). Deendayal Upadhyaya refused to step into the shoes of western oligarchy, exploitations and capitalism. In fact he emphasised on building a democracy that spoke for the public and its ideals.
As WriterIt was during the publication of Rashtradharm, a monthly journal, during 1940s in Lucknow that the journalist in him emerged. During his tenure with RSS, he started the weekly Panchjanya and the daily Swadesh. He sketched the drama Chandragupta Maurya and penned the biography of Shankaracharya in Hindi. He translated the biography of RSS founder Dr KB Hedgewar from Marathi to Hindi. His other renowned literary works include Samrat Chandragupta (1946), Jagatguru Sankaracharya (1947), Akhand Bharat Kyon? (1952), Bharatiya Arthniti: Vikas Ki Disha (1958), The Two Plans: Promises, Performances, Prospects (1958), Rashtra Jivan Ki Samasyayen (1960), Devaluation: A Great Fall (1966), Political Diary (1968), Rashtra Chintan, Integral Humanism, and Rashtra Jivan Ki Disha. |
Born on September 25, 1916, in the sacred region of Brij in the village of Nagla Chandraban in Mathura District, he was called ‘Deena’ by his family members. He lost his parents before he was eight and thus started living with his maternal uncle. It was Deendayal's aunt who brought up Deena and his younger brother like her own children.
The ten year old Deendayal became the guardian for his younger brother Shivdayal ; he looked after him and took care of all his needs. When he was in the ninth class his younger brother got smallpox. Deendayal tried his best to save Shivdayal , but Shivdayal died and thus Deendayal was left all alone. n
Schooling The circumstances were such that there were no proper arrangements for his regular schooling till Deendayal was nine. He started his education in 1925 when he came to stay with his maternal uncle at Gangapur. The conditions were not conducive to pursue his studies at Gangapur. He studied at Kota till class seven. He came to Rajgarh to do his class eight where his extraordinary talent in arithmetic was noticed. It is said that when Deendayalji was in class nine, students of class ten would come to him for tuitions. He had to shift to Sikar when his uncle was transferred there. It was from Sikar that Deendayalji matriculated. He stood first in the board exam and the then ruler, Maharaja Kalyan Singh of Sikar, presented him with a gold medal, a monthly scholarship of Rs.10 and Rs.250 towards his books, as recognition of his merit. |
A concept founded by Deendayalji which moved on to become the political philosophy practiced by the Bharatiya Jana Sangh . Integral Humanism advocates the simultaneous and integrated programme of the body, mind and intellect and soul of each human being. He believed that intellectuals of Bharat were getting suffocated by the Western theories and ideologies and consequently, there was a big roadblock on the growth and expansion of original Bharatiya thought.
He was moving ahead with his plans of expanding the Bharatiya thought , but destiny had some thing else written for him and it was on the dark night of February 11, 1968, Deendayalji was fiendishly pushed into the jaws of death and was found dead at Mughalsarai Railway yard.
—Aniket Raja
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