Kochi: Veteran Sangh Pracharak AV Bhaskaran (87), also known as Bhaskar Shenoy, passed away on October 20. His demise coincided with the passing away of intellectual wizard Prof Thuravoor Vishwambharan. Bhaskarji, as AV Bhaskaran was popularly known, was one of the senior most Sangh Pracharaks the Kerala State has produced. He has been a swayamsevak since his teen age. After passing BSc (Zoology) in 1951 he worked in Chennai for a while and then became a Sangh Pracharak in Kerala. Just like former Akhil Bharatiya Bouddhik Pramukh Shri Ranga Hari, Bhaskarji also was a product of the legendary Prant Pracharak K Bhaskar Rao. Hariji and Bhaskarji belonged to the second batch of Kerala’s indigenous Pracharaks, after Kumaran Sir, TN Marthanda Verma, TN Bharathan, P Madhavji and R Venugopal of the first batch.
Bhaskarji worked in almost all districts of Kerala in
different capacities as Zilla Pracharak, Vibhag Pracharak. He courted arrest in connection with the satyagrah against the ban on RSS in 1948. He belonged to one of the richest business families in Kochi; therefore, his family’s lifestyle was entirely different from a Pracharak’s life of meager physical facilities. Although he was away from the family business his parents and brothers did not deny him his due share of the proceeds from the business. He was the only income tax payer among the Pracharaks in the whole country during those days.
During Emergency he carried Sangh activities underground in his Vibhag evading all the efforts of the Police to arrest him. After the lifting of Emergency in 1977, Bhaskarji was assigned the task of launching Vidya Bharati in Kerala. He started the activities of Bharatiya Vidya Nikethan (BVN), the Kerala chapter of Vidya Bharati. By 1981 he was dedicated to BVN. He took over as the State organising secretary of BVN. The remaining part of his life is the history of BVN in Kerala. Now, there are more than 450 BVN schools in Kerala. Several of them are excellent residential schools. He lived in Vyasa Vidya Peetam at Palakkat, the flagship institution of BVN in the State.
A significant characteristic of Bhaskarji was the sincere translation of the RSS doctrine of Tan-Man-Dhan Samarpan (Sacrifice of body, mind and wealth) on the altar of the ideology. Whatever he got from his family business and the share of property he got after the family partition, was dedicated to the RSS inspired organisations in the State. —T Satisan
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