Book Review: All in One

‘Deendayal Upadhyaya World of Literature: Annotated Bibliography’, Publication: MoonArc Creations; Pp 240, "499.00

The thoughts of Deendayal Upadhyaya, the visionary Indian thinker who played a key role in building the organisational structure of Bharatiya Jana Sangh and scripted the ideological base for the present Bharatiya Janata Party, have attracted attention of researchers across the world. Dozens of Chairs have been created in different State and Central Universities across India, particularly after the formation of BJP-led Government at the Centre or in States. Scores of academic researchers have started work on different thoughts of Deendayalji and their practical implementation.

Since such studies require original content written by the concerned thinkers, all the researchers working on Deendayal Upadhyaya thoughts are in search of the original content written by Deendayalji in the form of articles, columns in newspapers, books, concept notes or resolutions prepared for the Jana Sangh, speeches delivered on different occasions, letters written to different workers and personalities in various decades. What has been in the public domain are some books written by Dr. Mahesh Chandra Sharma. Now the publication of ‘Complete Works of Deendayal Upadhyaya’ in both Hindi and English in 15 volumes has met the demand of the researchers to some extent. Fact is that there are about 200 books which are in the public domain on different thoughts of Deendayalji.

Most people are not aware that Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya himself authored more than a dozen books. The prominent books authored by him are: Samrat Chandragupt (1946), Jagadguru Shri Shankaracharya (1947), Akhand Bharat Kyon? (1952), Hamara Kashmir (1953), Tax yaa Loot (1954), Two Plans: Promises, Performance, Prospects (1958), Integral Humanism: An Analysis of Some Basic Facts, Bharatiya Arthinidhi: Vikas Ki Ek Disha (1958), Siddhant aur Nitiyan (1964), Vishvashghat (1965), Vachanbhang: Tashkent Ghoshana ke Shav Pareeksha (1966), Devaluation: A Great Fall (1966), Political Diary (1968), Rashtra Jeevan Ki Disha (1971), Rashtra Chintan, etc. Also, there are books published by Bharatiya Jana Sangh in the form of resolutions on different issues, party documents, speeches delivered by different leaders on different occasions.

Apart from it, important books have been written by visionary leaders like Dattopant Thengadi, P. Parameshwaran, Nanaji Deshmukh, etc. who worked with Deendayal Upadhyaya in the Jana Sangh and explained his varied thoughts in different contexts. There are seven volumes titled ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya—Ideology and Perception’ written by Dattopant Thengadi, V.V. Nene, B.K. Kelkar, Sharad Anant Kulkarni, C.P. Bhishkar, B.N. Jog and V.N. Deodhar. These seven volumes are early publications after the assassination of Deendayalji and are very useful in understanding his thoughts. About a hundred books have been written on Deendayal Upadhyaya by some eminent authors like Shri Guruji, Sudharkar Raje, Kamal Kishore Goenka, Dr. Mahesh Chandra Sharma, Devendra Swarup, Amit Shah, Prof. Sanjay Dwivedi, Krishnanand Sagar, Prabhat Jha, Anil Datt Mishra, Renu Saini, Prof. Kaushal Kishore Mishra and Vijay Kumar Malhotra, etc. Since all these books are not available at one place anywhere in the country, the researchers do not know what is in which book. As a result, they are not able to get an insight on Deendayal Upadhyay’s thoughts because of the lack of sufficient literature. There are some researchers who want to conduct comparative studies on Deendayal Upadhyaya and other thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Karl Marx, etc. They get sufficient original content written by these thinkers, but they do not get the original content written by Deendayal Upadhyaya. This hindrance prevents them from starting a serious comparative study.

All these problems of the researchers have now been resolved with the publication of the first ever annotated bibliography ‘Deendayal Upadhyaya World of Literature: Annotated Bibliography’. This first ever annotated bibliography on Deendayal Upadhyaya has been Co-authored by Prof. (Dr.) Pramod Kumar, who is a professor in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi. Prof. Kumar has also worked with ‘Organiser Weekly’ for more than two decades in different capacities. This bibliography was basically prepared by him while he was working as an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Deendayal Upadhyaya Studies, Central Universities of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), Dharamshala.

Applauding this wonderful work, Dr Mahesh Chandra Sharma says that ‘Deendayal Upadhyaya World of Literature: Annotated Bibliography’ would prove to be highly helpful in all the future research on the thoughts of great Indian visionary Deendayal Upadhyaya. Eminent scholar Shri Ravindra Mahajan, in ‘Foreword’ of the book writes: “Prof. (Dr.) Pramod Kumar and Prof. Arun Kumar deserve thanks from the academic community of the social sciences stream as well social activists engaged in the nation-rebuilding activity in various walks  of national life for bringing out this annotated  bibliography”.

This annotated bibliography is the first effort in the country to provide all the writings of Deendayalji and also the work of other scholars on him at a single platform. It should have been done decades back. But better late than never! 

“This annotated bibliography is the first effort in the country to provide all the writings of Deendayalji and also the work of other scholars on him at a single platform. It should have been done decades back. But better late than never! It will help the researchers, scholars and general readers to understand Deendayalji in a better way,” says Director General of IIMC Prof. Sanjay Dwivedi while commenting on this work name? Vice Chancellor of Kushabhau Thakre Journalism & Mass Communication University, Raipur, says, “This work will be a milestone in promoting research on the thoughts of Deendayalji. It is indeed a real tribute to Deendayal Upadhyaya!” The 240 pages book is in English and has been published by MoonArc Creations, Naraingarh, Ambala, Haryana. The book is available at Rs 499.

Apart from Hindi and English books, the literary work on Deendayal Upadhyaya in Punjabi and Marathi languages have also been included in this annotated bibliography. It also has information about video content available in online sources on Deendayalji. It is highly useful particularly for the academic researchers who are working on the thoughts of Deendayal Upadhyaya in different educational or research institutions. The second volume of the book will have books on Deendayal Upadhyaya published in all Indian languages.