The Sangh’s Ideologue: Deendayal Upadhayaya

Why has NaMo choose to speak at Nagla Chandrabhan on the anniversary of the BJP’s year in power?

Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaya. (Photo: bjp.org)

DDUGJY. That is not gibberish. It’s an acronym worth a cool Rs. 43,033 crore. The ‘Deendayal Upadhayaya Gram Jyoti Yojana’ (DDUGJY) signed, sealed and passed by the Indian Cabinet in November 2014 aims to facilitate the judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers, along with strengthening and augmenting the sub-transmission and distribution of infrastructure in rural areas.

The choice of nomenclature is part of Prime Minister Modi and the Bhartiya Janata Party’s attempts to reach back into hallowed antiquity, and touch upon the history of the party and associated organisations, the extended Sangh Parivar. Their modus operandi is going heavy on symbolism.

A show of said symbolism, is the reason Prime Minister Modi’s speech marking the BJP’s first year in power is being made from ‘Deen Dayal Dham’ a rally ground in the village of Nagla Chandrabhan, Mathura district. The birthplace of Pandit Deendayal Upadhayaya.

Who is Pt. Deendayal Upadhayay?

Pandit Deendayal Upadhayaya (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya is the stuff of legend for the RSS. He is the man every chap in khaki shorts and a white shirt looks up to as the ‘ideal swayamsevak of the RSS.’ Essentially because ‘his discourse reflected the pure thought-current of the Sangh’.

Pandit Upadhayaya was an economist, educationalist, orator, politician, thinker, philosopher, writer, journalist etc. His remarkable capacity for organisation and soaring idealism more than reflected each of these different aspects.

“Panditji” acquired the appellation as a joke when he went to give a Government-conducted competitive exam in a dhoti and kurta, but lived up to it through his life’s work and in the end millions were to use it as a sign of their love and respect for him.

Integral Humanism Doctrine

In 1965, the Jana Sangh adopted ‘Integral Humanism’ as its official doctrine. It is also the BJP’s official philosophy. Pandit Upadhayaya was the man responsible for the development of this doctrine. According to him, India needed to develop an indigenous economic model that puts the human being at center stage.

It opposed both Marxist socialism as well as western capitalist individualism, but welcomed western science. “Panditji” evaluated the merits of socialism and capitalism and sought middle ground between both systems, while heavily criticising their excesses and alienness.

Clout in the Sangh

Pandit Upadhyaya’s induction into the RSS came about after he engaged in intellectual discussions with K.B. Hedgewar, the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh aka the RSS. After recieving training at the RSS Education Wing he became a life long pracharak and dedicated himself to working full-time for the RSS from 1942.

Syama Prasad Mookherjee, Founder-President, Bhartiya Jana Sangh (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

If I had two Deendayals. I could transform the political face of India
— Syama Prasad Mookherjee, Founder-President, Bharatiya Jana Sangh

Deendayal Upadhayaya rose through the ranks of the Sangh, and in 1951 when Syama Prasad Mookherjee founded the Bhartiya Jana Sangh, Upadhayaya was tasked with beating it into the right mould and ensure that it would become a genuine member of the Sangh Parivar. And Upadhayay eventually became the All-India General Secretary, deeply impressing Mookherjee in the process.

Assassination

Upadhyaya boarded the first-class coupe of the Sealdah-Pathankot Express from Lucknow to Patna on February 11, 1968. The next morning his body was found lying parallel to the railway tracks outside Mughalserai station.

A probe into the murder concluded that he had been pushed out of the compartment by unidentified thieves and died after his head struck against a traction pole. Some money was found in his hand and led to the conclusion that he tried to get off a moving train and a mishap occurred.

The Sangh cadres still lack closure with regard to one of their most illustrious heroes. And one can only wonder what the Jana Sangh would have been like with a man like Pandit Upadhayaya at its helm.