Tilak Raj Bhagat
Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay was born on 25th of September 1916 at Nagla Chanderbhan village in Mathura District of Uttar Pradesh. He was fondly called Deena by his family members. Deendayal means ‘One who has mercy for poor and is kind to the poor’. He had a very difficult and tough childhood as he lost his parents by the age of 7 years. He was brought up and educated at his maternal grandfather’s home. Thus, deprived of love and affection of his parents in childhood, Pandit Deendayal gained strength from the negative forces and sufferings around him and developed a unique personality. He was a brilliant student during his school days and did his schooling from different places such as Gangapur, Kota, Rajgarh, Sikar and Pilani.
* Samarpan Diwas *
He was honored with a gold medal for securing first position in the board exam by the Maharaja Kalyan Singh of Sikar along with a monthly scholarship of Rs 10 and Rs 250 per month for books as recognition of his merit. Pandit Deendayal went to Pilani for inter-mediate where he obtained distinction in all the subjects and topped in board exam of 1937. Then, he joined Sanatan Dharma College Kanpur in 1939 and qualified BA in first Division. In 1939, he moved over to Agra and joined St John’s college Agra to pursue a Masters Degree in English Literature but could not continue his studies and did not take up his exams due to some family and financial issues. Deendayal came to be known as Panditji for appearing in the Civil Services examination, wearing traditional Indian Dhoti-Kurta and cap. Again, at this exam, he topped the list of selectees.
Pandit Deendayal came into contact with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh through his classmate Balaji Mahashbde. In 1942, he joined RSS as a full-time worker called ‘Parcharak’. There, he met the founder of the party K B Hedgewar, underwent a 40-day camp in Sangh education, and a second-year training in RSS education wing. After this, he became a lifelong Parcharak of RSS, first for Lakhimpur district and then as a regional organiser of UP and was rewarded as an ideal Swayamsevak.
In 1949, Pandit Deendayal Uphadhaya started monthly ‘Rashtra Dharma’ paper from Lucknow in view of spreading the ideology of Hindutva nationalism. Later on, he also started weekly ‘Panchjanya’ and then daily Swadesh from Kanpur. He wrote a Hindi drama on Chandragupta Maurya, as biography of Shankracharaya and translated Marathi biography of Hedgewar.
In 1951, Dr Shyam Prasad Mukherjee founded Bhartiya Jana Sangh. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was rewarded to party by RSS, bestowed with the responsibility of moulding it into a genuine member of ‘Sangh Parivar’. He was appointed as General Secretary of party’s Uttar Pradesh branch and later as the All-India General Secretary. He remained General Secretary for 15 long years.
Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’s message was to build a strong and prosperous Indian nation on the foundation of Indian culture which guarantees freedom, equality and justice to all (Dharamayajya), maximum good to all i.e. benefit to the last man standing in a line. He visualized a decentralized polity and self-reliant economy with village being the core, throughout India, as an independent nation cannot rely upon a Western concept like individualism to capitalism. In 1968, in the capacity of President of Jana Sangh, while addressing thousands of delegates in the Calicut session, a message was delivered through his speech that we are pledged to the service not of any particular community or section but of the entire nation. Every resident is blood of our blood and flesh of our flesh, we shall not rest till we are able to give to every one of them a sense of pride that they are children of ‘Bharat Mata’. We shall make Mother India ‘Sujala Suphala’ (overflowing with water and laden with fruits) in real sense of these words. As Dashapraharerna Dharini Durga (Goddess Durga with her 10 weapons) she would be able to vanquish evils, as Lakshmi she would be able to disburse prosperity all over and as ‘Saraswati’ she would dispel, the gloom of ignorance and spread the radiance of knowledge all around her. With faith in ultimate victory let us dedicate ourselves to the task. On dark night of February 11, 1968, Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay was found dead at Mugal Sarai Railway yard. This day is observed as ‘Samarpan Diwas’. The country soon realized Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s vision of building a self-reliant India. In 1965, during Indo-Pak War, India had to depend on foreign countries for weapons. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay had said at that time that we need to build an India that is self-reliant not just in agriculture, but also in defense and weaponry.
(The author is a former Chief Engineer J&K).