Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya - Ideology and Perception (Set of 7 Volumes)

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ISBN-

Part I: 9789381500767

Part II: 9789381500774

Part III: 9789381500781

Part IV: 9789381500798

Part V: 9789381500804

Part VI: 9789381500811

Part VII: 9789381500828

Part I

An Inquest (D.B. Thengadi)

Shri Dattatreya Balkrishna Thengadi Shri D.B. Thengadi deserves a special mention amongst the gifted leaders in different fields who emerged from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and who had the benefit of a long and intimate contact with Late Shri Guruji. He was a man of sharp intelligence; he was a studious thinker, skilled organiser and a man with life dedicated to the nation. He was a life-time pracharak (propagator) of RSS. He started Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and led it to its present powerful state. He worked for Vidyarthi Parishad, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Sahakar Bharati and many other organisations. All the same his active participation in RSS remained undiminished and his basic thoughts about RSS have remained steadfast.

He was popular among the common people due to his simple nature and loving temperament-this in spite of the great fame he has attained. In spite of the high pressure of organisational work, he has done extensive theoretical writing. Like Pandit Deendayalji, he has also attained a high status as a commentator of the philosophy underlying the Hindu way of life. This will be obvious from the essay with which he has prefaced this book; this essay brings out his extensive reading and deep thinking. It may be pointed out that the authors of the various parts of this book have received his valuable guidance. This much activity for a man in his last span of life was really amazing.

Contents

Part II

Integral Humanism (V.V. Nene)

Shri Vinayak Vasudev Nene-The philosophy of Integral Humanism has been presented in this volume by Shri V.V. Nene, popularly known as Shri Rajabhau Nene. Shri Nene is a cautious organizer, critical thinker and a successful journalist. After completing his education he worked as a RSS Pracharak in Gujarat for several years. He has translated Shri Guruji’s ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ into Marathi under the title ‘Vichar Dhan’. For a long time he was the Chief Editor of the Marathi Weekly ‘Vivek’. The idea of producing such a volume as this one originated from him. In this connection he had to toil for four years. He managed to find the necessary writers and got it all done with patience and tireless energy. He has done a vast amount of topical writing.

Introduction

More than two decades have elapsed since Pandit Deendayalji left us. In 1951 he started shouldering the responsibility of a new political party. He not only accepted this responsibility as one of the many activities in the task of nation building but with his perseverance, purity of character, amiable nature and extraordinary organisational skill, raised his party to the second place among the Indian political parties of the day. His appraisal by Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherji in the words “Give me two Deendayals and I will completely change the face of this nation” is abundantly vocal. Even more eloquent is a remark by Shri M.S. Golwalkar (Sar Sanghchalak, RSS) viz. “If the sole credit of making Jan Sangh a national party can be ascribed to a single person-that person must be Deendayalji who, starting from a scratch, raised it to its present enviable position.”

This achievement of Deendayalji is undoubtedly extraordinary in the political field. But there is another aspect of his personality, that is equally important. This other aspect is that he is an original and gifted thinker and his political achievement is a by-product of the philosophy he propounded. His thinking proceeds from the individual, reaches and transcends humanity, stopping only at God or the ultimate reality. (For repeated reference we shall abridge the phrase Philosophy of Integral Humanism to an achronym PIH.)

In the All India Representatives’ Conference of Jan Sangh held in January 1965 at Vijayawada, Panditji presented his thesis on PIH (Philosophy of Integral Humanism). And this has all along formed not only the political ideology of Jan Sangh but has guided its policies whether political, social, economic etc.

About three months after the Conference i.e. in April, 1965 Panditji delivered 4 lectures on the policy and ideology of Jan Sangh. The first lecture gave the background of the Exposition of PIH. He said, “The politics and the demonstrations before the dawn of Independence had the sole purpose of achieving independence. But sufficient thought had not been given to the course to follow after independence. Of course Gandhiji had written about this in his ‘Hind Swaraj’ and Lokmanya Tilak had discussed this earlier in his book ‘Geeta Rahasya’ while dilating on the principle behind the independence movement. Also the resolutions passed from time to time by the Congress and other parties had given thought to this. But all this was not very serious as compared to its importance. The reason for the scanty thought to post-independence reconstruction was natural as the pressing need of the time was independence. And now even after about 16 years since attainment of independence, one cannot say that there is any definite direction to post- independence reconstruction.

“After the departure of the British it was natural that their influence on politics, social thinking and ideals in life should have gradually disappeared. But actually we find that the influence is on the increase. We are proud to speak their language, respect their manners and dress like them. Not only this but we keep as models before us their social science, their ideas of morality and their political ideas. Vedas, Upanishads, Smritis, Geeta and Puranas are set aside and we look up to what Mill, Hegel, Adam Smith, Marx and Engels say.

“Really speaking, every nation should think of its own ethos. Freedom without it has no meaning. Every nation wants to live a happy and prosperous life according to its own nature and that is the motive behind its intense desire for freedom. The nation that tries to follow a path of thought and action discordant with its own nature, meets with disaster. This is the reason why our nation has been caught up in a whirlpool of difficulties.” The above quotations are adequate to indicate the lines on which Panditji thought about our nation. Having undertaken the responsibility of national reconstruction, it was natural for him to think about politics and economics in a fundamental and comprehensive way. But the philosophy of integral Humanism which he advocated does not stop at the nation stage but goes far ahead. Some idea of this can be gained from what Panditji said in the concluding remarks of his lectures. He said, “We must also consider whether we can do something to lift the world out of its present confused and bewildered state. Instead of merely being a burden on the world we must contemplate on what we can offer to the world in consonance with our culture and traditions. For the past one thousand years we were engaged in repulsing foreign aggressions and regaining our independence. Now that we are free we must make up for this discrepancy.”

The quotation will give some idea of the scope of his PIH. There is nothing new in the idea of thinking about the happiness and progress of humanity as a whole. Lately there has been some thinking about it both in the West and also here in Bharat. Some theories were propounded and experiments done. The process continues. Though there has often been a semblance of a solution, it has not stood the test of time. Actually the thinking and the experiments have given rise to a huge crop of new problems. The scientific and technological development have enabled man to set his foot on the moon, yet the common man is neither above want nor has peace of mind. The PIH points a way out of the trouble.

The Central Idea of PIH The Cental idea of PIH is that while humanity and the entire animate and inanimate nature around man are full of almost infinite diversity, it all has got a common Atma (nearest English rendering is Ethos or Soul). The diversity is superficial. Because of the common Atma, all things naturally are cooperative and complementary. This is expressed by the word Ekatmata.

Man is a conglomerate of body, mind, intellect and soul. Therefore we must think of the well-being and development of all these four consistently with the well-being and progress of the society. Along with the material development we have to consider the moral and spiritual development also. With all this in view, Bharatiya culture has placed four objectives before every individual. These objectives are called the Purusharthas.

The four Purusharthas (Objectives) are Dharma (moral duties and divine laws), Artha (wealth), Kama (desire) and Moksha (complete liberation and salvation). Everybody has these objectives in mind. But it will be wrong either to assume anyone of these as the sole inspiration for any man or to assume success in it as the only measure of a man’s success in life. Bharatiya culture considers all these as essential. Only when Artha and Kama are secured according to the rules laid down by Dharma, the achievement gives happiness to the individual and benefits the society.

The individual personality made of body, mind, intellect and soul is, however, not confined to ‘I’ only but is related to other people around him. And so the society has also to be considered along with the individual.

Society also has its body, mind, intellect and soul and it also has its four Purusharthas (objectives) in its life. But since the individual and the society are Ekatma, there is no conflict in their interests; they are mutually complementary.

For the attainment of the Purusharthas a number of institutions and systems are created. An individual is involved in more than one of these, i.e. an individual’s personality is multifaceted. Only when an individual thinks and acts in the awareness that he and the society are Ekatma, will his actions be conducive to common good.

Any system, in which an individual is considered only as part of a large heartless machine or at the other extreme regards an individual as a self-centred man who does not care for the society, is a defective system. Similarly, any system, which takes into account only one or two out of the four (body-mind-intellect-soul) needs of man, is also an imperfect system.

The ideal man according to this philosophy is he who takes a view of human life based on the four Purusharthas and works for them; not only this but he looks further beyond the family and the nation right upto the world human community, nay he even goes further and encompasses the whole nature and its maker. If we consider various aspects of life and the systems or arrangements, while constructing a plan to guide human outlook and action, there will be rapid progress in equality, nationality, philanthrophy and world peace; the internal tussle and contradictions met with at present in the attempts of achieving these ideals will vanish and their place will be taken by co-operation and compatibility.

Contents

Part III

Political Thought (B.K. Kelkar)

Shri Bhalchandra Krishnaji Kelkar-Shri B.K. Kelkar, who is a versatile journalist and author and Founder-Director of ‘Maharashtra Parichaya Kendra’, has written a lot for several journals including Navshakti, Vivek, Tarun Bharat. He has also authored several books like ‘Subhash Charitra’, ‘Savarkar Darshan’, ‘Tilak Vichar’, Samaj Sudharak Savarkar’ etc. He was also responsible for the compilation and production of ‘Gopal Krishna Gokhale Memorial volume’, ‘Samagra Tilak’ and the ‘Yashwant Rao Chavan Memorial volume.’

The manner, in which the political thinking of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya has been outlined and his political heritage to his followers successfully interpreted in this volume, is sufficient testimony to the fact that as an author Shri Kelkar is gifted with the quality of going to the root of the matter.

Contents

Part IV

Integral Economic Policy (Sharad Anant Kulkarni)

Shri Sharad Anant Kulkarni-Shri SA Kulkarni is resident of Jalgaon (Maharashtra). He is M. Com. and had also passed IAS exam (written). He has been a RSS Swayamsevak since his boyhood and for some years he also shouldered responsibility of Karyavaha for Jalgaon district. During the Emergency he was in jail at Nasik Road. For livelihood he runs an automobile workshop and also a shop for sale of automobile spare parts. His articles on economic topics have appeared in ‘Vivek’ and ‘Organiser’ and in the books published by Vishal Prakashan.

Contents

Part V

Concept of the Rashtra (C.P. Bhishikar)

Shri Chandrashekhar P. Bhishikar-Shri C.P. Bhishikar, MA, who hails from Nagpur, joined the Editorial Team of the ‘Daily Tarun Bharat’ in 1949. When the Pune edition of Tarun Bharat was launched in 1957, he was appointed it’s Executive Editor; and he worked as Chief Editor, Pune Tarun Bharat from 1964 to 1978. For the last sixteen years he has been contributing a weekly column of a philosophical character in the Sunday edition. Besides daily editorials, he has produced abundant topical writing on a variety of subjects. The Bharatiya Vichar Sadhana, Pune has published his two books Keshavah Sangh Nirmata (on the life and mission of Dr. K.B. Hedgewar, founder of the RSS) and ‘Shri Guruji’.

Four collections of his articles and a number of small booklets proved very popular among his readers. Now that he has retired, he spends his time usefully in writing, reading, activities connected with the RSS and the RSS family. One cannot fail to notice the influence of his spiritual bent of mind on his style and content. He is the Vice- President of the Maharashtra State unit of the RSS sponsored JANA KALYAN SAMITI.

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Part VI

Politics for Nation’s Sake (B.N. Jog)

Shri Balwant N arayan Jog-In this book it is Shri B.N. Jog who has brought out an exposition of the political thinking of Pandit Deendayalji. He was for some time an editor of weekly’ vive«. He has made an in-depth study of the Muslim problem and has published a book ‘Bharatacha Yakshaprashna’ on this subject. He has been a prolific writer on various political topics in different periodicals. He is the author of the book ‘Maoche Ahvan’. Clarity is a special quality of his writings. He has received university education up to MA. At present he is the manager of Travel Company’ Bharat Darshan’. And as such he has widely travelled in our country. He stays in Mulund (East), Bombay.

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Part VII

A Profile (V.N. Deodhar)

About the Author

Shri Vishwanath Narayan Deodhar-A journalist since his youth, Shri Deodhar began with ‘Dainik Bharat’ and ‘Kesari’ as a correspondent. Later on he became Special Representative of the daily ‘Maharashtra Times’ at Delhi. He was Chief Editor of ‘Tarun Bharat’, Pune from 1978 to February 1984. In that capacity he also toured USA on a special invitation in 1983. Now a- days he is working as the Joint Editor of ‘Loksatta’, Bombay. Having earned good fame as a journalist, Shri Deodhar is conversant in keeping personal contacts. He is always to the point in expression of views and along with that his loving nature, eloquence, attractive writings and above all a firm base of nationalist thoughts - all this make his personality remarkably influential.

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