TOPIC:
- GS-I: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present – significant events, personalities, issues
“DEENDAYAL UPADHYAYA is to the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] what Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was to Congress” opined R. Balashankar, former editor of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s (RSS) organ Organiser
Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya is undoubtedly the most significant ideologue of the contemporary Hindutva movement. Upadhyaya’s writings and speeches on the principles and policies of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, his philosophy of ‘Integral Humanism’ and his vision for the rise of modern India, constitute the most comprehensive articulation of what might be described as a BJP ideology.
In 1951, when Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Deendayal became the first general secretary of its UP branch. Next he was chosen as all-India general secretary. The acumen and meticulousness shown by Deendayal deeply impressed Dr Mookerjee and elicited his famous remark: ‘If I had two Deendayals, I could transform the political face of India.’
After Dr Mookerjee’s death in 1953, the entire burden of nurturing the orphaned organisation and building it up as a nation-wide movement fell on the young shoulders of Deendayal. For 15 years, he remained the outfit’s general secretary and built it up, brick by brick. He raised a band of dedicated workers imbued with idealism and provided the entire ideological framework of the outfit.
Political ideologies
Three cardinal principles for Indian politics:
Hindu revivalism and Deendayal Upadhyaya
Chief Architect of Doctrine of integral humanism
Deriving from Shankara’s Advaitavad and similar to Buddha’s middle path, Deen Dayal Upadhaya’s Integral Humanism is a negation of the extreme prospects of Capitalism as well as Marxism.
Integral Humanism is different from western ideologies.
Most of western ideologies are based on materialism, emphasising more on development in economic term and eventually every individual is treated as economic man. His social contacts, his cultural milieu and special bent of mind is ignored in this theory. Economic without ethics and political discourse without morality are creating crisis in society. Therefore he propounded that every economic theory and policy should be in context of specialism, local tradition and nature, and temperament of people. In Indian thought he said- dharm kaam arth moksh– all four are important. If there is balance between them, there is social equilibrium.
Dharma and religion are different in Indian context. Dharma is more related to morality of person in individual and collective life. It is less about religion. But religion in western countries is more concerned about sects. There is difference between sects and dharma. No society can live without dharma but can live without religion. Dharma is above religion. On the basis of this truth, he propounded Integral Humanism.
Integral Humanism is critical of individualism as well as Communism as social systems. It defines society as a natural living organism with a definitive national soul. Integral humanism insists upon the infusion of religious and moral values in politics. It seeks a culturally authentic mode of modernization that preserver the values of Hinduism.
Integral humanism consists of visions organized around two themes-
Thus, Integral Humanism revolves around the basic themes of harmony, primacy of cultural-national values and discipline. This doctrine of Pandit Upadhyay is quite relevant even in the present political and economic situation of India.
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