Deendayal Upadhyaya
Encyclopedia
Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (September 25, 1916 - February 11, 1968), along with Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee
, was an important leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh
, now the Bharatiya Janata Party
.
. He lost his father Bhagwati Prasad when he was less than three years old and his mother before he was eight. He was then brought up by his maternal uncle. His parents belonged to the village Nagla Chandrabhan, Near Farah, Mathura district
in Uttar Pradesh
. He lost his parents during his early childhood, but he continued his studies as a shining student. He obtained gold medals both at the Matriculation Board Exam in 1935 and Intermediate Board Exam in 1937 from GD Birla at Pilani
. Pandit completed his intermediate at the Birla College in Pilani which later became the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science
. Later, he did his B.A. and B.T. from Kanpur University
. He even qualified the Civil Service Exam
; but he didn't join civil services as he was fascinated by the idea of making for and working with the common people.
(RSS). He dedicated himself to full-time work in the RSS from 1942. Deendayal Upadhyaya was a man of soaring idealism and had a tremendous capacity for organisation. He started a monthly Rashtra Dharma, a weekly Panchjanya
and a daily Swadesh.
In 1951, when Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh
, Deendayal became the first general secretary of its Uttar Pradesh branch. Next, he was chosen as all-India general secretary. The acumen and meticulousness shown by Deendayal deeply impressed Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee
and elicited his famous remark:
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. He also contended for lok sabha
from Uttar Pradesh, but failed.
- the guiding philosophy of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The philosophy of Integral Humanism advocate the simultaneous and integrated program of the body, mind and intellect and soul of each human being. His philosophy of Integral Humanism, which is a synthesis of the material and the spiritual, the individual and the collective, bears eloquent testimony to this. In the field of politics and economics, he was pragmatic and down to earth. He visualized for India a decentralized polity and self-reliant economy with the village as the base.
Deendayal Upadhyay was convinced that we as an independent nation cannot rely upon Western concepts like individualism
, democracy
, socialism
, communism
, capitalism
etc. and he was of the view that the Indian polity after our independence has been raised upon these superficial Western foundations and not rooted in the timeless traditions of our ancient culture. He was of the view that the Indian intellect was getting suffocated by Western theories and ideologies and consequently there was a big roadblock on the growth and expansion of original Bharatiya thought. He said that there was an urgent public need for a fresh breeze.
He welcomed modern technology but wanted it to be adapted to suit Indian requirements. Deendayal believed in a constructive approach. He exhorted his followers to co-operate with the government when it was right and fearlessly oppose when it erred. He placed nation's interest above everything else. He died in unexpected circumstances and was found dead on 11 February, 1968 at Mughal Sarai Railway yard. The following rousing call he gave to the thousands of delegates in the Calicut session, still rings in their ears:
Pandit Upadhyaya edited Panchjanya
(Weekly) and Swadesh (Daily) from Lucknow
. In Hindi, he has written a drama Chandragupta Maurya
, and later wrote a biography of Shankaracharya
. He translated a Marathi biography of Dr. K.B. Hedgewar, the founder of RSS.
Criticism of Integral Humanism
Integral Humanism remains an inordinately convoluted, confusing and reactionary ideology even today. For instance, integral humanism makes controversial and high-minded statements such as - Machine is an assistant of the worker and not his competitor. This implies a total neglect of the concept of liberty. Entrepreneurs should be able to deploy a machine as and when he deems necessary as long as the worker can operate it safely and the machine does not lead to creation of negative externalities (e.g. pollution). While there are many reasons for deploying a machine, the main purpose is to increase the operating efficiency.
Regarding education it says - To charge fees for something which is in the interest of the society itself seems rather odd. Integral humanism favors free education but does not prescribe how the teachers, professors and academic researchers will be paid as well as they should be - in order to attract greater talent to these professions. It also proposes "Guarantee of work" and free health-care for all. Here, again, it makes the same mistake of not prescribing who will ensure that adequate incentives (financial and other) are in place for talented individuals to enter the medical profession. And how will the necessary disincentives be created to ensure that doctors will not indulge in mal-practices. Specifically regarding free-healthcare - Shri Upadhyay does not even bother with the cost of designing and implementing such a system. Where will the funds come from? And worse yet - do we have the skills and information to be able to co-ordinate and/one manage such a massive endeavor.
Shri Upadhyay systematically ignores technology, price system, incentives and disincentives, moral hazard, adverse selection, externalities (negative as well as positive), cost of information, property rights, costs of culture, transaction costs (the problem of social cost), business/economic cycles, inter-generational altruism, role of credit, contractual and evolutionary nature of institutions and value systems, competition and learning curve. Innovation, risks, uncertainty and costs almost never figure in the entire literature on integral humanism.
Above all integral humanism attempts to impose a particular ideology upon people. It seems to assume that selflessness (altruism) and sacrifice should be of higher priority than self-interest for all people. It ignores the possibility that people can choose their own ideology for themselves and government does not have to choose it for people.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was a minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's Cabinet as a Minister for Industry and Supply....
, was an important leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh existed from 1951 to 1980, whereupon it was succeeded by the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of India's largest political parties...
, now the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
.
Earlier Life and Education
He was born in the village of Dhankia in RajasthanRajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. He lost his father Bhagwati Prasad when he was less than three years old and his mother before he was eight. He was then brought up by his maternal uncle. His parents belonged to the village Nagla Chandrabhan, Near Farah, Mathura district
Mathura District
Mathura District is a district of Uttar Pradesh state of northern India. The historic town of Mathura is the district headquarters.The district is bounded on the northeast by Aligarh District, on the southeast by Hathras District, on the south by Agra District, and on the west by Rajasthan and...
in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
. He lost his parents during his early childhood, but he continued his studies as a shining student. He obtained gold medals both at the Matriculation Board Exam in 1935 and Intermediate Board Exam in 1937 from GD Birla at Pilani
Pilani
Pilani is a small town situated in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. It is in the Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan, India. It notable for being the home of a large number of education institutes for its size.-Etymology:...
. Pandit completed his intermediate at the Birla College in Pilani which later became the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Birla Institute of Technology & Science, is a private university located in Pilani, Rajasthan, India. BITS Pilani is considered one of the most prestigious and selective universities in India...
. Later, he did his B.A. and B.T. from Kanpur University
Kanpur University
Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University , formerly Kanpur University, is a public university located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is administered under the state legislature of the government of Uttar Pradesh. The university has more than 350 affiliated colleges spread over 15 districts of...
. He even qualified the Civil Service Exam
Civil service exam
Civil service examinations are examinations implemented in various countries for admission to the civil service. They are intended as a method to achieve an effective, rational public administration on a merit system....
; but he didn't join civil services as he was fascinated by the idea of making for and working with the common people.
RSS and Jansangh
While he was a student at Sanatan Dharma College, Kanpur, in 1937 he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak SanghRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
(RSS). He dedicated himself to full-time work in the RSS from 1942. Deendayal Upadhyaya was a man of soaring idealism and had a tremendous capacity for organisation. He started a monthly Rashtra Dharma, a weekly Panchjanya
Panchjanya (newspaper)
Panchjanya is an Indian weekly newspaper in Hindi, published by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.Panchjanya was launched under the editorship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the auspicious Makara Sankranti day, 14th January, 1948...
and a daily Swadesh.
In 1951, when Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh existed from 1951 to 1980, whereupon it was succeeded by the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of India's largest political parties...
, Deendayal became the first general secretary of its Uttar Pradesh branch. Next, he was chosen as all-India general secretary. The acumen and meticulousness shown by Deendayal deeply impressed Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was a minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's Cabinet as a Minister for Industry and Supply....
and elicited his famous remark:
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. He also contended for lok sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
from Uttar Pradesh, but failed.
Philosophy
Upadhyaya conceived the political philosophy Integral HumanismIntegral humanism
Integral humanism is the political philosophy practised by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the former Bharatiya Jana Sangh of India. It was first propounded by Deendayal Upadhyayain a brief volume entitled Integral Humanism in 1965, attempting to find a "third path" rejecting both communism and...
- the guiding philosophy of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The philosophy of Integral Humanism advocate the simultaneous and integrated program of the body, mind and intellect and soul of each human being. His philosophy of Integral Humanism, which is a synthesis of the material and the spiritual, the individual and the collective, bears eloquent testimony to this. In the field of politics and economics, he was pragmatic and down to earth. He visualized for India a decentralized polity and self-reliant economy with the village as the base.
Deendayal Upadhyay was convinced that we as an independent nation cannot rely upon Western concepts like individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
, democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
etc. and he was of the view that the Indian polity after our independence has been raised upon these superficial Western foundations and not rooted in the timeless traditions of our ancient culture. He was of the view that the Indian intellect was getting suffocated by Western theories and ideologies and consequently there was a big roadblock on the growth and expansion of original Bharatiya thought. He said that there was an urgent public need for a fresh breeze.
He welcomed modern technology but wanted it to be adapted to suit Indian requirements. Deendayal believed in a constructive approach. He exhorted his followers to co-operate with the government when it was right and fearlessly oppose when it erred. He placed nation's interest above everything else. He died in unexpected circumstances and was found dead on 11 February, 1968 at Mughal Sarai Railway yard. The following rousing call he gave to the thousands of delegates in the Calicut session, still rings in their ears:
Pandit Upadhyaya edited Panchjanya
Panchjanya (newspaper)
Panchjanya is an Indian weekly newspaper in Hindi, published by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.Panchjanya was launched under the editorship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the auspicious Makara Sankranti day, 14th January, 1948...
(Weekly) and Swadesh (Daily) from Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
. In Hindi, he has written a drama Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...
, and later wrote a biography of Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
. He translated a Marathi biography of Dr. K.B. Hedgewar, the founder of RSS.
Criticism of Integral Humanism
Integral Humanism remains an inordinately convoluted, confusing and reactionary ideology even today. For instance, integral humanism makes controversial and high-minded statements such as - Machine is an assistant of the worker and not his competitor. This implies a total neglect of the concept of liberty. Entrepreneurs should be able to deploy a machine as and when he deems necessary as long as the worker can operate it safely and the machine does not lead to creation of negative externalities (e.g. pollution). While there are many reasons for deploying a machine, the main purpose is to increase the operating efficiency.
Regarding education it says - To charge fees for something which is in the interest of the society itself seems rather odd. Integral humanism favors free education but does not prescribe how the teachers, professors and academic researchers will be paid as well as they should be - in order to attract greater talent to these professions. It also proposes "Guarantee of work" and free health-care for all. Here, again, it makes the same mistake of not prescribing who will ensure that adequate incentives (financial and other) are in place for talented individuals to enter the medical profession. And how will the necessary disincentives be created to ensure that doctors will not indulge in mal-practices. Specifically regarding free-healthcare - Shri Upadhyay does not even bother with the cost of designing and implementing such a system. Where will the funds come from? And worse yet - do we have the skills and information to be able to co-ordinate and/one manage such a massive endeavor.
Shri Upadhyay systematically ignores technology, price system, incentives and disincentives, moral hazard, adverse selection, externalities (negative as well as positive), cost of information, property rights, costs of culture, transaction costs (the problem of social cost), business/economic cycles, inter-generational altruism, role of credit, contractual and evolutionary nature of institutions and value systems, competition and learning curve. Innovation, risks, uncertainty and costs almost never figure in the entire literature on integral humanism.
Above all integral humanism attempts to impose a particular ideology upon people. It seems to assume that selflessness (altruism) and sacrifice should be of higher priority than self-interest for all people. It ignores the possibility that people can choose their own ideology for themselves and government does not have to choose it for people.