98th Birth Anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Observed

September 25, 2014

The 98^th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay was celebrated on the 25^th of September, with the Madhya Pradesh Government establishing a Chair in his honour at Makhanlal University. Pandit Deendayal was an eminent political activist and philosopher. He was a noted leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which is considered a precursor to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). ScreenClip[21]
Pandit Deendayal was born in 1916 in what is now Uttar Pradesh. He excelled in academics since a young age and was even selected to the Provincial Services. However, he chose to dedicate his life to the common man and engage in public service instead of joining the Provincial Services.
A critic of both capitalism and communism, Pandit Deendayal advocated his own brand of Integral Humanism which combined morality in politics and a human centric approach to economics. He strongly supported swadeshi and small scale industrialization. He upheld nationalistic ideals, and believed that blindly adhering to Western ideologies wouldn’t be a suitable path for India.
Along with an active political career, he also engaged in various literary endeavors. He established his own publishing house named Rashtra Dharma Prakashan and brought out the monthly Rashtra Dharma. He also launched and edited the weekly Panchjanya and the daily Swadesh from Lucknow. He also wrote a drama on Chandragupta Maurya, a biography of Shankaracharya and also translated a Marathi biography of K.B.Hedgewar.
He suffered an untimely death in 1968 when he was assassinated in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh.