BJP stands for Indianization as opposed to Westernization in Nehruvian
tradition. Any common Indian accepts Hinduism on religious lines which has
been used by power seekers to attain political and social [Link] 19th
century witnesses movements such as modernism and revivalism among
Hindus to protect their identity and [Link] BJP and its ancestral
organizations owe their roots to revivalists.
The Hindu Mahasabha
The Muslim League sowed the seeds of communal politics in 20th century
and as a reaction to the league movement ,the sentimentally wounded
Hindus formed All India Hindu Mahasabha in 1915 which confined itself to a
voluntary organization during First World War .Under the leadership of
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who became its president in 1937, the
Mahasabha directly took up politics and played the electoral game as a
credible opponent to the Congress and the Muslim League. They opposed the
Leagues demand for Pakistan and made it clear that hindus would never
tolerate partition of India and thus started extreme Hindu communalism.
The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh
The ugly Hindu Muslim communal riots, the soft attitude of British
government towards the Muslims and also the inaction of Gandhijis non
violence led to emergence of a contingent of Hindu nationalists under the
name of RSS under the leadership of Dr. Keshav Baligram Hedgewar. This
Hindu organization recruited young men and adolescents and its objective
was to train a group of Hindumen who would unite the Hindu community for
making India re-independent and a developed society. Dr. Hedgewar
launched this movement of Hindu revitalization in 1925 on Dashara and he
selected a saffron-coloured flag with pictures of God Maruti and Ramdas
Swami for RSS. Participants were recruited from Brahmin caste and they
were asked to attend Akhara during the week and political class on Sunday.
Introducing Lathi as the weapon and a uniform dress code, RSS was the socalled Hindu army. In 1930s RSS expanded massively under G.D Savarkar.
The RSS womens affiliate started in October 1936 and after the death of Dr.
Hedgewar, Madhav Sadashiv Gowalkar became its leader. RSS remained
confined to Northern India.
The tragic assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 made RSS unpopular as
Nathuram Godse was a member of a small volunteer organization of RSS-the
Hindu Rashtra [Link] heads of RSS and Mahasabha were arrested and RSS
was banned. Guru Gowalkar started dialogue with Congress for merger but
this resolution was dropped due to severe opposition from Nehru after his
return to India.
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh
The resignation of Dr. Shyam Prasad Mookerjee provided a strong impetus to
Golwalker. Dr. Mookerjee started strong efforts to form a new opposition
party and he consulted RSS, Mahasabha, Arya Samaj and Ram Rajya Parshad
in this [Link] on October 21,1951, the Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh,as
an All India Party was inaugurated with Dr. Shyam Prasad Mookerjee as its
founder President. It included the hard core RSS activists and former Hindu
Maha Sabhaites and the role laid down for the party by its founder was that it
should act as a conservative and democratic opposition party in the country
which should be the guardian of democratic rights of people and liberties in
power. Jan Sangh chose the party symbol as Deepak and BJS never left its
Hindu identity. However, the anti-communalist policy of Jawaharlal Nehru
constrained the party to restrict its nationalist campaign and RSS took
initiatives to form another organization-The Vishwa Hindu Parishad. BJS
performed well on electoral and political front and Jay Prakash Narayan
launched his movement for total revolution in 1973-74 which was the first
ever lifesize event for BJS.
In 1977, BJS decided to merge with Janata Party. This merger did cost BJS on
its identity but it enabled them to operate on a wider social base. Differences
between RSS and Janata Party were unavoidable and ultimately led to
fragmentation of Janata Party and BJS had to walk out.
Formation of Bharatiya Janta Party
After the political debacle in 1980, BJS decided to go alone and reconstitute
itself as an All India [Link] leader of erstwhile BJS, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
became the founding President of BJP. The social vision was inspired by
Gandhian ideology and JPs leadership and it was a glimmer of hope for
Indian democracy.
