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Bharatiya Jana Sangh

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Bharatiya Jana Sangh
FounderSyama Prasad Mukherjee
Founded21 October 1951; 73 years ago (21 October 1951)[1]
Dissolved ()
Split fromHindu Mahasabha
Merged intoJanata Party (1977–1980)
Succeeded byBharatiya Janata Party (1980–present)
IdeologyHindu nationalism[2]
Hindutva[3]
Integral humanism[4]
National conservatism[5]
Economic nationalism[6]
Political positionRight-wing[7] to far-right[8]
ReligionHinduism[9]
Colours  Saffron
Election symbol
Diya, a traditional oil lamp, was the symbol of the party

The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbreviated as BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh,[10] was an Indian nationalist political party. This party was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi, and existed until 1977. Its three founding members were Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal Upadhyaya. Jan Sangh was the political arm of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation.[11] In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party.[12] In 1980, the members of erstwhile Jan Sangh quit the Janata party after the defeat in the 1980 general elections and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the direct political successor to the Jan Sangh.

Origins

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Syama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh

Many members of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) began to contemplate the formation of a political party to continue their work, begun in the days of the British Raj, and take their ideology further. Around the same time, Syama Prasad Mukherjee left the Hindu Mahasabha political party that he had once led because of a disagreement with that party over permitting non-Hindu membership.[13][14][15]
Mainly two reasons led to the formation of Jan Sangh- first was the Liaquat–Nehru Pact and second, the ban on RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.[16]
The state level units for Punjab, P.E.P.S.U. (Patiala and East Punjab States Union), Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Bharat were already established before it was formally founded at national level.[17] The BJS was subsequently started by Mukherjee on 21 October 1951[1] in Delhi, with the collaboration of the R.S.S., as a "nationalistic alternative" to the Congress Party.[18]

History

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The first plenary session of Jan Sangh was held at Kanpur in December 1952.[19]

After the death of Mukherjee in 1953, RSS activists in the BJS edged out the career politicians and made it a political arm of the RSS and an integral part of the RSS family of organisations (Sangh Parivar).[20]

The strongest election performance of the BJS came in the 1967 Lok Sabha election in which it won 35 seats,[21][22] when the Congress majority was its thinnest ever.[23]
The party secured six out of seven parliamentary seats in Delhi and went on to wrest control of the Metropolitan Council and Municipal corporation.[24]

Ideology

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Main article: Hindutva

When BJS was formed, an 8-point programme was adopted.This formed the core of its ideology over the next years.[25]

The BJS leadership fervently supported a strong policy against Pakistan and China, and were averse to communism and the Soviet Union. Many BJS leaders also initiated the drive to ban cow slaughter nationwide in the early 1960s.[26]
Establishment of full relations with Israel was also a demand in the party manifesto.[8]
Uniform Civil Code was mentioned in the 1967 manifesto which said that the party would enact UCC if it came to power.[27]

Chronological list of presidents

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# Portrait Name Term
1 Syama Prasad Mukherjee 1951–52
2 Mauli Chandra Sharma 1954
3 Prem Nath Dogra 1955
4 Debaprasad Ghosh 1956–59
5 Pitamber Das 1960
6 Avasarala Rama Rao 1961
(4) Debaprasad Ghosh 1962
7 Raghu Vira 1963
(4) Debaprasad Ghosh 1964
8 Bachhraj Vyas 1965
9 Balraj Madhok 1966
10 Deendayal Upadhyaya 1967–68
11 Atal Bihari Vajpayee 1968–72
12 L. K. Advani 1973–77
See List of presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party

In general elections

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The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was created in 1951, and the first general election it contested was in 1951–52, in which it won only three Lok Sabha seats, in line with the four seats won by Hindu Mahasabha and three seats won by Ram Rajya Parishad. Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Durga Charan Banerjee were elected from Calcutta South East constituency and Midnapore Jhargram constituency in West Bengal and Uma Shankar Trivedi from Chittor constituency in Rajasthan. All the like-minded parties formed a block in the Parliament, led by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.[28][21]

Year General Election Seats Won Change in Seat % of votes Ref.
1951 1st Lok Sabha 3 – 3.06 [28][22]
1957 2nd Lok Sabha 4 Increase 1 5.93 [21][22]
1962 3rd Lok Sabha 14 Increase 10 6.44 [21][22]
1967 4th Lok Sabha 35 Increase 21 9.31 [21][22]
1971 5th Lok Sabha 22 Decrease 13 7.35 [29][22][30]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Founding of Jan Sangh". www.bjp.org. Archived from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  2. ^ Graham, Bruce D. "The Jana Sangh as a Nationalist Rally". Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 94.
  3. ^ Thachil, Tariq (2014). Elite Parties, Poor Voters. Cambridge University Press. p. 42.
  4. ^ Kochanek, Stanley (2007). India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation. Cengage Learning. p. 333.
  5. ^ Baxter, Craig (1969). The Jana Sangh: a biography of an Indian political party. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 171.
  6. ^ Marty, Martin E. (1996). Fundamentalisms and the State. University of Chicago Press. p. 418.
  7. ^ Field, John Osgood. Electoral Politics in the Indian States. Manohar Book Service. p. 28.
  8. ^ a b "Israeli Diplomats Forged Deep Ties With Hindu Right Wing From Early '60s, Documents Reveal". The Wire. 11 March 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  9. ^ [[Lahiry, Sutapa. “JANA SANGH AND BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY : A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THEIR PHILOSOPHY AND STRATEGY AND THEIR PROXIMITY WITH THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SANGH PARIVAR.” The Indian Journal of Political Science, vol. 66, no. 4, 2005, pp. 831–50. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41856171. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.]]
  10. ^ Donald Anthony Low, ed. (1968), Soundings in Modern South Asian History, University of California Press
  11. ^ A. G. Noorani (2000). The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord Books. p. 20. ISBN 9788187496137.
  12. ^ "Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Lesser-known facts about the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder". Firstpost. 23 June 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  13. ^ Urmila Sharma & SK Sharma 2001, p. 381.
  14. ^ Kedar Nath Kumar 1990, pp. 20–21.
  15. ^ Islam 2006b, p. 227.
  16. ^ Ahmad, Kabool (7 April 2023). "BJP's 43 years: How it emerged from Jana Sangh and became world's largest party". India Today. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  17. ^ "Jana Sangh was formed on this day 70 yrs ago. How its ideology is reflected in today's BJP". The Print. 21 October 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  18. ^ Sharad Gupta; Sanjiv Sinha (18 January 2000). "Revive Jan Sangh – BJP hardlines". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  19. ^ Madhok, Madhuri (20 October 2018). "Time to remember Jana Sangh's history". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  20. ^ Kanungo, Pralaya (November 2006), "Myth of the Monolith: The RSS Wrestles to Discipline Its Political Progeny", Social Scientist, 34 (11/12): 51–69, JSTOR 27644183
  21. ^ a b c d e Archis Mohan (9 October 2014). "The roots of India's second republic". Business Standard. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  22. ^ a b c d e f Andersen & Damle 1987, p. 165.
  23. ^ "General Election of India 1967, 4th Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  24. ^ Vohra, Pankaj (20 October 2018). "Jana Sangh-BJP saga started in Delhi". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  25. ^ "On this day 69 years ago, 200 leaders formed Jana Sangh. It is now the BJP". The Print. 21 October 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2024. When the BJS was formed, the party adopted an eight-point programme that largely formed its ideological core over the next few decades.These were: United Bharat; reciprocity instead of appeasement towards Pakistan; an independent foreign policy consistent with Bharat's paramount self-interest; rehabilitation of refugees with suitable compensation from Pakistan; increased production of goods, especially food and cloth, and decentralisation of industry; development of a single Bharatiya culture; equal rights for all citizens regardless of caste, community or creed, and improvement of the backward classes' standard; and readjustment of West Bengal's boundary with Bihar.
  26. ^ "Anti-cow slaughter mob storms Parliament | From the Archives (dated 8 November 1966)". The Hindu. 8 November 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 26 January 2020. Thousands of rupees worth of damage to buildings and vehicles, both private and public, was caused by the mob which, in a violent and vociferous way, was demonstrating for the imposition of a ban on cow slaughter by Government. The parties who organised the demonstration, the number of participants in which was estimated between 3 lakhs and 7 lakhs, were the Jan Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Arya Samaj and the Sanatan Dharma Sabha
  27. ^ "Uniform Civil Code: A core agenda for BJP, UCC's political genesis dates back to Jana Sangh days". Financial Express. 8 February 2024. Retrieved 7 July 2024. The BJS' Lok Sabha manifesto of 1962 didn't mention the UCC. However, it found a clear mention in the BJS's 1967 manifesto, where it promised citizens that it would enact UCC if voted to power, and would bring "uniform law for marriage, succession and adoption for all citizens".
  28. ^ a b Nag 2014, chapter 1.
  29. ^ Nag 2014, chapter 4.
  30. ^ "Members : Lok Sabha". loksabhaph.nic.in. Parliament of India. Retrieved 2 August 2022.

Sources

Further reading

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