Tribute to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya on his 106th birth anniversary
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Laimayum Bashanta Sharma
On the occasion of the 8th Antyodaya Diwas to mark the 106th birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya I offer my tribute to the man regarded as the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh from which the BJP emerged. Antyodaya means uplifting the poorest of the poor and, hence, the day is observed to reach out to the last person in society.
He was born in 1916 in Mathura and served Bharatiya Jana Sangh from 1953 to 1968. He was the source of ideological guidance and moral inspiration for the BJP since its inception.
The spirit of the Antyodaya Mission lies in ‘reaching out to the last person,’ and hence, the motto of this day is to help all eligible rural youths of India in acquiring skill sets and enhancing them thus providing them with National and international employment opportunities.
He had not only laid down the core principles of the BJP but he also lived those principles in his political life. Tracing its origins to the non-dualistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, integral humanism propagated the oneness of various souls, be it of human, animal, or plant origin.
Rejecting the intrinsic diversity based on race, color, caste, or religion, it identified all human beings as part of this one organic whole, sharing a common consciousness of National thought. And putting this into a political perspective, either then or now, meant that Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and the people of all other faiths and sects are essentially one and that their intrinsic unity should be based on this common consciousness of “Rashtriyata”/Nationality.
He has personified society as a living being that has a soul and consciousness, it has a conscience that knows what is unjust and what is right, it can feel pain and exhaustion, and it can feel sad or happy just like a living being.
To explain it from my perspective India cannot be claimed as an advanced or developed Nation by taking into account only the advanced way of life and world-class state-of-the-art infrastructure built in metropolitan cities because a large part of India is still backward for example the North Eastern States.
According to Pandit Deendayal ji, the entire Nation must be developed as a whole sans extreme disparity between the haves and have-nots. If 10% of the entire States are fully developed and the rest are backward States, the Nation as a whole cannot be called a developed Nation. If we hurt a body part with a sharp or blunt object the entire body felt the pain. The hairs in our nostrils or lashes in our eyes helped prevent harmful dust from impacting our vital organs. Thus every part has various major roles to play to enhance the overall health. People from all walks of life have important roles to play.
If professionals, farmers, the army, the police, the bureaucrats, the entrepreneurs, etc, etc, will perform to their optimal level it will ultimately benefit the Nation as a whole and help the Nation achieve advanced Nation status is the core philosophy of Pandit Deen Dayal Ji.
Integral Humanism of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya is a name given to the philosophical ideas propounded by the Jan Sangh leader in the early 1960s. The ideological description of integral humanism has emerged from the ancient Indian tradition and cultural ethos. The philosophical anchorage of integral humanism was shaped by the essential foundations of Indian society and Dharma.
Upadhyaya has concisely demolished the social and political philosophies of capitalism as well as communism, by underlining their inherent contempt for humanitarian aspects of individual life and their inappropriate emphasis on the monetary dimension. Therefore, integral humanism essentially believes in the coordination of the individual, society, the universe, and the ultimate authority of the Supreme. Every Nation, according to Upadhyaya has its own cultural and societal central principle which has been termed Chiti, and every society has some distinctiveness that could be identified as Virat. Every individual has different roles carved out and various dimensions of activities.
Integrating these varying aspects of human life into a continuous interaction with each other is the essence of integral humanism. The scattered ideological characteristic of this philosophy of integral humanism has contemporary relevance with an overall perspective of finding solutions to present-day political crises. For instance, economists are now advocating for a public-private partnership (PPP) model worldwide which is similar to Upadhyaya's principled stand of a National sector where the right to work and a safety net for the disadvantaged went hand in hand with economic entrepreneurship.
Upadhyaya endorsed self-sustenance in agricultural production but was against unnecessary hoarding of stocks that lead to the distortion of the market, artificial inflation in price, and generation of black money. The move by the Food Corporation of India to rationalize the stocks that it had been hoarding in the previous regimes, speaks volumes of the practical applications of this philosophy even in the current era.
Upadhyaya Ji’s idea of a ‘Ramarajya’ is where the notions of unity based on a common binding force called ‘Dharma’ is together celebrated with the principles of political and economic decentralisation. And for all the skeptics, out there, the notion of ‘Dharma’ is very different from the Western understanding of “religion”. Interestingly, Dharma and Ramarajya both have a very “secular” so-called interpretation.
Dharma is like a moral compass, which unifies the national polity, economy, and society. Thus, the philosophy of integral humanism imagines this common thread called “Dharma” to act as an intrinsic guiding principle for the state, which leads to political and social empowerment of all and penetration of economic benefits up to the last man/woman standing (antyodya).
In conclusion, integral humanism builds on an organic thought, where it imagines a Bharatiya Nation, which is guided by common principles of moral order laid down by dharma since time immemorial. A Nation, where all citizens identify themselves as a part of the same spirit, where we modernise but do not westernise which is detrimental to our Bharatiya civilization, where we have individual economic autonomy but that which is coupled with a social safety net to protect the underprivileged and vulnerable citizens and lastly, where we exceed group consciousness as members of different religious and social communities to develop a common National consciousness.
The writer is Spokesperson of the BJP, Manipur Pradesh
On the occasion of the 8th Antyodaya Diwas to mark the 106th birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya I offer my tribute to the man regarded as the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh from which the BJP emerged. Antyodaya means uplifting the poorest of the poor and, hence, the day is observed to reach out to the last person in society.
He was born in 1916 in Mathura and served Bharatiya Jana Sangh from 1953 to 1968. He was the source of ideological guidance and moral inspiration for the BJP since its inception.
The spirit of the Antyodaya Mission lies in ‘reaching out to the last person,’ and hence, the motto of this day is to help all eligible rural youths of India in acquiring skill sets and enhancing them thus providing them with National and international employment opportunities.
He had not only laid down the core principles of the BJP but he also lived those principles in his political life. Tracing its origins to the non-dualistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, integral humanism propagated the oneness of various souls, be it of human, animal, or plant origin.
Rejecting the intrinsic diversity based on race, color, caste, or religion, it identified all human beings as part of this one organic whole, sharing a common consciousness of National thought. And putting this into a political perspective, either then or now, meant that Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and the people of all other faiths and sects are essentially one and that their intrinsic unity should be based on this common consciousness of “Rashtriyata”/Nationality.
He has personified society as a living being that has a soul and consciousness, it has a conscience that knows what is unjust and what is right, it can feel pain and exhaustion, and it can feel sad or happy just like a living being.
To explain it from my perspective India cannot be claimed as an advanced or developed Nation by taking into account only the advanced way of life and world-class state-of-the-art infrastructure built in metropolitan cities because a large part of India is still backward for example the North Eastern States.
According to Pandit Deendayal ji, the entire Nation must be developed as a whole sans extreme disparity between the haves and have-nots. If 10% of the entire States are fully developed and the rest are backward States, the Nation as a whole cannot be called a developed Nation. If we hurt a body part with a sharp or blunt object the entire body felt the pain. The hairs in our nostrils or lashes in our eyes helped prevent harmful dust from impacting our vital organs. Thus every part has various major roles to play to enhance the overall health. People from all walks of life have important roles to play.
If professionals, farmers, the army, the police, the bureaucrats, the entrepreneurs, etc, etc, will perform to their optimal level it will ultimately benefit the Nation as a whole and help the Nation achieve advanced Nation status is the core philosophy of Pandit Deen Dayal Ji.
Integral Humanism of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya is a name given to the philosophical ideas propounded by the Jan Sangh leader in the early 1960s. The ideological description of integral humanism has emerged from the ancient Indian tradition and cultural ethos. The philosophical anchorage of integral humanism was shaped by the essential foundations of Indian society and Dharma.
Upadhyaya has concisely demolished the social and political philosophies of capitalism as well as communism, by underlining their inherent contempt for humanitarian aspects of individual life and their inappropriate emphasis on the monetary dimension. Therefore, integral humanism essentially believes in the coordination of the individual, society, the universe, and the ultimate authority of the Supreme. Every Nation, according to Upadhyaya has its own cultural and societal central principle which has been termed Chiti, and every society has some distinctiveness that could be identified as Virat. Every individual has different roles carved out and various dimensions of activities.
Integrating these varying aspects of human life into a continuous interaction with each other is the essence of integral humanism. The scattered ideological characteristic of this philosophy of integral humanism has contemporary relevance with an overall perspective of finding solutions to present-day political crises. For instance, economists are now advocating for a public-private partnership (PPP) model worldwide which is similar to Upadhyaya's principled stand of a National sector where the right to work and a safety net for the disadvantaged went hand in hand with economic entrepreneurship.
Upadhyaya endorsed self-sustenance in agricultural production but was against unnecessary hoarding of stocks that lead to the distortion of the market, artificial inflation in price, and generation of black money. The move by the Food Corporation of India to rationalize the stocks that it had been hoarding in the previous regimes, speaks volumes of the practical applications of this philosophy even in the current era.
Upadhyaya Ji’s idea of a ‘Ramarajya’ is where the notions of unity based on a common binding force called ‘Dharma’ is together celebrated with the principles of political and economic decentralisation. And for all the skeptics, out there, the notion of ‘Dharma’ is very different from the Western understanding of “religion”. Interestingly, Dharma and Ramarajya both have a very “secular” so-called interpretation.
Dharma is like a moral compass, which unifies the national polity, economy, and society. Thus, the philosophy of integral humanism imagines this common thread called “Dharma” to act as an intrinsic guiding principle for the state, which leads to political and social empowerment of all and penetration of economic benefits up to the last man/woman standing (antyodya).
In conclusion, integral humanism builds on an organic thought, where it imagines a Bharatiya Nation, which is guided by common principles of moral order laid down by dharma since time immemorial. A Nation, where all citizens identify themselves as a part of the same spirit, where we modernise but do not westernise which is detrimental to our Bharatiya civilization, where we have individual economic autonomy but that which is coupled with a social safety net to protect the underprivileged and vulnerable citizens and lastly, where we exceed group consciousness as members of different religious and social communities to develop a common National consciousness.
The writer is Spokesperson of the BJP, Manipur Pradesh