Bharatiya Jana Sangh Explained

Country:India
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Foundation:[1]
Founder:Syama Prasad Mukherjee
President:Bharat Bhushan Pandey
Merged:Janata Party (1977–1980)
Split:Hindu Mahasabha
Ideology:Hindu nationalism[2]
Hindutva[3]
Integral humanism[4]
National conservatism[5]
Economic nationalism[6]
Position:Right-wing[7] to far-right[8]
Religion:Hinduism[9]
Successor:Bharatiya Janata Party (1980–present)
Colours: Saffron

The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, was an Indian nationalist political party. This party was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi, that existed from 1951 to 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.[10] In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party.[11] 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

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.
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.[12]
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.[13] The BJS was subsequently started by Mukherjee on 21 October 1951[14] in Delhi, with the collaboration of the R.S.S., as a "nationalistic alternative" to the Congress Party.[15]

History

The first plenary session of Jan Sangh was held at Kanpur in December 1952.[16]

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).

The strongest election performance of the BJS came in the 1967 Lok Sabha election in which it won 35 seats, when the Congress majority was its thinnest ever.[17]
The party secured six out of seven parliamentary seats in Delhi and went on to wrest control of the Metropolitan Council and Municipal corporation.[18]

Ideology

See main article: Hindutva.

When BJS was formed, an 8-point programme was adopted.This formed the core of its ideology over the next years.[19]

The BJS leadership fervently supported a strong policy against Pakistan and China, and were averse to the Communist idelogy and the Soviet Union. Many BJS leaders also initiated the drive to ban cow slaughter nationwide in the early 1960s.[20]
Establishment of full relations with Israel was also a demand in the party manifesto.[21]
Uniform Civil Code was mentioned in the 1967 manifesto which said that the party would enact UCC if it came to power.[22]

Chronological list of presidents

PortraitNameTerm
1Syama Prasad Mukherjee1951–52
2Mauli Chandra Sharma1954
3Prem Nath Dogra1955
4Debaprasad Ghosh1956–59
5Pitamber Das1960
6Avasarala Rama Rao1961
(4)Debaprasad Ghosh1962
7Raghu Vira1963
(4)Debaprasad Ghosh1964
8Bachhraj Vyas1965
9Balraj Madhok1966
10Deendayal Upadhyaya1967–68
11Atal Bihari Vajpayee1968–72
12L. K. Advani1973–77
See List of presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party

In general elections

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. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Durga Charan Banerjee were elected from Bengal and Uma Shankar Trivedi from Rajasthan. All the like-minded parties formed a block in the Parliament, led by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.[23]

Year! style="width:15%;"
General ElectionSeats WonChange in Seat% of votesRef.
19511st Lok Sabha3–3.06
19572nd Lok Sabha4 15.93
19623rd Lok Sabha14 106.44
19674th Lok Sabha35 219.31
19715th Lok Sabha22 137.35[24]

References

Sources

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Founding of Jan Sangh. www.bjp.org. 25 January 2019. 25 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190125183142/http://www.bjp.org/en/about-the-party/history?u=founder. dead.
  2. Encyclopedia: The Jana Sangh as a Nationalist Rally. 94. Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics. Bruce D.. Graham. Cambridge University Press.
  3. Book: Thachil, Tariq. Elite Parties, Poor Voters. 42. 2014. Cambridge University Press.
  4. Book: Kochanek, Stanley. India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation. 333. 2007. Cengage Learning.
  5. Book: Baxter, Craig. The Jana Sangh: a biography of an Indian political party. 1969. Craig Baxter. University of Pennsylvania Press. 171.
  6. Book: Marty, Martin E.. Fundamentalisms and the State. 1996. University of Chicago Press. 418.
  7. Book: Field, John Osgood. Electoral Politics in the Indian States. Manohar Book Service. 28.
  8. Web site: 11 March 2024. Israeli Diplomats Forged Deep Ties With Hindu Right Wing From Early '60s, Documents Reveal. 13 June 2024. The Wire.
  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. Book: The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. A. G. Noorani. 2000 . LeftWord Books. 20. 9788187496137 .
  11. Web site: 23 June 2021. Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Lesser-known facts about the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder. 14 July 2021. Firstpost.
  12. Web site: BJP's 43 years: How it emerged from Jana Sangh and became world's largest party. Kabool. Ahmad. India Today. 7 April 2023. 7 July 2024.
  13. Web site: Jana Sangh was formed on this day 70 yrs ago. How its ideology is reflected in today’s BJP. The Print. 21 October 2021. 7 July 2024.
  14. Web site: Founding of Jan Sangh. www.bjp.org. 25 January 2019. 25 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190125183142/http://www.bjp.org/en/about-the-party/history?u=founder. dead.
  15. News: Revive Jan Sangh – BJP hardlines. 11 October 2013. The Indian Express. 18 January 2000. Sharad Gupta. Sanjiv Sinha. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20131012195411/http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/20000118/ina18037.html. 12 October 2013.
  16. Web site: Time to remember Jana Sangh's history . The Sunday Guardian. Madhuri. Madhok. 7 July 2024. 20 October 2018.
  17. Web site: General Election of India 1967, 4th Lok Sabha . Election Commission of India . 13 January 2010 . 5 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140718185108/http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/LS_1967/Vol_I_LS_67.pdf . 18 July 2014.
  18. Web site: Jana Sangh-BJP saga started in Delhi. The Sunday Guardian. Pankaj. Vohra. 7 July 2024. 20 October 2018.
  19. Web site: On this day 69 years ago, 200 leaders formed Jana Sangh. It is now the BJP. 21 October 2020. The Print. 7 July 2024. en-IN. 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..
  20. News: Anti-cow slaughter mob storms Parliament From the Archives (dated 8 November 1966). 8 November 2016. The Hindu. 26 January 2020. en-IN. 0971-751X. 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.
  21. Web site: 11 March 2024. Israeli Diplomats Forged Deep Ties With Hindu Right Wing From Early '60s, Documents Reveal. 13 June 2024. The Wire.
  22. News: Uniform Civil Code: A core agenda for BJP, UCC’s political genesis dates back to Jana Sangh days. 8 February 2024. Financial Express . 7 July 2024. en-IN. 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”..
  23. News: Archis Mohan . The roots of India's second republic . Business Standard . 9 October 2014 . 8 November 2014.
  24. Web site: Members : Lok Sabha . loksabhaph.nic.in . Parliament of India . 2 August 2022.

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