Bharatiya Jana Sangh
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbreviated as BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh,[8] was an Indian right wing nationalist political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the political arm of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation.[9] In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party.[10] After Janata Party's defeat in 1980 Lok Sabha polls, Advani and Vajpayee, the last two presidents of Jana Sangh, initiated moves to resuscitate Jan Sangh; but this time the new grouping took the name Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bharatiya Jana Sangh | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Syama Prasad Mukherjee |
| Founded | 21 October 1951 [1] |
| Dissolved | 23 June 1977 |
| Split from | Hindu Mahasabha |
| Merged into | Janata Party (1977–1980) |
| Succeeded by | Bharatiya Janata Party (1980–present) |
| Ideology | Hindu nationalism[2] Hindutva[3] Integral humanism[4] National conservatism[5] Economic nationalism[6] |
| Political position | Right-wing[7] |
| Colours | Saffron |
| ECI Status | National Party |
| Election symbol | |
 | |
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.[11][12][13] The BJS was subsequently started by Mukherjee on 21 October 1951[1] in Delhi, with the collaboration of the RSS, as a "nationalistic alternative" to the Congress Party.[14]
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).[15]
The strongest election performance of the BJS came in the 1967 Lok Sabha election in which it won 35 seats,[16][17] when the Congress majority was its thinnest ever.[18]
Ideology
The BJS leadership strongly supported a stringent policy against Pakistan and China, and were averse to the USSR and communism. Many BJS leaders also inaugurated the drive to ban cow slaughter nationwide in the early 1960s.[19]
Chronological list of presidents
| # | 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 | .jpg.webp) |
Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 1968–72 |
| 12 |  |
L. K. Advani | 1973–77 |
| 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.[20][16]
| Year | General Election | Seats Won | Change in Seat | % of votes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 1st Lok Sabha | 3 | – | 3.06 | [20][17] |
| 1957 | 2nd Lok Sabha | 4 |  1 |
5.93 | [16][17] |
| 1962 | 3rd Lok Sabha | 14 | 10 |
6.44 | [16][17] |
| 1967 | 4th Lok Sabha | 35 | 21 |
9.41 | [16][17] |
| 1971 | 5th Lok Sabha | 22 |  13 |
7.35 | [21][17][22] |
References
- "Founding of Jan Sangh". www.bjp.org. Archived from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- Graham, Bruce D. "The Jana Sangh as a Nationalist Rally". Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 94.
- Thachil, Tariq (2014). Elite Parties, Poor Voters. Cambridge University Press. p. 42.
- Kochanek, Stanley (2007). India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation. Cengage Learning. p. 333.
- Baxter, Craig (1969). The Jana Sangh: a biography of an Indian political party. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 171.
- Marty, Martin E. (1996). Fundamentalisms and the State. University of Chicago Press. p. 418.
- Field, John Osgood. Electoral Politics in the Indian States. Manohar Book Service. p. 28.
- Donald Anthony Low, ed. (1968), Soundings in Modern South Asian History, University of California Press
- A. G. Noorani (2000). The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord Books. p. 20. ISBN 9788187496137.
- "Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Lesser-known facts about the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder". Firstpost. 23 June 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
- Urmila Sharma & SK Sharma 2001, p. 381.
- Kedar Nath Kumar 1990, pp. 20–21.
- Islam 2006b, p. 227.
- 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.
- 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
- Archis Mohan (9 October 2014). "The roots of India's second republic". Business Standard. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- Andersen & Damle 1987, p. 165.
- "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.
- "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
- Nag 2014, chapter 1.
- Nag 2014, chapter 4.
- "Members : Lok Sabha". loksabhaph.nic.in. Parliament of India. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
Sources
- Andersen, Walter K.; Damle, Shridhar D. (1987) [Oringally published by Westview Press]. The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. Delhi: Vistaar Publications.
- Islam, Shamsul (2006b). Savarkar Myths and Facts. Anamaika Publishing & Distributors.
- Kumar, Kedar Nath (1990). Political Parties in India, Their Ideology and Organisation. Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788170992059.
- Nag, Kingshuk (2014). The Saffron Tide: The Rise of the BJP. Rupa Publications. ISBN 978-8129134295.
- Sharma, Urmila; Sharma, S.K. (2001). Indian Political Thought. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. ISBN 9788171566785.
Further reading
- Baxter, Craig (1971) [first published by University of Pennsylvania Press 1969]. The Jana Sangh – A Biography of an Indian Political Party. Oxford University Press, Bombay. ISBN 0812275837.
- Graham, B. D. (1990). Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-38348X.
- Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996). The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1850653011.