Balasaheb Deoras
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Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras (11 December 1915 – 17 June 1996), was the third '' Sarsanghchalak'' (Chief) of the
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...
paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
organisation
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...
(RSS).


Biography

Deoras was born in a Marathi
Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins are also concentr ...
(DRB) family on 11 December 1915 in
Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...
, located in British India's
Central Provinces and Berar The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India and later the Dominion of India which existed from 1903 to 1950. It was formed by the merger of the Central Provinces with the province of Berar, which was territory leased by the ...
. He was the eighth child of Dattatreya Krishnarao Deoras and Parvati-bai; the ninth child, his younger brother Bhaurao Deoras (Murlidhar alias Bhaurao), also became a '' pracharak'' of the RSS. During Balasaheb Deoras's tenure as RSS chief, Bhaurao Deoras played a key role in the organisation in North India. Balasaheb Deoras was a student at New English High School. He graduated from Morris College in Nagpur in 1938 and obtained his LLB degree at the College of Law,
Nagpur University Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a public state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as the second-oldest in Maharashtra. It is named ...
. Inspired by Dr. K. B. Hedgewar, he was associated with the RSS from its inception and decided to dedicate his life to its goals. He was the first ''pracharak'' sent to Bengal, and he returned to the movement's headquarters to direct the publication of ''
Tarun Bharat ''Tarun Bharat'' ("Young India") is a Marathi newspaper based in Belagavi, India. It is the seventh-largest-selling Marathi daily newspaper in the country. The paper has eight editions from locations in North Karnataka (Belagavi), Southern Mah ...
'', a Marathi daily, and ''Yugadharma'', a Hindi daily. The Deoras brothers advocated for a more politically and socially interventionist role for the RSS to be more activistic, diverging from the insular stance maintained by then-''Sarsanghachalak''
M. S. Golwalkar Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar (19 February 1906 – 5 June 1973), popularly known as Guruji, was an Indian politician and political figure who served as the second '' Sarsanghchalak'' ("Chief") of the right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation ...
. Disillusioned with Golwalkar’s inward-looking leadership, the brothers distanced themselves from the organisation between 1953 and 1957. Despite this period of estrangement, they remained informally connected to the RSS network. In 1957, at Golwalkar’s behest, they rejoined the organisation’s ranks. Balasaheb Deoras’s ascent within the RSS continued, and in 1965 he was appointed ''Sarkaryavah'' (General Secretary). During the same year he addressed the annual meeting of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...
(BJS), the RSS’s political affiliate and precursor to the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
(BJP). Following Golwalkar’s death in 1973, Balasaheb Deoras succeeded him as the third ''Sarsanghachalak'' of the RSS. Deoras chose to involve RSS more deeply in social activism than any other past RSS ''Sarsanghachalak''. His tenure marked a shift towards greater engagement with political and social movements, including efforts to broaden the RSS’s base. In 1974, Deoras directed the RSS to actively support the
populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...
"
JP Movement The Bihar movement, also known as the JP movement, was a political movement initiated by students in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Bihar against misrule and corruption in the government of Bihar, state government, in ...
"—a broad-based opposition to the authoritarian policies of
prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
—led by veteran
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), also known as JP and ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian politician, theorist and Indian independence activist, independence activist. He is mai ...
. There are also accounts and records, contested by RSS representatives, suggesting that during the Emergency (1975–1977), while imprisoned in Yerwada Jail, Deoras wrote several apology letters to Gandhi and offered support for her ''Twenty-Point Programme''—a socio-economic initiative launched during the Emergency—in a plea for the lifting of the ban on the RSS. In the aftermath of The Emergency, and the subsequent lifting of the ban on the RSS, Deoras initiated outreach efforts towards minority communities, including meetings with
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
and
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
leaders. In a resolution passed by the RSS's national assembly, the organisation urged "all citizens in general and R.S.S. ''Swayamsevaks'' in particular to further expedite this process of mutual contact by participation in each other’s social functions", in a strategic moves aimed at rehabilitating the RSS’s public image, which had been tarnished by its perceived complicity in the anti-democratic currents of the Emergency era. The outreach coincided with a period of renewed political optimism and democratic resurgence in Indian public life, following the fall of Gandhi's authoritarian regime. Under Deoras's leadership, intensified its activist orientation and launched concerted efforts to dramatically expand both the scale and social breadth of its recruitment. This strategic shift was mirrored in the organisation’s propaganda and cultural production. RSS literature during this period became notably more accessible, employing simplified articulations of
Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...
ideology. These were disseminated through popular and mass-friendly formats—comic books, illustrated posters, postcards, inland letter cards, and other forms of vernacular media—designed to appeal to a broad and often semi-literate audience. The vocabulary of the RSS also evolved to reflect this populist turn. The term “the masses” began to feature prominently. Deoras remained ''Sarsanghachalak'' of the RSS until 1994, when he formally stepped down due to deteriorating health. Deoras’s health continued to decline, culminating in his death on 17 June 1996. Deoras lived long enough to witness a major milestone for the Sangh Parivar: the election of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister in 1996. Vajpayee, a long-time member of the RSS and a leading figure in its political affiliate, the BJP, became the first individual with overt ideological ties to Hindutva to assume the country’s highest executive office. However, However, Vajpayee’s dependence on coalition partners, combined with his own comparative moderatism, generated intense dissent among hardliners within the Sangh Parivar. In the year 1977-78 he had been in lake city Nainital, now Uttarkhand (then Uttar Pradesh).


Views of Deoras

Deoras echoed Savarkar by stating: "We do believe in the one-culture and one-nation Hindu rashtra. But our definition of Hindu is not limited to any particular kind of faith. Our definition of Hindu includes those who believe in the one-culture and one-nation theory of this country. They can all form part of the Hindu-rashtra. So by Hindu we do not mean any particular type of faith. We use the word Hindu in a broader sense." According to Deoras, even though
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...
appeased Muslims, the Muslims never accepted him as one of their own. He said on 9 November 1985, that the main purpose of the RSS is Hindu unity and that the organization believes all citizens of India should have a 'Hindu culture'. In one of the most important speeches delivered in the history of RSS from the platform of Vasant Vyakhyanmala (Spring Lecture Series), Deoras denounced the practice of
untouchability Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimin ...
in May 1974 in Pune, and appealed to the RSS volunteers to work towards its removal from the Hindu society. Deoras declared: "If untouchability is not wrong, nothing in the world is wrong." However, when prime minister V. P. Singh implemented the Mandal Commission Report in 1990, drastically increasing reservations for lower-caste Hindus, in a form of
affirmative action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
, the RSS, under Deoras, accused him of dividing Hindu society.


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Books

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Deoras, Madhukar Dattatraya People from Nagpur Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks 1915 births 1996 deaths Indian people imprisoned during the Emergency (India) 20th-century Indian politicians Sarsanghchalaks Indian Hindus Hindutva Hindu nationalists 20th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians Prisoners and detainees of Maharashtra