Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan (18 June 1931 – 15 September 2012) was the fifth ''

Sarsanghachalak The Sarsanghchalak ( IAST: Sarasanghacālaka) is the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist organisation that is widely regarded as the parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS is o ...

'' of the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

(RSS), a Hindu

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

organisation from 2000 to 2009. __TOC__

Biography

Sudarshan was born in a Sanketi

brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

family at

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of C ...

(now in Chhattisgarh). He received his Bachelor of Engineering in

Telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...

(honours) from

Jabalpur Engineering College Jabalpur Engineering College (JEC) is an institute located in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the oldest technical institution in central India and the 15th-oldest in India. It is the first institute of India to have started the Electron ...

(formerly named as Government Engineering college) in

Jabalpur Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...

. His parents hailed from Kuppahalli village, Mandya District of Karnataka. He was only nine years old when he first attended an RSS

Shakha A shakha (Sanskrit ', "branch" or "limb") is a Hindu theological school that specializes in learning certain Vedic texts, or else the traditional texts followed by such a school.V. S. Apte. A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary, p. 913, left column.Mon ...

. He was appointed as a ''Pracharak'' in 1954. His first posting as a pracharak was in

Raigarh Raigarh is a city in Eastern Chhattisgarh. History The tradition preserved by the ruling family of the erstwhile state of Raigarh maintains that the Raj Gond family migrated to this region from Bairagarh/Wariagarh of Chanda district of Mahara ...

district of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital city, capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar, and Rewa, India, Rewa being the othe ...

(Now Chhattisgarh). In 1964, he was made the

prant A prant is a historical district in India, and a native British Raj age term for a colonial district. The same name can thus have different meanings depending on the period. Pre-colonial Some prants are traditional names for parts of historical ...

pracharak of

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramuk ...

at a fairly young age. In 1969, he was appointed convener of the All-India Organisations' Heads. This was followed by a stint in the North-East (1977) and then, he took over as the chief of the Bauddhik Cell (the RSS think-tank) two years later. In 1990, he was appointed joint general secretary of the organisation. He has the rare distinction of having held both posts of ''sharirik'' (physical exercises) and ''bauddhik'' (intellectual) ''pramukh'' (chief) on different occasions. In January 2009, acknowledging his lifelong selfless social service and his vast contribution in nation-building; Shobhit University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, conferred upon him Honorary Doctor of Arts (Honoris Causa).

Sarsanghachalak

Sudarshan became ''Sarsanghachalak'' (Supreme chief) of the RSS on 10 March 2000. He succeeded

Rajendra Singh Rajendra Singh (born 6 August 1959) is an Indian water conservationist and environmentalist from Alwar district, Rajasthan in India. Also known as "waterman of India", he won the Magsaysay Award in 2001 and Stockholm Water Prize in 2015. He r ...

, who stepped down on health grounds. In his acceptance speech, Sudarshan recalled how he was hand-picked to head the Madhya Bharat region. He said though initially he was hesitant to take up the responsibility, the then RSS Sarsanghachalak

M. S. Golwalkar Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar (19 February 1906 – 5 June 1973), popularly known as Guruji was the second ''Sarsanghchalak'' ("Chief") of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Golwalkar is considered one of the most influential and prominent fi ...

helped him to make up his mind. "I was able to discharge my duties because people senior to me fully co-operated with me," he said. A strong votary of swadeshi, he was seen as one of the hard-liners within the RSS. He had often criticised the

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a centre-right to right-wing and conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998 and currently controls the government of India ...

government in general and 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. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

in particular for its economic policies. In 2005, his statements suggesting that both

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

and L. K. Advani step aside and let a younger leadership take charge of the BJP created a rift within the Sangh parivar. He stepped down as Sarsanghachalak on 21 March 2009, due to poor health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sudarshan, K.S. 1931 births 2012 deaths Sarsanghchalaks People from Raipur, Chhattisgarh Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh sanghchalaks Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks