Chandikadas Amritrao Deshmukh also known as Nanaji Deshmukh (11 October
1916 – 27 February 2010) was a social activist from India. He worked in
the fields of education, health, and rural self-reliance, and has been
honoured with the Padma Vibhushanby the Government of India. He was a
leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and also a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Early childhood
Deshmukh was born in Deshastha Brahmin family on 11 October 1916 in
Kadoli, a small town in the Hingoli district of Maharashtra to Amritrao
Deshmukh and Rajabai Amritrao Deshmukh. Deshmukh's career was full of
strife and struggle. He lost his parents at an early age and was brought
up by his maternal uncle.
His family had little money to pay for
his tuition fees and books, but his keen desire to learn encouraged him
to work as a vendor and sell vegetables to raise money to fund his
education. He lived in temples and received a higher education at the
prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani before
becoming an RSS activist in the nineteen thirties.
Though born in
Maharashtra, the fields of his activities were Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh. Seeing his devotion, the then RSS Sarsanghchalak M. S.
Golwalkar sent him to Gorakhpur (U.P) as "pracharak". He rose to be the
Saha Prant Pracharak of the whole of Uttar Pradesh (which has now become
8 prant of RSS).
RSS Volunteer
Deshmukh became inspired
by Lokamanya Tilak and his nationalist ideology, as well as showing an
acquired interest in social service and activities. His family was in
close contact with Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who was a regular visitor
to Deshmukh's family. He could discern potential in Nanaji and
encouraged him to attend RSS shakhas.
In 1940, after Hedgewar's
death, many youngsters inspired by him joined the R.S.S. in Maharashtra.
Deshmukh was among those enthused youths who joined the RSS devoting
their whole life in service to the nation. He was sent to Uttar Pradesh
as a Pracharak. At Agra, he met Deen Dayal Upadhyaya for the first time.
Later, Deshmukh went toGorakhpur as a pracharak where he took great
pains to introduce Sangh ideology in the eastern UP. It was not an easy
task at that time as the Sangh had no funds to meet even day-today
expenses. He had to stay in a Dharmashala but had to keep on changing
Dharmashalas as no one was allowed to stay there for more than three
days consecutively. Ultimately, he was given shelter by Baba Raghavdas
on the condition that he would also cook meals for him.
Within
three years, his hard work bore fruits and almost 250 Sangh Shakhas
commenced in and around Gorakhpur. Nanaji always laid great emphasis on
education. He established Bharat's first Saraswati Shishu Mandir at
Gorakhpur in 1950.[1][2]
When in 1947, the RSS decided to launch two
journals Rashtradharma, Panchjanya and a newspaper called Swadesh,Shri
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was assigned the responsibility of the editor and
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was made the Margdharshak with Nanaji as the
managing director. It was a challenging task as the organisation was
hard up for money to bring out the publications, yet it did never dampen
their spirits and these publications gained popularity and recognition
because of their strong nationalistic content.
Mahatma Gandhi's
assassination led to imposition of ban on the RSS and publication work
came to a grinding halt. A different strategy was adopted keeping the
ban in mind and Nanaji was the brain behind underground publication work
by the RSS those days.
Political life
When the ban was
lifted and it was decided to have a political organisation, Bharatiya
Jana Sangh came into being. Deshmukh was asked by Shri Guruji to take
charge of Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Uttar Pradesh as general secretary.
Deshmukh had worked as RSS pracharak in Uttar Pradesh and his groundwork
proved of a great help in organising BJS at the grass roots. By 1957
BJS had established its units at each and every district in Uttar
Pradesh and credit for this goes to the Nanaji who had extensively
travelled all over the state.Soon, BJS became a force to reckon
with in Uttar Pradesh. In 1967 BJS became the part of United Legislature
Party and joined the Government headed by Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Deshmukh played a crucial role in evolving the alliance as he enjoyed
good relations with Charan Singh and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia. He was
successful in bringing leaders of different political backgrounds on one
platform to give Uttar Pradesh its first non-Congress government.
A political giant, like Chandra Bhanu Gupta, former UP chief minister
had to face one of the biggest challenges of his political career when
Deshmukh outwitted him not once but thrice. On one occasion, he planned a
strategy to defeat the Congress nominee and Gupta's favourite in Rajya
Sabha. When Gupta himself contested elections from Lucknow in 1957,
Nanaji crafted an alliance with socialist groups and helped Babu Triloki
Singh in registering an impressive win over Gupta. Gupta faced another
embarrassment when he was again defeated at Maudaha in Uttar Pradesh.
In Uttar Pradesh, BJS gained strength from Upadhyaya's vision, Atal
Vajpai's oratory skills and Deshmukh's organizational work and it
emerged as an important player in the state politics. Deshmukh always
shared good relations not only with his party colleagues but also with
his opponents. Gupta, who suffered many defeats at the hands of
Deshmukh, yet continued to have great respect for him and called him
'Nana Phadanvis '. His relations with Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia changed the
course of Indian politics. Once he invited Lohia in BJS karaykarta
sammelan where he met Upadhyaya for the first time and this association
brought the BJS closer to Socialist parties in exposing the Congress and
its misrule.
Desmukh actively participated in Bhoodan Movement
started by Vinoba Bhave.[1] By spending two months with Vinoba, he was
inspired by the success and appeal of the movement.
The months
that followed the judgment of Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the
Allahabad High Court, setting aside the election of Indira Gandhi in
June 1974, were traumatic. An anti-Indira agitation, led by Jai Prakash
Narayan, was gathering momentum.
In the latter half of the year a
massive procession, led by Narayan was taken out in Patna. As the
procession wended its way through the roads of the state capital, the
police made a lathi charge and, it is said, the Sarvodaya leader was the
target. The final assault came when Narayan's supporters were escorting
him to safety. One of the supporters sprang to his leader's protection,
covered him and took all the lathi blows on himself. That man was
Deshmukh. One of his arms was fractured in this daring effort.
Later, Narayan himself and Morarji Desai, who became the Prime Minister
heading the Janata Party Government, publicly praised the courage shown
by Deshmukh and, as a reward, offered him the Cabinet portfolio of
Industry, but Deshmukh spurned the overture. Deshmukh had won in the
1977 election held after revocation of the Emergency with a comfortable
margin from Balrampur Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh.[1]
In
1980, when he turned 60, he opted not only from the electoral fray but
also politics. He later devoted himself completely to social and
constructive work, lived in ashrams and never projected himself.
When Narayan gave the call for "Total Revolution" Deshmukh responded by
giving total support to this movement.[1] When the Janata Party was
formed, Deshmukh was one of its main architects. Janata Party stormed
into power by sweeping off the Congress.
He was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the NDA Government in the year 1999 in recognition of his services to the nation.
Social work
After retirement from active politics Deshmukh then served Deendayal
Research Institute that he himself had established way back in 1969.[1]
He wanted Deendayal Research Institute to be devoted to strengthening
the movement for constructive work in Bharat.
He did pioneering work
towards the anti-poverty and minimum needs programme. Other areas of
his work were agriculture and cottage industry, rural health and rural
education. Deshmukh assumed chairmanship of the institute after
relinquishing politics and devoted all his time to building up the
institute. He was also instrumental in carrying out social restructuring
programme in over 500 villages of both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
states of India.[1] He also published the journal "Manthan"
(introspection) which was edited by K.R. Malkani for many years.
Deshmukh did a lot of social work in Gonda (U.P.) and Beed
(Maharashtra). The motto of his project was: “Har hath ko denge kaam,
har khet ko denge paanee”.
He finally settled down at the
picturesque Chitrakoot, a holy place on the borders of Uttar Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh. It was in 1969 that Deshmukh visited Chitrakoot for the
first time. He was moved to see the pathetic condition of the society
in the karmabhoomi of Ram, the place where Ram spent 12 out of the 14
years in exile. He sat by the holy River Mandakini, and resolved to
change the face of Chitrakoot during his lifetime. While in exile, Ram
started working for the upliftment of the downtrodden here. With this
important historical and inspiring background, Deshmukh made Chitrakoot
the centre of his social work.
He chose to serve the poorest among
the poor. He used to remark jokingly that he admired Vanavasi Ram more
than Raja Ram and so would like to spend the rest of his life in
Chitrakoot among the vanavasis and most backward sections of the
society.
He also established Chitarkoot Gramoday Vishwavidyalaya in
Chitrakoot, India's first rural University, and served as its
Chancellor.[1] Nanaji implemented the philosophy of integral humanism to
improve the living standards of more than 150 villages of bundelkhand.
Deendayal Research Institute
Deendayal Research Institute (DRI) was founded in 1972 by Deshmukh to
validate the philosophy of Integral Humanism propounded by Pandit
Deendayal Upadhyaya (1916–1968). Integral Humanism gave a vision for
Bharat that, with an approach to man and his relationship to society
that is integral and complementary, could transform Bharat into a
self-reliant and compassionate example for the world to follow.
Deshmukh developed a model for the development of rural areas on the
basis of Integral Humanism. After initial experiments in Gonda (U.P.)
and Beed (Maharashtra), Nanaji finally fine-tuned an integrated program
for the development of rural areas that covers health, hygiene,
education, agriculture, income generation, conservation of resources,
and social conscience, that is both sustainable and replicable. The
basis of the project is 'Total transformation through total development
with people's initiative and participation'.
The project, called
the Chitrakoot Project or the 'Campaign for Self-Reliance', was launched
on 26 January 2005 in 80 villages around the Chitrakoot area in the
border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The aim was to achieve
self-reliance for these villages by 2005. When complete in 2010, the
project hopes to make the 500 surrounding villages self-reliant and
serve as a sustainable and replicable model for the Bharat and the
world.
DRI has association with the following important institutions among others.
The Wadia Group, Apeejay Education Society (AES), Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR), Khadi and Village Industries Commission
(KVIC), India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), Madhya Pradesh Council
of Science and Technology (MPCST), India Development Coalition of
America (IDCA), Department of Elementary Education (DEE), The Sir
Dorabji Tata Trust, Ayurveda Yoga & Naturopathy Unani Siddha and
Homoeopathy(AYUSH) and Sewa International (SI)
Appreciation and recognition
He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1999. India's former President A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam praised Deshmukh for his "single-minded devotion to the
uplift of the people".
Death
Deshmukh died on 27 February
2010 in the premises of Chitrakoot Gramoday Vishwavidyalaya that he
established. He was unwell for some time due to age-related ailments and
had refused to be taken to Delhi for treatment. He has willed that his
body be donated to Dadhichi Dehdaan Sanstha of New Delhi which was
accepted, and his body was sent toAll India Institute of Medical
Sciences for medical research. His body was sent by road up to Satna,
Madhya Pradesh, and hundreds of people and local residents accompanied
this last procession to Satna. From Satna, his body was carried by a
chartered plane to New Delhi. In New Delhi, his body was kept for few
hours at Keshav Sadan (Delhi headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak
Sangh), and after that the body was donated to AIIMS with the help of
Dadhichi Dehdan Sanstha
