Balraj Madhok
| Balraj Madhok | |
|---|---|
| President of Bharatiya Jana Sangh | |
|
In office 1966–1967 |
|
| Preceded by | Baccharaj Vyas |
| Succeeded by | Deendayal Upadhyaya |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
25 February 1920 Skardu, Jammu and Kashmir (now Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan) |
| Died | 2 May 2016 (aged 96) Rajendra Nagar, Delhi |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Political party | Bharatiya Jana Sangh |
| Alma mater | Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College, Lahore |
| Occupation | Activist, politician |
| Profession | Lecturer in history |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Balraj Madhok (25 February 1920 – 2 May 2016) was an Indian political activist and politician from Jammu. Originally an activist of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he later worked as a politician in the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS). Madhok was instrumental in launching the RSS in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and later the political party Jammu Praja Parishad for representing the interests of Jammu Hindus. He eventually rose to become the president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and led its successful contest in the general election of 1967. He resigned from the party afterwards due to political differences with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L. K. Advani.
Madhok came from a Jammu-based Khatri family with Arya Samaj leanings. His father Jagannath Madhok was from Jallen in the Gujranwala district of West Punjab, and worked as an official in the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in the Ladakh division. Balraj Madhok was born in Skardu, Baltistan and spent early childhood at Jallen. He studied in Srinagar, the Prince of Wales College in Jammu and the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College (DAV College) in Lahore, graduating with B. A. Honours in History in 1940.
While studying in Jammu, Madhok joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1938, which he found to be close to the Arya Samaj way of thinking. He became a pracharak (full-time worker) for the RSS in 1942 and was appointed as a pracharak for Jammu. He is said to have worked in this position for about eight months building up the RSS network. He then moved to Srinagar in 1944 as a lecturer in history at the DAV College and continued to work as an RSS organiser. He established the RSS network in the Kashmir Valley. When the Hindu refugees started arriving in Srinagar after the Partition, they also joined the RSS branches. Mehr Chand Mahajan, the Prime Minister of Kashmir from 15 October 1947, was the Chairman of the managing society of the DAV College. Madhok states that he gathered advance intelligence of the invasion by the Pakistani raiders on 21 October and passed it on to the authorities. He has also claimed that he mobilised 200 RSS volunteers to defend Srinagar at the request of the Maharaja on 23 October.
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