Raghu Vira

Raghu Vira (December 30, 1902 - May 14, 1963) was an Indian linguist, scholar, prominent politician, and member of the Constituent Assembly. He was one of the Editors of the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata which was compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. More specifically he was the editor of the Fourth Book of the Mahabharata i.e. the Virataparvan.

He was a Hindu nationalist and served as Jana Sangh's President. His son is the scholar Lokesh Chandra.

Raghu Vira was born in Rawalpindi (West Punjab) on 30 December 1902. After gaining an MA from Punjab University, he received a Ph.D. from London and a D. Litt. from Leiden (Netherlands). He was in close touch with most of the Indologists of Europe during and after his three visits there. His early centre of work after his three study trips of Europe was Lahore where he became Head of the Sanskrit Department of the Sanatan Dharma College. At that time, his reputation as Head of the Department of Sanskrit of S.D. College was great. He was offered principalship of the college under the condition that he would not take part in politics. He turned down the offer.

He was elected first to the Constituent Assembly in 1948 and then to the Rajya Sabha in 1952 and 1957. He left the party in 1961 because of differences with Jawaharlal Nehru over the China policy. His contribution to parliamentary and inner party debates with inside knowledge of China and South-East Asia was unique. He pleaded for a large anti-China, anti-communist front with the Buddhist countries of South-East Asia. After his return from a three months cultural research tour of China in 1956, he told Nehru that China as a once 'cultural brother' of India was dead and that it was now an expansionist, materialist country. He had many skirmishes with Nehru in party meetings and ultimately resigned in December 1960 when the Chinese danger loomed large as the Government of India just watched aimlessly. Soon after his resignation he was invited to the Jana Sangh and joined it as the only major party close to his views, with a strong network of cadres.

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