Rajendra Singh Tomar | |
|---|---|
| 4thSarsanghchalak of theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh | |
| In office 1994 – 10 March 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras |
| Succeeded by | K. S. Sudarshan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rajendra Singh Tomar 29 January 1922 Shahjahanpur,United Provinces,British India |
| Died | 14 July 2003(2003-07-14) (aged 81) Pune,Maharashtra,India |
| Education | BSc,MSc,PhD |
| Alma mater | University of Allahabad |
| Occupation | phsysicist, political activist |
Rajendra Singh Tomar (29 January 1922 – 14 July 2003), popularly calledRajju Bhaiya, was the fourthSarsanghchalak of theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was chief of that organisation between 1994 and 2000.[1][2]
Rajju Bhaiya worked as a professor and head of the Department ofPhysics atUniversity of Allahabad but left the job to devote his life to the RSS in the mid-1960s.
Rajendra Singh was born to Jwala Devi and Balbir Pratap Singh in aTomar Rajput family.[3] He was born on 29 January in 1922 in village banail district buladshahar city of state Uttar Pradesh, when his father was posted there as an engineer.[4] Originally his father Balbir Pratap Singh belonged tovillage Banail Pahasu ofBulandshahr district.[5]
Singh matriculated fromUnnao.[6] After that he was enrolled at theModern School, New Delhi for a brief period before moving toSt Joseph's College, Nainital. Progressing toUniversity of Allahabad, he obtained BSc, MSc and PhD degrees.[5]
Singh was acknowledged as an exceptionally brilliant student bySir C. V. Raman, thephysicist andNobel Prize-winner, when he was his examiner in MSc He also offered Singh a fellowship for advanced research in nuclear physics.[6][7]
He joined Allahabad University after majoring in Physics to teachSpectroscopy.[8] He taught at the university for several years, where later he was appointed head of the Physics Department.[6]
Singh was also considered an expert innuclear physics which was very rare those days in India.[9] He was a very popular teacher of the subject, using simple and clear concepts.[6]
Singh was active in theQuit India Movement of 1942 and it was during this time that he came in contact with the RSS.[6][9] The Sangh influenced his life thereafter. He resigned from his university post in 1966 and offered full-time services to the RSS as apracharak.[6][9]
Beginning inUttar Pradesh, Singh progressed to be theSar-karyavaha (General Secretary) in the 1980s.[6] In March 1994,Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, the third chief of RSS, decided to retire on health grounds, becoming the first RSS chief ever to relinquish the post. He appointed Singh as his successor.[10] Sheshadri was appointed second-in-charge, as Sarkaryawah.
While in Uttar Pradesh, Singh worked withLal Bahadur Shastri,Chandra Shekhar andV.P. Singh.[10]
Arguably Rajju Bhaiya's term of six years was one of the most crucial for both Sangh and India. Singh shared an excellent rapport with political leaders, cutting across ideological lines, as well as withacademics,social workers andintellectuals.[6]
The year 1998 saw a pragmatic shift inIndian politics when the main opposition party, theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the largest party in the rulingNational Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition at the centre. This was a crucial period for the RSS and its political wing BJP. The BJP and the RSS shared many common ideologies.[citation needed]
He gave up the post of Sarsanghchalak on account of his failing health in February 2000 and nominatedK. S. Sudarshan as his successor.[6]
During the emergency he went underground and toured all of India. Singh was also responsible for organizing the human rights convention presided over by JusticeV. M. Tarkunde in Delhi in 1976. He was also responsible for setting up the Friends of India Society International.[11]
One of the most important beliefs of Singh was: "All people are basically nice. One should deal with every person by believing in his goodness. Anger, jealousy, etc. are the offshoots of his past experiences, which affect his behavior. Primarily every person is nice and everyone is reliable."[12]
Like other Sarsanghchalaks he was a firm believer in the concept ofswadeshi and empoweringrural economy. Initiating the rural developmental activities, he had declared in 1995 that the utmost priority should be given in making the villages hunger-free, disease-free and educative. Today, there are over 100 villages where the rural development work done by swayamsevaks has inspired the people of surrounding villages and their experiments are being emulated by those people.[13]
Singh wanted to establish a memorial named afterRam Prasad Bismil in Delhi, the capital of India.[14] He died on 14 July 2003 at Kaushik Ashram inPune,Maharashtra, where he was spending his time after retirement.[6] He was cremated at Pune's Vaikunth Crematorium the next day, like any commoner, in the presence of then RSS chiefK. S. Sudarshan, and top BJP leaders including the then Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee, then Deputy Prime MinisterL. K. Advani, and India's Vice PresidentBhairon Singh Shekhawat.[15]
मेरे पिताजी सन् 1921-22 के लगभग शाहजहाँपुर में इंजीनियर थे....(ह०) राजेन्द्र सिंह (सरसंघचालक, राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ) (en: My father was posted as Engineer at Shahjahanpur in near about 1921-22....(Sd) Rajendra Singh, Sarsanghchalak, R.S.S.)
| Preceded by | Sarsanghchalak of the RSS 1994 – 2000 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
