Balraj Madhok

Balraj Madhok (25 February 1920 – 2 May 2016) was an Indian political activist and politician from Jammu.

Originally an activist of the 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.

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 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.

He married Kamla, who was a professor at the Delhi University.

He had two daughters.

He became a pracharak (full-time worker) for the RSS in 1942 and was appointed as a worker 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 Jammu & Kashmir from 15 October 1947, was the Chairman of the managing society of the DAV College.

After the state joined India and Sheikh Abdullah was appointed as the Head of Emergency Administration in the Kashmir Valley, Madhok moved back to Jammu.

He worked to form the Praja Parishad party, founded in November 1947, in collaboration with Hari Wazir.

Prem Nath Dogra also joined later.

The party demanded the complete unification of Jammu and Kashmir with India, in opposition to the loose autonomy negotiated between Abdullah and Nehru (later embodied in the Article 370).

Madhok was extended from Jammu and Kashmir by Sheikh Abdullah as a result of his political stance.

Madhok moved to Delhi in 1948 and started teaching at the Panjab University College, which was established for the education of refugees from West Punjab.

Later, he was a lecturer of history at the DAV College in Delhi affiliated to the Delhi University.

In 1951, Madhok launched the student union of the Sangh Parivar, viz., the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

In 1951, Madhok joined Shyama Prasad Mookerjee in the formation of what later become the political party of the Sangh Parivar, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

The Bengal branch of the Jana Sangh was established by Mookerjee on 23 April 1951 and the Panjab and Delhi branch was established by Madhok a month later, on 27 May 1951.

Madhok served as the secretary of the Panjab branch and later, a member of the Working Committee of the national organisation.

He was part of the RSS-dominated Working Committee of the Jana Sangh in 1954, which ensured the ouster of the traditional politician wing led by the President M. C. Sharma.

The Delhi branch of the party was dissolved and then reconstituted with RSS pracharaks at the helm.

Madhok continued to be active in the Delhi branch of Jana Sangh, and won the Lok Sabha seat for Delhi in 1961.

In 1966–67, Madhok rose to become the President of the Jana Sangh.

He eventually rose to become the president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and led its successful contest in the general election of 1967.

He was later expelled from Bharatiya Jana Sangh for "anti-party" activities after the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya.

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 led the party in the general election of 1967, when the party won 35 seats in the Lok Sabha, its highest tally.

Madhok tried to create a coalition of rightist forces along with the Swatantra Party.

He saw the split in the Congress party in 1969 as an opportunity to expand the role of Jana Sangh.

He died at the age of 96 on 2 May 2016.

He was unwell for some time and had been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for a month.

His death was condoled by many including the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and several others including Lal Krishna Advani.

Prime Minister Modi visited Madhok's residence to pay his last respects.