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Indian politician
Bhai Mahavir
(30 October 1922 - 3 December 2016) was an Indian politician who was governor of the Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh
between April 1998 and March 2003. He was a
pracharak
of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) and served as a leader of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
and
Bharatiya Janata Party
. He has authored many books and had served two terms prior to his governorship as a member of the
Rajya Sabha
. He had an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics and studied Law (LLB) from the University of Delhi.
[1]
Life and career
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Bhai Mahavir was the son of
Bhai Parmanand
, a Mohyal Brahmin, member of
Arya Samaj
and a leader of the
Hindu Mahasabha
.
He grew up with an Arya Samaj background and went to study at the
Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College
in
Lahore
. His ancestors were famous martyrs of Sikhism i.e. Bhai Matidas and Bhai Satidas.
[3]
Mahavir joined the RSS in 1938, in a
shakha
established by Raja Bhau Paturkar in Lahore. He became a
pracharak
in 1942, and worked in that capacity in
Jalandhar
for 2 years. Between 1944 and 1947 he was the Secretary of RSS in Lahore.
After the
partition
, he settled down in Jalandhar and worked as a lecturer. He moved to Delhi in 1956, working as a lecturer in the Panjab University College established for the Panjabi refugees.
Towards the end of 1950,
Shyama Prasad Mookerjee
gathered in Delhi a core group of activists to form a new political party, the future
Bharatiya Jana Sangh
. Bhai Mahavir was among this group, along with
Vasantrao Oak
and
Balraj Madhok
, all RSS
Pracharaks
. The three of them founded the Panjab-Delhi branch of the Jana Sangh in Jalandhar on 27 May 1951, which later became part of the nationwide `Bharatiya' Jana Sangh established on 21 October. Mahavir was named a General Secretary of the nationwide party. He served in that capacity for one year, succeeded by
Deendayal Upadhyaya
in 1952. He continued on the Working Committee of the Jana Sangh, along with several other RSS leaders who controlled the policy line of Jana Sangh.
After the death of Mookerjee in 1953, the RSS members of the Working Committee forced out the next elected President
Mauli Chandra Sharma
, in effect taking full control of the Jana Sangh.
Mahavir continued in senior positions in the Jana Sangh and later in
Bharatiya Janata Party
. He was elected to the
Rajya Sabha
during 1968-74 and 1978?84. In 1998, he was appointed the Governor of
Madhya Pradesh
and served a full term till 2003.
Personal life
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]
Bhai Mahavir had two daughters and three grandchildren. He was married to Krishna Kumari who died in New Delhi on 14 December 2012. Bhai Mahavir died at his home in Delhi on 3 December 2016.
[8]
References
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Sources