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{{short description|Third Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox Officeholder
| name = Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras
| native_name =
| image = [[File:Balasaheb deoras.jpg]]
| caption =
| order =
| predecessor = [[M. S. Golwalkar]]
|office= 3rd [[Sarsanghchalak]] of the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]]
| term_start = 1973
| term_end = 1993
| successor=[[Rajendra Singh (RSS)|Rajendra Singh]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1915|12|11}}
| birth_place = [[Nagpur]], [[Central Provinces]], [[British India]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1996|6|17|1915|12|11}}
|death_place =[[Pune]], [[Maharashtra]], [[India]]
| nationality = [[Indian people|Indian]]
| party =
| education = [[Bachelor of Laws|LL.B.]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Nagpur]]
| occupation = Politician
| spouse =
| children =
| father = Dattatreya Krishnarao Deoras
| mother = Parvatibai Deoras
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
'''Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras'''<sup>[a]</sup> (11 December 1915 – 17 June 1996), popularly known as '''Balasaheb Deoras''', was the third [[Sarsanghchalak]] of the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Banerjee |first1=Sumanta |title=Shrinking space: minority rights in South Asia |publisher=South Asia Forum for Human Rights, 1999 |page=171}}</ref>

==Biography==
Deoras was born in a [[Telugu language|Telugu]]-speaking<ref>{{cite book|title=The Emerging Hindutva Force: The Ascent of Hindu Nationalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=917XAAAAMAAJ|author=Prakash Louis|publisher=Indian Social Institute|year=2000|page=38|isbn = 9788187218319|quote=The third head of RSS , Balasaheb Deoras was another Telugu Brahmin.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resistance in Indian Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjxuAAAAMAAJ|page=248|author=Braj Ranjan Mani|publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors|year=2005|isbn = 9788173046407|quote=The third head of the RSS - after Hedgewar and Golwalkar – was Balasaheb Deoras, another Telugu brahman.}}</ref> [[Deshastha Brahmin|Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin]] (DRB) family<ref>{{cite book|title=New Quest, Issues 25-30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bpctAAAAIAAJ|page=4|publisher= the Indian Association for Cultural Freedom|year=1981|quote=Nanaji Deshmukh, Moropant Pingle and the deoras brothers too, insist are deshastha brahmins}}</ref> on 11 December 1915 in [[Nagpur]] and raised in [[Andhra Pradesh]]. He was the eighth child of Dattatreya Krishnarao Deoras and Parvati-bai; the ninth child, his younger brother [[Bhaurao Deoras]] (Murlidhar alias Bhaurao), also became a ''[[pracharak]]'' of the RSS. During Balasaheb Deoras's tenure as RSS chief, Bhaurao Deoras played a key role in the organization in North India. Balasaheb Deoras was a student at New English High School. He graduated from Morris College in Nagpur in 1938 and obtained his LLB degree at the College of Law, [[Nagpur University]]. Inspired by Dr. [[K. B. Hedgewar]], he was associated with the RSS from its inception and decided to dedicate his life to its goals.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

He was the first ''pracharak'' sent to Bengal, and he returned to the movement's headquarters to direct the publication of ''[[Tarun Bharat]]'', a Marathi daily, and ''Yugadharma'', a Hindi daily. Deoras brothers wanted RSS to be more activist, and they withdrew from the organization from 1953 to 1957 because of dissatisfaction with Golwalkar's more insular policies. But they kept in touch and the brothers resumed working for RSS in 1957 upon Golwalkar's suggestion. Balasaheb Deoras became general secretary of the RSS in 1965. During the same year he addressed the annual meeting of the [[Jana Sangh]]. After the death of second RSS chief [[M. S. Golwalkar]], Deoras became ''Sarsanghachalak'', the leader of the RSS, in 1973.<ref name = "Klostermaier">[[#Klostermaier|Klostermaier]], p. 446.</ref> Deoras chose to involve RSS more deeply in social activism than any other past RSS ''sarsanghachalak''. The following year, Deoras expressed his activist leanings by having the RSS support the "[[JP Movement]]", an anti-[[Indira Gandhi]] movement led by [[Jayaprakash Narayan]].<ref name = "Jaffrelot">[[#Jaffrelot|Jaffrelot]], p. 177.</ref> There are also accounts, disputed by RSS spokesmen, of Balasaheb Deoras apologising to Indira Gandhi, while being incarcerated at Yerwada jail, and offering support to her twenty point programme if the ban on RSS was lifted. <ref name="thehindu0">{{cite web |url=http://www.thehindu.com/2000/06/13/stories/05132524.htm |title=Unlearnt lessons of the Emergency |date=2000-06-13 |access-date=2017-06-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608184717/http://www.thehindu.com/2000/06/13/stories/05132524.htm |work=[[The Hindu]] |archive-date=2017-06-08}}</ref>

In the aftermath of the end of [[The Emergency (India)|The Emergency]], Deoras met with Christian and Muslim leaders. The RSS’s national assembly exhorted, "all citizens in general and R.S.S. Swayamsevaks in particular to further expedite this process of mutual contact by participation in each other’s social functions". Such sentiments can be viewed as consequences of the optimism in Indian public culture at that time.<ref name = "Bhatt">[[#Bhatt|Bhatt]], p. 166-167.</ref> Under Deoras, the RSS took a turn towards accelerated activism and tried to dramatically increase the number and range of its recruits. This shift in orientation was reflected in its literature: it produced simplified versions of its ideology and used new generic forms to present them in (comic books, posters, postcards, inland letter cards, etc.). The term "the masses" came to occupy a central place in its vocabulary.<ref name = "Hasan">[[#Hasan|Hasan]], p. 206.</ref>

Deoras continued as Sarsanghachalak till 1994, when he stepped down due to ill health. He left behind a shining legacy{{citation needed|date=November 2014}} and paved the way for [[Rajendra Singh (RSS)|Rajendra Singh]] to replace him. Declining health eventually resulted in his death on 17 June 1996. He lived long enough to see Atal Bihari Vajpayee become India's Prime Minister in May 1996, the first adherent of [[Hindutva]] philosophy and of RSS affiliation to become PM.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

==Views of Deoras==
Deoras echoed [[Savarkar]] by stating: "We do believe in the one-culture and one-nation Hindu rashtra. But our definition of Hindu is not limited to any particular kind of faith. Our definition of Hindu includes those who believe in the one-culture and one-nation theory of this country. They can all form part of the Hindu-rashtra. So by Hindu we do not mean any particular type of faith. We use the word Hindu in a broader sense."<ref name = "Klostermaier" /> According to Deoras, even though [[Mahatma Gandhi]] appeased Muslims, the Muslims never accepted him as one of their own.<ref name = "Malik">[[#Makik|Malik]], p. 160.</ref>

In one of the most important speeches delivered in the history of RSS from the platform of Vasant Vyakhyanmala (Spring Lecture Series), Deoras denounced the practice of [[untouchability]] in May 1974 in Pune, and appealed to the RSS volunteers to work towards its removal from the Hindu society. The RSS has set up many programs under [[Seva Bharati]], an organization devoted to uplifting the members of scheduled castes. Under it, RSS volunteers have started schools in which they offer vocational courses for slum dwellers and former untouchables while teaching them the virtues of Hinduism.<ref name = "Malik157">[[#Malik|Malik]], p. 157.</ref> Deoras declared: "If untouchability is not wrong, nothing in the world is wrong."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ghimire|first1=Yubaraj|title=A Seamless Hindu Vision|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article/A-Seamless-Hindu-Vision/201628|website=outlookindia.com|publisher=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]|access-date=26 June 2014}}</ref> He said on 9 November 1985, that the main purpose of the RSS is Hindu unity and that the organization believes all citizens of India should have a 'Hindu culture'.<ref name = "Sharma">[[#Sharma|Sharma]], p. 111.</ref>

A brainchild of Deoras, the [[Swadeshi Jagaran Manch]] was vocal in its defense of swadeshi. Founded in 1993, it was conceived as a protectionist bulwark against [[economic liberalization]] by the Congress government of [[P.V. Narasimha Rao]] in 1991.<ref name = "Saha">[[#Saha|Saha]], p. 94.</ref>

==Books by Deoras==
Deoras wrote in both English and Hindi. Some of books he authored:

* Punjab, problem and its solution (1984)
* Social equality and Hindu consolidation (1974)
* Hindu sangathana aura sattavadi rajaniti (1997)
* Sri Balasaheb Deoras answers questions (1984)
* Rouse: The power of good (1975)

== Notes ==
[a] The surname is alternatively spelled 'Devaras' or 'Devras'.

== References ==

{{Refbegin}}
'''Books'''

* {{cite book|last1=Klostermaier|first1=Klaus K.|title=A survey of Hinduism|date=2007|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=9780791480113|edition=3.|ref=Klostermaier}}
* {{cite book|last1=Rajagopal|first1=Arvind|title=Politics after television religious nationalism and the reshaping of the Indian public|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|isbn=9780511155956|ref=Rajagopal}}
* {{cite book|last1=Bhatt|first1=Chetan|title=Hindu Nationalism Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths.|url=https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet|url-access=registration|date=2001|publisher=Berg Publishers|location=Oxford|isbn=9781845209865|ref=Bhatt}}
* {{cite book|last1=Jaffrelot|first1=Christophe|title=Hindu nationalism : a reader|date=2007|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=978-0-691-13097-2|ref=Jaffrelot}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Hasan|editor-first=Zoya|title=Forging identities : gender, communities and the state in India|date=1994|publisher=Westview Press|location=Boulder u.a.|isbn=0-8133-2333-9|edition=1. publ.|ref=Hasan|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/forgingidentitie00hasa}}
* {{cite book|last1=Malik|first1=Yogendra K.|last2=Singh|first2=V.B.|title=Hindu nationalists in India : the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party|date=1994|publisher=Westview Press|location=Boulder u.a.|isbn=0-8133-8810-4|ref=Malik}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Sharma|editor-first=Arvind|title=Today's woman in world religions|date=1994|publisher=State Univ. of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=0-7914-1687-9|ref=Sharma|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/todayswomaninwor0000unse}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Saha|editor-first=Santosh C.|title=Religious fundamentalism in developing countries|date=2001|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn. [u.a.]|isbn=0-313-31155-2|edition=1. publ.|ref=Saha}}
{{Refend}}

'''Citations'''
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* [http://arisebharat.com/tag/balasaheb-deoras/ Balasaheb Deoras] from [http://arisebharat.com/ Arise Bharat]
* [http://www.archivesofrss.org/A-Fruitful-life--Balasaheb-Deoras.aspx An organizer par excellence]

{{Sangh Parivar}}
{{HinduRevivalistWriters}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deoras, Madhukar Dattatraya}}
[[Category:People from Nagpur]]
[[Category:Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks]]
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India)]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]
[[Category:Sarsanghchalaks]]

Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras - Revision history

Marinazhg: updated structure per sources for accuracy

>Pi bot: Removing Commons category (Category:Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras) as it does not exist

imported>Ankush M. Nahata: /* top */