Prof. Jasbir Singh
Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, born on September 25,1916 (Ashwin Krishna Trayodashi, Samvat 1973) in the village of Nagla Chandraban, now called Deendayal Dham, near the town of Farah in Mathura District which is about 26 kms from Mathura, was one of the most distinguished nationalist political thinker, philosopher, economist, sociologist and believer in Bharatiya culture and traditions. He was a great thinker, always preoccupied with the welfare of the poor and local’s participation in production and economic activities. He believed in public awakening and awareness for inclusive growth in which the last person should also be included. His philosophy was based on the Sanatan traditions and he devoted his life for the betterment of masses.
To him, the primary duty of every free nation is to defend its freedom and consolidate it, and to give the citizens a government which, while guaranteeing to them all necessities of life, would enable them to live as a happy, prosperous and purposeful community. The advent of Indian independence had aroused high hopes in the people. It was expected that the nation’s, freedom after centuries of repressive foreign bondage, would come into its own and re-affirm itself with dignity and self-respect. It was hoped that decrepit institutions and structures would fade away and healthy, buoyant, life-giving organizations would take their place; that the masses suppressed under the burden of economic inequality and social injustice would be able to breathe freely in an atmosphere of equity and contentment. But in spite of loud proclamations and pompous plans, the hopes of the people remained unfulfilled. No doubt, during British rule , everyone had one objective to drive out the foreign rulers collectively and to achieve independence but what would be the face of the new Bharat (Bharat is used here for the original India and its cultural evolution) after independence, no one could give a serious thought to it.
Pandit Deendyal Upadhyaya, however, was clear from the beginning that the Bharat should have its roots in the ancient Bharatiya cultural, moral and ethnic relations. Panditji was opposed to the idea of partition of the country. The leadership of the day failed to develop a common political ideology for development rather efforts were directed to take control of the political power to run the country. As a result, the national identity and ideology could not be developed within the country. Most of the development initiatives followed for Bharat’s growth were either an imitation or imposed from the outside. At this critical juncture, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya cautioned that the country should not emulate the western world in development initiatives. Though he was not against new inventions and innovations which took place in the western countries but his argument was that these technologies should be blended into the Bharatiya structure and indigenous model should be used for the benefit of Bharat, and the people of Bharat. He gave a call for Swadeshi and decentralization, self-reliance, industrialization, agriculture and urbanization which has to take into consideration the basic principles of Bharatiya culture and ethos. The adoption of indigenous development model, embedded with spirit of humanism, which would take care of the last person in society, is his unique contribution and the firm foundation for ATAMNIRBHAR BHARAT.
Indian Nation as Bharat:
According to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, a nation has four components. First, the land & people -which we call country; second, collective will -desire of all; third, a system -set of principles based on Dharma as invoked in our culture; and fourth, ideals of life. A man needs body, mind, intellect and soul to be a complete man, a nation needs above four components to be a nation. He clearly stated that only a group of people and a piece of land, separately or together, cannot form a nation. To Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya a nation is formed when a group of people live with a goal, an ideal, a mission in a motherland. He elaborated that a relationship between people and land is of son and mother, and in the absence of this, there is no nation (it refers to a country). This relation is fundamental because there can be other relationship between the land and its inhabitants, like the colonizers, exploiters, invaders, and plunderers. Such ownership does not entitle them to be insiders, according to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, they remain outsiders, and intruders throughout.
According to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya merely invocation of Bharat would not be sufficient to establish this relation but Bharatmata evokes special, unified consciousness that establishes a relationship between the land and the inhabitants. Since time immemorial our country has been addressed as mother -Bharatmata, Janambhumi, Matrabhumi- a living entity kept at the highest pedestal and served by sons with all courage and vigour who never hesitate to sacrifice their lives for the motherland. The concept of motherland is conceived as the idealism of patriotism.
Further, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya advocated that the people with specific disposition and cultural traditions evolve a nation whom he called Jan or Ekjan. He mentioned, as the nature of every individual differs so is the nature of a nation. Bharat has her distinct identity and nature. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya attached great significance to Ekjan in shaping the consciousness of the people living in a specific country. He termed the unified consciousness of the people as Chiti which is considered the basis of fundamental tenets and principles to determine and maintain the nature and identity of the nation.
Besides, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya believed that our national life has a continuous flow of many diverse and different kinds of tendencies (cultural and traditional), which have gone into the flow of national life like the rivers merging into the Ganges to become a part of the mighty flow. Similarly, many clans and tribes including Sakas, Huns,Turks, Mughals etc. came to our country, assimilated and became a part of it. They could not change the original character of the principles on which the nation was evolved. Here, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya cautioned, when the principles which constitute Chiti (unified consciousness of nation) are followed and upheld, then the nation becomes strong and stable and grows with all vigour and energy. According to him, Chiti provides power and energy called Virat. It protects the nation from distortions and malformations, and leads to national awakening. If Chiti and Virat are actuated then only can the nation and people progress to emerge winner in the world and attain glory. Many nations which held on to their consciousness remained living and resilient, and those nations which weakened their unified consciousness of the nation got destroyed ultimately.
Mantra of Self-reliance and Atamnirbar Bharat
Pandit Deendyal Upadhyaya advocated the idea of self-reliance for which one has to strive for capacity building so as to safeguard one’s freedom and self-respect. Dependence on foreign models made under different conditions in terms of time, place and requirement would never serve as the right template for Bharat’s (India’s) economic development as the conditions are different from that of the west. Secondly, overdependence on other nations ruins the country as it compromises with its self-respect. Such a nation can never assess the value of its independence, and today the fate of such countries is before us. So, the message is clear that a country should develop its own economic, social and political expertise for the betterment of its people and economy. And at the same time to disseminate the outcome and expertise for the betterment of other countries in the present time when mutual cooperation and progress is the need of the hour, which can only be served if Bharat is self-reliant to take up the role of leadership within the country and on the world platform.
Prime Minister Narinder Modi has rightly mentioned that every time we think, discuss and listen to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya a novelty in his thoughts is experienced. Paying tribute to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, the Prime Minister said “Swadeshe Pujyate Raja Vidwan Sarvtre Pujyate.” It means kings with power are respected in their kingdom but the scholar’s respect is everywhere. And Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya is a living example of this ideal statement. His thoughts, words and action made him a unique personality: a great example of how a leader should be in social life. He believed, imbibed and propagated: “Swadesho Bhuvanam Triyam” which means our country is everything to us, equal to all three worlds. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya wrote “Only a strong nation can contribute to the world.” He had a dream to see Bharat as Vishavguru, leading the world.
Pandit Deendayal’s ideas were indigenous in nature and local in implementation. He gave the model of inclusive growth in which the last person is included. Today, Bharat is realizing his vision with the mantra of vocal for local, self-reliant not in food and agriculture only but also in defense to safeguard the borders and identity. To fulfill his vision the government has taken initiatives to build defense corridor, manufacturing of indigenous weaponry, fighter jets and defense missiles. This is not only for protecting our borders but also providing leadership in different arenas in the world today for world peace and geo-political balance. Domestically, we are becoming self-reliant and the benefits of growth are percolated to improve the life of villagers, farmers, labour and the middle class. Ujjwala Yojana, Jan Dhan Yojna, Kisan Samman Nidhi, Toilets in every house, houses for every poor and development of infrastructure are leading the country to a new direction.
In the last decade, the present government has initiated self-reliant and confidence as many decisions and initiatives taken at the local and international level have had lasting impact on the economy. With the success of GST, the government has shown its commitment to spend money on the developmental initiatives. The people’s confidence in the government has almost doubled the taxpayer’s base and the central and state governments collected ? 1.59 trillion (GST) revenue in August 2023, an increase of 11 % year-on-year basis.
The present government has given much leverage to the use of technology to implement welfare programmes. Huge digital payments infrastructure has been created. The UPI has revolutionized the digital payment system even in villages, which was not expected and even questioned by many in the past. This has unlocked economic potential of identity and payment based on Aadhaar, UPI, Digilockers. Peoples use of digital payment modes in Bharat, like BHIM-UPI, IMPS, NACH, AePS, Debit and Credit cards, NEFT, RTGS and others. up to December, 2022,has recorded 89.5 million digital transactions accounting for 46 per cent of the global real-time payments, adding that the digital payment transactions in Bharat is more than the other four leading countries combined viz., Brazil amounting to 29.2 million transactions, China with 17.6 million transactions and Thailand with 16.5 million transactions.
To follow the vision of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya to reach the last beneficiary the Modi government has utilized a revolutionary scheme of Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) for financial inclusion of all those who have been identified as beneficiaries of different schemes. In the 1980’s the government confessed that out of every rupee only 15 paisa reaches the beneficiary but with the help of Jan Dhan , Aadhaar and Mobile this has also been changed .The government is able to transfer subsidies and other financial benefits to the poor reducing the delays and increasing transparency to bring accountability and plugging leakages thereby saving billions of rupees in key central government schemes through DBT. According to one estimate on an average, over 90 lakh DBT payments are processed in Bharat daily to send money directly into the accounts of eligible beneficiaries.
Following the principle of indigenous development as promoted by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, Modi government launched Make in India programme in 2014 which has transformed the economy from service led economy to manufacturing economic power. Not only this, Bharat is moving to lead the world as Vishavguru, serving humanity with all indigenous knowledge and expertise. Recently, with the landing of Chandaryan 3 on the south pole of moon our country has become the first nation to achieve this feat and journey of Aditya-L1 has really made a mark for declaring Bharat self-reliant in every sphere.
Implementing the perspective of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya by bringing all under the umbrella of Sabka Sath , Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas is a real tribute to this visionary leader as quoted the Prime Minister, ” I am confident that we will move forward with these ideals of Deendayalji. Deendayal ji’s dream of Antyodaya will be fulfilled with the creation of a new India in 21st century. My friends, the country has a lot of expectations from us. To meet those expectations, we do not have to look at ourselves; we have to look at the person sitting at the end, the family sitting at the end.”
(The author is Chair Professor, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya UGC -Chair University of Jammu, Jammu)
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