User:Kautilya3/RSS pracharak

RSS Pracharak is a post of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Pracharaks are full-time workers. They dedicate their lives to the propagation of the RSS ideology through personal contact, meetings, and public lectures. They devote themselves to lifelong celibacy, austerity and service to the RSS and the society, collectively forming the organisational backbone of the RSS.

Etymology and meaning
Pracharak derives from prachar, literally "propagate" or "spread." The term pracharak in the context of RSS has been translated as "missionary," "preacher," "propagator," and "propagandist."

History
In 1927, Hedgewar organised an Officers' Training Camp with the objectve of forming a corps of key workers, whom he called pracharaks. He asked the volunteers to become sadhus first, renouncing professional and family lives and dedicating themselves to the cause of the RSS. According to Jaffrelot, Hedgewar embraced this doctrine after it had been reinterpreted by militant nationalists such as Aurobindo. The tradition of renunciation gives the RSS the character of a `Hindu sect'.

Development of the shakha network of the RSS was the main preoccupation for Hedgewar throughout his career as the RSS chief. The first pracharaks were responsible for establishing as many shakhas as possible, first in Nagpur, then across Maharashtra and eventually in the rest of India. P. B. Dani was sent to establish a shakha at the Benaras Hindu University and other Universities were similarly targeted to recruit new followers among the student population. Three pracharaks went to Punjab: Appaji Joshi to Sialkot, Moreshwar Munje to the DAV College in Rawalpindi and Raja Bhau Paturkar to the DAV College in Lahore. In 1940, Madhavrao Muley was appointed as the prant pracharak (provincial missionary) in Lahore.

Once the shakhas had enough members, mukhya shikshaks (chief instructors) were established to run them, trained through an Instructors' Training Camps, and pracharaks supervised the operations at the district, division and state levels. Through the efforts of these pracharaks, the RSS grew rapidly: 18 shakhas in Maharashtra in 1928, 60 shakhas in 1930 and 125 shakhas in 1933. By 1940, the RSS had about 70,000 swayamsevaks all over India and 1,400 of them attended the Officers' Training Camp to become pracharaks.

Some prominent pracharaks
1925-1940
 * Babasaheb Apte, one of the first pracharaks initiated by Hedgewar, initial propagation in Maharashtra, pracharak to Kanpur, acted as Hedgewar's assistant in the coordination of the pracharak network, inspired Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana.
 * Vasantrao Oak, initial propagation in Maharashtra, prant pracharak to Delhi, co-founder of Jana Sangh.
 * S. Parmarth, initial propagation in Maharashtra, pracharak to Madras
 * Prabhakar Balwant Dani, initial pracharak in Varanasi, prant pracharak for Madhya Bharat, 1940-46. General Secretary of RSS 1940-1950, and
 * A. B. Joshi, first pracharak to Sialkot
 * Moreshwar Munje, pracharak to Rawalpindi in 1939, then Jhelum and Peshawar.
 * Raja Bhau Paturkar, pracharak to Lahore
 * Madhavrao Muley, initial pracharak at Ratnagiri, prant pracharak in Lahore
 * Balraj Madhok, pracharak to Jammu and Kashmir, co-founder of Jammu and Kashmir Praja Parishad, founder of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, co-founder of Jana Sangh, President of Jana Sangh.
 * Bhai Mahavir, pracharak in Jalandhar, co-founder of Jana Sangh, General Secretary of Jana Sangh, Member of Rajya Sabha, Governor of Madhya Pradesh
 * Bhaurao Deoras, pracharak to Lucknow in 1937
 * Balasaheb Deoras, pracharak to Bengal in 1939, founder of newspapers Tarun Bharat and Yugadharma, General Secretary and Sarsanghchalak of the RSS

1940's


 * M. W. Moghe, pracharak to Allahabad
 * Rajendra Singh, pracharak to Pratapgarh in 1944, General Secretary and Sarsanghchalak of the RSS.
 * Sunder Singh Bhandari, co-founder and Vice President of Jana Sangh (later BJP), Governor of Bihar and Gujarat.
 * Deendayal Upadhyaya, founded the Panchjanya magazine, worked as the General Secretary of Jana Sangh, formulated the integral humanism doctrine.
 * Bapusaheb Sohni
 * Nanaji Deshmukh, first pracharak for Uttar Pradesh, founded the Saraswati Shishu Mandir brand of schools, founding member and General Secretary of Jana Sangh, ...
 * Atal Behari Vajpayee, vistarak (probationary) for Uttar Pradesh, editor of Panchjanya, founding member and National Secretary of Jana Sangh, President of Jana Sangh, External affairs Minister in Morarji Desai Government, President of BJP, Prime Minister of India.
 * Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, founding member of Jana Sangh
 * Jagannathrao Joshi, founding member of Jana Sangh, activist of Goa Liberation Movement, member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
 * S. S. Apte, pracharak to Tamilnadu, founder of Hindustan Samachar, founder and General Secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad.
 * Ashok Singhal, pracharak to Uttar Pradesh, prant pracharak for Delhi and Haryana, General Secretary and, later, Executive President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad.
 * Moropant Pingley, acting sarsanghchalak of RSS during the emergency, margdarshak (guide) of Vishva Hindu Parishad, founder of Babasaheb Apte Smarak Samiti (predecessor of Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana).
 * Dattopant Thengadi, founder of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, member of Rajya Sabha.

1950's
 * Murli Manohar Joshi, pracharak, General Secretary of Jana Sangh, General Secretary and President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Human Resource Development Minister in Vajpayee Government, credited with saffronisation of school textbooks and social science research organisations.

1970's
 * Lajja Ram Tomar, General Secreatary and Margdarshak of Vidya Bharati.
 * Narendra Modi, pracharak since 1970, BJP General Secretary, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Prime Minister of India.

1980's
 * Manohar Lal Khattar, pracharak since 1980, BJP General Secretary for Haryana, Chief Minister of Haryana.