Jana Sangh
ਜਨ ਸੰਘ
The Hindu nationalist party founded in 1951 with the RSS, forerunner of the BJP. In Punjab it stood against the Punjabi Suba demand, then sat in Akali-led governments in 1967 and 1970.
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was a Hindu nationalist party. Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded it in Delhi on 21 October 1951 and became its first president. After his death in 1953, Wikipedia says, RSS activists took over its direction and made it the political arm of the RSS.
Leaders and results: its later presidents included Deendayal Upadhyaya (1967 to 1968), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1968 to 1972) and L.K. Advani (1973 to 1977). In Lok Sabha elections it won 3 seats in 1952 and its best result, 35 seats, in 1967. In 1977 it merged with other anti-Congress parties into the Janata Party. After that government fell, its members left in 1980 and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In Punjab: Wikipedia's account of the Punjabi Suba movement says the Jana Sangh and the Arya Samaj formed the Hindi Raksha Samiti for the 1957 Hindi agitation, and that in 1954 the Jana Sangh asked for Punjab, PEPSU, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to be merged. It says the Jana Sangh also backed the push for Hindus to record Hindi as their mother tongue in the 1961 census, until the RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar said that Punjabi was the mother tongue of every Punjabi. A Tribune commentary says that, as the Jan Sangh, the BJP's forerunner "vehemently opposed" the creation of Punjabi Suba. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism lists Vajpayee, then of the Jana Sangh, on the parliamentary committee on a Punjabi-speaking state.
Key moments
- 21 October 1951: founded at Delhi.
- 4 to 8 March 1967: the People's United Front is formed at Khanna and takes office under Gurnam Singh. The Jana Sangh holds 9 of the front's 53 seats in the 104-seat house. Wikipedia, citing S.C. Arora, gives that count. The government falls on 22 November 1967 when Lachhman Singh Gill breaks away.
- March 1970: Parkash Singh Badal becomes Chief Minister at the head of a coalition of the Akali Dal (Sant Fateh Singh) and the Jan Sangh. It lasts a little over a year, until June 1971 (ThePrint).
- 1977: the Jana Sangh merges into the Janata Party, and Badal heads an Akali Dal and Janata Party government.
Where it stands: the party no longer exists; the BJP is its successor.
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Sources
- Kashmir would never have become integral part of India without Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Union HM Amit Shah (founding date, place and first president), Free Press Journal. freepressjournal.in
- Bharatiya Jana Sangh (presidents, results, merger and BJP; used where nothing better loaded), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
- Punjabi Suba movement (Jana Sangh and the Hindi agitation; used where nothing better loaded), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
- Punjabi Suba Movement, The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org
- Punjabi Suba: what's there to celebrate? (commentary), The Tribune. tribuneindia.com
- People's United Front (Punjab) (composition, citing S.C. Arora, Turmoil in Punjab Politics, p. 82), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
- Lachhman Singh Gill (1917-1969), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org
- 5-time Punjab CM, SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal's death marks the end of an era in Punjab's politics, ThePrint. theprint.in