ABSTRACT
This chapter is dealing with the rise of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in the political landscape of India in the year 1951. Here an attempt has been made to focus on the Hindu nationalist ideas and perceptions of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of the Jana Sangh in relation to the other influences received by the party, and the reflection of that ideology in the policies and programmes adopted exclusively for the purpose of doing well in the elections. Starting from an insightful discussion on the evolution of Hindu nationalism from colonial times, this chapter wishes to make an alternative reading of Dr. Mookerjee by keeping his ideas of Hindu nationalism separate from those of V.D. Savarkar and M.S. Golwalkar. This chapter continues to focus on the facts of party control, factional disputes between the RSS and non-RSS workers and the subsequent taking over of the Jana Sangh by the RSS after the untimely death of Dr. Mookerjee. In this chapter, the visions and missions of the Jana Sangh have been discussed with an aim to locate the party in the realm of electoral politics, especially in terms of turning those ideas into a political reality.
