Shyam Prasad Mookerjee created the Jana Sangh, a modern Indian political party, in 1951.
Despite Mookerjee's previous affiliation with the Hindu
Mahasabha, a Hindu nationalist group, the Jana Sangh's leadership was mostly
derived from volunteers deployed by the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh, a conservative
Hindu organization (RSS).
By the mid-1950s, the Jana Sangh had evolved into the RSS's
political wing, with RSS members occupying the majority of the party's key
posts.
The Jana Sangh championed several populist Hindu concerns in
its political platform, including a ban on cow slaughter and the prohibition of
alcoholic drinks, but the party was also known for its sympathy for farmers,
who were one of its most significant constituents.
The Jana Sangh reached its pinnacle in 1977, when it gained
ninety-three seats in Parliament in general elections.
It was the biggest single party in the political alliance
that toppled Indira Gandhi's Congress Party and brought the two-year martial
rule to an end.
This victory was short-lived: the Janata government fell
apart over the so-called dual-membership dispute, which stemmed from worries
over Jana Sangh members also belonging to the RSS.
Other legislators regarded this as a conflict of interest,
and they were also concerned about their government being guided by the RSS,
which was seen as a Hindu chauvinist movement.
Outside legislators requested that Jana Sangh members cut
all relations with the RSS, which the latter refused to do.
All efforts at compromise failed, and the Jana Sangh MPs and
other remnants of the Janata government created the Bharatiya Janata Party when
the Congress Party regained power in 1980.
Walter K. Andersen and Shridhar D. Damle's book The Brotherhood in Saffron was published in 1987, while Bruce Desmond Graham's book Hindu Nationalism in Indian Politics was published in 1990.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
