RIP Prof. Balraj Madhok

Balraj Madhok (25 February 1920 – 2 May 2016) was an activist of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and a president of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) and a senior politician of India in the 1960s.

Madhok came from a Jammu-based Khatri family with Arya Samaj learning. His father Jagannath Madhok was from Jallen in the Gujranwala district of West Punjab, and worked as an official in the Government of Jammu and Kashmir in the Ladakh division. Balraj Madhok was born in Skardu, Baltistan and spent early childhood at Jallen. He studied in Srinagar, the Prince of Wales College in Jammu and the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College (DAV College) in Lahore, graduating with B. A. Honours in History in 1940. He moved to Srinagar in 1944 as a lecturer in history at the DAV College and continued to build the RSS network there. He played a significant role in the defence of Srinagar at the time of Pak invasion in October 1947 till the arrival of the Indian Army. Later he founded Jammu & Kashmir Praja Parishad which stood for autonomy for the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh. Sh. Abdullah externed him from the state in 1948. This brought him on the national state. He worked with Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee for the formation of Bhartiya Jan Sangh in 1951 of which he became a founder Secretary. He later rose to be its President in 19565. Jan Sangh reached its highest water mark in the general election of 1967 under his leadership.

Prof. Madhok represented Delhi in the second & fourth Lok Sabha & made his mark as a parliamentarian. Madhok was arrested during the Emergency and was imprisoned for 18 months, (1975–1977). He joined the Janata Party, into which Jana Sangh merged, but resigned in 1979 and tried to revive Jana Sangh under the name Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

He married Kamla, who was a professor at the Delhi University. He had two daughters. Prof Madhok had equal command over both hindi & English. Beside writing in leading journals, he had authored over thirty books in these languages.

Prof. Madhok has authored many books. Some of them are:

· R.S.S. & Politics (Reliance Publishing House)

· Portrait of a Martyr (Biography of Shyama Prasad Mukerjee),

· Kashmir: The Storm Center of The World

· Bungling in Kashmir

· Kargil and Indo-Pak Relations

· Rationale of Hindu State

· Indianisation? What, Why and How (S. Chand, 1970)

· Jeet Ya Haar (in Hindi)

· Jindgi Ka Safar parts 1, 2 and 3 (in Hindi)

· Kashmir Jeet mein Haar (in Hindi

· Hindustan on the Cross Roads

About the book: Much has been written on Jammu and Kashmir State, the biggest and strategically the most important princely State of United India, particularly after the partition of 1947. Because of the Geographical situation and demographical complexion of this State, its ruler was put in a real dilemma by the partition. He decided to accede to India when Pakistan forced his hands by its attempt to annex the State to Pakistan by force.

Problem of Kashmir was born when Pt. Nehru referred the matter of Pak invasion to U.N. this false step internationalized a purely internal problem. It has since become a festering sore in Indian body politics. It has also decisively influenced Indian Foreign Policy over the years.

The present book is an intimate and realistic study of the developing situation in Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh, the three distinct regions which together constitute the Indian part of Jammu & Kashmir State after its de-facto partition brought about by Cease Fire of January, 1, 1949. It discusses in detail the relative economic & strategic importance of these three regions, the conflicting interests and aspirations of their people and the effect of growing Islamic fundamentalism on them. It also dwells upon the role of Maharaja Hari Singh, Sh. Abdullah and Pt. Nehru in the unfolding of Kashmir drama on the bases of new information provided by autobiography of Sh. Abdullah & some important letters of Maharaja Hari Singh. It also discusses possible solutions of the problem.

A part from general readers, this book would be most helpful to Indian Policy makers who have so far refused to learn, inspite of repeated jolts, that problem of Kashmir is basically religio political & not socioeconomic. This wrong diagnosis has let to application of wrong remedy, which have further complicated the problem.