Dattopant Thengdiji – Role model worth studying, analyzing, understanding and emulating

It won’t be an exaggeration, if I can say that Sri Thengdiji was one of the great souls that Sangh has gifted to modern Bharat. He was a visionary, an intellect, a great thinker and a philosopher; an able organizer sacrificed his whole life for Sangh Karya as a ‘Pracharak’ and lived an austere life all along. He was a down to earth person and very approachable to anyone. Above all he surrendered to the cause of Sangh and was well fit in Sangh’s mission and worked for the growth of Vividha Kshetra in true spirit of Doctorji’s vision of Sangh’s unfoldment in various walks of life.

As Sangh lacked experience(early 50′s) in labor union, its issues, and dynamics, Thengdiji was sent to study the leftist labor organizations to really understand how these labor unions run and work. Without getting swayed away by the attractive slogans of the leftist movements, he came back with the understanding of the dynamics of the labor unions and he developed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) in a non-leftist, Sangh way from scratch. And now to his credit BMS is the largest labor union in India and obviously the largest non-leftist labor union in the world.

From inception to incubation to manifestation of Vividha Kshetra(s), Thengdiji tried his best to keep the spirit of Sangh and its mission at the core in the whole scheme of things and yet be a separate, well managed organization. He worked very hard and in a meticulous manner for the Vividha Kshetra to maintain a symbiotic relationship with Sangh. Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (Farmers org), Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Samajik Samarasta Manch are few more which came up under the guidance of Sri Thengdiji. In spite of all this Vividha Kshetra work, at his personal level he never ignored the regular attendance of Shaka and being connected with Sangh.

An excellent book by Sri Thengdiji named “Sangh Karyakarta” and as aptly quoted by Sri Vaidyaji as Sanghopanishad is worth reading and using it as a reference at personal level. Another good book that comes to my mind is “Nationalist Pursuit” by Sri Thengdiji.

If we as Swayamsevaks/Sevikas are inclined and interested to work in various fields apart from core Shaka work, certainly he is a role model worth studying, analyzing, understanding and emulating.

#ABVP #Sangli