On the third page of its constitution, the BJP lays out its membership conditions: “Any Indian citizen of 18 years or above who accepts Articles II, III and IV of the constitution shall, on making a written declaration… become a member” of the BJP. What are these things that are important enough to make a written declaration? Article II of the BJP constitution concludes thus: “the party shall bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy”. Article IV says the party commits itself to the “Gandhian approach to socio-economic issues leading to establishment of egalitarian society free from exploitation”. It adds that the “party stands for decentralisation of economic and political power”.

Where do these matters figure in the way the party actually conducts itself? This will be interesting to see, but that’s for another time. Article III, the subject of this column, is a single line which reads “Integral Humanism shall be the basic philosophy of the party”. Integral Humanism is the subject of four lectures in Mumbai given by Deen Dayal Upadhyaya between April 22 and 25, 1965. Upadhyaya held a BA degree and was a journalist at the RSS’s in-house Panchjanya. He was about 50 when he delivered these lectures and became president of the Jan Sangh (the BJP’s precursor) a couple of years after he delivered them. The following is a summary of the........

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