Page 5 - NIS English November 1-15
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Bharat Ratna Series
Rashtra Rishi Nanaji
A VISIONARY
FOR RURAL
SELF-RELIANCE
Nanaji Deshmukh's Gramodaya initiative
in Chitrakoot is a living example of
transforming a dream into reality
ith a vision to bring about total
Wtransformation and development of society
through people’s participation, Chandikadas
Amritrao Deshmukh i.e. Rashtra Rishi Nanaji
Deshmukh took many initiatives. He started off
by setting up a Saraswati Shishu Mandir school ''I don’t live for myself, I stand for those
in Gorakhpur in 1950. The school reflects on his who are impoverished and deprived.''
love for education and knowledge. He went on Nanaji Deshmukh
to establish the first rural university Chitrakoot
Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya at Chitrakoot where BORN : OCTOBER 11, 1916
he settled finally. DIED : FEBRUARY 27, 2010
The Chitrakoot project is an integrated and
holistic model for the development of rural India Gandhi.
and creating a society based on complementarities Born on October 11, 1916, at Kadoli, a small
of the family, primary school and the local town in Parbhani district in Maharashtra, Nanaji
population. The project was launched on January was inspired by the nationalist ideology of
26, 2002, to cover 500 villages around Chitrakoot. Lokamanya Tilak and Dr K B Hedgewar. Nanaji
The objective was achieved by August 15, 2010. participated actively in the Bhoodan Movement
The key to the campaign was the concept of launched by Vinoba Bhave spending two months
Samaj Shilpi Dampati i.e. the ‘graduate’ couples with him. On Jayaprakash Narayan's call for
who live within the villages. Each couple has the ‘Total Revolution’, Nanaji extended his support to
responsibility of motivating and guiding a cluster the movement. Nanaji's hand was fractured while
of five villages. Prior to the Chitrakoot project, he tried to protect JP from police lathi charge
Nanaji had set up Jayaprabha Gram Project in in Patna in 1974. This incident was recalled by
Gonda district named after Jayaprakash Narayan Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of
and his wife Prabhavati. Land for the project Nanaji's 101 birth anniversary. In 1977, Nanaji was
was donated by Maharani Rajlakshmi Kumari of elected from Balrampur Lok Sabha constituency
Balrampur estate whom he had defeated in the Lok in Uttar Pradesh but he refused ministerial berth
Sabha election. Nanaji believed to the core that a offered to him by the then Prime Minister Morarji
country could progress only by uplifting its rural Desai. After that he devoted his entire life to
poor and improving the village life. His precepts Deendayal Research Institute that he himself
“Gramodaya” and “Swavalamban” reflect the established in 1968. He was nominated to Rajya
philosophy of the great personalities like Swami Sabha in 1999. A grateful nation honoured him
Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma with Bharat Ratna posthumously in 2019.
New India Samachar 3
