K. S. Sudarshan

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Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan (born June 18, 1931) is the current sarsanghachalak (appointed leader) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization. Sudarshan was born in Raipur (now in Chhattisgarh) in a Kannadiga Brahmin family. He was nine when he first attended an RSS shakha.

He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in telecommunications from Sagar University.He was appointed as a pracharak in 1954. Only full-time members of RSS can become pracharaks. His first posting as a pracharak was in Raigarh district. In 1964 he was made the prant pracharak of Madhya Bharat at a fairly young age.This appointment perhaps was the first hint of the bigger things to come.

Later in life, in his acceptance speech Sudarshan recalled how he was hand-picked to head the Madhya Bharat region. He said though initially he was hesitant to take up the responsibility, the then RSS sarsanghachalak Guru Golwalkar helped him make up his mind."I was able to discharge my duties because people senior to me fully co-operated," he said.

In 1969 he was appointed convener of the All-India Organisations' Heads.This was followed by a stint in the North-East (1977) and he took over as the chief of the Boudhik Cell (the RSS think-tank) two years later.Since 1990, Sudarshan has been a joint general secretary of the organisation.He has the rare distinction of having held both posts of sharirik (physical exercises) and baudhik (intellectual) pramukh (chief) on different occasions.

Sudarshan speaks 6 languages and a few dialects. Besides his native Kannada, he is fluent in Marathi, Hindi, English, Chhatisgarhi and some languages spoken in the North-East.