| Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 18, 1931 Raipur, Madhya Pradesh now Chhattisgarh, India |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan (born June 18, 1931) was the former sarsanghachalak (2000-2009) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organisation which is said to be devoted to social welfare. Sudarshan was born in Raipur (now in Chhattisgarh) in a Kannadiga Hindu family. He was nine when he first attended an RSS shakha.
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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.
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.
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.
Sudarshan speaks over 6 languages. Besides his native Kannada, he is fluent in Marathi, Hindi, English, Chhatisgarhi and some languages spoken in the North-East and Bengal
Among many RSS duties, in July 2008, Sudharshan made a visit to the Vishwa Sangh Shiksha Varg (World Hindu training camp) held for members of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the international department of RSS in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Before Sudarshan left the camp to return to Nagpur, in an expression of giving (sewa) he was noted to have donated his long worn shoes to a young Swayamsevak from the UK. The Swayamsevak, Varun Bhanot, did remark he was honoured and grateful at the selfless gesture.
| Preceded by Rajendra Singh |
Sarsanghchalak of the RSS 2000 – 2009 |
Succeeded by Mohan Bhagawat |