Team News Riveting
Nagpur, March 17
Dattatreya Hosabale has been re-elected as the Sarkaryavah (General Secretary) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the second successive term.
He will continue with the Dayitwa (responsibility) for another three years. Call it a coincidence, Dattatreya was elected as Sarkaryavah in March 2021 in the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) held at Bengaluru in Karnataka—the state from where he comes from. This was the maiden occasion when ABPS was held at a place other than Nagpur that houses RSS headquarters.
Born on December 1, 1954, he hails from the Hosabale village of Shimoga district in the state of Karnataka. He spent his formative years in Karnataka with his siblings- 3 brothers and 3 sisters. His family had a long association with RSS and he became a swayamsevak in 1968.
Datta Ji, as he is fondly known among the swayamsevaks, post-graduated with a masters in English from the Bangalore University. An ABVP worker since 1972, he became a lead activist of the anti-emergency movement and was jailed under MISA for more than 14 months.
In 1978, he became a full time pracharak of the RSS and went on to shoulder several duties in ABVP from becoming Karnataka state organising secretary, Kshetra Sangathan Mantri (Regional organising Secretary) and ABVP National organising Secretary, a responsibility, he held for 11 years from 1992 to 2003.
During this phase of his extensive work with diverse student communities, he formed the World Organisation of Students and Youth (WOSY), a body of international students studying in different parts of Bharat and was the association’s Founding Secretary General. In 2003, he became the RSS- Akhil Bharatiya Sah Bauddhik Pramukh (in-charge for intellectual training) and the Sah Sarkaryavah of RSS in 2009 and continued in that role till March 19, 2021.
A keen scholar, Dattatreya Hosabale was the founding editor of Kannada magazine ‘Aseema’. He is devoted to several intellectual pursuits and is a person of multiple talents. He is fluent in Kannada, English, Hindi, Sanskrit and is familiar with linguistic traditions of many other languages.
He has travelled widely, touring many countries in Europe and several states in the US. His interactions with the global community have brought awareness about Bharat to newer audiences.
