Senior RSS Pracharak R Hari dies at 93

KOCHI: Senior RSS Pracharak R Hari passed away in Kochi Sunday morning. He was 93. He died of old age ailments at a private hospital in Ernakulam. He was the first pracharak to reach the head of RSS from Kerala. He had also served as RSS Akhila Bharatiya Pramukh.

He was born on December 5 in 1930 to Ranga Shenoy, former assistant accountant in Tata Oil Mills and Padmavathy of Tripunithura. His father was RSS supporter.

He studied at St Albert's and Maharajas. RSS was banned following Gandhi's assassination in 1948 when he was studying for B.Sc. He was jailed for five months. He did his graduation again after taking BA Economics and then did his master's in Sanskrit. In 1951, Hari became a full-time RSS worker. Till 1989, he became Pranth Pracharak in Kerala.

In 1990, he became Akhila Bharatiya Saha Boudhik pramukh and in 1991 Boudhik Pramukh. He had served as Boudhik Pramukh 1990 to 2005. He quit all his official duties at 75 as per RSS method. He continued in some special duties for another two years. Was Pracharak only since 2007.In 2000, he was seriously injured in an accident in North India and lost his memory from other languages except Malayalam. He regained his memory after treatment. Ater that he published many books. Hari, who knows 10 languages namely Malayalam, Konkani, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Assamese, has published about sixty books in various languages. The book Vyasabharathathile Draupadi is written by R Hari.