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Rajiv Dixit(30 November 1967 – 30 November 2010) was an Indian activist who promoted Ayurveda and opposed modern medicine and opposed multi-national corporations. He was the national secretary of Bharat Swabhiman Andolan trust.

Life and Career

Dixit was born in the village of Nah in Uttar Pradesh and studied in Allahadbad towards an engineering degree.

In 1984, the Bhopal disaster, in which a gas leak from a pesticide plant owned by a multinational corporation resulted in thousands of deaths, led Dixit to question the role of such corporations in the Indian economy. His thinking on the subject was subsequently shaped by Dharampal, a Gandhian historian and thinker. In 1992, Dixit founded the trust, Azadi Bachao Andolan (Save Independence Movement), with the stated mission to "counter the onslaught of foreign multinationals and the western culture on Indians, their values, and on the Indian economy in general". Dixit's message was spread though thousands of speeches delivered across the country and through recordings on CDs and tapes distributed by the organisation. In 2004, Dixit faced allegations that he had misappropriated funds from the Azadi Bachao Andolan to benefit his brother, and his relation with the organisation were estranged.

Also in 2004, Ramdev, who at that time was a traveling yoga teacher with a considerable following of his own, sought out Dixit and the two met in Nashik. Over the next few years Dixit became a mentor to Ramdev and their campaigns, against globalisation and for yoga respectively, merged. The two founded the Bharat Swabhiman Andolan (Indian Self-respect Movement), with Dixit serving as its national secretary. The new organisation had political ambitions. Prior to the 2009 Indian general election, it agitated alongside the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and allied Hindu organisations in a movement to clean the Ganga river, and in March 2010, the Bharat Swabhiman party was launched with an aim to contest the 2014 Indian general election. Dixit and Ramdev set out on a tour (Bharat Nirman yatra) across India to campaign for the party but Dixit died during a stop in Chhattisgarh, under murky circumstances.

During his career as an activist, Dixit demanded decentralisation of the Indian taxation system, stating that the existing system was the core reason for bureaucratic corruption.

Dixit's death, and the surrounding controversy, ended Bharat Swabhiman party's ambition to field electoral candidates.

Death

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Dixit died on 30 November 2010 in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. After a lecture at Bemetra in Durg, he was accompanied by Daya Sagar, a local Bharat Swabhiman Andolan officer, while driving to Bhilai. During the trip he felt uncomfortable and sweated. At Daya Sagar's residence, he fell down in the bathroom. Initially he insisted on not going to the doctor. After a call from Baba Ramdev, he was first taken to Sector 9 Hospital in Bhilai and then transferred to the BSR Apollo Hospital. According to Dr. Dilip Ratnani, he died of a massive heart attack at night between 1 and 2 AM. On 1 December, his body was sent by air to Aligarh without an autopsy. His body was displayed at Patanjali Yogapita and later cremated with mukhagni lit by his brother Pradip Dixit and Baba Ramdev. Later the Prime Minister's Office ordered an investigation into his death in 2019.

There is a belief among his followers that he was poisoned to death because of his movement against multinational companies in India and other countries. Some of his supporters claimed foul play by Baba Ramdev, but Ramdev dismissed the claims.

See also

• Khadi
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission
• List of unsolved deaths
• Make In India
• National Charkha Museum
• Sarvodaya
• Standup India
• Swadeshi Jagaran Manch
• Swaraj

References

1. Kidwai, Rasheed (19 June 2016). "Baba's 'plan' that went bust". The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
2. Worth, Robert F. (26 July 2018). "The Billionaire Yogi Behind Modi's Rise". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
3. Team, ThePrint (3 May 2018). "The 'irresponsible". ThePrint. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
4. "The 'irresponsible, wicked conspiracy' that continues to haunt Baba Ramdev". ThePrint. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
5. Dwivedi, Avinash (30 November 2017). "राजीव दीक्षित (पार्ट 1): जिनकी डिग्रियां खुद उनके फर्जीवाड़ों का खुलासा करती हैं". Firstpost (in Hindi). Archived from the original on 7 June 2019.
6. कहानी राजीव दीक्षित की: हार्ट अटैक से मौत पर अब भी विवाद, जानिये उस दिन बाबा रामदेव से क्या बात हुई थी, Jansatta, June 1, 2022
7. Pathak-Narain 2017, pp. 71–73.
8. "कहानी राजीव दीक्षित की". Jansatta (in Hindi). 1 June 2022. Archived from the original on 11 July 2024.
9. Pathak-Narain 2017, pp. 71–73, 115–116.
10. Pathak-Narain 2017, pp. 116–119, 133.
11. Kanungo 2019, pp. 127–129.
12. "Decentralise taxes, says Azadi Bachao Andolan supporter", The Times of India, 9 March 2003, archived from the original on 11 August 2011
13. Deka, Kaushik (2017). "The political animal". The Baba Ramdev Phenomenon: From Moksha to Market. Rupa. ISBN 978-81-291-4637-3.
14. क्या राजीव दीक्षित की मौत के रहस्य से उठेगा पर्दा ? #PMO ने दिए जांच के आदेश, Patrika, January 23, 2019
15. राजीव दीक्षित, स्वदेशी के प्रखर प्रवक्ता, राजीव भाई की शहादत, 2010
16. भारत स्वाभिमान आंदोलन के Rajiv Dixit की मौत की फाइल फिर खुली, Nai Dunia 09 Aug 2019
17. The ‘irresponsible, wicked conspiracy’ that continues to haunt Baba Ramdev, The Print, 3 May, 2018
18. Worth, Robert F. (2018). "The Billionaire Yogi Behind Modi's Rise". The New York Times.

Notes

1. Name sometimes spelled as Rajeev Dixit.
2. In later speeches, Dixit made several false claims about his education and experience, including that he had researched anti-gravity at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and stopped his research when Germany's Max Planc Institute tried to steal it in an effort that was aided by the Indian government. His supporters have also made several incorrect claims about his educational qualifications.

Sources

• Kanungo, Pralay (2019). "Gurus and the Hindu Nationalist Politics: The Baba Ramdev–BJP Partnership in the 2014 Elections". In Ahmad, Irfan; Kanungo, Pralay (eds.). The algebra of warfare-welfare: a long view of India's 2014 election. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. pp. 119–142. ISBN 978-0-19-948962-6.
• Pathak-Narain, Priyanka (2017). Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev. Juggernaut. ISBN 978-93-86228-38-3.

• 1967 births
• 2010 deaths
• Activists from Uttar Pradesh
• Swadeshi activists
• Unsolved deaths in India
• Writers from Prayagraj