Niranjan Nath Kaul - A Fire brand Leader  

Pandit Niranjan Nath Kaul, former General Secretary of the Kashmiri Samiti Delhi. passed away in Gurgaon (Haryana) on June 8, 1999 after a brief illness: he was 711.

Born at Srinagar (Kashmir) in January, 1928, Shri Kaul graduated from Amar Singh Degree College He had a good academic record and took keen interest in college debates and sports activities.

A staunch nationalist, Shri Kaul was fired with the zeal of service to the country right from his student days. He was one of the first young men to join the Rashtriya SwayamSevak Sangh (RSS) when it started its activities in Kashmir When Kashmir was invaded by Pakistan-aided tribal raiders in 1947, he emerged as one of the founder organisers of Citizens Defense Corps, formed for the defense of Srinagar city. He was also in the forefront in organising relief and rehabilitation work and setting up transit camps for refugees from Punjab and frontier areas in 1947.

Shri Kaul was appointed as the first Organising Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Praja Parishad, which stood for total integration of the State with the Indian Union and took active part in the agitations organised by the Parishad in pursuance of this objective. He was arrested by the J&K government first in 1947 and served imprisonment for a year and then again in 1949 for nearly eight months. He spurned all temptations offered by the then state government and remained one of the prominent crusaders of this cause as also for removal of Article 370 of the Constitution. Unsuccessful in bending his resolve, the government eventually extended him from the state in 1950.

Even outside the state, Shri Kaul continued his work as a full-time worker of the RSS in close association with Shri Makhan lal Aima (Harkara). In 1953, he became an active political worker when he joined the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and was one of the chief organisers of the historic Kashmir Satyagraha led by the late Shyama Prasad Mukerjee in 1953.

Shri Kaul was responsible for organising the anti cow slaughter campaign in the Mewat region of Punjab along with the late Satguru Partap Singh and the late Lala Hardev Sahai. It was as a result of his persistent efforts that the then Punjab government relented and stopped cow slaughter.

After settling in New Delhi's Laxmibai Nagar area (formerly known as East Vinay Nagar), Shri Kaul took keen interest in the welfare of residents of Laxmibai Nagar-Kidwai Nagar colonies. It was in view of his wide popularity in the area that he was nominated as a candidate by the Jana Sangh for election to Delhi's Electoral College (for the Rajya Sabha) in 1962-63 from the East Vinay Nagar constituency, he won this election with a thumping majority. He was perhaps the only Kashmiri Pandit to have ever won an election to a popularly elected body outside J & K. During 1965 and 1966. Shri Kaul led several public demonstrations to Parliament House, besides organising price resistance movements. He also successfully set up no-profit no-loss retail sale outlets of consumer goods for the residents of his constituency in 1965. He later contested for election to the Delhi Metropolitan Council as an independent candidate but could not win.

Shri Niranjan Nath Kaul was a very popular figure in the Kashmiri biradari of Delhi and in 1959 became an active member of the Kashmiri Samiti Delhi. He served as its General Secretary during 1977-78.

It was as a result of his persistent efforts and influence that the road linking the Ring Road to Kashmir Bhawan and passing through Amar Colony market was formally named as Kashmir Bhawan Marg by the then Delhi Administration. It is most unfortunate that the stone slab bearing this name has since been removed.

Shri Kaul was a powerful orator and a man of conviction. Whenever he rose to speak on any platform, he would hold his audience spellbound by his resounding voice, clear diction and skilful marshalling of facts and figures .

For his livelihood, Shri Kaul worked for a number of years as an assistant to Dr. Raghu Vira in the International Academy of Indian Culture. He later worked as Administrative Officer in the weekly Organiser and The Motherland, daily newspaper of the Jana Sangh.

Shri Kaul's death has created a void not only in his family but in the entire Kashmiri community, which would be difficult to fill. The last of the popular "N N Kaul Trio" of Delhi's KP social circles, has bid adieu to us - the other two were NN Kaul (Congregate) of Bhagat Singh Market and N.N. Kaul of Karol Bagh fame, who was also the KSD President. Years ago, the Trio used to be an integral part of the KP social circle that met religiously in the Gaylord restaurant every Sunday morning .

We pay our homage to the memory of this noble man. May his soul rest in peace!

-A.N. Kaul [with inputs from S.N. Bhatt)

Courtesy:- A N Kaul, S N Bhatt and July 1999 Koshur Samachar