K S Sudarshan was born in Raipur (now in Chhattisgarh) in a Sanketi Brahmin family. He did his Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications (honours) from Sagar University.
He was only nine years old when he first attended an RSS Shakha. 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. In 1969, he was appointed convener of the All-India Organisations' Heads. This was followed by a stint in the North-East (1977) and then, he took over as the chief of the Boudhik Cell (the RSS think-tank) two years later. In 1990, he was appointed 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.
Sudarshan became Sarsanghachalak (Supreme chief) of the RSS on March 10, 2000.He succeeded Rajendra Singh, who stepped down on due to ill-health.
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 Guruji Golwalkar helped him make up his mind. "I was able to discharge my duties because people senior to me fully co-operated," he said.
A strong votary of swadeshi, he was seen as one of the hard-liners within the RSS. He had often criticised the National Democratic Alliance government in general and the Bharatiya Janata Party in particular for its economic policies. In 2005, his statements suggesting that both Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani step aside and let a younger leadership take charge of the BJP created a rift within the Sangh ,He brethed his last on september 15,2012 at Raipur of Chhatisgarh. Parivar.
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