Jayaprakash Narayan
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Jayaprakash Narayan (Devanāgarī: जयप्रकाश नारायण; October 11, 1902 - October 8, 1979), widely known as JP, was an Indian freedom fighter and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Sitabdiara village in Saran district of Bihar, and studied for his BA and MA degrees in politics and sociology in the United States. In 1922, he went to the United States, where he studied political science , sociology and economics at the universities of Berkeley, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio State [1][2]. He adopted Marxism while studying at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin under Edward A. Ross; he was also deeply influenced by the writings of M. N. Roy. Financial constraints and his mother's health forced him to abandon his wish of earning a PhD. He met other revolutionaries like Rajni Palme Dutt in London on his way back to India.
After returning to India, JP joined the Indian National Congress on the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1929; M. K. Gandhi would be his mentor in the Congress. During the Indian independence movement, he was arrested, jailed, and tortured several times by the British. He won particular fame during the Quit India movement.
JP married Prabhavati Devi, a freedom fighter in her own right and a staunch disciple of Kasturba Gandhi in October 1920; she stayed in Sabarmati ashram while JP was abroad and became a devoted Gandhian; she often held opinions which were not in agreement with JP's views, but JP respected her independence. She was the older daughter of Brajkishore Prasad, one of the first Gandhians in Bihar and one who played a major role in Gandhi's campaign in Champaran.
After being jailed in 1932 for civil disobedience against British rule, he was imprisoned in Nasik Jail, where he met Ram Manohar Lohia, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan, Ashok Mehta, Yusuf Desai and other national leaders. After his release, the Congress Socialist Party, a left-wing group within the Congress, was formed with Acharya Narendra Deva as President and JP as General secretary.
During the Quit India movement of 1942, when senior Congress leaders were arrested in the early stages, JP, Lohia and Basawon Singh (Sinha) were at the forefront of the agitations. Leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali were described as "the political children of Gandhi but recent students of Karl Marx."
After independence and the death of Mahatma Gandhi; JP, Acharya Narendra Dev and Basawon Singh (Sinha) led the CSP out of Congress to become the opposition Socialist Party, which later took the name Praja Socialist Party.Basawon Singh (Sinha) became the first leader of opposition in the state and assembly of Bihar and Acharya Narendra Deva became the first leader of opposition in the state and assembly of U.P.
Initially a defender of physical force, JP was won over to Gandhi's position on nonviolence and advocated the use of satyagrahas to achieve the ideals of democratic socialism. Furthermore, he became deeply disillusioned with the practical experience of socialism in Nehru's India.
[edit] Sarvodaya
On 19 April 1954, JP announced in Gaya that he was dedicating his life (Jeevandan) to Vinoba Bhave's Sarvodaya movement and its Bhoodan campaign, which promoted distributing land to Harijans (untouchables). He gave up his land, set up an ashram in Hazaribagh, and worked towards uplifting the village.
In 1957, JP formally broke with the Praja Socialist Party in order to pursue lokniti [Polity of the people], as opposed to rajniti [Polity of the state]. By this time, JP had become convinced that lokniti should be non-partisan in order to build a consensus-based, classless, participatory democracy which he termed Sarvodaya. JP became an important figure in the India-wide network of Gandhian Sarvodaya workers.
In 1964, JP was vilified across the political spectrum for arguing in an article in the Hindustan Times that India had a responsibility to keep its promise to allow self-determination to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He hit back at critics in a second article, dismissing the Indian version of the "domino theory" which held that the rest of India's states would disintegrate if Kashmir were allowed its promised freedom. In his graceful if old-fashioned style, JP ridiculed the premise that "the states of India are held together by force and not by the sentiment of a common nationality. It is an assumption that makes a mockery of the Indian Nation and a tyrant of the Indian State".
JP returned to the prominence in State politics in the late 1960s. In 1974, he devoted himself to the peasants' struggle known as the Bihar movement, which demanded the resignation of the provincial government. He founded, together with V. M. Tarkunde, the Citizens for democracy in 1974 and the People's union for civil liberties in 1976, NGOs to uphold and defend civil liberties.
[edit] Emergency
When Indira Gandhi was found guilty of violating electoral laws by the Allahabad High Court, JP called for Indira to resign, and advocated a program of social transformation which he termed Sampoorna kraanthi [Total Revolution]. Instead she proclaimed a national Emergency on the midnight of 25 June 1975, immediately after JP had called for the PM's resignation and had asked the military and the police to disregard unconstitutional and immoral orders; JP, opposition leaders, and dissenting members (the 'Young turks') of her own party were arrested on that day.
JP was kept as detenu at Chandigarh even after he had asked for a month's parole for mobilising relief in areas of Bihar gravely affected by flood. His health suddenly deteriorated on 24 October, and he was released on 12 November; diagnosis at Jaslok Hospital, Bombay, revealed kidney failure; he would be on dialysis for the rest of his life.
After Indira revoked the emergency on 18 January 1977 and announced elections, it was under JP's guidance that the socialist-leaning Janata Party was formed. Janata Party was voted into power, and became the first non-Congress party to form a government at the Centre.
JP also wrote several books, notably Reconstruction of Indian Polity. He promoted Hindu revivalism, but was deeply critical of the form of revivalism promoted by the Sangh Parivar.
Not long before his death, it was in fact erroneously announced by the Indian prime minister, causing a brief wave of national mourning, including the suspension of parliament and regular radio broadcasting, and closure of schools and shops.
In 1998, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna award in recognition of his social work. Other awards include the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965.
JP is sometimes referred to with the honorific title Lok nayak or 'guide of the people'.
[edit] References
- Bimal Prasad (editor). 1980. A Revolutionary's Quest: Selected Writings of Jayaprakash Narayan. Oxford University Press, Delhi.
[edit] External links
- A plea for the reconstruction of Indian polity
- Total revolution
- On Hindu revivalism
- Magsaysay award acceptance speech; Citation; [ht
- Biography
- Small story showing his greatness
