Dr. Rajendra Prasad
|
Date of Birth |
: |
Dec 3, 1884 |
Date of Death |
: |
Feb 28, 1963 |
Place of Birth |
: |
Zeradei, Bihar |
Tenure Order |
: |
1st President |
Took Office |
: |
Jan 26, 1950 |
Left Office |
: |
May 13, 1962 |
Successor |
: |
Dr.S Radhakrishnan | | |
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India. Rajendra Prasad
was a great freedom-fighter, and the architect of the Indian
Constitution, having served as President of the Constituent Assembly
that drafted the Constitution of the Republic from 1948 to 1950. He had
also served as a Cabinet Minister briefly in the first Government of
Independent India. He was a crucial leader of the Indian Independence
Movement. Prasad was born in Jiradei, in the Siwan district of Bihar.
His father, Mahadev Sahay, was a Persian and Sanskrit language scholar;
his mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a devout lady who would tell stories
from the Ramayana to her son. At the age of 5, the young Rajendra Prasad
was sent to a Maulavi for learning Persian. After that he was sent to
Chapra Zilla School for further primary studies.
He was married at the age of 12 to Rajvanshi Devi. He
then went on to study at R.K. Ghosh's Academy in Patna to be with his
older brother Mahendra Prasad. Soon afterward, however, he rejoined the
Chapra Zilla School, and it was from there that he passed the entrance
examination of Calcutta University, at the age of 18. He stood first in
the first division of that examination. He then joined the Presidency
College, Calcutta. He was initially a student of science and his
teachers included J.C.Bose and Prafulla Chandra Roy. Later he decided to
switch his focus to the arts. Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, who was
impressed by his intellect and dedication asked him on the occasion "Why
have you deserted your class?." Prasad lived with his brother in the
Eden Hindu Hostel. A plaque still commemorates his stay in that room. He
had been initiated into the Swadeshi movement by his brother. He then
joined the Dawn Society run by Satish Chandra Mukherjee, and Sister
Nivedita. In 1911, he joined the A.I.C.C. However, his family estate was
in bad condition. He was looked upon as the provider. But he sought
permission from his brother in a letter to join the Indian freedom
movement. He wrote, "Ambitions I have none, except to be of some service
to the Motherland". The shock of his brother, however, held him to the
family. In 1916, Rajendra Prasad joined the High Court of Bihar, and
Orissa. Such was his intellect and his integrity, that often when his
adversary failed to cite a precedent, the judges asked Rajendra Prasad
to cite a precedent against himself. After meeting Mahatma Gandhi, he
quit as a Senator of the University, much to the regret of the British
Vice-Chancellor.He also responded to the call by the Mahatma to boycott
Western education by asking his son Mrityunjaya Prasad, a brilliant
student to drop out of the University and enroll himself in Bihar
Vidyapeeth, an institution he had along with his colleagues founded on
the traditional Indian model. He wrote articles for Searchlight and the
Desh and collected funds for these papers. He toured a lot, explaining,
lecturing and exhorting. When the earthquake of Bihar occurred on
January 15, 1934, Rajendra Prasad was in jail. He was released two days
later. He set himself for the task of raising funds. The Viceroy had
also raised a fund. However, while Rajendra Prasad's fund collected over
38 Lakhs (Rs. 3,800,000), the Viceroy could only manage one-third of
that amount. The way relief was organized left nothing to be desired.
Nationalist India expressed its admiration by electing him to the
President of the Bombay session of the Indian National Congress.
After
India became independent he was elected the President of India. As
President, he used his moderating influence so silently and
unobtrusively that he neither reigned nor ruled. His sister Bhagwati
Devi died on the night of 25 January 1960. She doted on her dearly-loved
younger brother. It must have taken Rajendra Prasad all his will power
to have taken the Republic Day salute as usual, on the following day. It
was only on return from the parade that he set about the task of
cremation. In 1962, after 12 years as President, he announced his
decision to retire. He was subsequently awarded the Bharat Ratna, the
nation's highest civilian award. Within months of his retirement, early
in September 1962, his wife Rajvanshi Devi passed away. In a letter
written a month before his death to one devoted to him, he said, "I have
a feeling that the end is near, end of the energy to do, end of my very
existence". He died on 28 February 1963 with 'Ram Ram Ram' on his lips.
Because of the enormous public adulation he enjoyed, he was referred to
as Desh Ratna or the Jewel of the country. His legacy is being ably
carried forward by his great grandson Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad, a
psychiatrist and a scientist of international repute who introduced
sodium valproate as a safer alternative to lithium salts in the
treatment of bipolar disorders.