Jayaprakash Narayan
|
Date of Birth |
: |
Oct 11, 1902 |
Date of Death |
: |
Oct 8, 1979 |
Place of Birth |
: |
Uttar Pradesh |

Jayaprakash Narayan, widely known as JP, was an Indian freedom fighter
and political leader. He was one of the few leaders of modern India who
fought for its independence and took part in active politics for a long
time after it became independent. He was born in Sitabdiara, village in
Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, and did his higher studies including
his phd in politics and sociology in the United States. He adopted
Marxism while studying at the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
Wisconsin under Edward Ross; he was also deeply influenced by the
writings of M. N. Roy. 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 Meta, 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. 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. 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'.