: जयप्रकाश नारायण; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), widely known as JP Narayan, Jayaprakash, or Loknayak, was an Indian independence activist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...

 in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution. His biography, Jayaprakash, was written by his nationalist friend and an eminent writer of Hindi literature

Hindi literature

Hindi literature , is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being Bhakti ; Shringar ; Veer-Gatha ; and Adhunik...

, Ramavriksha Benipuri. In 1998, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order." Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna...

, India's highest civilian award, in recognition of his social work. Other awards include the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965. The airport of Patna is also named after him.

Early life

Jayprakash Narayan was born in a Kayastha Family in Sitabdiara Siwan

Siwan

Siwan may refer to* Sivan, a month of the Hebrew calendar* Siwan, Xichuan County , a town in Xichuan County, Henan, China* Siwan District, in the state of Bihar, India* Siwan, Bihar, the headquarters of the district...

, Bihar

Bihar

Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

. When he was a child, he had many pets. One day, his pigeon died and he did not eat food for two days afterward. His father Harsudayal was a junior official in the canal department of the State government and was often touring the region. Jayaprakash, called Baul affectionately, was left with his grandmother to study in Sitabdiara. There was no high school in the village, so Jayaprakash was sent to Patna

Patna

Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...

 to study in the Collegiate School. He excelled in school. His essay, "The present state of Hindi in Bihar", won a best essay award. He entered the Patna College

University of Patna

The Patna University, Hindi: पटना विश्वविद्यालय, the first university in Bihar, was established in 1917 during the British Raj, and is the seventh oldest university of the Indian subcontinent. At that time, the jurisdiction of the university extended to Bihar, Orissa, and the Kingdom of Nepal...

 on a Government scholarship.Jayaprakash Narayan joined "Bihar Vidyapeeth" founded by Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Rajendra Prasad

Dr. Rajendra Prasad was an Indian politician and educator. He was one of the architects of the Indian Republic, having drafted its first constitution and serving as the first president of independent India...

 for motivating young meritorious youths and was among the first students of eminent Gandhian Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha , a close colleague of M. K. Gandhi who later became first Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

JP and Marxism

Though JP was practically a committed Marxist, he was convinced that the communists in India must join the main stream of the struggle for National Liberation even if it was under the hegemony of the so-called bourgeoisie. On his way back to India, he had met Clemenus Dutt, brother of Rajani Palme Dutt

Rajani Palme Dutt

Rajani Palme Dutt , best known as R. Palme Dutt, was a leading journalist and theoretician in the Communist Party of Great Britain.-Early years:...

 and other communist leaders in London and discussed with them the issue of India’s freedom & revolution. JP, who had read Lenin’s famous “Colonial thesis” calling upon the communists in the “Slave” countries to take active part in the national freedom struggle, was not convinced of Dutt’s argument. Later when JP joined the nationalist freedom movement, he was surprised to find that Indian communists were following the line which Clemenus Dutt advocated. JP could not understand the rationality of the fight against the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 which was fighting for the freedom of the world.

Return to India

After returning to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Narayan joined the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 on the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

 in 1929; Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

 became his mentor in the Congress. He shared the same house at kadam kuan in Patna

Patna

Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...

 with his close friend and nationalist Ganga Sharan Sinha (Shrivastava). with whom he shared the most cordial and lasting friendship.
During the Indian independence movement

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 he was arrested, jailed, and tortured several times by the British. He won particular fame during the Quit India movement.

After being jailed in 1932 for civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

 against British rule, Narayan was imprisoned in Nasik Jail, where he met Ram Manohar Lohia, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan

Achyut Patwardhan

Achyut Patwardhan was an Indian independence activist and political leader and founder of the Socialist Party of India. He was also a philosopher who believed fundamental change in society begins with man himself.- Early life :Achyut's father, Hari Keshav Patwardhan, was a prosperous legal...

, Ashok Mehta, Yusuf Desai and other national leaders. After his release, the Congress Socialist Party

Congress Socialist Party

The Congress Socialist Party was founded in 1934 as a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. Its members rejected what they saw as the anti-rational mysticism of Mohandas Gandhi as well as the sectarian attitude of the Communist Party of India towards the Congress Party...

, or (CSP), a left-wing group within the Congress, was formed with Acharya Narendra Deva

Narendra Deva

Acharya Narendra Deva was one of the leading theorists of the Congress Socialist Party in India. His democratic socialism renounced violent means as a matter of principle and embraced the satyagraha as a revolutionary tactic....

 as President and Narayan as General secretary.

During the Quit India Movement

Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...

 of 1942, when senior Congress leaders were arrested in the early stages, JP, Lohia and Basawon Singh (Sinha)

Basawon Singh (Sinha)

Basawon Singh has been among the greatest nationalists who joined into the freedom struggle at a tender age of 13 and kept on his struggle for the independence of the country from the colonial yoke and fighting for the rights of the underprivileged, industrial labours and agricultural workers all...

 were at the forefront of the agitations. Leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali

Aruna Asaf Ali

Aruna Asaf Ali , born Aruna Ganguli, was an Indian independence activist. She is widely remembered for hoisting the Indian National Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement, 1942.She was 87 years old at the time of her death.-Early life:Aruna Asaf Ali was...

 were described as "the political children of Gandhi but recent students of Karl Marx

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

." He was also a great advocate of corelation "SAHJEEVAN"

Initially a defender of physical force, Narayan was won over to Gandhi's position on nonviolence

Nonviolence

Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...

 and advocated the use of satyagraha

Satyagraha

Satyagraha , loosely translated as "insistence on truth satya agraha soul force" or "truth force" is a particular philosophy and practice within the broader overall category generally known as nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. The term "satyagraha" was conceived and developed by Mahatma...

s to achieve the ideals of democratic socialism

Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...

. Furthermore, he became deeply disillusioned with the practical experience of socialism in Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

's India.

After independence and the death of Mahatma Gandhi, Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Basawon Singh (Sinha)

Basawon Singh (Sinha)

Basawon Singh has been among the greatest nationalists who joined into the freedom struggle at a tender age of 13 and kept on his struggle for the independence of the country from the colonial yoke and fighting for the rights of the underprivileged, industrial labours and agricultural workers all...

 led the CSP out of Congress to become the opposition Socialist Party

Socialist Party (India)

Socialist Party has been the name of several political parties in India, all of which have their roots in the Congress Socialist Party formed during the freedom struggle...

, which later took the name Praja Socialist Party

Praja Socialist Party

The Praja Socialist Party was an Indian political party in existence from 1952 to 1972. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh , merged with the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party led by J.B. Kripalani...

. Basawon Singh (Sinha)

Basawon Singh (Sinha)

Basawon Singh has been among the greatest nationalists who joined into the freedom struggle at a tender age of 13 and kept on his struggle for the independence of the country from the colonial yoke and fighting for the rights of the underprivileged, industrial labours and agricultural workers all...

 became the first leader of the opposition in the state and assembly of Bihar and Acharya Narendra Deva

Narendra Deva

Acharya Narendra Deva was one of the leading theorists of the Congress Socialist Party in India. His democratic socialism renounced violent means as a matter of principle and embraced the satyagraha as a revolutionary tactic....

 became the first leader of opposition in the state and assembly of U.P. His party is the first national party who distributed tickets on caste line. This was the point where Jayaprakash Narayan disagreed with the party principles and pursued Sarvodey and Lokniti.

Sarvodaya

On April 19, 1954, Narayan announced in Gaya

Gaya, India

Gaya is the second largest city of Bihar, India, and it is also the headquarters of Gaya District.Gaya is 100 kilometers south of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Situated on the banks of Falgu River , it is a place sanctified by both the Hindu and the Buddhist religions...

 that he was dedicating his life (Jeevandan) to Vinoba Bhave

Vinoba Bhave

Vinoba Bhave , born Vinayak Narahari Bhave often called Acharya , was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. He is best known for the Bhoodan Andolan...

's Sarvodaya

Sarvodaya

Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'. The term was first coined by Mahatma Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's tract on political economy, Unto This Last, and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy...

movement and its Bhoodan campaign, which promoted distributing land to Harijan

Harijan

Harijan was a term used by Gandhi for Dalits. Gandhi said it was wrong to call people 'untouchable', and called them Harijans, which means children of God...

s (untouchables). He gave up his land, set up an ashram in Hazaribagh

Hazaribagh

Hazaribagh is a city and a municipality in Hazaribagh district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is the divisional headquarters of North Chotanagpur division. It is famous as a health resort and for Hazaribagh National Park ....

, and worked towards uplifting the village.

In 1957, Narayan 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, Narayan had become convinced that lokniti should be non-partisan in order to build a consensus-based, classless, participatory democracy which he termed Sarvodaya. Narayan became an important figure in the India-wide network of Gandhian Sarvodaya workers.

In 1964, Narayan was vilified across the political spectrum for arguing in an article in the Hindustan Times

Hindustan Times

Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....

that India had a responsibility to keep its promise to allow self-determination to the state of Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...

. 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, Narayan 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".

Bihar Movement and Total Revolution

Narayan returned to prominence in State politics in the late 1960s. In 1974, he led the student's movement in the state of Bihar which gradually developed into a popular people's movement known as the Bihar movement

Bihar Movement

Bihar Movement was a movement initiated by students in the Indian state of Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian Socialist Jayaprakash Narayan against misrule of and corruption in the government...

. It was during this movement that JP gave a call for peaceful Total Revolution Together with V. M. Tarkunde

V. M. Tarkunde

Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde also popularly known as Justice V.M.Tarkunde was a prominent Indian lawyer, civil rights activist, and humanist leader and has been referred to as the "Father of the Civil Liberties movement" in India...

, he founded the Citizens for Democracy in 1974 and the People's Union for Civil Liberties

People's Union for Civil Liberties

People's Union for Civil Liberties is a human rights body formed in India in 1976 by socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan, as the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights .-The indian emergency:...

 in 1976, both NGOs, to uphold and defend civil liberties.

Emergency

When Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...

 was found guilty of violating electoral laws by the Allahabad High Court

Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court or the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is a high court having jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh since 1950...

, Narayan called for Indira to resign, and advocated a program of social transformation which he termed Sampoorna kraanti [Total Revolution]. Instead she proclaimed a national Emergency on the midnight of June 25, 1975, immediately after Narayan 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 of her own party (the 'Young Turks') were arrested on that day.

Jayaprakash Narayan attracted a gathering of 100,000 people at the Ramlila Grounds and thunderously recited Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'

Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'

Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar was an Indian Hindi poet, essayist and academic, who is considered as one of the most important modern Hindi poets. He remerged as a poet of rebellion as a consequence of his nationalist poetry written in the days before Indian independence...

's wonderfully evocative poetry: Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai.

Narayan was kept as detenu at Chandigarh

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...

 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 October 24, and he was released on November 12; diagnosis at Jaslok Hospital, Bombay, revealed kidney failure; he would be on dialysis for the rest of his life.

"Free JP" campaign was launched in UK by Surur Hoda

Surur Hoda

Surur Hoda: was a socialist politician and trade unionist who believed in the ideals promoted by Mahatma Gandhi and became involved in various international organisations.-Life:...

 and chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Noel- Baker

Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker

by Philip Noel-Baker with other authorsby others* Lloyd, Lorna: Philip Noel-Baker and the Peace Through Law in -External links:...

 for the release of Jayaprakash Narayan.
After Indira revoked the emergency on January 18, 1977 and announced elections, it was under JP's guidance that the Janata Party

Janata Party

The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...

 (a vehicle for the broad spectrum of the anti-Indira Gandhi opposition) was formed. The Janata Party was voted into power, and became the first non-Congress party to form a government at the Centre. On the call of Narayan many youngesters joined the J P movement.

Trivia

Jayaprakash Narayan died on 8 October 1979 due to effects of diabetes and heart ailments; but a few months before that, in March 1979, his death was erroneously announced by the Indian prime minister to the parliament as he lay fighting for his life in Jaslok Hospital, causing a brief wave of national mourning, including the suspension of parliament and regular radio broadcasting, and closure of schools and shops. When he was told about the gaffe a few weeks later, he smiled.

The then Prime Minister of India Shri Charan Singh declared 07 days mourning on the death of Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan , widely known as JP Narayan, Jayaprakash, or Loknayak, was an Indian independence activist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution...

calling him, " the conscience of the nation"

External links

• A plea for the reconstruction of Indian polity
• Total revolution
• On Hindu revivalism
• Magsaysay award acceptance speech; Citation
• Biography
• Small story showing his greatness
• JP's visit to an RSS camp, as told by Sita Ram Goel in "Perversion of India's Political Parlance"
• JP's Total Revolution and Humanism by Dr. Kawaljeet
• JP information from Gandhi museum