Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan

Subject – History

Context – The Bihar government on Thursday took serious note of the removal of chapters on veteran socialist leaders Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia from the Post Graduate political science syllabus of the JP University at Chhapra in Saran district.

Concept –

• Jayaprakash Narayan (11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or LokNayak (Hindi for “People’s leader”), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader.
• He is also known as the “Hero of Quit India Movement” and he is remembered for leading the mid-1970s opposition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for whose overthrow he had called for a “total revolution“.
• His biography, Jayaprakash, was written by his nationalist friend and the writer of Hindi literature, RambrikshBenipuri.
• In 1999, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, in recognition of his social service. Other awards include the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965.
• Influenced by Marxist ideas in the USA and Gandhian ideology.
• In 1929, he joined the Indian National Congress.
• He played a key role in the formation of the Congress Socialist Party (1934), a left-wing group within the Congress Party.

Post-Independence Role:

• In 1948, he left the Congress Party and initiated an anti-Congress Campaign.
• In 1952, he formed the Praja Socialist Party (PSP).
• In 1954, he devoted his life exclusively to the Bhoodan Yajna Movement, of Vinoba Bhave, which demanded land redistribution to the landless.
• In 1959 he argued for a “reconstruction of Indian polity” by means of a four-tier hierarchy of village, district, state, and union councils (Chaukhamba Raj).
• Total Revolution: Against Indira Gandhi Regime as she was found guilty of violating electoral laws by the Allahabad High Court. He advocated a program of social transformation which he termed ‘SampoornaKranti’ (total revolution) in 1974 against corruption in public life.