Ram Manohar Lohia
- September 3, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Ram Manohar Lohia
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 –
- Ram Manohar Lohia (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader.
- During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast secretly from various places in Bombay until 1942.
- In 1934, Lohia became actively involved in the Congress Socialist Party (CSP), a left-wing group within the Indian National Congress; he served on the CSP executive committee and edited its weekly journal.
- He opposed the Indian participation on the side of Great Britain in World War II and was arrested for anti-British remarks in 1939 and 1940.
- Lohia along with other CSP leaders mobilized support for the Quit India movement(a campaign initiated by Mohandas K. Gandhi to urge the withdrawal of British authorities from India) in 1942. He was jailed again in 1944–46 for such resistance activities.
- Lohia and other CSP members left the Congress in 1948.
- He became a member of the Praja Socialist Party upon its formation in 1952 and served as general secretary for a brief period, but conflicts within the party led to his resignation in 1955.
- Later that year Lohia established a new Socialist Party, for which he became chairman as well as the editor of its journal,
- He advocated for various socio-political reforms in his capacity as party leader, including the abolition of the caste system, the adoption of Hindi as India’s national language, and stronger protection of civil liberties.
- Some of his works include: ‘Marx, Gandhi and Socialism’, ‘Guilty Men of India’s Partition’, etc.