Jayaprakash Narayan also spelt as Jai Prakash Narain. Also, called Jaya Prakash Narayan, (born October 11, 1902, Sitab Diyara, India. So he died October 8, 1979, Patna), Indian political leader and theorist.
Biography
Also, Jarayan got educate at universities in the United States, where he became a Marxist. So upon his return to India in 1929, he joined the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). But in 1932 he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for his participation in the civil disobedience movement against British rule in India. So upon release, he took a leading part in the formation of the Congress Socialist Party, a left-wing group within the Congress Party, the organization that led the campaign for Indian independence.
He was imprisoned by the British again in 1939 for his opposition to Indian participation in World War II on the side of Britain, but he subsequently made a dramatic escape and for a short time tried to organize violent resistance to the government before his recapture in 1943. After his release in 1946, he tried to persuade the Congress leaders to adopt a more militant policy against British rule.
How did he leave the Congress party?
In 1948 he, together with most of the Congress Socialists, left the Congress Party and in 1952 formed the Praja Socialist Party. Soon becoming dissatisfied with party politics, he announced in 1954 that he would thenceforth devote his life exclusively to the Bhoodan Yajna Movement, founded by Vinoba Bhave, which demanded that land be distributed among the landless.
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His continuing interest in political problems, however, was revealed when in 1959 he argued for a “reconstruction of Indian polity” by means of a four-tier hierarchy of village, district, state, and union councils.
In 1974 Narayan suddenly burst on the Indian political scene as a severe critic of what he saw as the corrupt and increasingly undemocratic government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Although he gained a following from students and opposition politicians, there was less enthusiasm from the masses.
The next year a lower court convicted Gandhi of corrupt election practices, and Narayan called for her resignation. Instead, she declared a national emergency and jailed Narayan and other opposition leaders. In prison, his health broke down.
Early life
Jayprakash Narayan was born on 11 October 1900 in the village of Sitabdiara, Saran district, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Saran district, Bihar, India). Sitabdiara is a large village, straddling two states and three districts — Saran and Bhojpur in Bihar and Ballia in Uttar Pradesh. His house was near the banks of the flood-prone Ghaghara river.
He came from a Kayastha family. He was the fourth child of Harsu Dayal and Phul Rani Devi. His father Harsu Dayal was a junior official in the Canal Department of the State government. And was often touring the region. When Narayan was 9 years old. He left his village to enrol in the 7th class of the collegiate school at Patna. This was his first break from village life.
JP stayed at a student hostel—Saraswati Bhawan—in which most of the boys were a bit older. Among them were some of Bihar’s future leaders including its first chief minister, Krishna Singh, his deputy Anugrah Narayan Sinha. And several others who were to widely become known in politics and the academic world.
Politics
Narayan returned from the US to India in late 1929 as a Marxist. He joined the Indian National Congress at the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1929; Mahatma Gandhi became his mentor in the Congress. He shared a house at Kadam Kuan in Patna with his close friend and nationalist Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha). With whom he shared the most cordial and lasting friendship.
When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement in August 1942. Yogendra Shukla scaled the wall of Hazaribagh Central Jail along with Jayaprakash Narayan. Suraj Narayan Singh, Gulab Chand Gupta, Pandit Ramnandan Mishra, Shaligram Singh and Shyam Barthwar. With a goal to start an underground movement for freedom.
Many young socialist leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia, Chhotubhai Puranik, Aruna Asaf Ali, etc. took part in the underground movement. As Jayaprakash Narayan was ill. Yogendra Shukla walked to Gaya with Jayaprakash Narayan on his shoulders, a distance of about 124 kilometres. He also served as the Chairman of Anugrah Smarak Nidhi (Anugrah Narayan Memorial Fund).
