Jayaprakash Narayan- The Man and The Movement

Probable Question

Who is Jayaprakash Narayan? What is his contribution to the country?

Context

The Union Home Minister of India has recently unveiled a 15-foot statue of Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), at the socialist icon’s birthplace, Sitab Diara village in Bihar’s Saran district, on his 120th birth anniversary

About Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)

• JP was born on 11th October 1902 in Bihar’s Sitab Diara, his family later moved to a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balia district. 
• He was also called JP or Lok Nayak (People’s leader)
• Influence of Karl Marx: He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he got influenced by Karl Marx’s Marxism ideology.
• Contribution to Freedom Struggle:
  • JP quit college to join the non-cooperation movement before he went to the US to study.
  • He was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology. 
  • After returning to India in 1929, JP was invited by Jawaharlal Nehru and inspired by a speech by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, thus he joined the freedom struggle and the Indian National Congress.
  • He also played a leading role in a left-wing group within the Congress Party, named Congress Socialist Party (CSP).
• Imprisonment:
  • He was jailed in 1930 for civil disobedience against British rule.
  • JP was imprisoned in 1974 for participating in the JP movement in Bihar, as well as during the Emergency years.
• Death: Jayprakash Narayan died on 8 October 1979 in Patna, Bihar, due to the effects of diabetes and heart ailments.

JP’s Role in Post Independent India

• He left the Congress and formed the Socialist Party, which was merged with J B Kripalani’s Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party to form the Praja Socialist Party.
• Bihar Movement: 
  • This is the student movement led by JP in 1974.
  • Bihar movement gradually developed into a popular people's movement.
• Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution):
  • JP wanted to focus on social causes and distance himself from electoral politics. 
  • He called for communitarian democracy, as he believed that political parties are centralised and susceptible to moral and financial corruption.
  • JP called for Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution) on June 5, 1974, at a rally in Patna.
  • The program was against corruption and a call for social transformation. 
• Formation of the Janata Party:
  • JP is celebrated for launching a popular, mass movement against the Indira Gandhi government.
  • His opposition led to the formation of the Janata Party government in the 1977 general election, the first non-Congress government in the country.
  • This began his career in electoral politics.
  • In JP’s Janata Party, the RSS and the Jana Sangh were to the mainstream and the Socialist were also part of the party due to JP’s ideology. 

Awards and Recognition

• JP was awarded the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965
• JP was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award for his social service, in the year 1999. 

News Source: The Indian Express

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-politics/jayaprakash-narayan-the-man-the-movement-and-his-proteges-8204915/

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