Jayaprakash Narayan(1902- 1979) is also known as JP and Lok Nayak . He was an exponent of Indian socialism. He was born on 11th October, 1902 in Bihar . His father, Harsu Dayal was a junior official in Canal Department.

He completed school in 1918. He won a district merit scholarship to Patna College. For his higher studies, he moved to the United States in 1922.

In 1929 ,he returned to India and joined the Indian National Congress. He was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi , he played a great role in Indian independence. He was also imprisoned in 1932 for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement. After his release, he founded Congress Socialist Party with other leaders in 1934. He was its General secretary . He started underground movement during Quit India movement and arrested in 1943. And finally released in 1946.

In 1948 , he left congress socialist party. And became the member of Praja Socialist Party in 1952.

After lost interest in Party Politics and devoted himself to Sarvodaya Movement that was based on Gandhi’s philosophy led by Vinoba Bhave. He joined Bhoodan movement is also called Land Gift movement. It attempted to persuade wealthy landowners to voluntarily give a percentage of their land to landless people. It attempted to persuade wealthy landowners to voluntarily give a percentage of their land to landless people.

He again showed interest in politics. In 1959 he argued for ‘reconstruction of Indian Polity’ by means of four tier hierarchy of village, district, state and union councils.

On 5 June 1974, JP in his famous speech at Gandhi Maidan in Patna, demanded ‘Total Revolution’. He put forward the idea of Sampoorna Kranti or Total Revolution to bring fundamental changes in the electoral , administrative, economic, social, political and educational system of the country. Total Revolution are as follows –

1. Social Revolution

2. Economic Revolution

3. Political Revolution

4. Cultural Revolution

5. Ideological and Intellectual Revolution

6. Educational Revolution

7. Spiritual Revolution

He gave the model of Partyless Democracy based on Sarvodaya. He was awarded with Magsaysay Award for public service in 1965 and Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, in 1999 in recognition of his social work.

His famous work- 1. Nation Building in India

2. Prison Diary, 1975 which was published in 1977.

3. India: Struggle for Freedom, Political, Social and Economic seeks to

understand the complexities of Swaraj.

4. Towards Total Revolution: India and her Problems published in 1978.

His quote -“My Interest is not in the capture of power but in the control of power by the

people”.