[Arifa Khn]

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”.

[Arifa Khn]

Ram Manohar Lohia was born on 23rd March, 1910 at Akbarpur, Faizabad district Uttar Pradesh. His mother died and he was raised by his father, Hiralal. He earned his PhD degree in “Salt and Satyagraha” from Berlin University

He was introduced to Indian national movement at very early age. He organized a small mourning on Tilak’s death in 1920 when he was a student.

He returned to India from Berlin in 1934, helped set up the Congress Socialist Party and became an editor of a weekly congress socialist.

In 1936 , he was selected by Jawaharlal Lal Nehru as the first secretary of the foreign department of the Congress. Due to Gandhi’s influence he propagated the idea of decentralisation of state power and institutions.Also influenced by the ideology of socialism and he tried Indianization of socialism from the theory and practices of Marxism and international Communism. He gave presidential speech ‘’The Doctrinal Foundations of Socialism’’ in 1952.

In 1952, he founded Praja socialist Party due to his difference with Congress. And he became member of parliament in 1963. He established Hind Kishan Panchayat after independence for agriculture solution. He gave the concept of four pillar state – village, district, province and centre.

In 1965 he merged the Socialist Party (Lohia) into the ranks of the Samyukta Socialist Party. And won Lok Sabha general election of 1967 from Kannauj, but died a few months later.

His important books-Fragments of World Mind: (1949), Wheel of History (1955), Will to Power and Other Writings (1956), Satyagraha Now (1940) article in Gandhiji’s Newspaper Harijan, Guilty Men of India’s Partition: (1960), India, China, and Northern Frontiers: (1963), Marx, Gandhi and Socialism: (1963), The Caste System: (1964), Interval During Politics: (1965).

He supported idea of Socialism, but he was also sure about the inadequacy of <font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>European Socialism for an Indian Society. He </font>criticized<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> Marxism for its internal contradiction and also criticized Capitalism by questioning the foundation.So he gave the idea of New- Socialism </font>that suits India better. New socialism is a of integrated idea of socialism and Gandhian principles . New Socialism is all about egalitarianism , growing economic interdependence , democratic rights included right to private life , adult franchise, Gandhian techniques, dignity and right of a common man.

Lohia came with the idea of ‘seven revolutions’ or sapta Kranti for the betterment of Indian social system

1. Equality between man and woman

2. Against political, economic and race-based inequalities

3. Destruction of castes

4. Against foreign domination

5. Economic equality, planned production and against private property

6.Against interference in private life

7. Against proliferation of arms and weapons, more reliance on Satyagraha

Famous quote – “Satyagraha without constructive work is like a sentence without a verb”