Jai Prakash Narain was born on 11 October 1902
in Sitab Diyara in the district of Saran in
Bihar. Son of Hansu Dayal, a Government servant
in the Revenue department, and grandson of Devakinandan
Lal, a Sub-Inspector of Police who made a sensation
by beating his English Officer, Jai Prakash
claimed his descent from a respectable Kayastha
middle-class family of Bihar of long-standing.
By marriage also he was connected with a respectable
family. His father-in-law, Brajkishore Prasad,
was am old nationalist leader of Bihar. His
mother Phulo Rani was a simple religious-minded
woman and she had cast a deep imprit on young
Jai Prakashs mind.
Having completed his primary education in his
native village, Jai Prakash was admitted to
Class VII of the Patna Collegiate School. On
the results of his Matriculation examination
he was awarded a scholarship. But while in the
I.Sc. class, the call of no-cooperation movement
moved him to give up his studies in the Patna
University. He then came to the Bihar Vidyapith
and from there he took his I.Sc. he continued
his Science studies under the guidance of Professor
Phuldeo Sahay Verma of the Benares Hindu University.
In May 1922 he obtained a scholarship from
an association in Calcutta and went to the United
States. There he stayed for eight years and
studied at Iowa, Chicago, Wisconsin, Calfornia
and Ohio Universities. From Ohio he did his
M.A. and had a brilliant academic record. While
in the States he had to live a hard life and
earn his own livelihood.
It was in the States that Jai Prakash came in
contact with radical Socialist ideas. He studied
Marxian literature and even joined the Communist
cell. M. N. Roys writings also made an
impact on his political mind and even aroused
in him a distrust of Gandhiji. But his marriage
with Prabhavati brought him closer to Dr. Rajendra
Prasad and Mahatma Gandhi. During his stay in
America, Prabhavati lived at Gandhijis
Ashram at Sabarmati. There her association with
the Mahatma was so close that she came to be
known as the daughter of Gandhi.
On his return from the States in 1929 he worked
to join the Benares University as a Professor
of Sociology. But the Lahore Session of the
Indian National Congress and the speeches of
Jawahralal Nehru there influenced him so much
that he accepted Nehrus offer to take
charge of the Labour portfolio of the Congress.
After his return to India Jai Prakash also came
in touch with Gandhiji. The failure of the Gandhi-Irwin
talks led to the civil disobedience movement
and he was happy to joint it. At this time he
was surprised to find the Indian Communists
denouncing the national movement as bourgeois.
He was arrested shortly after and put in the
Nasik Jail. Here he met Achut Patwardhan and
Minoo Masani, which reinforced his socialist
leanings. Later., along
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with Acharya Narendra
Deva, he organised the All India Congress Socialist
Party, and in support of his cause he wrote in
1936 Why Socialism.
Jai Prakash was a vehement critic of the British
rule in India. He regarded it as a folly to think
that the British had united India. On the contrary
he believed that they had divided the different
communities and interests. It was to him unity
of a dictatorial regime and not a peoples
or a national unity. He argued that the
British domination could not impart to the Indian
people a training in self-government. Had it been
the British motto to establish self-government
in India right from 1861, why could not the literacy
rate be raised beyond ten per cent or why were
not the economic resources rapped to raise it
above that figure?
Even if India had made some progress, it was
due to the long and protracted struggle on her
part in the teeth of bitter opposition from
the British. But although a great critic of
the British rule, Jai Prakash believed in non-violence.
However, during the Quit India Movement he supported
violent measures against British atrocities.
He criticised the War aims of Britian as imperialistic.
He praised Netaji Subhas but believed that his
venture would not bear fruit.
In the domain of socio-economic reforms Jai
Prakashs socialistic zeal promoted him
to advocate the abolition of zamindari, nationalisation
of natural resources, peasant proprietorship
of land, nationlisation of heavy and basic industries
and such other measures. He also strongly championed
the cause of rural uplift.
He believed that a nation, to be united and
to remain strong, must bring the remotest village
into a common political, economic and cultural
life. The mere development of cottage industries
to solve the problem of unemployment would not
suffice and lead to national prosperity. Jai
Prakash was for industralisation but that industrialisation,
he held, should proceed under State control.
A great freedom-fighter and a social reformer
though Jai Prakash was, he did not allow his
mental powers to be confined merely to these.
He wrote a number of books and booklets which
concerned various aspects of Indian life and
problems-political as well as economic and social.
Chiefly known among his works are:Why
Socialism (Benares, 1936), Towards
Struggle (Bombay, 1946), In the
Lahore Fort (Patna, 1970),A Plea
for the Reconstruction of Indian Polity
(Varanasi, 1959), From Socialism to Sarvodaya
(Wardha, 1959) and Swaraj for the People
(Varanasi, 1961).
Jai Prakash is now not in active politics and
he has joined the Bhoodan Movement of Sant Vinoba
Bhave. The nationalistic career of Jai Prakash
Narain is a brilliant record of great deeds
and great sacrifices to the cause of Indian
freedom.
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