Patriots > Freedom Struggle under Mahatma Gandhi > Narain , Jaiprakash
Narain , Jaiprakash (1902 - ? )

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 Prakash’s 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. Roy’s 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 Gandhiji’s 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 Nehru’s 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

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 people’s 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 Prakash’s 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.

Author : Panchanand Misra