Heroes of Freedom
Struggle-10
Jayaprakash
Narayan: A Rebel Always
Jayaprakash Narayan
K.N. Pathak*
Jayaprakash Narayan
has a unique position in the history of modern India as he has this inimitable
distinction of actively participating in three popular movements of the
country. He not only fought against the British colonial rulers through all his
might and especially during Quit India Movement risking his life, but also led
the movement against corruption, and authoritarianism in the Seventies while
before that forays in the Bhudan Movement for almost one decade in the Fifties
and Sixties to bring about massive social change through change of hearts.
He was born on 11th
October, 1902, in village Sitab Diyara of Saran district of Bihar. After
completing his matriculation examination at the age of 18 in 1920, he started
working in Patna. He got married to Prabhavati in the same year. On the call of
the nationalist leader Maulana Abul Kalam Azad for giving up English education,
he left Patna college, barely 20 days before his exam and joined Bihar
Vidyapeeth, a college founded by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Leaving his wife
Prabhavati in Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan sailed
aboard to California in 1922 to join Berkeley University. To fund his higher
education in US, he undertook various odd jobs like working in ranches,
slaughterhouses, factories and mines. During his work and study phase, he got a
closer insight into the hardships of working class. Having deep influence of
the writings of M.N. Roy on his mind, he was convinced that the central problem
of human society was inequality of wealth, property, rank, culture and
opportunities and the passage of time never obscure it.
After completing
his education abroad, when he returned to India in 1929, he had apparent
influence of Karl Marx in his thoughts and views. On his way back to India, he
met several communist leaders in London and India and discussed with them the
issues of India’s freedom and revolution. He, however, did not subscribe to the
views of Indian communists fighting against the Indian National Congress which
was fighting for the freedom of the country. On invitation from Jawaharlal
Nehru, he joined Indian National Congress in 1929. From here onwards, he played
an active role in Indian freedom movement. He was jailed in 1932 for actively
participating in Civil Disobedience against British rule. During his
imprisonment in Nasik jail in 1932, he came in closer contact with leaders like
Ram Manohar Lohia, Ashok Mehta, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan, C K
Narayanswami and others. This contact influenced him to join Congress Socialist
party (CSP) headed by Acharya Narendra Dev, a group with left leaning within
the Congress party. As general secretary of the CSP in December 1939, Jayaprakash
called upon the people to take advantage of the 2nd World War to
stop British exploitation of India and to overthrow British Government. He was
imprisoned for 9 months. After his release, he met Mahatma Gandhi and Subash
Chandra Bose. To strengthen the Indian freedom movement, he tried to bring
about a rapprochement between the two leaders, but could not succeed in that.
However, it was during
the Quit India Movement of August 1942 that more sterling qualities of
Jayaprakash Narayan came to the fore. He along with Ram Manohar Lohia and Aruna
Asaf Ali, took charge of the ongoing stir when all the senior leaders had been
arrested. However, he also could not remain outside the jail for long time and
was soon arrested under Defence of India Rules, a preventive detention law that
did not require trial. He was put in Hazari Bagh Central Jail. JP along with
his accomplices started making plan to escape from the Jail. Their chance came
soon on a Diwali day in November 1942 when a large number of guards were on
leave because of the festival. It was a daring escape which made JP into a folk
hero.
JP actively worked
underground for Indian Freedom Movement in this period. For fighting the
tyranny of British rule, he organised an “Azaad Dasta” (freedom brigade) in
Nepal. After some months, he was arrested from Punjab while travelling in a
train in September 1943. He was tortured by British authorities for getting
necessary information about freedom movement. In January 1945, he was
transferred from Lahore Fort to Agra Jail. When Gandhi insisted that he would
begin negotiation with British rulers only after unconditional release of Lohia
and Jayaprakash, They were released in April 1946.
During this period
and with India gaining independence, Jayaprakash perhaps for the first time in
his political life was fully convinced of futility of violence as a mean of
social change. However, his commitment to the cause of poor did not diminish
and this brought him closer to Vinoba Bhave’s Bhudan Movement. This was the
second important phase of his life. Then in early seventies came the third
phase when common man suffered from the maladies of unemployment, corruption
and price-rise. In 1974, the students of Gujarat requested him to lead the Nava
Nirman Andolan. The same year in June, he gave a call of peaceful “total
revolution” from a public meeting in Gandhi Maidan in Patna. He exhorted the
students to rise against corrupt political institutions and asked for a closure
of colleges and universities for a year during which time he wanted the
students to devote their time to rebuild the nation. It was this time in the
history that he was popularly called “JP”.
This movement finally
culminated in the proclamation of Emergency and subsequently in the victory of
the “Janata Party” which formed the first ever non-Congress Government in the
Centre in March 1977. He had the credit of bringing all the Non-Congress
Parties under single umbrella of Janata Party. JP will be remembered by every
freedom loving person of our country. As a tribute to this modern
revolutionary, the Government of India posthumously awarded him Bharat Ratna,
the highest civilian award of the country in 1999.
*Shri K.N.Pathak is
an independent researcher and writes on socio-economic issues. He is former
Joint Adviser of Niti Aayog, Govt of India.