Jayaprakash Narayan- The Man and The Movement

Today’s edition of our Current Affairs will comprise a discussion on Jayaprakash Narayan. Read further to upgrade your UPSC CSE knowledge and also understand the topic’s relevance to the UPSC syllabus.

For Prelims: Famous Personalities, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), Lok Nayak (Peoples Leader), Karl Marx, Non-cooperation movement, Janata Party

For Mains: Influence of Karl Marx, Contribution to Freedom Struggle, JP’s role in Post Independent India, Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution), Formation of the Janata Party.

Probable Question

Who is Jayaprakash Narayan? What is his contribution to the country?

Context

The Union Home Minister of India has recently unveiled a 15-foot statue of Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), at the socialist icon’s birthplace, Sitab Diara village in Bihar’s Saran district, on his 120th birth anniversary

About Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)

• JP was born on 11th October 1902 in Bihar’s Sitab Diara, his family later moved to a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balia district. 
• He was also called JP or Lok Nayak (People’s leader)
• Influence of Karl Marx: He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he got influenced by Karl Marx’s Marxism ideology.
• Contribution to Freedom Struggle:
  • JP quit college to join the non-cooperation movement before he went to the US to study.
  • He was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology. 
  • After returning to India in 1929, JP was invited by Jawaharlal Nehru and inspired by a speech by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, thus he joined the freedom struggle and the Indian National Congress.
  • He also played a leading role in a left-wing group within the Congress Party, named Congress Socialist Party (CSP).
• Imprisonment:
  • He was jailed in 1930 for civil disobedience against British rule.
  • JP was imprisoned in 1974 for participating in the JP movement in Bihar, as well as during the Emergency years.
• Death: Jayprakash Narayan died on 8 October 1979 in Patna, Bihar, due to the effects of diabetes and heart ailments.

Noncooperation movement The movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, against the Rowlatt Acts (1919). Rowlatt acts (1919) aimed to replace the repressive provisions of the wartime Defence of India Act (1915) with a permanent law. It was an unsuccessful attempt that last for just two years 1920–22.The movement aimed to grant self-government, or swaraj, to India by the British government. Non-cooperation is said as one of Gandhi’s first organized acts of large-scale civil disobedience (satyagraha).

JP’s Role in Post Independent India

• He left the Congress and formed the Socialist Party, which was merged with J B Kripalani’s Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party to form the Praja Socialist Party.
• Bihar Movement: 
  • This is the student movement led by JP in 1974.
  • Bihar movement gradually developed into a popular people's movement.
• Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution):
  • JP wanted to focus on social causes and distance himself from electoral politics. 
  • He called for communitarian democracy, as he believed that political parties are centralised and susceptible to moral and financial corruption.
  • JP called for Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution) on June 5, 1974, at a rally in Patna.
  • The program was against corruption and a call for social transformation. 
• Formation of the Janata Party:
  • JP is celebrated for launching a popular, mass movement against the Indira Gandhi government.
  • His opposition led to the formation of the Janata Party government in the 1977 general election, the first non-Congress government in the country.
  • This began his career in electoral politics.
  • In JP’s Janata Party, the RSS and the Jana Sangh were to the mainstream and the Socialist were also part of the party due to JP’s ideology. 

Awards and Recognition

• JP was awarded the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965
• JP was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award for his social service, in the year 1999. 

News Source: The Indian Express

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-politics/jayaprakash-narayan-the-man-the-movement-and-his-proteges-8204915/

Also watch a detailed video on World Explorers in Indian History by Hemant Jha Sir and enhance your UPSC CSE preparation :

https://youtu.be/7fxuDs5ox18

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