Jayaprakash Narayan:
Total revolutionary, confused visionary
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At the age of 72, Jayaprakash Narayan plunged himself into one of the greatest mass movements in independent India.

Born in a middle class family in Sitabdiara village in Bihar, he went to the United Sates for higher studies where he got influenced by socialist ideas.

On his return to India, he joined the freedom movement impressed by Mahatma Gandhi.

JP - as he was known -- had retired from politics and devoted himself to leading the land reform movement in Bihar.

However, due to the disappointing outcome in bringing about a non-violent social revolution, Narayan was looking for alternatives.

Thus he came back to active politics to give a direction to disillusioned youth during the 'authoritarian and corrupt' regime of Indira Gandhi.

On February 11, 1974, Narayan visited Ahmedabad while students had come out on the streets demanding the sacking of Congress government in the state.

Impressed by the success of the Gujarat movement, Narayan wanted to make it an example for other parts of the country.

He advised students to give up studies for one year, devote themselves to the eradication of corruption and work towards the youth revolution.

By now, the students' movement in Bihar had gained momentum. It became violent too. Stone throwing, looting and burning of public and private properties were taking place on a large scale.

The movement spread to north India. Unemployment, rampant casteism, corruption and nepotism in administration and politics had become major issues.

Historian David Selbourne says Narayan had 'struggled all his life not just to express and embody, guru-like, an abstractly moral aspiration but to intervene practically in the political process'. The septuagenarian was the right choice to lead the movement.

In July 1972, in a press interview, Narayan expressed concern about the accumulation of power in the hands of the prime minister as against a weak opposition.

He became fully engrossed in the movement and started writing and editing pamphlets and magazines, including Everyman's Weekly, which started in July 1973.

On April 6, 1974, Patna University Students Union president and some other leaders met Narayan and asked him to lead the youth movement, which he readily accepted.

Narayan and his followers genuinely believed that in Bihar they were initiating the process of total revolution that would sweep the entire country and change not only the political system, but also the social system as a whole.

He not just wanted to change the government for that would be like 'replacing the Tweedledum with Tweedledee'.

He said he was fighting 'corruption, misgovernment, black-marketeering, profiteering and hoarding', and wanted an overhaul of the education system.

"That shall be the beginning. The rest will follow," he opined.

To start the process of total revolution, he led a silent procession in Patna on March 8, 1974, against police excesses. To make it non-violent, the protestors had bound their mouths with a piece of cloth. The rest is history.

Hundreds of thousands of nostalgic students and activists joined him looking for a change across north India.

On November 4, 1974, he led a 20,000-strong protest to the Secretariat in Delhi demanding Indira's resignation. He suffered lathi blows too.

However, renowned historian Bipan Chandra says Narayan was indecisive and his Yeh bhi theek hai, woh bhi theek hai, main kya karun? (This is right, that is also right, what can I do?) attitude was responsible for no compromise between Indira and him, finally leading to the imposition of Emergency.

He had just one advice for students: Walk out of classrooms and walk into jails. And it happened.

Students in large groups gheraoed the prime minister's and other ministers' houses and offices everyday and courted arrest. Many were brutally beaten up and implicated in false cases.

Indira finally revoked Emergency and announced for fresh elections on 18 January, 1977. The first non-Congress government was formed in March that year with Morarji Desai as prime minister.

There was new enthusiasm all over. The new Janata Party government was a conglomerate of Congress dissidents and all those opposed to Indira, including the Hindu rightwing party Jan Sangh.

In fact, Narayan is criticised for taking the support of the Hindu extremist party Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh thereby bringing them into mainstream politics, which later became counter-productive.

The Janata government started showing signs of degradation within a year. The problems and disillusionment remained the same. Only the faces in the government changed, there was no change in the character of the government. The government collapsed in about two years' time. The euphoria was over.

Narayan was weak and helpless by that time. He felt his work was done, but he had to sorrowfully witness the collapse of the Janata government. He died on October 8, 1979. People hailed him as Lok Nayak or leader of the people.

Also See: Emergency: A flashback