Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), also known as JP and ''Lok Nayak'' (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

for "People's leader"), was an Indian politician, theorist and independence activist. He is mainly remembered for leading the mid-1970s opposition against Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

and calling for her overthrow in a "

total revolution The Bihar movement, also known as the JP movement, was a political movement initiated by students in the Indian state of Bihar against misrule and corruption in the state government, in 1974. It was led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprak ...

". In 1999, Narayan was posthumously awarded the

Bharat Ratna The Bharat Ratna (; ) is the highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distin ...

, India's highest civilian award, in recognition of his social service. His other awards include the

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino language, Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, ...

for public service in 1965.

Early life

Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava was born on 11 October 1902 in the village of Sitab Diara,

Chhapra district Saran district is one of the 38 Districts of Bihar, districts of Indian States and territories of India, state of Bihar. The district, part of Saran Division, is also known as Chhapra district after the headquarters of the district, Chhapra. It is ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(present-day

Ballia district Ballia district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ballia district is a part of Azamgarh division situated in the east of Uttar Pradesh. The main economic activity is agriculture. City is the district headquarters and commercial ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, India).The village, Sitabdiara, where J.P. was born is situated beside the confluence of the river Ghaghra with the Ganga, and its site has been changing with changes in the course of the rivers. When he was born, this village lay in the Chapra district of Bihar, it now belongs to the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh His house was near the banks of the flood-prone

Ghaghara The Ghaghara River, also known as the Karnali River in Nepal, Mapcha Tsangpo in Tibet, and as the Sarayu River in the lower Ghaghara of India's Awadh, is a perennial trans-boundary river that originates in the northern slopes of the Himalaya ...

river; every time the river swelled, the house would be slightly damaged, eventually forcing the family to move a few kilometres away to a settlement that is now known as Jayaprakash Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. Narayan came from a

Kayastha Kayastha (or Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Ka ...

family of Srivastava clan. He was the fourth child of Harsu Dayal and Phul Rani Devi. His father was a junior official in the canal department of the state government and often toured the region. When Narayan was nine years old, he left his village to enrol in the seventh class of the collegiate school at Patna. This was his first break from village life. Narayan stayed at Saraswati Bhawan, a student hostel in which most of the boys were older than him and included some of Bihar's future leaders, such as its first chief minister Krishna Singh, his deputy

Anugrah Narayan Sinha Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as ''Honorary titles of Indian leaders, Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist politician, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, wh ...

and several others who became politicians and academics. In October 1918, Narayan married Braj Kishore Prasad's elder daughter and independence activist Prabhavati Devi. After their wedding, because Narayan was working in

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

and it was difficult for his wife to stay with him,

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

invited Prabhavati to become an inmate at

Sabarmati Ashram Sabarmati Ashram is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gandhi who lived at Sabarmati (Gujar ...

(

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

). Jayaprakash, along with some friends, went to listen to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad speak about Gandhi's

non-cooperation movement Non-cooperation movement may refer to: * Non-cooperation movement (1919–1922), during the Indian independence movement, led by Mahatma Gandhi against British rule * Non-cooperation movement (1971), a movement in East Pakistan * Non-cooperatio ...

against the passing of the

Rowlatt Act The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, popularly known as the Rowlatt Act, was a law, applied during the British India period. It was a legislative council act passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on 18 March 1919 ...

of 1919. Azad was a brilliant orator and his call to give up English education was "like a storm before leaves"; Jayaprakash has swept away and momentarily lifted up to the skies. That brief experience of soaring up with the winds of a great idea left imprints on his inner being". Inspired by Azad's words, Jayaprakash left Bihar National College with just 20 days remaining to his examinations. Jayaprakash joined the Bihar Vidyapeeth, a college founded by

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

, and became among the first students of Gandhian Anugraha Narayan Sinha.

Higher education in the United States

After exhausting the courses at the Vidyapeeth, Narayan decided to continue his studies in the United States. At age 20, Jayaprakash sailed aboard the cargo ship ''Janus'' while Prabhavati remained at Sabarmati. Jayaprakash reached California on 8 October 1922, and was admitted to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

(UC Berkeley) in January 1923 as a chemistry undergraduate. To pay for his education, Narayan picked grapes, packed fruits at a canning factory, washed dishes, and worked as a garage mechanic. These jobs gave Narayan an insight into the difficulties of the working class. While at Berkeley, Narayan, then one of 45 students from India, joined the university's Hindustan Club. At the end of the semester, however, his fees doubled and he was forced to transfer to

The University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offer ...

, where he continued his studies in applied science and his activities with the Hindustan Association of America, a national association of Indian students studying in the United States. Narayan chaired the association's 1923 national convention, which was held at the university at the end of December 1923. In Wisconsin, Narayan was introduced to

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

's book ''

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

''. News of the success of the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

made Narayan conclude

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

was the way to alleviate the suffering of the masses. He studied books by Indian intellectuals and Communist theoreticians M. N. Roy. Narayan's paper on sociology ''Cultural Variation'' was declared the best of the year. Narayan graduated from

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

with a MA in Sociology, and from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

with a BA in behavioural science. While in the United States, he met K. B. Menon, then teaching at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, ultimately persuading him to return to India and join the independence movement there.

Politics

Having become a Marxist, Narayan returned from the US to India in late 1929. The same year, he joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC or Congress) on the invitation of

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

;

became Narayan's mentor in the Congress. Narayan shared a house at Kadam Kuan in

with his close friend and nationalist

Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha) Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha) (1905 Bihta, Patna, Bengal Presidency – 1988) was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament of India, for three terms (1956–1962 and 1962–1968 from Bihar, and then a nominated member in 1968� ...

with whom he shared a lasting friendship. After being jailed in 1930 for

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active and professed refusal of a citizenship, citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders, or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be cal ...

against British rule, Narayan was imprisoned in

Nasik Nashik, formerly Nasik, is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra situated on the banks of the river Godavari River, Godavari, about northeast of the state capital Mumbai. Nashik is one of the Hindu pilgrimage sit ...

Jail, where he met Rammanohar Lohia,

Minoo Masani Minocher Rustom "Minoo" Masani (20 November 1905 – 27 May 1998) was an Indian politician, a leading figure of the erstwhile Swatantra Party. He was a three-time Member of Parliament, representing Gujarat's Rajkot (Lok Sabha constituency), Raj ...

, Achyut Patwardhan,

Asoka Mehta Asoka Mehta (24 October 1911, Bhavnagar – 10 December 1984, New Delhi) was an Indian political activist and socialist politician. He helped organize the socialist wing Congress Socialist Party of the Indian National Congress, along with Ramb ...

Basawon Singh Basawon Singh or Basawan Singh, also known as Basawon Sinha (23 March 1909 7 April 1989), was an Indian independence movement, Indian independence activist and a campaigner for the rights of the underprivileged, and industrial and agricultural ...

, Yusuf Desai, C K Narayanaswami and other national leaders. After his release, the

Congress Socialist Party The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. It was founded in 1934 by Congress members who rejected what they saw as the anti-rational mysticism of Gandhi as well as the sectarian attitude of ...

(CSP), a left-wing group within the Congress, was formed with Acharya Narendra Deva as president and Narayan as general secretary. When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement in August 1942, Narayan, along with Yogendra Shukla, Suraj Narayan Singh, Gulab Chand Gupta, Pandit Ramnandan Mishra, Shaligram Singh and Shyam Barthwar, scaled the wall of Hazaribagh Central Jail with a goal of starting an underground movement for freedom. Many young socialist leaders like Rammanohar Lohia, Chhotubhai Puranik and Aruna Asaf Ali took part in the movement. Because Narayan was ill, Yogendra Shukla walked to Gaya with Narayan on his shoulders, a distance of about . Narayan also served as the chairman of ''Anugrah Smarak Nidhi'' (Anugrah Narayan Memorial Fund).

After Independence

Between 1947 and 1953, Jayaprakash Narayan was President of

All India Railwaymen's Federation The All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) is the largest trade union of Indian Railways workers with a membership of 1.4 million. AIRF was founded on 16 February 1925.. It is affiliated with the socialist trade union centre Hind Mazdoor Sabh ...

, the largest labour union in

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

Emergency

In 1975,

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, officially known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, is the high court based in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established o ...

found

guilty of violating electoral laws. Narayan called for Gandhi and the CMs to resign, and the military and police to disregard unconstitutional and immoral orders. He advocated a program of social transformation, which he termed ''Sampoorna kraanti'' (total revolution). Immediately afterwards, Gandhi proclaimed a national

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

on the midnight of 25 June 1975. Desai, opposition leaders, and dissenting members of Gandhi's own party were arrested that day. Jayaprakash Narayan gathered a crowd of 100,000 people at Ramlila grounds and recited ''Rashtrakavi'' Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' poem ''Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai''. Narayan was detained at

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

; he asked for one month of parole to mobilise relief in flooded parts of Bihar. His health suddenly deteriorated on 24 October 1975, and he was released on 12 November the same year. At Jaslok Hospital, Bombay, Narayan was diagnosed with kidney failure; he would be on

kidney dialysis Kidney dialysis is the process of removing excess water, solutes, and toxins from the blood in people whose kidneys can no longer perform these functions naturally. Along with kidney transplantation, it is a type of renal replacement therapy. ...

for the rest of his life. In the UK, Surur Hoda launched "Free JP", a campaign for the release of Jayaprakash Narayan that was chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner

Philip Noel-Baker Philip John Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker, (1 November 1889 – 8 October 1982), born Philip John Baker, was a British politician, diplomat, academic, athlete, and renowned campaigner for disarmament. He carried the British team flag and won a s ...

. On 18 January 1977, Indira Gandhi revoked the emergency and announced elections. The

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

, a vehicle for the broad spectrum of the opposition to Gandhi, was formed under JP's guidance. The Janata Party was voted into power and became the first non-Congress party to form a central government. In the 1977 Indian presidential election, Narayan was proposed as President of India by

leaders but he refused and

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (19 May 1913 – 1 June 1996) was an Indian politician who served as the president of India, serving from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress Party in the independence movem ...

, then

Speaker of the Lok Sabha The Speaker of the Lok Sabha ( IAST: ) is the presiding officer and the highest authority of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The speaker is elected generally in the first meeting of the Lok Sabha following a general ...

, became president.

Private life

At the age of 17, Jayaprakash was married to Prabhavati Devi, daughter of lawyer and nationalist Brij Kishore Prasad in October 1919. Prabhavati was very independent and on Gandhi's invitation, went to stay at his ashram while Jayaprakash continued his studies. Prabhavati Devi died on 15 April 1973 after a long battle with cancer.

Death

In March 1979, while he was in the hospital, Narayan's death was erroneously announced by the Indian prime minister

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian politician and Indian independence activist, independence activist who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading th ...

, causing a wave of national mourning, including the suspension of parliament and regular radio broadcasting, and the closure of schools and shops. When he was told about the mistake a few weeks later, Narayan smiled. Narayan died in Patna, Bihar, on 8 October 1979, three days before his 77th birthday, due to the effects of diabetes and heart disease.

Awards

, 1999 (Posthumous) for Public Affairs: It is India's highest civilian award. *Rashtrabhushan Award of FIE Foundation,

Ichalkaranji Ichalkaranji ( t͡səlkəɾəɳd͡ʒiː is a city in Kolhapur District, Maharashtra, India. It is situated at the bank of the Panchganga River. History As described by Horace George Franks in the book ''The Story of Ichalkaranji'' (1929), ...

, 1965 for Public Service.

Sites named after Jayaprakash Narayan

* Jay Prakash Narayan Airport in

* On 1 August 2015, the Chhapra-Delhi-Chhapra Weekly Express was renamed as Loknayak Express in his honour. * JP Setu the Digha-Sonpur Bridge, a rail-road bridge across river

Ganga The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary riv ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

* Jayaprakash Nagar (JP Nagar) a residential area in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. * Jayaprakash Nagar (JP Nagar) a residential area in

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

. * Lok Nayak Hospital (hospital in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

) * Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan National Institute of Criminology & Forensic Science (college in

)

Artistic depictions of Jayaprakash Narayan

Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as ''Hip Hip Hurray (film), Hip Hip Hurray'' (1984), ''Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand ...

directed a 112-minute film " Loknayak", based on the life of Jayaprakash Narayan. Chetan Pandit played the role of JP in that film. *

Achyut Potdar Achyut Potdar (born 22 August 1934), also simply known as Achyut, is an Indian actor who has worked in over 125 Bollywood films. In addition to film, Potdar has appeared in 95 serials, 26 plays and 45 ads. Early life and education He was bor ...

played Narayan in

ABP News ABP News is an Indian Hindi-language free-to-air television news channel owned by ABP Group. Initially launched as Star News in 1998, it was later acquired by the ABP Group (ABP). It won the Best Hindi News Channel award in the 21st editi ...

show ''

Pradhanmantri () is an Indian television political documentary series, hosted by actor-director Shekhar Kapur on Hindi news channel ABP News. It premiered on 13 July 2013. It aimed to bring to the audience never-seen-before facts of Indian history. The we ...

'' and ''Aaj Tak Aandolan''. *

Anupam Kher Anupam Kher (born 7 March 1955) is an Indian actor, director and producer who works primarily in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, he has acted in more than 540 films. A veteran of Indian cinema, Kher is recipient of two Na ...

portrayed Narayan in the 2025 film ''

'' directed by

Kangana Ranaut Kangna Amardeep Ranaut (; born 23 March 1986) is an Indian actress, filmmaker, and politician serving as a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, Mandi since June 2024. Known for her portrayals of strong-willed, u ...

Footnotes

References

External links

A plea for the reconstruction of Indian polity

{{DEFAULTSORT:Narayan, Jayaprakash 1902 births 1979 deaths People from Ballia district Janata Party politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar Indian independence activists from Bihar Indian pacifists Indian socialists Politicians from Patna The Emergency (India) Prisoners and detainees of British India English-language writers from India Indian people imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Indian social reformers University of Iowa alumni Ohio State University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Recipients of the Bharat Ratna Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Social workers from Bihar Praja Socialist Party politicians Academic staff of Bihar National College Indian Marxists