Political Ideas of Jaya Prakash Narayan

NITA MALIK

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, HANS RAJ MAHILA MAHA VIDYALAYA

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT, POLITICAL SCIENCE

Introduction

• Jayaprakash Narayan, also known as JP or Lok Nayak (Hindi for “People’s leader”), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist, and political figure. He was born on October 11, 1902, and he passed away on October 8, 1979. In the middle of the 1970s, he led the opposition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whose overthrow he had called for a “total revolution,” and for this, he is remembered. Rambriksh Benipuri, a nationalist and author of Hindi literature, wrote his biography, Jayaprakash. In 1999, in honour of his contributions to society, he received the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour in India. The Magsaysay award for Public Service from 1965 is among the other honours.

Views on Socialism

• Jaya Prakash Narayan was a great proponent of Socialism and his idea about socialism was depicted in his book “why socialism?” According to him economic disparity and private ownership on the means of production is the root cause of all the problems, and if we provide means to everyone then the problem of economic disparity will be reduced automatically. He further said mere nationalising the industries will not established the socialism because it will strengthen the bureaucracy and promote the tendency of centralisation. Hence he proposed the idea of decentralisation in socialism.
• Decentralisation of small scale industries will remove its economic disparity
• Decentralisation in agriculture : the ownership of the land must be with the land cultivators and promote cooperative agriculture.

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Views on Socialism Contd.

• By promoting government loan and market system in agriculture sector will save the land cultivator form the exploitation of sahukar and other businessman.
• He also suggested the ethical and democratic means for the socialisation of the agriculture and industries. He believe that the high ideals of socialism can only be established in the independent India and we have to develop political consciousness among workers, peasants and poor middle classes to end foreign slavery. He expressed the belief that socialism will be established when class- consciousness will emerge among all the weaker sections, farmers, dalits and poor.

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Views on Marx’s Socialism

• According to him Marx's socialism has developed in accordance with the basic ideals of Indian culture - always sharing and consuming, emancipating from low quality desires and the instinct of grace. Therefore, it is misleading to call socialism an anti-Indian culture.
• Jaya Prakash Narayan suggest three interpretation of socialism:-
• Fake Socialism or Communism: Established through methods of violence
• Democratic Socialism: Established by law through state power
• Spiritual Socialism: Established by changing the attitude and nature of people through voluntary efforts.
• In this way Jaya Prakash Narayan was searching a “practical socialism”

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From Socialism to Sarvodaya �

• Mahatma Gandhi coined the term Sarvodaya from John Ruskin's book 'Unto the Last'. The essence of this book is - "Everyone has their own good.“
• Jai Prakash Narayan said that “Sarvodaya Yojana is a suggestion of social revolution rather than any sentimental plan. Simultaneously, the ideal of class-less and caste-less socialism is also included in the notion of Sarvodaya.”
• In 1954 he dedicated his life to Sarvodaya and renounced all his self interest and he wrote “If we feel conflicted in the interests, then the reason is the our assumptions and wrong conduct. If we create faith in the unity of human interests, then we will be able to reach closer to the reality of Sarvodaya. There is a belief in Sarvodaya that the human soul is pure and we should give more importance to the ideals of freedom, justice and brotherhood. Sarvodaya is a life-long revolution. Sarvodaya's ultimate goal is to bring radical changes in all aspects of personal and social life.”

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From Socialism to Sarvodaya �

• According to JP Narayan in Sarvodaya Society :
• there be opportunities for justice and equity
• there will also be a democratic system which will be based on the freedom of the individual and the person will build his own system of governance.
• The system will be decentralized, with the Gram Sabha having more power and resources.
• It will be a social system in which the welfare of all will be contained
• Thus, as his ultimate goal, Jaya Prakash Narayan has suggested making the Sarvodaya movement a success through political and economic decentralization. His ideas related to Sarvodaya can play an important role in rural upliftment.

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Views on Nationalism�

• Until the spirit of nationalism develops in every person's heart, the country cannot have all-round development. Despite cultural unity in India, there is a lack of political unity.
• For national unity, it is necessary that individuals set aside their religious superstitions and develop an intellectual and scientific outlook in themselves.
• He believed that the process of India unity is basically a process of intellectual and spiritual consciousness. Therefore, all the people should contribute to it with equitable means.

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Modern Democracy�

• Jayaprakash Narayan believed that the modern era is the era of parliamentary democracy. Constitution, parties and elections are very important in this democracy. But these things are meaningless until moral values and spiritual qualities develop in the public. Therefore, he insisted on making democracy a party-less democracy.
• In the political party system, the situation of the people is like that of a sheep who after a certain period chooses himself for a cow. In such a democratic governance system, I have not been able to see the freedom for which I and the people fought.

Partyless Democracy

• Jayaprakash Narayan has given four major suggestions about implementing a partyless democracy:-
• 1. First of all political parties should be abolished in democracy. By eliminating the election system, direct election of candidates from village level to central level should be done by the public. Gram sabha elected two members from each village and sent it to the electoral council of that constituency, after which the names of candidates for the state legislature or central parliament should be proposed and supported in an open meeting of the electoral council. Efforts should be made to make everyone's opinion about it. If a common state cannot be formed then the person with more than 30% of the vote should be declared a representative of Parliament or the Legislative Council.

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Partyless Democracy

• 2. Sarvodaya society should be set free from party politics.
• 3. All the parties should be invited to participate in the work of Sarvodaya so that the party spirit ends.
• 4. After being elected, all candidates should break away from their party so that they can exercise the franchise through the voice of an independent soul and get rid of the rigors of the party's rigid principles.

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Total Revolution�

• Jai Prakash Narayan's final stage of development of political ideology is the concept of his complete or total revolution. In 1974, he proclaimed the Total Revolution. He declared the entire revolution at Patna's Gandhi Maidan as his ultimate goal. He wanted to establish a society that is free from exploitation and oppression. He tried to awaken the dormant soul of Indian society and change the social structure by announcing the complete revolution.
• His entire revolution - social, political, cultural, theoretical, ideological, educational and spiritual, is a mixture of seven revolutions. This concept is an extension of his ideas of Sarvodaya Socialism, Democratic Socialism and Dalit-less democracy. He believed that the entire revolution would emphasize the moral and cultural values of the people and would prove to be helpful in establishing true socialism.

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Total Revolution

Conclusion

• Narayan spent the first 25 years of independence as the patron saint of lost causes: the Praja Socialist Party, the Sarvodaya movement, even self-determination for Kashmir. His most enduring contribution to the life of the Republic was the movement he led to unseat Mrs Gandhi, which provoked the Emergency. As the eminence grise of the Janata Party, the first non-Congress party to run the central government, he can take credit for catalysing the political forces that set in train the Congress’s political decline. Narayan also wrote several books, notably Reconstruction of Indian Polity. He promoted Hindu revivalism, but was initially deeply critical of the form of revivalism promoted by the Sangh Parivar.

Conclusion

• In 1998, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in recognition of his social work. Other awards include the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965. Narayan is sometimes referred to with the honorific title Lok nayak or 'guide of the people'. A university (J P University in Chhapra, Bihar) and two Hospitals (L N J P Hospital in New Delhi and Jai Prabha Hospital in Patna) have been opened in his memory. The capital's largest and best-equipped trauma centre, the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, also honors his contributions.
• He was a crusader and visionary. No doubt critics have assailed him as a man with inconsistencies. Some view him as a Utopian thinker, an ideal dreamer and too liberal internationalist. His ideas on Sarvodaya and participatory democracy may be relevant for simple and small society, but can’t be applicable to modern complex society. His views on socialism, sarvodaya and total revolution bear testimony to his humanitarian goals. In post-independent Indian polity Jayaprakash’s call to the people was like that of charmer. He was a self-less dedicated revolutionary that mother India has produced. Vinoba Bhave said after Jayaprakash's death that Jayaprakash considered himself only a "Lok-sevak," or servant of the people.

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