Jayaprakash Narayan issued the clarion call against government corruption in June 1974 that ignited a fierce student movement that shook Indira Gandhi's government from the foundation to the rafters.
His modest home in Patna is almost forgotten, only remembered on special anniversaries.
Key Points
- Jayaprakash Narayan was the last of modern Indian revolutionaries.
- He gave the clarion call against state corruption that launched a never before like student revolution.
- His home in Patna is a museum, which is largely forgotten.
A short distance from the CPI-ML office in Patna's Kadamkuan area is the modest home of the last of modern Indian revolutionaries: Jayaprakash Narayan.
JP, as he is popularly known, issued the clarion call against government corruption in June 1974 that ignited a student movement so fierce that it shook Indira Gandhi's government from the foundation to the rafters.
He called for her resignation when she refused to give up office after the Allahabad high court annulled her election in June 1975 for election malpractice.
From Patna's historic Gandhi maidan, he launched a satyagrah, called for a total revolution or Sampoorn Kranti that brought students out of their classrooms on to the streets -- from Bihar to Gujarat to Delhi.
The movement led by 71-year-old JP prompted an insecure Indira Gandhi to impose the Emergency on this day in June 1975.
JP and many other Opposition leaders were arrested. JP was imprisoned in Chandigarh. You can read more about his days in Chandigarh in my colleague Shobha Warrier's interviews here and here.
Many student leaders of that time went on to become famous leaders themselves -- Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Arun Jaitley, Nitish Kumar...
The Emergency lasted 19 months. Democracy was suspended. All freedoms were curtailed. Political adversaries were jailed.
In the March 1977 election, Indira Gandhi suffered a crushing defeat.
Yet JP never sought any political mileage or post or reward. The freedom fighter who was jailed and tortured for India's independence and who turned down Nehru for a Cabinet ministry never sought or held any political office ever in his life.
Like a true follower of Gandhi, he led and people followed.
No wonder, he was known as the second Mahatma.
There are many important places in Patna and Bihar that are named after JP. Universities, roads, bridges and the new Patna airport inaugurated last year but the home where he lived and died is nondescript. If you walk past it, tucked between houses, offices and shops you might just miss it if you don't notice the gate and a plaque that says it is JP's house.
You are let in after signing a register. You are asked to take off your shoes to enter the home where JP lived with his wife Prabhavati Devi, a Gandhian herself who died in 1973.
This is the home where JP returned after his long treatment at the Jaslok hospital in Bombay for kidney disease. JP was moved to Jaslok when his health started failing in Chandigarh.
The sparse articles in the house reveal his spartan lifestyle. The bed where he breathed his last, the chair at the end of a long, airy corridor, where he would sit on the days he felt better.
There are pictures and letters. Many of the photographs show him with swarms of people -- a salute to the people's leader he was.
One letter that stood out for me was written by J R D Tata, addressed to him at Jaslok Hospital in December 1977.
It is a moving note. Cultured, dignified and sincere, reminding us of what the standard of public life once used to be.
My dear Jayaprakashji,
Whenever you come to Bombay I have a deep desire to call on you but have always felt that I shouldn’t add to the large number of people who disturb your rest. I nearly overcame my reluctance to call last week but was glad I didn’t when I learned that you had had a setback in your health.
I would, however, like you to know that although I keep away you are much in my thoughts and that I pray for your health and wellbeing.
I hope that the New Year will bring a measure of both to you, as well as the realisation of your dream of an improving fate for our country and its long-suffering people for whom you have done and sacrificed so much to serve.
With deep respect and affection
Your sincerely
JRD Tata
P.S. Please do not take the trouble to reply.
The letter is framed and hung on a wall in the house. It reveals so much of the greatness of both JRD and JP.
Both Indians who received India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, year 7 years apart.
There were only a few people in the house which is preserved as a museum with hardly any visitors as the person at the entrance informed.
Some Bihar politicians drop by on his birthday (October 11) and death anniversary October 8 - and increasingly these days on June 25 as did Union Minister J P Nadda on Thursday.
While I was there, I noticed an old man in a dhoti lingering, earnestly reading, watching and observing. On his way out, he looked at JP's photograph and told his companion -- "There was no one like him. There will be none like him ever again."
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
