Man of the movement
Jaswant Singh

Unfinished Revolution: A Political Biography of Jayaprakash Narayan
by Ajit Bhattacharjea. Rupa & Co., New Delhi. Pages 467. Rs 795.

IF one were asked to name two persons who have influenced Indian society and its political thought most, the obvious answer would be Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan. Both stood for moral based politics. Both were liked immensely by the people and equally disliked by those wielding authority. But Gandhi was more easily understood by the masses because of the simplicity of his programme — opposing a foreign ruler. JP’s opposition to authoritarianism in a regime established under the stamp of a constitution adopted by "We the people" was difficult to comprehend even if it was important.

Both upheld values derived from religion while rejecting communal intolerance. Both were involved in national movements to regenerate the country and both failed to reform entrenched power structures. Both realised that winning the battle did not mean that their revolutionary objectives would be implemented. Gandhi’s generals, Nehru and his colleagues in the Government of India, retained the administrative set-up left behind by the colonial power. Thirty years later, the Janata Government headed by Morarji Desai did nothing to implement JP’s programme of decentralised governance.

Gandhi, however, was a better judge of men and had a down-to-earth approach. JP, on the other hand, failed to gauge the ambitions and motives of his followers. He often appeared utopian and impractical in his approach and was capable of being taken for a ride.

While Gandhi remained steadfast in his faith in non-violence till the end, JP, despite his Gandhian approach, began to take a less rigid stance on violence, as he grew older. "I say with due sense of responsibility that if convinced that there is no deliverance for the people except through violence, Jayaprakash Narayan will take to violence," he told a conference of volunteer organisations in New Delhi.

Like Gandhi, JP also died a disappointed man. A day before he was assassinated, Gandhi had prepared a new draft constitution for the Congress, recommending that the organisation be wound up as a party and turned into a Lok Sewak Sangh committed to bringing "social, moral and economic independence" to India’s seven hundred thousand villagers. After his death, the document was mothballed with the rest of his philosophy. JP’s vision of social change and Total Revolution was similarly ignored by the Janata leaders who rode to power and position with his support and blessing.

These and several other aspects of JP’s life and political philosophy have been brought out in this volume by journalist Ajit Bhattacharjea who had earlier authored JP’s political biography in 1975 just before Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency. In this book he has reappraised and amplified the Bihar movement, JP’s imprisonment, his success in uniting diverse opposition groups into the Janata Party, the defeat of the Congress in national elections, and finally the break-up of the Janata Party and its government.

In the last months of his life, JP had attempted to write his autobiography. These dictations given whenever he felt strong enough, describe in his own words his early life, his political ideas and his impressions of Gandhi, Nehru and other personalities. This unfinished autobiography is included in this volume as an appendix along with excerpts from his earlier essays and his prison diary.

The book contains a description of JP’s political journey to Marxism, then to Gandhian thought and Sarvodaya to Total Revolution. It narrates his transformation, his successes, and his failures. It is a mirror on JP’s life held by a person who has had a long association with him. Events, trends and influences on JP have been described by the sensitive pen of a veteran journalist who understood the man and his psyche better than many others who surrounded him in his lifetime.

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