Word: narayan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Jayaprakash Narayan, July...
When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi put the name of Jayaprakash Narayan, 72, at the head of her list of political opponents to be arrested two weeks ago, she must have been struck by the irony of the situation. "J.P.," as he is known to almost everyone in India, was the grand old man of Indian politics, a confidant of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, and someone she had known since she was a child. In 1942, when she was imprisoned without trial for her efforts in the "Quit India" campaign to drive out the British, Narayan became a national hero...
...irresponsible rabble-rouser out to destroy democratic government. To his admirers, he is the champion of the downtrodden, a political savior who has emerged from retirement to save them from what they see as despotic rule. The independent-minded son of a minor Bihar state official, Narayan at the age of 19 used a $600 wedding gift to set off alone to the U.S., where he studied at Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin and became a convert to Communism. Returning to India, he became deeply involved with Gandhi and Nehru in the independence movement. Still...
Following independence in 1947, he grew increasingly disenchanted with party politics and even spurned offers by Nehru to join his Cabinet. Explained Narayan: "The party system, so it appeared to me, was seeking to reduce the people to the position of sheep whose only function was to choose periodically the shepherds who would look after their welfare...
...Despite Narayan's criticism of government corruption, his movement offers no clear-cut program for social or economic reform. J.P. talks vaguely of "partyless democracy" and returning power to the villages. He urges his followers to engage in such tactics as gherao (laying siege) and dharna (sit-ins). But almost invariably his civil-disobedience campaigns have turned violent...