Total Revolutionary

Jayaprakash Narayan and His Political Legacy

- Vivek Kumar Rai

INDIA celebrated the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan (popularly known as JP), who was always the voice of the common people, on October 11. Against this backdrop, this write-up sheds light on a set of contributions and how people remember their revered icon.

Recently, the Muzaffarpur Vikas Mandal (MVM) organised the Samvad Yatra for two weeks to commemorate the association of JP with the Musahari block in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The campaign started from Salaha village, where JP arrived in 1970 to challenge Naxal forces in the block. The MVM distributed pamphlets and organised a series of events to make the common people aware about his contributions in the block. They invited all socialists and Gandhians who worked with JP. A large number of women too participated in the event. As the MVM activists narrated, the local Naxal commanders had declared they would kill a couple of activists of the Sarvodaya movement in Musahari, which provoked JP to come to Muzaffarpur. He stayed in Musahari for more than one year. 

On September 28 this year, people started the Yatra from Salaha village in Musahari and visited all those places where JP had stayed for some time. JP stayed in the block at six different places and the Samvad Yatra visited all of these places while chanting the slogans that emphasised on his initiatives.

In the development discourse, the interventions in this block under the leadership of JP were known as the “Musahari Project” that comprised a series of initiatives at the local level. When JP stayed in the wake of Naxalism in Musahari block, he introduced Gram Swaraj (with help from Gram Sabha), Gram Daan, Gram Kosh and Gram Shanti Sena to bring harmony in society as Raman