LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit we will be able to :

 explain the views of Jayaprakash Narayan as a Socialist.

 analyse the influence of Gandhi on him and why he embraced Sarvodaya later on.
 comprehend his concept of ‘Total Revolution’.
 critically evaluate his thoughts and ideas.
12.2 INTRODUCTION
Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, or ‘JP’ as popularly known, was an Indian political leader who
had actively participated in Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement and later on initiated the
‘Total Revolution’. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi in his initial days, he gradually turned a
socialist, playing an important role in the formation of the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, and
then moved closer to Gandhian values once again. Born on 11 October 1902, in a middle class
family of Sitabdaria village (now part of Balia, Uttar Pradesh), Jayaprakash Narayan was the
fourth child of Harsudayal and Phoolrani. His father was a government servant and had
admitted Jayaprakash Narayan in a government school in the village till he completed his initial
schooling. Jayaprakash Narayan left this village after completing sixth standard to pursue
further studies in Patna. While in Patna, Jayaprakash Narayan got acquainted with the
nationalist activities through Saraswati Bhawan, which was a hub of national leaders.He was
highly influenced by the ideas of M K Gandhi and was especially attracted towards the strategy
of non-violence and non-cooperation as propounded by Gandhi. Inspired by Gandhi’s non-
cooperation, Jayaprakash Narayan left studies at Patna College, since it was an institution run
by the government and joined the movement. Later on, he joined Bihar Vidyapeeth, which was
founded by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. In 1922, after completion of studies in Patna, he went to USA
and stayed there for 7 years to study Science at University of California (Wisconsin) and Ohio.
His tryst with socialist ideas began during his stay in USA, where he met East European
intellectuals and got influenced by their Marxist orientation. Back in India, he was influenced
by M N Roy, who was also a Marxist, and had given shape to Jayaprakash Narayan’s socialist tilt.
Jayaprakash Narayan, during this phase was convinced that the desolation of the poor could be
cured only through Marxism. However, he did not support Russian Communism and was
immensely critical of the methods adopted by the Bolshevik Party to establish socialism in
Russia. He also criticized the Chinese imperialist policy in Tibet. Thus, he could not support the
idea of a world wide united workers’ front to overthrow the capitalist class and establish
dictatorship of the proletariat. Identifying the glitches of Marxism as practiced in Soviet Union,
Jayaprakash Narayan turned to Sarvodaya to solve India’s problems. Let us study this transition
of Jayaprakash Narayan which led him ultimately to initiate Total Revolution.
12.3 INFLUENCE OF MARXISM ON J.P. NARAYAN
As already mentioned Jayaprakash Narayan was introduced to Marxism during his 7 years stay
in USA. In the company of students from different nationalities- Russian, France, German,
Dutch, Polish andAmericans- Jayaprakash Narayan read various books on Marxism andgrasped
its philosophy. Profound amongst all this, was the influence of oneof his closest friends,
Abraham Landy, a Polish Jew, who was a member ofthe communist party and active in the
underground cell at the University. InUSA, Jayaprakash Narayan also got exposed to
the writings of the IndianMarxist M N Roy, thus completing his initiation in Marxism.During this
phase of life, Jayaprakash Narayan considered Marxismto be the only solution to the problems
that India faced- starting from seekingindependence from British rule to socio-economic
development of thecountry. He was initially influenced by the Marxist notion of revolution
tooverthrow the dominating class as against the principles of non-violenceand non-cooperation
propounded by Gandhi. For him, Lenin’s success inRussia proved beyond doubt the efficacy of
Marxist technique over Gandhianmethods. Also, the condition of the labourers after the great
depression inthe 1930s, viz., unemployment, low wage, lack of other incentives
andinnumerable suffering due to them, was exactly in line with Marx’s predictionabout the
exploitative class relations between the bourgeoisie and proletariat.This convinced Jayaprakash
Narayan about the necessity of revolution tooverthrow the capitalist and establish socialism. He
understood that controlover the means of production by few led to socio-economic inequality
insociety. Thus, social ownership of the means of production is necessary tocurb inequality and
injustice.Marx’s scientific socialism appealed to Jayaprakash Narayan andhe saw it as a theory
which would help uncover truth. However, he alsobelieved that no single theory has the
capability to discover truth in its totality,as truth is relative and one can only mover closer to it
with the passage oftime. In his book,
From Socialism to Sarvodaya,
he remarked that, ‘Man isever progressing towards the truth, for he is by nature an enquiring
being.He will never be able to reach the ultimate truth, but, by gradually eliminatinguntruth, he
will be able slowly to approach the truth’ (Das,2005, p.3). Thisphilosophy of Jayaprakash
Narayan led him to have views which were sometimes contradictory to Marxism. For instance,
as against the Marxistbelief that the state is an instrument in the hands of the capitalist to
exploitthe working class, Jayaprakash Narayan held that the state performed welfarefunctions
which are beneficial to the poor and these activities of the stateare funded out of the taxes paid
mostly by the rich. Thus, JayaprakashNarayan could not completely support Marxist doctrine of
the state as anevil institution.Further, the events in India towards the end of 1929 also made JP
toreconsider his belief in Marxism. This was the time when the Gandhi-Irwintalks failed, as
Gandhi asked for complete ‘Dominion Status’ for India whichwas denied by Lord Irwin.Upset
with this, the country sought to acquirecomplete independence and with this goal in mind
Gandhi launched hisfamous Salt Satyagraha. This was supported by the entire nation, exceptfor
the Indian communists.This had upset Jayaprakash Narayan and herealised that ‘the Indian
Communists were only following, of course, thepolicy laid down by the Third or Communist
International which by then hadcome completely under the leadership of Stalin’(Dandavate,
2002, p.137).What upset JP more was that they condemned the freedom struggle
asbourgeoisie and ‘Mahatma Gandhi as a lackey of the Indian Bourgeoisie(Dandavate,2002,
p.137). Jayaprakash Narayan held that the policy followedby the Comintern, post 1928, had
isolated the anti-colonial nationalmovements and also had led to a divided the labour
movement throughoutthe world. This was completely against the strategy propounded by
Marxand Lenin. Thus, Jayaprakash Narayan felt ‘alienated’ from the Russian aswell as the Indian
Communists. He could not bear that the Indian communistswere dominated and dictated by
the Russian and the former acted aspuppets of the latter. This made him side with the ‘soldiers
of freedom’ andhe joined the freedom struggle.It is noteworthy that Jayaprakash Narayan’s
‘alienation’ with theCommunists did not lead him to abandon socialism or to join the
Congressparty which was the pioneer of the freedom struggle. For JoyprakashNarayan,
freedom implied a ‘socialist India’ and swaraj meant ‘rule of thepoor and the downtrodden’.
Since for him, the policy of the Congress seemed
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‘vague and inadequate’, he formed the Congress Socialist Party, with otherswhose belief
matched in his philosophy. He sought to link the fight forindependence along with the
struggle for socio-economic emancipation ofthe masses (Dandavate, 2002, p 138). It was at this
juncture that JPconsidered revisiting Marxism, given that he had a natural repulsion
to violentmethods to attain a goal even if the goal is noble. He thus detested the ideaof
attaining socialism through violent revolution and thereby establishingdictatorship of
proletariat. He felt that any kind of violence and dictatorshipis bound to be antagonistic to
human freedom as well as safety.Dictatorshipof proletariat basically meant rule of the
bureaucratic oligarchs and wouldultimately lead to ‘distortion of socialism’. Violence had to be
denounced tocurb any counter-revolutionary tendencies. He remarked, ‘in a society whereit
was possible for the people by democratic means to bring about socialchange, it would be
counter-revolutionary to resort to violence’ (Das, 2005,p. 9). Also, bereft of democratic
freedoms, socialism could not beestablished. Thus, although Jayaprakash Narayan approved of
socialismand believed in the Marxist theory about exploitation of the poor by the richeconomic
class, he was highly critical of the methods of achieving it. Heconcurred with Karl Marx
regarding the dominance of economic power overpolitical power, but he could not agree with
using violence to achieve thepanacea of socialism.In Jayaprakash Narayan’s opinion, ‘the
people’s instinct is always infavour of freedom and democracy and it is never natural for them
deliberatelyto subject themselves to a dictatorship.’ (Das, 2005, p.10). Thus, thecommunist rule
in Russia is not a rule of the working class, but a dictatorshipof the minority imposed by Lenin,
using ‘devious methods’. Even in China,it is a dictatorship, albeit of a different kind, where the
majority is ruling theminority. While Jayaprakash Narayan was moving away from
Marxism, hedid not abandon his faith in socialism. He argued that most of the problemswhich
Russia faced was because of the ‘impatient’ Marxists who could notwait for the revolution to
occur naturally. Marx held that when society reacheda stage of high industrial development
and ripe capitalism, the working classwould logically revolt against the capitalists. Lenin and his
successor Stalin
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could not wait till Russia reached this stage, and therefore tried to forcefullyinitiate revolution
in industrially backward Russia, with the help of an almostmilitary and highly centralized party.
Joyprakash Narayan, it seems,considered Marx and Engels to have more faith in a peaceful and
democratictransition than his followers. Thus, it is not the socialist ideology which
isproblematic, rather it is, as argued by Prof. Paul A Baran and cited by JP,the ambition of
leaders like Lenin, for immediate development of a backwardcountry, Russia, threatened by
foreign aggression and internal rebellion,which is to be blamed (Dandavate, 2002, p. 144)The
‘lesson for India’ is thus not to force industrialization at abreakneck speed, but to devise
indigenous methods to tread the path ofsocialism and industrialisation. Jayaprakash Narayan,
at this stage wasconsidering decentralization and gradual reduction of the power of the
state.He was concerned about the means to achieve the ends, as against theMarxists for whom
any means is justified till it serves the purpose ofachieving the goal, i.e. socialism. This concern
of Jayaprakash Narayandrew him closer to Gandhism but did not completely made him
a Gandhian.He rather was now ‘at the half-way house of democratic socialism’, whichagain as
he claimed was different from European socialism or British Fabiansocialism. These two brands
of socialism were considered to be a ‘quagmireof reformism and revisionism’ and cannot be
trusted to offer real solution tothe problems of the masses(Das, 2005, p 12) On the contrary,
JayaprakashNarayan envisioned his own brand of socialism, which would be‘revolutionary’, yet
would value human freedom, equality and brotherhood.Asian socialism, in Jayaprakash
Narayan’s words, should not imitateEuropean socialism, given that the conditions in both the
continents iscategorically very different. European socialism envisions an industrializedsociety,
be it capitalist or socialist; while Asia is completely rural and agrarianwith very initial stage of
industrialization. Although one might cite the examplesof Russia and China, which despite being
backward and agrarian, haveestablished communist governments, they can be barely
considered tovalue equality and freedom, the very essence of socialism. Thus, he appeals to the
Asian socialists to start ‘thinking, experimenting, innovating’ in orderto find a way to achieve
socialism.
12.4 IMPACT OF GANDHIAN THOUGHT : A SHIFTFROM SOCIALISM TO SARVODAYA
Jayaprakash Narayan’s increasing distance with Marxism, pushedhim closer to Gandhian ideas.
It is to be reiterated here that his tryst withGandhian values began much before his exposure to
Marxism. Between1914-1922, he was particularly influenced by Gandhi’s simplicity, and
hismethod of non-violence and non-cooperation. Gandhi’s impact onJayaprakash Narayan was
so profound that he left studies in order toparticipate in the Non-cooperation movement
launched by the former in1919. The sojourn in USA resulted in his shift to socialist ideas, but
deepdown he still valued Gandhi’s philosophy of means and end. After his returnfrom USA in
1929, he realized the hollowness of Indian communists whichled himto gradually move
towards democratic socialism.The ideals which inspired Joyprakash Narayan throughout his
life,viz., freedom, equality and brotherhood, continued to guide him in this shiftto Sarvodaya.
While he rejected dictatorship of the proletariat and violence,he continued to support Marxism,
but without the methods suggested tobring about social transformation. Jayaprakash Narayan’s
democraticsocialism was thus a fusion of Marxism with Gandhian values and
Westerndemocracy.Socialism without democracy is a sham, and therefore, therearises the
need to integrate ideals of Western democracy with socialism.The Marxian element in
Jayaprakash Narayan continuously went ondecreasing, as he moved closer and closer to
Gandhian philosophy. Hehimself admitted that his final break with Marxism had come during
thethree weeks’ fast in Pune, when he realized that materialism lacked ethics,as in a
materialistic world one does not find any reason to be good. Onewould not have the incentive
to be sympathetic and understanding towardshis/her fellow being. All that would matter in this
kind of world is to be powerful
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rich, and famous. These would be the motivations which would drive peopleinto
action.Disappointed with Marxism and upset with the defeat of his party,The Congress Socialist
Party in the general elections of 1952, JayaprakashNarayan decided to give up politics and
devote his life towards Sarvodayaand Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement (distribution of land
to the landless).Joyprakash Narayan referred this move of his as ‘
Jeevandan’.
He hadrealized that politics would not be able to deliver the goals which he initiallyassociated
with socialism, viz., freedom, equality, peace and fraternity. Andthe only alternative to politics
available was Gandhi’s Sarvodaya, which hehad ignored earlier. He justified his decision to
quit politics thus: ‘I decidedto withdraw from party-and-power politics not because of disgust
or senseof any personal frustration, but because it became clear to me that politicscould not
deliver the goods, the goods being the same old goals of equality,freedom, brotherhood,
peace’(Das, 2005, p.19)Thus, Jayaprakash Narayan had more faith on Gandhi’s
Sarvodaya
,than Karl Marx’s Dialectical Materialism. Three features of Gandhismparticularly appealed
Jayaprakash Narayan. One, emphasis laid on moralityand ethics, which he felt, lacked in
Marxism. Two, the path-breakingtechniques of revolution in the form of civil disobedience and
Satyagraha.And third, its stress on decentralization. For Jayaprakash Narayan,Sarvodaya’s
intrinsic significance lies in it giving value to happiness anddevelopment of every being. This
automatically implies that there is noscope for class struggle in it, as everyone is equally
important, be it theminority or the majority. Attending to the interests of the entire
communityis the goal of Sarvodaya. There is no place for egoism and desire for powerand
wealth; rather Savodaya is about disinterested service towards thecommunity. Common good
and social harmony in a society is emphasizedupon, wherein the goods are voluntarily shared
amongst fellow beings.There is thus no scope for overthrow of one class by another, or
forcibleseizure of wealth in order to establish equality. Voluntary service bears acrucial place in
Sarvodaya. This is not to say that Sarvodaya allows thepresent inequality and exploitation by
the feudal lords to continue. What itseeks to achieve is establishment of peace, harmony and
equality with the
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power of love and a change of heart of the exploiters and perpetrators ofinequality.Since
equality of all is one of the cardinal principles of Sarvodaya, itdoesn’t value majority opinion as
more important than that of a minority. Inother words, majoritarianism is rejected
by Sarvodaya. Here JayaprakashNarayan comes very close to JS Mill who also talks about the
importance ofminority opinion. Also, rather than conflictual relationship between
differentcategories or classes of people Jayaprakash Narayan was of the opinionthat consensus
should be the mode of solving problems. If truth is the ultimategoal and if every member of
society is equally important, then the societyhas to negotiate on the basis of consensus of all,
rather than deciding onthe basis of views of only the majority. Therefore, one should rely on
thelogic of dialectics of argument and counter-argument, which would finallylead to a good
acceptable to all.Initially Jayaprakash Narayan could not believe how Gandhi’s non-violent
technique could lead to social revolution. Although he had seen thatthe freedom struggle was
won through non-violence, he could not connectas to how this technique would help oust
feudalism and capitalism.Jayaprakash Narayan was also not very sure of Gandhi’s idea of
Trusteeshipand its feasibility. As he was pondering about the Gandhian technique,Vinobha
Bhave started his Bhoodan movement in Telengana. Initially,Jayaprakash thought that it would
take a hundred year to redistribute landusing this technique. But much to his surprise, this
movement started togain ground. He thus immediately made up his mind to join the
movement.Similarly, Jayaprakash Narayan supported other manifestations ofSarvodaya, such
as Gramadan (equitable sharing of land by villagers),Sampattidan (conversion of all property
into trusteeship), Sadhandan (togive away as a gift such means of production which would
enable Bhoodanrecipients to till their lands, viz bullocks), and Buddhidan.These are theways in
which Jayaprakash Narayan thought an equitable social order couldbe created in a peaceful and
morally correct order. It is noteworthy that likeGandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan thought that only
a morally correct meanscould lead to a moral end. He was particularly influenced by the ends-
means
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binary, articulated by Gandhi. For Gandhi, the means to achieve an end isas important as
the end itself. Thus, Jayaprakash Narayan argued that, ‘themeans must be morally consistent
with the ends’ (Das, 2005, p.14). This isone of the major reasons why Marxist theory failed to
achieve socialism:because it sought to achieve a morally correct socialist society with thehelp of
an amoral means, viz., violence. He had no doubts about socialismbeing a morally and ethically
correct vision about an equal, peaceful andfree society, what he detested was the means to
achieve such a socialorder. Thus, he argued that till socialism is transformed into Sarvodayasuch
inconsistency in ends and means cannot be breached, and hence anideal society cannot be
established. Sarvodaya was for him a superior formof socialism.
12.5 JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN’S TOTAL REVOLUTION
Jayaprakash Narayan’s concept of Total Revolution was born as asolution to various societal
problems. Although conceived much earlier,thisidea was clearly articulated in his book,
The Prison Diary
, published in 1977.In1942, when the country was at the peak of its freedom struggle,
JayaprakashNarayan, in a letter addressed to the freedom fighters, appealed for ‘TotalRevolt’ of
the masses to achieve independence. It may, however, be arguedthat the purport of his call for
Total Revolution, much later in the 1970s,might be different, given the difference in the
prevailing conditions betweenunfree British India and a free democratic India. The immediate
reasonbehind his initiation of Total Revolution was the problems that the countryunder Indira
Gandhi’s rule faced: corruption, sluggish economic growth,inflation, poor educational system
and a low moral order in society. Revolutionwas the way in which these problem could be
mitigated.Inspired by the Gujarat movement in 1973 where the students’agitation led to
the resignation of the Gujarat government, he supported thestudents’ movement in Bihar.
Infact, relenting to the students’ requests onthe condition that the movement would be
peaceful, Jayaprakash Narayantook on the leadership of the Bihar movement. Upset with such
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developments in Bihar, the Indira Gandhi government sought to suppressthe movement by
imprisoning Jayaprakash Narayan and imposingemergency in the country. All this was in vain,
because in the generalelections that followed, the Janata Party led by Jayaprakash Narayan
wonmassive votes of the people and formed the government at the centre. It isinteresting to
note here, that having denounced politics, JayaprakashNarayan did not lead the government
and stayed away from power politics.Talking about the concept of Total Revolution, it may be
mentionedthat Jayaprakash Narayan did not clearly define it. Rather, he had put theonus on
the intellectuals of the country to clearly build the concept and fulfillhis dream. As explained by
A. Appadorai,Total Revolution is an all pervasivesocial revolution which attempts to abolish all
kinds of social ills such ascorruption, exclusion and discrimination of the lower caste and
women,and unemployment. He further states, that to establish an equitable socialorder free
from all these ills, Total Revolution calls for radical change andnot mere reforms in
the prevailing structure.(Sinha, 1990)It would comprise of seven revolutions in the arena of
social,economic, political, cultural, ideological and intellectual, educational andspiritual life.
These seven categories are, however, not rigid, as they couldbe clubbed as per the needs of the
society. For instance, the educationaland ideological revolutions could be included with cultural
revolution, or theeconomic revolution may be subdivided into industrial, agricultural
ortechnological revolution.Jayaprakash Narayan’s idea of Total Revolution are characterizedby
certain features:
First,
Total Revolution is supposed to be an ongoingprocess and would not end with the
achievement of a specific goal. Also,this struggle has a very strong moral basis, and in no way
would it be allowedto follow a moral and unethical methods such as violence.
Secondly,
theprincipal aim of this struggle is complete transformation of the society andits structures,
and not a simple change of power or governments. Thisradical transformation of society would
seek to abolish all social evils,
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through people’s participation. Thus, democracy based on decentralizationis another
characteristic feature of Total Revolution.Through this, Jayaprakash Narayan wanted to execute
the Gandhianvision of an ideal society, characterised by economic equality, truedemocracy, and
a moral social order. For this ideal society to materialize,Jayaprakash Narayan calls for spiritual
purification as well as structuralchanges at the economic, social, cultural and educational arena.
Spiritualpurification entails in inculcation of a value system based on moral andethical
principles. Jayaprakash Narayan, like Gandhi gives a lot of importanceto this aspect of
an individual life. For both of them, without changes in theinner values, the external changes
would be useless and unreal.Revolution at the economic system implies that removal of
povertyand inequality, exploitation of the poor, unemployment, corrupt practices,price control,
boosting economic growth, and regulation of essentialcommodities. Overall, welfare of the
individual should be the principal goalof economic system. The political revolution would aim at
creation of apolitical system which would value human beings. Individuals would haveto be
treated as an end in themselves and not as a means to some end.Decentralisation would be the
mode of governance.At the socio-cultural front, the revolution would aim at creation of
asociety which would be free from superstitions and various socialinequalities. Improved status
of women, removal of untouchability and thediscriminatory practice of caste system are few
goals which the TotalRevolution would strive to achieve. Further, at the educational sector,
theprimary aim of the revolution should be empowerment of the people so thatthey can hold
command over their own life. Also they should be in a positionto guard against any impropriety
in the democratic system and its variousinstitutions.All the above listed goals would become
a reality, only when thereare agents to carry forward the movement of Total Revolution. And
one ofthe most important roles in this movement, is that of a leader. And the rolethe leader has
to play is that of guiding the movement. Jayaprakash Narayanheld the opinion that leaders do
not create revolutions; because revolutions
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are the result of historical conditions. The leader merely controls and directsthe revolution in a
certain path. Bereft of a leader, any movement wouldloose direction and become chaotic,
resulting in even a dictatorial regime.The other important agencies of the revolution would be
the commonpeople or the masses, the students and youth of the nation, voluntary andclass
organisations, and formal institutions. Amongst all these agencies,Joyprakash Narayan had
utmost faith and hope in the students and youth.This faith is due to the belief that the youth
are the only category which isfree from all constraints in life. Unlike other groups which are
either busy inthe race for power and fame, or preoccupied with earning bread for theirfamilies,
the students and youth are unconstrained by such burdens. Theywould be more forthright in
taking risks and be a part of the revolution ascompared to other social groups who would be
too wary to loose whateverthey possess. Thus, Jayaprakash Narayan put the onus on the youth
tobring out radical social transformation.Further, Jayaprakash Narayan provides the methods in
which therevolution had to be carried forward. These are:

Awakening :
With the help of education, the masses would beawakened in order to ensure their
enlightened and total participationin the revolutionary movement.

Organisation :
Jayaprakash Narayan suggests formation ofpermanent organisations in the form of Peoples
Committees at thegrassroots level in order to address the problems faced by themasses as well
as to initiate plans for development. By this, hewanted to suggest a party-less democracy,
which according to himdoesn’t ensure real democracy.

Struggle :
Struggle has to take place on a continuous basis throughmethods such as civil disobedience
and non-cooperation.Jayaprakash Narayan insists on a peaceful struggle and in no wayshould it
turn violent. Gheraos, bandhs, and hartals could be adoptedas a method of peaceful struggle.

Constructive work :
The revolutionaries also have to carry outconstructive work simultaneously with the
movement. Since, it is a
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‘Total’ revolution, constructive work becomes essential to give birthto a new social
order.Jayaprakash Narayan sums up his Total Revolution thus:‘To sum up, the three main
aspects of the movement thus are: (1)the creation and organisation of people’s power, (2) total
revolutionas the aim of the movement, (3) building up
Gram Swarajya
orpeople’s government from below (Das, 2005, p. 55)
12.6 CRITICAL APPRECIATION
After going through Jayaprakash Narayan’s ideas and philosophies,it would be appropriate now
to evaluate his thoughts critically.
First
of all,we have seen that Jayaprakash Narayan had become critical of Marxistsocialism and had
suggested that it should be modified in order to make itsuitable for countries like India which
was under colonial rule. The problemhere is that Jayaprakash Narayan had merely laid down his
ideas ofreorienting Marxism but failed to specifically provide the method in which itshould be
done. In order words, Jayaprakash Narayan’s suggestion remainedat the level of ideas and not
at the level of practicability.
Secondly,
Jayaprakash Narayan’s Total Revolution has beencriticized as unrealistic and utopian. He talked
about
continuous
revolutionon
several
fronts, such as economic, socio-cultural, educational, andpolitical, but failed to calculate the
capacity of the masses to revolt for solong on so many different aspects. Moreover,
his movement lacked trainingof the agents or the activists. Without a very organized and
trained teamTotal Revolution remained a distant dream.
Thirdly,
Jayaprakash Narayan’s thoughts underwent severalchanges during his life time: influenced by
Gandhi early in his life, he becamea Marxist during his stay in USA, to again move closer to
Gandhism after herealized the inapplicability of Marxism in India. These shifts in his
philosophymake him open to be charged as an inconsistent thinker. However, on acloser look
this charge seems to harsh on him, as his thoughts changed
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depending on the different realities he encountered in life. And thus hisphilosophy is very much
consistent.Jayaprakash Narayan’s contribution lies in his realization ofinvolvement of the
masses in the revolution. He did not restrict his TotalRevolution to any particular class, but
included every section of the society.His philosophy can be called reactionary, as it emerges as
a reaction to thevarious evils in society, viz., corruption, excessive concentration of powerby
the leadership, exploitation of the poor and the weak, inequality and soforth. He was a
visionary with a lot of hope that the youth of the countrywould be able to establish an ideal
society, free from all kinds of vices.
12.7 LET US SUM UP

Overall we have seen that Jayaprakash Narayan was inspired both bysocialism as well as
Gandhism at different points of time. His turningaway from Marxist socialism was more
because of its support for useof violence to achieve its goal as well as its inapplicability in
the Indianscenario, than inconsistency in Jayaprakash Narayan’s thought asargued by his critics.

So far as his proximity to Gandhian values and adoption of Sarvodayaare concerned, he was
always inspired by the moral values whichGandhi espoused.

Jayaprakash Narayan was particularly influenced by Gandhi’s techniqueof non-cooperation and
satyagraha which were non-violent methodsof protests.

Applying Gandhian technique to create an ideal society, JayaprakashNarayan suggested Total
Revolution which would bring about completetransformation in the structure of Indian society.
It was the way in whichSarvodaya could be realised.
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
This movement would start at the village level and move upwards tothe urban areas, ensuring
complete participation of the masses.Jayaprakash Narayan intended to create a party-less ideal
democraticsociety which would value each individual. His main goal was to createa
society characterised by morality, freedom and equality.
12.8 FURTHER READING
1)Das,Sandip (ed) (2005)
Jayaprakash Narayan: Centenary Volume
,Mittal Publications: New Delhi.2)Dandavate, Madhu,(2002)
Jayaprakash Narayan: Struggle with values,A Centenary Tribute,
Allied Publishers: New Delhi3)Sinha, Nilima, (1990) “Jayaprakash Narayan” in
Remembering Our Leaders,
Children’s Book Trust: New Delhi.
12.9 POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
Q1:
Discuss the influences of Marxism upon Jayaprakash Narayan.
Q2:
Critically examine Jayaprakash Narayan’s views on Total Revolution.
Q3:
Describe the socio-economic ideas of Narayan.
Q4:
Analyse the impact of Gandhi on Narayan