(Following is the text of the introduction of the book Towards Struggle written by Yusuf Meherally in 1946. Yusuf Meherally was a tall leader of Congress during the Indian National Movement.)
On a certain day in 1933 the gates of the Nasik Central Prison opened to discharge a tall and distinguished-looking youth, on completion of his sentence of imprisonment. There is little doubt that when the historian of the future comments on our times, he will mark out that event as one of the significant happenings of the year 1933. For, with his release, a new force had emerged in Indian politics. Jayaprakash Narayan came out of prison with an idea, a purpose and a vision. And out of that was born the Congress Socialist Party.
He is today one of the most popular and respected names in Indian public life. But few know what a magnificent personality it is that passes under the name of Jayaprakash. Fewer still suspect the widely varied experience and adventures that have gone to the making of so fascinating a man.
He has known life at first hand. Perhaps that is the reason why his thinking is so clear. When he reached America to continue his studies, he began his career not in the class-room but on a farm. He arrived in California in October 1922, to find that there were still three months for the University term to begin and he was not rich enough to keep up on his own resources. So he went out to work on a fruit farm. Large numbers of Indians live in California, among whom are a great many Sikhs and Pathans. Jayaprakash Narayan joined a Pathan gang whose head Sher Khan, was a picturesque figure, physically about twice the size of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan. The Non-Cooperation Movement had deeply stirred Indians all over the world and any new arrival from India was an interesting figure. When it became known that Jayaprakash had left his college to join the Non-Co-operation Movement and had given up his university scholarship as a consequence, there was really no difficulty for him in finding a job.
Was Jayaprakash Narayan a commander of Subhas Chandra Bose in India?
The fruit ‘season was then ending and Jayaprakash worked hard from morning till night amidst grapes, peaches, apricots, and almonds. After they were plucked and sorted out they were treated with lime and then with sulphur. Then they were dried and sent to the factory for cleaning. Jayaprakash Narayan’s work was to walk from basket to basket, throwing out bad fruit. Perhaps that is what he is doing even now—plucking out the rotten fruits from the Congress basket.
So he worked for ten hours a day and seven days a week with no Sundays and no holidays. But the wages were attractive, forty cents an hour, which worked out at four dollars a day, and at the rate of exchange prevailing then, fourteen rupees daily. To young Jayaprakash this appeared a fabulous amount and in a month he was able to save eighty dollars. Armed with this fortune he went back to Berkeley, the fruit season having ended, to await the opening of the University. He took a room there and did his own cooking.
One term at California Jayaprakash Narayan was again bankrupt! So he went up to Iowa University where tuition fees were one-fourth of those at California. Even to pay for these he worked on a peach farm.
From Iowa he next got to Wisconsin University. Here, a new element entered into his life, an element that was to give a completely different direction to his life.
It was here that Jayaprakash’s restless mind found the illumination he was groping for. He had been perplexed at the prevalence of great wealth and grinding poverty, side by side, even in America—the land of opportunity. What was the solution of this riddle? Why was it that a few had all the good things, while the vast majority were condemned to a life of squalor, poverty and ceaseless toil? A teacher of the University had declared that there was no solution to the problem of poverty, in the framework of the capitalist system, and he was known to be an ardent socialist. Jayaprakash Narayan eagerly turned to him and a great attachment grew up between the two. He started devouring the classics of Marxism and before long, but not without a powerful mental struggle, he became a confirmed socialist. His life now took on a new meaning. He gave up science and turned to a study of economics. His thesis for the M.A. degree was highly praised and he was considered one of the most brilliant students at his University. He went from here to New York where he was taken seriously ill and was in a hospital for several months.
He stayed in America for nearly eight years and studied at five different Universities. He started as a student of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and then devoted years to the study of Biology, Psychology, Economics and Sociology. He had several times interrupted his studies in order to earn enough to carry on at his University for a term or two. He had worked as a farm labourer for ten hours a day, as a packer in a jam factory, as a mechanic in an iron concern, as a waiter in a restaurant. He had tried his hand as a salesman. When, therefore, he returned to India in 1929, it was not as a raw student looking forward to a comfortable life, but as one who had seen life at close quarters and was fully determined to devote himself to public life.
Jawaharlal Nehru at once placed him in charge of the Labour Research Department of the Indian National Congress. A few months later Jayaprakash found himself Acting General Secretary of the Congress during the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1932.
History will love to remember his days of imprisonment in the Nasik Jail. Along with him were a large number of prominent Congress workers. Masani was there, so was Achyut Patwardhan, Ashok Mehta, N. G. Gore, S. M. Joshi, Prof. M. L. Dantwala.
These and other friends worked out the blue-prints of the Congress Socialist Party that was to be. In other jails, likewise, the younger sections of Congressmen dissatisfied and thus outside the jurisdiction of the High Court! When the Habeas Corpus petition was dismissed on this very ground, namely, that he was a State Prisoner and thus outside the purview of the Court, the alien Government made him a Security Prisoner once again! Thus are Law and Order maintained in this country!
The victory of the Labour Party in the General Elections apparently seemed to have made no impression on the British administrative steel-frame in India. What a reflection—that a Socialist Government in power in England should keep the All-India Congress Socialist Party under a ban of illegality and its General Secretary and other leading lights into prison without even a trial! That was the thought uppermost in the minds of all.
The arrival of the British Cabinet Mission, consisting of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, and Mr. A. V. Alexander, First Lord of Admiralty, for political discussions in this country, provided a fresh diversion. Quite a number of political prisoners and detenus were set free but not Jayaprakash and Lohia. According to press reports, Sir John Thorne, Home Member of the Government of India twice interviewed them in the Agra Central Jail, but came away from there, far from re-assured and more adamant than ever in his determination not to release them.
Meanwhile, from every nook and corner of the country rose the insistent demand for their liberation. Jayaprakash Day and Lohia Day were celebrated at many scores of places. Meetings and demonstrations everywhere proclaimed the veneration in which they were held everywhere. At Iong last on April 22, 1946 they were set free.
What rejoicing there was all over the country! Crowds, crowds everywhere. From small wayside stations to metropolitan centres there was a spontaneous outburst of popular affection. When Jayaprakash arrived in his home province of Bihar some days after release, the reception accorded him had no precedent.
Of the various leading workers of the Congress Socialist Party, Jayaprakash is most attracted by theory. But he is no dogmatist. His fingers are firmly on the pulse of the people. He dislikes nothing so much as narrow sectarianism. If the Congress Socialist Party is something more than a political party,—a powerful movement, with a larger and larger section of the radical elements coming under its ideological influence, not a little of the credit is due to Jayaprakash.
As a writer, Jayaprakash Narayan is the master of a style that is at once simple and direct. His book, Why Socialism?, has been widely acclaimed. As a speaker he is no orator, but by the sheer force of his sincerity and a thorough grasp of the subject he makes a greater impression than most orators.
He has two vices that I can discover. The first is the possession of a magnificent shaving set. With a beaming smile he will tell you that it is the finest in the town. When one has a face as handsome as Jayaprakash’s this may be pardoned!
I do not know how to describe the other, unless I call it a lack of the time sense—for to call it merely unpunctuality, would be prosaic. The fact is, that Jayaprakash loves a good discussion, especially with an intelligent opponent, and will miss half a dozen appointments to do so. But at those times when he comes late, such genuine misery is written on his face, that he seems to endear himself all the more by his very unpunctuality!
Jayaprakash Narayan is still young, but he has a fund of knowledge and experience that few people in this country can lay claim to. Gentle as he is, he can be firm and has shown that he has the courage to make big decisions. Above all, it is the human qualities of the man that cast a spell on all those who come near him. Such is Jayaprakash, unassuming, generous to a fault, honest as the day, working for a tomorrow with the materials of today. This simple peasant lad, born in the tiny village of Sitabdiara in the Saran District of Bihar, saw a tram car for the first time when he was nineteen years old. Today, he is one of the guiding Spirits of a movement with which the future of this country is inextricably bound up.
