Ram Manohar Lohia was born on March 23, 1910 in a village named Akbarpur in the District of Faizabad. Ram’s father, Hira Lal, was a nationalist by spirit and a teacher by profession. His mother, Chanda, died when Ram was very young. Ram was introduced to the Indian freedom struggle at an early age by his father through the various protest assemblies Hari Lal took his son to. Ram made his first contribution to the freedom struggle by organizing a small hartal on the death of Lokmanya Tilak.
Lohia organized a student protest in 1918 to protest the all-white Simon Commission which was to consider the possibility of granting India dominion status without requiring consultation of the Indian people.
Lohia attended the Banaras Hindu University to complete his intermediate course work after standing first in his school’s metric examinations. In 1929, Lohia completed his B.A. from Calcutta University. He decided to attend Berlin University, Germany. He soon learned German and received financial assistance based on his outstanding academic performance.
Lohia wrote his Ph.d. thesis paper on the topic of ‘Salt Satyagraha,’ focusing on Gandhiji’s socio-economic theory.
When Lohia returned to India in 1933, a comical situation arouse. He had no money to reach his hometown from the airport. He quickly wrote a nationalistic article for ‘The Hindu,’ the most popular and widely read newspaper and got money to pay for the fare home.
Lohia joined the Indian National Congress as soon as he returned home. Lohia was attracted to socialism and helped lay the foundation of Congress Socialist Party, founded 1934, by writing many impressive articles on the feasibility of a socialist India. Lohia formed a new branch in the Indian National Congress—the All India Congress Committee (a foreign affairs department). Nehru appointed Lohia as the first secretary of the committee. During the two years that he served he helped define what would be India’s foreign policy.
In the onset of the Second World War Lohia saw an opportunity to collapse the British Raj in India. He made a series of caustic speeches urging Indians to boycott all government institutions. He was arrested on May 24, 1939, but released by authorities the very next day in fear of a youth uprising.
Soon after his release, Lohia wrote an article called ‘Satyagraha Now’ in Gandhiji’s newspaper, Harijan on June 1, 1940. Within six days of the publication of the article, he was arrested and sentenced to two years of jail. Lohia was mentally tortured and interrogated in jails. On December of 1941, all the arrested Congress leaders, including Lohia, were released in a desperate attempt by the government to stabilize India internally.
Gandhiji and the Indian National Congress launched the Quit India movement in the 1942. Prominent leaders, including Gandhiji, Nehru, Azad and Patel, were jailed.
Lohia went to Calcutta to strengthen the movement there. He changed his name to hide from the police who were closing in on him. Lohia fled to Nepal’s dense jungles to evade the British.
Lohia was captured in May of 1944, in Bombay. Lohia was taken to a prison in Lahore, notoriously known throughout India for its tormenting environment. In the prison he underwent extreme torture. His health was destroyed but his courage remained. Even though he was not as fit his courage and willpower strengthened through the ordeal. Under Gandhiji’s pressure the Government released Lohia and his comrade Jayaprakash Narayan.
Dr. Lohia was the first to introduce the unification of some 650 Indian princely states together to form larger states, an idea later adopted by Sardar Patel, first Home Minister of India. Lohia favoured Hindi as the official language of India.
He was one of the greatest thinkers the Indian Parliament would ever see. He realised that the prevailing poverty would create an India with a weak foundation.
Lohia wanted to abolish private schools and establish upgraded municipal (government) schools which would give equal academic opportunity to students of all castes. This he hoped would help eradicate the divisions created by the caste system.
At the Socialist Party’s Annual Convention, Lohia set up a plan to decentralize the government’s power so that the general public would have more power in Indian politics. He also formed Hind Kisan Panchayat to resolve farmers’ everyday problems.
Lohia was a socialist and wanted to unite all the socialists in the world to form a potent platform. He was the General Secretary of Praja Socialist Party. He established the World Development Council and eventually the World Government to maintain peace in the world.
During his last few years, besides politics, he spent hours talking to thousands of young-adults on topics ranging from Indian literature, politics and art.
Lohia died on October 12, 1967 in New Delhi. He left behind no property or bank balance but prudent contemplations.
