Jagat Narain Lal (21 July 1894 – 3 December 1966) was an Indian independence activist who played an influential role in the making of modern Bihar. As a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

(1918 – 1966) and of the Constituent Assembly, he significantly contributed to the debates and issues that chartered the course of the Indian independence. Apart from being one of the foremost leaders of the Congress in

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, his association with the All India Hindu Mahasabha (becoming its General Secretary at its Calcutta session in 1926) makes him a very important figure of India's nationalist history.

Early life

Jagat Narain Lal was born on 21 July 1894 in a small mofussil town called Akhgaon in the district of

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

. His father, Bhagawat Prasad, had a railway job as a station master, whose transferable job took him to many places. His mother, Radhika Devi, was a homemaker and a great ''Kirshna bhakt''. The inspiration of his mother's bhakti and the enchantment of the metaphysical formed the core of Jagat Narain Lal's religiosity, but also his politics. He received elementary education, like many other children of those times, by a maulvi who used to come home. Jagat Narain Lal joined a formal school only much later in

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dist ...

where his father, Bhagwat Prasad, had been posted. In 1910, for higher studies he first joined the very reputed, and a more cosmopolitan, Irwin Christian College, and then, after graduating with a first division, moved to the

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

for his post graduate studies in economics and law. In 1918, Lal moved to

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

where he began his practise in the Patna High Court in the august company of Sir Ali Imam,

Syed Hasan Imam Syed Hasan Imam (31 August 1871 – 19 April 1933) was an Indian politician who served as the President of the Indian National Congress and was elected in September 1918.Sachidanand Sinha, Sri Baidyanath Singh, and above all Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Under their mentorship Jagat Narain Lal soon began to make a name for himself. But just as he was beginning to make a name for himself professionally, he was sucked into the the national movement. The nation woke up to the efficacy and immense possibilities of a form of resistance that was a combination of extra-constitutional struggle as well as of moral force against an adversary that has both the rule of law and might on its side. Almost all prominent leaders of Bihar - Brajkishore Prasand,

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

, Muzharul Haq – participated in the movement.

Intellectual life

Jagat Narain Lal was a very learned man with a wide-ranging interest in

Vedantic ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...

philosophy, Western political philosophy, economics and matters of law. He was a professor of economics at Bihar Vidyapith (inaugurated by Gandhi on 4 Feb 1921), a practising lawyer, editor of journal ''Mahavir'' (till 1928), a writer who wrote extensively about his political life and spiritual awakening. The Nehru Memorial Library has more than two thousand hand written pages that record his wide intellectual interests and repertoire. In a book recounting his jail years, ''Light Unto a Cell''. he references the

Mahabharat The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

, the

Bhagwat Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...

Isha Upanishad The ''Isha Upanishad'' (Devanagari: ईशोपनिषद् IAST ') is one of the shortest Upanishads, embedded as the final chapter (''adhyāya'') of the Shukla Yajurveda. It is a ''Mukhya'' (primary, principal) Upanishad, and is known in ...

, among others. There's an interesting anecdote in the book, he writes: "Along with my old friend, Narayan Prasad Sinha, MLA with whom I had first started the study of the

Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' ( ...

and the

Upanishads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...

in 1921, I wanted to form a study circle of lovers of the Gita. But, so nervous were most of the Gandhites and Congressmen of anti-religious bias of our socialist and communist fellow prisoners that they had hardly the courage to broach the matter openly.’

Political life

As a committed freedom fighter and Congressman, Jagat Narain lal was imprisoned during the Non Cooperation,

Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

and the

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

s and spent close to a decade in jail. As the assistant secretary of the Provincial Congress Committee He played a major role in the success of the Gaya Congress in 1922 after his release from Buxer jail. He was sentenced to prison for a second time in 1929 under the charges of sedition for having become, as he writes, ‘the ''bête noir'' to the Government and the police chief of the province, thanks to my bitter and scathing criticism of their bungling which had resulted in communal antagonism and riots.’ After he was released from Hazaribagh Central jail in 1929, he lent his support to and spearheaded the

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

as the President of the Patna District Congress Committee. In the interim, Lal, under the influence of

Madan Mohan Malviya Madan Mohan Malaviya ( (25 December 1861 — 12 November 1946) was an Indian scholar, educational reformer and politician notable for his role in the Indian independence movement. He was president of the Indian National Congress four times and ...

and B.S. Moonje, also acquired dual membership of the Hindu Mahasabha. His association with the All India Hindu Mahasabha strengthened and he became its General Secretary at its Calcutta session in 1926. Beginning early 1930s, his enchantment with the Hindu Mahasabha began to wane. On his release from Hazaribagh Central Jail in 1932, he joined the Servants of Hindu Society. He wrote: ‘

hen Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringer ...

Bhai Paramanand was elected president of the Hindu Mahasabha, he openly advocated a pro-government and anti-Congress policy, in defiance of all earlier traditions. The rift between us grew wider and wider until…I felt I could no longer associated with him.’ In protest, and to register his disenchantment, Jagat Narain Lal finally stopped taking his allowance from the Mahasabha. His disenchantment with the Hindu Mahasabha was complete by the time the first provincial assembly elections took place in 1937 when he fought the elections on a Congress ticket defeated the Mahasabha candidate who stood against him. ‘The election was almost a cake-walk for me. The Hindu Sabha candidate forfeited his deposit.’. In 1937, he became the Parliamentary secretary to the then

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

of Bihar province Dr.Anugraha Narayan Sinha. At the Congress session at Allahabad in 1942 he moved a resolution with Nehru's backing and support – famously known as the Jagat Narain lal's Resolution– rejecting Sir Stafford Cripp's interim proposal for a

Dominion Status The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

and Partition of India, and defeating C. Rajagopalachari's resolution in support of the Cripps’ proposals. Jagat Narain Lal went on to become a member of the Constituent Assembly as a Congress representative from

. He made several important interventions regarding the right to religion, on matters pertaining to the federal structure and nature of citizenship in the constituent Assembly Debates. He was also appointed as a member of the Dar Commission, 1948 – (a three-member commission) – which was the first linguistic reorganization commission of India.{{Cite journal, last=India, first=Constituent Assembly of, date=1948, title=Report of the Linguistic Provinces Commission. 1948, url=http://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/handle/10973/32612, language=en He went on to become a member of the legislative assembly from the

Danapur Danapur is a Indian satellite town and one of the 6 sub-divisions (Tehsil) in Patna district of Bihar state.Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

state assembly led by Chief Minister

Krishna Sinha Shri Krishna Sinha (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time ...

and a cabinet minister in 1957, handling the portfolios of ''Law, and Cooperative and Animal husbandry''.

References

1894 births 1966 deaths Indian independence activists from Bihar