Ch. Mani Ram Bagri (1 January 1920 – 31 January 2012) was an Indian parliamentarian and political activist. He served three terms in the
Indian Parliament
The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...
, first from 1962 to 1967, and then again from 1977 to 1984. He belonged to the league of parliamentary opposition socialists like Dr.
Ram Manohar Lohia
Ram Manohar Lohia ; (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader. During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast s ...
and
Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...
.
Known widely throughout North India during his tenure as the "de facto" Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Bagri was widely considered to be one of the most prolific Socialist leaders of his time. He was party to the nation's international visits to the USSR, including the summit that led to the
Tashkent Declaration
The Tashkent Declaration was signed between India and Pakistan on 10 January 1966 to resolve the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Peace was achieved on 23 September through interventions by the Soviet Union and the United States, both of which push ...
, as well as the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
socialist republics in the 1960s. He is also notable for being the first speaker to address the International Parliamentary Conference in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, his mother tongue.
Early life and education, 1920-1947
Mani Ram Bagri was born in the village of Ban Mandori, Hissar District,
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
(erstwhile
Panjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
) on 1 January 1920. He participated in various national movements at a very young age and joined the Socialist movement led by
Acharya Narendra Deva
Acharya Narendra Deva (; also Dev; 30 October 1889 – 19 February 1956) was one of the leading theorists of the Congress Socialist Party in India. His democratic socialism renounced violent means as a matter of principle and embraced the ''sat ...
,
Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...
and Dr
Rammanohar Lohia
Ram Manohar Lohia ; (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader. During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast s ...
. Little is documented about his formative years, as he did not graduate from higher-level institutions. During his 20s, he developed a close friendship with Lohia, and the two remained allies both politically and personally, for the rest of their lives.
Political career
Bagri was the undisputed leader of the
Socialist parliamentary party during 1962–67, when Rammanohar Lohia entered the
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
through a by-election from Farukhabad. Mani Ram Bagri participated in and led various socialist movements. A close associate of late
Dr Lohia and
Raj Narain
Raj Narain (23 November 1917 – 31 December 1986) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. He won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which led to her disqualification and imposition of ...
, he was also detained during Emergency under the
Maintenance of Internal Security Act
The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was a controversial law passed by the Indian parliament in 1971 giving the administration of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Indian law enforcement agencies very broad powers – indefinite pre ...
, and allegedly subject to sleep deprivation, mental harassment and a poor diet while imprisoned with other prominent Socialist leaders. Mani Ram Bagri was General Secretary of the All India
Samyukta Socialist Party
Samyukta Socialist Party (; SSP), was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1972, SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party.
The General Secret ...
(Lohiavadi) during 1972–74, and later of
Janata Party
The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...
(S).
He represented Hisar and Mathura constituencies in the Indian Parliament. A three time Parliamentarian, he was a member of the 3rd Lok Sabha (2 April 1962 – 3 March 1967) as a Socialist member from Hisar (then part of Punjab state), the 6th Lok Sabha (23 March 1977 – 22 August 1979) as a Janata party member from Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and the 7th Lok Sabha (10 January 1980 – 31 December 1984) as a Janata (S) member again from Hissar (Haryana).
![Ch Mani Ram Bagri](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Ch_Mani_Ram_Bagri.jpg)
In the 1960s. he and his team of socialists were invited to the Socialist Republic of Romania and to observe the proceedings of the Politburo. He remained close allies with Moscow, however, he disapproved of the indiscriminate Communist authoritarian state established there. He also represented India at the Tashkent Agreement following the
1965 Indo-Pakistan war, one of the few Opposition leaders present. Bagri officially retired from politics in the late 1980s, following the demise of Indira Gandhi and the
1984 Anti-Sikh riots
The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs ...
, in which he played an active part in preventing harm from coming to innocent Sikh civilians in Delhi and Hisar.
Ideology and methods
Having risen from a very poor family, Bagri spent most of his life fighting for the underprivileged sections of the Indian society. His methods of doing so are generally described as
Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians.
Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environmentalism, ...
. He had joined politics at a young age and devoted his entire life to the poor's rights. He was a hardcore socialist and demanded the word of other Non-Congress parties in the government and this attitude earned him the honour of being the first Leader Of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Bagri is widely regarded across party lines as having been a politician with impeccable integrity and ethics. He was renowned for living a frugal lifestyle and used to donate a large amount of his salary to the poor around Hissar, Delhi, amongst other such towns. Bagri was held in utmost esteem by successive Prime Ministers of India including
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
,
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...
,
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...
,
Charan Singh
Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the 'champion of India's peasants.'
Charan S ...
,
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...
,
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...
,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...
and
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
. Despite representing a brand of socialist ideology often opposed to Congress' policies, Bagri shared a deep personal bond with Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. Bagri played a pivotal role in shaping the nascent democracy in India, and gave a voice to millions of villagers, the poor and the downtrodden and represented their aspirations. He led many movements in North India championing the cause of the poor and the oppressed and is considered a major force in giving these weaker sections of society self-belief.
![Mani Ram Bagri1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Mani_Ram_Bagri1.jpg)
Mr Bagri was an excellent communicator
[From Jawaharlal Nehru to Mani Ram Bagri, India has never lacked for great communicators in its politics. http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/one-nation-under-the-same-satellite-feed.html] and a brilliant orator. One of Mr. Bagri's famous speeches in Parliament related to nationalization of Birla House which was owned by the Birla family. As the government was not very keen on this, Mr. Bagri being his usual fiery self thundered:
Despite his rivalry between the Congress Leaders, he maintained a cordial relationship with prominent leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
He officially retired from politics in the late 1980s as the Indira Gandhi government slowly dissolved. He outlived most of his league-in-arms and spent the rest of his life at his residence in Hissar, and the ''chowk'' in which it is located is, till date, known in his honour as Bagri Chowk. Bagri, ailing for the past few years, died in Hissar on 31 January 2012 at the age of 92 years.
References
* https://archive.today/20120912153648/http://www.theradicalhumanist.com/index.php?option=com_radical&controller=news&Itemid=54&cid=478&task=single
* https://archive.today/20130126061922/http://www.haryananewstoday.com/managenewssingle.aspx?id=271
* http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120201/haryana.htm#3
* http://dainiktribuneonline.com/2012/02/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%AE-%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%80-%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%80-%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%9C-%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%A0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%A5%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BE/
* http://www.lohiavani.com/GalleryPhoto.aspx
* https://web.archive.org/web/20140202114614/http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/biodata_1_12/1428.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagri, Mani Ram
1920 births
2012 deaths
India MPs 1962–1967
India MPs 1977–1979
India MPs 1980–1984
People from Hisar district
Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh
Lok Sabha members from Haryana
Janata Party politicians
Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India)
Samyukta Socialist Party politicians
People from Mathura district
Janata Party (Secular) politicians