Birth of Non-Congressism- Opposition Politics (1947-1975)

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The book opens with the first general election which caused despair in some sections and deceptive hopes in others. It describes how the question of attitude to the Nehru Congress baffled and disoriented the Socialist and Communist Parties. It next deals with the impact of Lohia's strategy of non-Congress unity, defeat of the Congress in several states, performance of the SVD Governments, Presidential contests of 1967 and 1969, and the Congress split which followed.

The authoritarian trend, which surfaced after Mrs. Gandhi's victory in the snap poll of 1971, greatly disturbed JP. The Nav Nirman Agitation and the Bihar Movement roused the people, and it now fell to JP both to reflect and organize the popular will. The finale of all this was Mrs. Gandhi's losing her balance after the Allahabad judgment, the demand made by the Opposition for the Prime Minister's resignation and the midnight blow. A long night descended thereafter on the land to Gandhi and Nehru.

Madhu Limaye (b. 1 May 1922), the most prominent and distinguished among the Socialist Movements younger leaders, was drawn towards the freedom movement and the Socialist Party at an early age. He was held in great affection by Jayaprakash, Lohia, Narendra Deva and other leaders.

The struggle against foreign rule landed him in prison many times. His first imprisonment came in 1940-41. He participated in the Quit India underground movement and was detained under DIR till the end of the war. In the Goa Liberation Movement, Limaye was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment by a Portuguese Military Tribunal. Again, he spent nineteen months in detention during the Emergency.

Limaye was elected member of the Lok Sabha four times, and has been an outstanding parliamentarian and intellectual. Limaye, a lifelong fighter for civil liberties.

Limaye held various offices: Secretary, (All India) Socialist Party; Secretary, Asian Socialist Conference; Chairman, Socialist Party; Leader, SSP Parliamentary Group. He was also General Secretary, Janata Party, and later, of Lok Dal. He is the author of several books in English, Marathi and Hindi.

This book covers the entire gamut of Opposition Politics from 1947 to 1975. Previous studies mostly related to individual parties or particular regions. But there was no comprehensive review of Opposition politics. Besides, most of the accounts were written either by scholars or journalists. However, this volume is written from the vantage point of a participant in the politics of this formative period. The delineation of the Opposition profile of course takes cognizance of the interaction of political forces, parties and individuals. But in the author's view the key figures in Opposition politics during this time span of nearly thirty years were Rammanohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan. Many persons have claimed to be shapers of events in the period under review, but it would not be an overstatement to assert that from the Ruling Congress side it was Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and from the Opposition side it was these two Socialist thinkers and men of action who really put their impress on the flow of events The book, incidentally. illustrates the operation of the Toynbeean theme of withdrawal and return in the case of JP.

The story related here is not partisan; nor is it an apologia. It is a critical statement and is, besides, fully documented. However, the author owns to being an admirer and close associate of these two Socialist leaders, and so he is the first to concede that his approach is not free from a "sympathetic" bias towards them. For this I need not offer apologies. For while it is an essay in objective contemporary history, it nevertheless partakes of the nature of a "personal political memoir."

I must draw the readers' attention to the notes attached to the various Chapters of this volume. They are important because they elucidate the main argument of the text.

I thank Dr. Haridev Sharma for the help in the matter of references, Rajkumar Jain in Xeroxing documents, and the late Chaudhary Charan Singh for giving me access to his papers. Thanks are also due to Champa Limaye, Aniruddha Limaye and Nandu Dhaneshwar for reading the typescript and making useful suggestions for preparing the press copy. I am grateful to Champa Nandu and Narayan Shetye for reading the proofs. Finally, I thank the Publishers for bringing out the book on time.

**Contents and Sample Pages**