The Dream of Revolution- A Biography of Jayaprakash Narayan

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Few figures in modern India have enjoyed such acclaim and adoration as Jayaprakash Narayan. And yet, he has been equally vilified for all that went wrong in the unfinished post-colonial movement for freedom and democracy. Jayaprakash Narayan, or JP as he was universally known, epitomized the Marxian and Gandhian styles of political engagement, and famously brought a powerful government to its knees. Throughout his life, he channelled an emotional hunger for transformative politics, jettisoned easy options, shunned power and incubated revolutionary ideas.

A comprehensive study of JP’s life and ideas-from the radicalism of his thought process at American university campuses in the 1920s to his political coming of age in the 1930s and subsequent disenchantment with Gandhi’s leadership; from his infectious confidence about the future of socialism to his seemingly naive plans to outmanoeuvre powerful forces within the Congress; from his fractious friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru to his relentless crusade against the stifling of dissent-The Dream of Revolution, Bimal and Sujata Prasad’s rigorously researched biography of JP, dispenses with clichés, questions commonly held perceptions and pushes the limits of what a biographical portrait is capable of.

Rich in anecdotes and never-before-told stories, this book explores the ambiguities and ironies of a life lived at the barricades, and one man’s unremitting quest to usher in a society based on equality and freedom.

BIMAL PRASAD

(1924-2015) was professor of South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Leeds, a senior fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and a fellow at Columbia University, New York. From 1991 to 1995, he was India's ambassador to Nepal. Professor Prasad authored and edited numerous books on Indian history and foreign policy. His trilogy on Partition is recognized as a seminal work of scholarship. A close associate of Jayaprakash Narayan, he chronicled JP's political thought and legacy, and edited selections of his writings, speeches and letters in ten volumes.

SUJATA PRASAD

is a writer, columnist, curator and heritage conservationist. Her work and research interests cut across disciplines, intersecting with community health, education, rural livelihoods, and the visual and performing arts. Her previous book was published by Penguin Random House in 2017. A former civil servant, she is currently adviser to the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and also serves as an expert on the Ministry of Science and Technology's advisory group on heritage research.

Jayaprakash Narayan needs to be rescued from the condescension of posterity and a curious historical amnesia. He was a political force for nearly half a century. Self-effacing, yet so visible that he was known by his initials, JP. He was the face of the student revolution in 1974. It was high-energy politics, personal and political, very of the moment, mobilizing and energizing large groups of people and shaping the political discourse with its own nuances. Several student leaders cut their teeth in the tumult of the movement and became characters in a drama they never seriously auditioned for. It brought the romance of barricades back to our lives, and imbued our lived experience with something akin to what Raymond Williams has described as 'a new structure of feeling.

Jayaprakash's dream of revolution collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, but like many of my generation, I was caught in a swirl of admiration. I saw in him an embodiment of intellectual elegance at a time when politics was raw, angry and out of control. His vision of a society untethered from capitalism seemed to open up new possibilities. His ideas continue to echo in the waves of protests and civil unrest that sweep across the world, as they have during the 2010 anti-government protests that rocked countries in North Africa and the Middle East, in the Indignados protests in Spain, in the Occupy Wall Street and its sister movements for economic justice that spread to 951 cities in eighty-two countries and in the fires of social revolt in Latin America in 2019.

**Contents and Sample Pages**