Page 117 - Demo

Socialist Spirit PVG Raju turning to politics was hardly a surprise. His late father had won with a thumping majority in the very first popular elections called by the British. However, he had contested on the Justice Party ticket which was primarily a party of the landholding class. Post independence, it would not have been out of place for PVG Raju to join outfits such as the Swatantra Party (derided by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as a representative of %u2018the Middle Ages of lords, castles and zamindars%u2019). Or even more possibly, drift to the right and join the Hindu Mahasabha and its later incarnations such as the Jan Sangh.What was the impetus behind PVG Raju's turn to socialist politics - a political philosophy that was diametrically opposed to his feudal roots. One can only speculate. The Socialist movement led by the Congress Socialist Party, a caucus within the Congress party was gaining momentum across India. Jayaprakash Narayan, Minoo Masani, Acharya Narendra Dev, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyut Patwardhan, and others were heroes in their own right. Jayaprakash Narayan (1902-1979) born in the Saran district of Bihar, studied political science and economics for seven years in the United States. Returning to India in 1929, he joined the Indian National Congress and was frequently imprisoned for his anti-colonial activities, which included acts of sabotage. An ally of both Gandhi and Nehru, JP Narayan was widely regarded as the successor to Nehru, but he gave up politics in 1954 to join the Sarvodaya movement. In 1975, JP was jailed for leading a protest campaign targeting corruption within the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.107