Jagjivan Ram
(1908- 1986)
President- Bombay, 1969

Jagjivan Ram was born in Bihar in 1908 into a family which could not claim the privileges of the upper caste families. In spite of the odds against him he passed his matriculation in the first division and joined the Benaras Hindu University where he was awarded the Birla scholarship. He passed his B.Sc. from Calcutta University in 1931.

To have got himself educated despite social and economic disabilities and chronic poverty gave him a unique position in the prevailing political situation in the country. His first-hand knowledge of the social and economic situation in the country made him a much sought after person both by the nationalists and the men who ruled in the provinces on behalf of the British Government. The nationalists were anxious to have him in order to counter Ambedkar, an outspoken champion of the scheduled castes who talked of separate electorates and Harijans leaving the Hindu faith.

When a measure of popular rule was introduced under the 1935 Act and the scheduled castes were given representation in the legislatures, Jagjivan Ram found himself nominated to the Bihar Council. Although he could have found for himself a berth even among loyalists, he chose to go with the nationalists and resigned his membership on the issue of irrigation cess. In 1937 he was elected to the assembly. The 1940 Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement found in him an active participant. He was inducted into the interim Government at the Centre in 1946.

Jagjivan Ram had arrived on the political scene as the representative of the scheduled castes and the Congress leadership looked to him as an able spokesman of the depressed classes. He was a dutiful Congressman who sought to translate into action the programmes of the party. With a characteristic combination of shrewdness and adaptability he made his political career a conspicuous success.

In the great split in the Congress Party in 1969, Jagjivan Ram found himself in the camp led by Mrs. Indira Gandhi. He not only became the president of the divided Congress led by Mrs. Gandhi, but also gained a virtual No. 2 ranking in the cabinet when appointed Defence Minister in 1970.

In 1977 he left the Congress party to join hands with the Janata opposition. In the new ministry formed with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister, he was once again given the Defence portfolio. The Congress (I) came back to power in 1980. Disillusioned with the Janata party he formed his own party, the Congress (J). Jagjivan Babu continues to be a member of Parliament.

As a matter of fact, post-independence Congress, in the form in which it existed even in 1948, had, according to Gandhiji, outlived its utility as a propaganda vehicle. He had, therefore, urged the initiation of popular activity on a different plane based on the concept of `peoples committees' The cataclysmic events which followed this prognosis made a complete break with the past and the building anew from below humanly impossible. The organisation, therefore, continued in the form in which it had existed in the pre-independence era. The administrative apparatus was also left unchanged. The old procedures continued to hold the field. All this certainly made for smooth transition and continuity but it smothered that soaring spirit of freedom which political independence had given rise to.

This session fulfils, in a way, Gandhiji's wish, not fully, but partially, not in form, but in spirit. It heralds the beginning of a new historic epoch in the Congress.

From the Presidential Address - Jagjivan Ram
I.N.C. Session, 1969, Bombay. Template