NEWS

Birth anniversary of Acharya Kripalani was recently celebrated

Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani

• Born in Hyderabad in the Sindh region of present-day Pakistan on 11 November 1888
• Educated at Pune’s Fergusson College.
• Worked as a teacher
• Quit that job to join the freedom movement of the country
• Greatly inspired by the principles of Mahatma Gandhi.
• Took part in the non-cooperation movement of the 1920s
• Joined Gandhi’s ashrams in Maharashtra and Gujarat to work in the fields of education and social reform.
• Actively took part in various movements like the civil disobedience movement, Quit India Movement and so on. He was also imprisoned many times.
• From 1920 to 1927, he worked as the principal of Gujarat Vidyapeeth which was an educational institution set up by Gandhi. There, he earned the epithet ‘Acharya’.
• Was elected the General Secretary of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1934 and continued to serve in that post for a long time till 1945.
• In November 1946, he was elected the President of the Congress Party and steered the party in that position during the crucial partition period and the transfer of power.
• Involved in a number of committees in the Constituent Assembly of India.
• After 1947, differences cropped up between Kripalani and Nehru and other leaders. He resigned from the party in 1950 and formed his own party, the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party. Later, this party joined forces with the Socialist Party of India to form the Praja Socialist Party.
• Was elected as an MP to the Lok Sabha in 1952, 1957, 1963 and 1967. Despite being an independent MP, he was given front benches in the House.
• His wife, Sucheta Kripalani became the first woman chief minister of a state when she was elected the CM of Uttar Pradesh.
• Kripalani was an astute parliamentarian and even became the first person to introduce a no-confidence motion on the floor of the House. This was in 1963 immediately after the Sino-Indian War.