Table of Contents
EARLY LIFE
- Jagjivan Ram was born on 5 April 1908 at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar. He had an elder brother, Sant Lal, and three sisters.
- His father Sobhi Ram was with the British Indian Army, posted at Peshawar, but later resigned due to some differences, and bought farming land in his native village Chandwa and settled there.
- Young Jagjivan attended a local school in January 1914. Upon the premature death of his father, Jagjivan and his mother Vasanti Devi were left in a harsh economic situation.
STRUGGLE
- He joined Aggrawal Middle School in Arrah in 1920, Arrah Town School in 1922. It was here that he faced caste discrimination for the first time, yet remained unfazed.
- Jagjivan Ram passed his matriculation in the first division and joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1927, where he was awarded the Birla scholarship, and passed his Inter Science Examination.
- Jagjivan left BHU and continued his education at Calcutta University. The incidents in BHU turned him into an atheist. In 2007, the BHU set up a Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair in its faculty of social
THE RISING
- He received a B. Sc. degree from the University of Calcutta in 1931 and also participated in the anti untouchability movement started by Mahatma Gandhi.
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose took notice of him at Kolkata, when in 1928 he organised a Mazdoor Rally at Wellington Square.
- Jagjivan Ram was nominated to the Bihar Council. He chose to go with the nationalists and joined Congress, which wanted him not only because he was valued as an able spokesperson for the depressed classes, but also that he could counter B. R. Ambedkar; he was elected to the Bihar assembly in 1937.
THE RISING
- In 1935, he contributed to the establishment of the All India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables.
- In the same year he proposed a resolution in the 1935 session of the Hindu Mahasabha demanding that temples and drinking water wells be opened up to Dalits; and in the early 1940s was imprisoned twice for his active participation in the Satyagraha and the Quit India Movements.
POLITICS
- In 1946, he became the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s provisional government and also the subsequent First Indian Cabinet, as a Labour Minister.
- He served as Labour minister until 1952. He was member of the Constituent assembly that drafted India’s constitution. Ram also served in the interim national government of 1946.
- Later, he held several ministerial posts in Nehru’s Cabinet – Communications (1952–56), Transport and Railways (1956–62), and Transport and Communications (1962–63).
POLITICS
- In Indira Gandhi’s government, he worked as minister for Labour, Employment, and Rehabilitation (1966–67), and Union Minister for Food and Agriculture (1967–70).
- When the Congress Party split in 1969, Jagjivan Ram joined the camp led by Indira Gandhi, and became the president of that faction of Congress.
- He worked as the Minister of Defence (1970–74) making him the virtual No. 2 in the cabinet, Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation (1974–77).
POLITICS
- in 1977 he along with five other politicians resigned from the Cabinet and formed the Congress for Democracy party, within the Janata coalition.
- He was the Deputy Prime Minister of India when Morarji Desai was the prime minister, from 1977 to 1979.However, he was once again given the defence portfolio.
- His last position in government was as Deputy Prime Minister of India in the Janata Party government of 1977–1979, Disillusioned with the Janata party he formed his own party, the Congress (J).
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