Jagjivan Ram

Jagjivan Ram (5 April 1908 – 6 July 1986), known popularly as Babuji, was an Indian independence activist and politician from Bihar.

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.

He joined Aggrawal Middle School in Arrah in 1920, where the medium of instruction was English for the first time, and joined Arrah Town School in 1922.

It was here that he faced caste discrimination for the first time, yet remained unfazed.

An often cited incident occurred in this school; there was a tradition of having two water pots in the school, one for Hindus and another for Muslims.

Jagjivan drank water from the Hindu pot, and because he was from an untouchable class, the matter was reported to the Principal, who placed a third pot for untouchables in the school.

Jagjivan broke this pot twice in protest, until the Principal decided against placing the third pot.

A turning point in his life came in 1925, when Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya visited his school, and impressed by his welcome address, invited him to join the Banaras Hindu University.

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.

While at BHU, he organised the scheduled castes to protest against social discrimination.

As a Dalit student, he was denied basic services like meals in his hostel and haircuts by local barbers.

A Dalit barber would arrive occasionally to trim his hair.

Eventually, Jagjivan left BHU and continued his education at Calcutta University.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose took notice of him at Kolkata, when in 1928 he organised a Mazdoor Rally at Wellington Square, in which approximately 50,000 people participated.

degree from the University of Calcutta in 1931, where again he organised conferences to draw attention toward issues of discrimination, and also participated in the anti-untouchability movement started by Mahatma Gandhi.

When the devastating 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake occurred he got actively involved in the relief work and his efforts were appreciated.

He was instrumental in the foundation of the All India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables, in 1935 and was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1937, after which he organised the rural labour movement.

When popular rule was introduced under the 1935 Act and the scheduled castes were given representation in the legislatures, both the nationalists and the British loyalists sought him because of his first-hand knowledge of the social and economic situation in Bihar.

Jagjivan Ram was nominated to the Bihar Council.

In 1935, he contributed to the establishment of the All-India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables.

He was also drawn into the Indian National Congress.

In the same year he voted in favor of a resolution presented 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.

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.

However, he resigned his membership on the issue of irrigation cess.

He criticized Ambedkar as a "coward" who could not lead his people.

In 1946, he became the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's interim government, the first cabinet of India as a Labour Minister and also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution.

He went on to serve as a minister with various portfolios for the next 30 years as a member of the Indian National Congress (INC).

Most importantly, he was the Defence Minister of India during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.

His contribution to the Green Revolution in India and modernising Indian agriculture, during his two tenures as Union Agriculture Minister are still remembered, especially during the 1974 drought when he was asked to hold the additional portfolio to tide over the food crisis.

Though he supported Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency (1975–77), he left Congress in 1977 and joined the Janata Party alliance, along with his Congress for Democracy.

He later served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India (1977–79); then in 1981, he formed Congress (J).

At his death, he was the last surviving minister of the Interim Government and the last surviving original member of the first cabinet of independent India.

Including his service during the Interim Government, his total tenure of over 30 years in various ministries remains the longest of any Indian federal minister.

Jagjivan Ram was born at Chandwa liability in Arrah in Bihar into the [CHAMAR] caste of Indian Caste System.

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.

He also became a Mahant of the Shiv Narayani sect, and being skilled in calligraphy, illustrated many books for the sect that were distributed locally.

In 2007, the BHU set up a Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair in its faculty of social sciences to study caste discrimination and economic backwardness.

He received a B. Sc.