Acharya J B Kripalani

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Prime Minister pays tribute to Acharya J B Kripalani on his birth anniversary

History of Acharya J B Kripalani (1888-1982)

He was born on 11th November 1888 in Hyderabad(presently in Sindh province of Pakistan) and was brought up in the Sindh and Gujarat regions in a middle-class Hindu family
Kripalani did his master’s degree in history and economics from Fergusson College in Pune and started teaching in 1912
It was during his time as a teacher that he first encountered Gandhi
He joined Gandhi in 1917, after Gandhi had taken up the cause of indigo workers in Gujarat.
After meeting Gandhi Kripalani joined congress party and worked on Gandhi’s ashrams (religious retreats) in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar
During 1922 to 1927 he served as the principal of Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad, a school founded by Gandhi and earned the title Acharya
He also participated in Civil Disobedience movement
He also served as general secretary of congress party in between 1934-1935. Later in 1946 he was elected president of the party
He also served as a member (1946–47) of India’s interim government and (1946–51) of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the country’s new constitution
In the year 1951 he resigned from Congress Party and became part of Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party(a core part of Praja Socilist Party) in 1952 later resigned from that too
He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1951, 1957, 1963 and 1967
Acharya criticised both Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira(her authoritarian rule) Gandhi which he thought went against the Gandhian ideal of village republics
Along with JP Narayan, Kripalani toured India urging nonviolent protest and civil disobedience against Indira Gandhi’s government in 1972-73 and got arrested in 1975
Kripalani was the author of several books, including Gandhi: His Life and Thought (1970).
In his autobiography, ‘My Times’ which was published posthumously in 2004 strongly criticised(except Gandhi) Congress party for Partition of India