Acharya Kriplani
Recently, Prime Minister paid tribute to Acharya Kriplani on his birth anniversary.
Introduction:
- He was born on November 11, 1888 in Sindh (Hyderabad). His original name was Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani, but he was known as Acharya Kripalani. He was a freedom fighter, Indian politician and educationist.
- From 1912 to 1927, he taught at various places before fully joining the freedom movement.
- Around the year 1922, when he was teaching at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth established by Mahatma Gandhi, he received the surname ‘Acharya’.
- Kripalani ji along with Vinoba Bhave was involved in environmental protection and rescue activities in the 1970s.
- He was a part of the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22) and the Civil Disobedience Movement (started in 1930) and the Quit India Movement (1942).
- He was the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) at the time of independence. He contributed to the Interim Government of India (1946–1947) and the Constituent Assembly of India.
- He left the Congress after independence and became one of the founders of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP).
- He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1952, 1957, 1963 and 1967 as a member of the Praja Socialist Party.
- He introduced the motion of no confidence for the first time in the Lok Sabha in 1963, immediately after the Indo-China war (1962).
- In 1963, Congress leader Sucheta Kriplani became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s first woman Chief Minister, while her husband Acharya Kriplani remained an opponent of Congress.
- He was critical of Nehru’s policies and Indira Gandhi’s rule. He was arrested during the Emergency (1975).
- His autobiography ‘My Times’ was published posthumously in 2004.
- Kriplani was the author of several books, including Gandhi: His Life and Thought (1970).
Source – The Hindu
