Question

Who is known as Lok Nayak?
A)Mahatma Gandhi
B)Subhash Chandra Bose
C)Jay Prakash Narayan
D)Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Answer 1

Hint: Indian National movement had various streams within it. It was led by leaders of different ideologies, beliefs and regions. On one hand there were leaders like Mahatma Gandhi who pursued a less confrontational strategy to achieve independence and on the other there were leaders like Netaji Subash Chandra Bose who wanted to pursue a more militant and confrontational strategy to achieve independence.

Complete Answer: Leaders are given epithets by people and these epithets are based on the qualities of the personalities. One such epithet is Lok Nayak which means people’s hero or leader of the people. It is Jay Prakash Narayan who is known as Lok Nayak. Born in Bihar, Jay Prakash Narayan was one of the leaders of Indian national movement and his political career continued well beyond independence. He was a member of the Indian National Congress and was jailed because of his participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement. When Gandhi launched the Quit India movement in August 1942, Yogendra Shukla scaled the wall of Hazaribagh Central Jail along with Jayaprakash Narayan. Jay Prakash Narayan and other few socialist started an underground movement for India’s freedom.

Narayan came back to politics in the 1970s. The early 1970s were a time of unemployment, inflation and corruption. J.P. Narayan first led the students of Bihar against the state government, demanded resignation of the Congress government in Bihar and called for total revolution in social, economic and political spheres to bring true democracy. His Bihar movement slowly started to influence national politics. J.P. Narayan was a fierce critic of Indira Gandhi’s policies and when Allahabad High Court declared her election void he demanded her resignation and asked the police and the administration to not obey immoral orders. He has also established NGOs like People’s Union for Civil Liberties and Citizens for Democracy .These NGOs work for protection of civil liberties. Since Jay Prakash Narayan has led so many movements for the interest of the people, he has been given the epithet of Lok Nayak.
Option (A) Mahatma Gandhi is incorrect as Mahatma itself is an epithet given to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Option (B) is incorrect as Subhash Chandra Bose was called Netaji.
Option (D) is incorrect as Bal Gangadhar Tilak was given the epithet of LokManya.

Therefore option (C ) is correct.

Note: A point to note is that though the Congress Socialist Party (CSP )was formed by socialists like Acharya Narendra Dev and J.P. Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev was the first president of Congress Socialist Party while J.P Narayan was its first general secretary.
Lok Nayak should not be confused with LokManya. LokManya is an epithet used for Bal Gangadhar Tilak who was a nationalist leader from Maharashtra.