Rajendra Prasad

Portrait photo of President Rajendra Prasad with signature, as a present for US President John F. Kennedy on the occasion of the state visit in March 1962

Rajendra Prasad ( Hindi : राजेन्द्र प्रसाद, Rājendra Prasād ^{? / I} ; * December 3, 1884 in Ziradei (also Zeradei / Jeeradei, hindi जीरादेई), Siwan district , Bihar ; † February 28, 1963 in Patna , Bihar) was an Indian Lawyer, politician and President of the Republic of India from 1950 to 1962 .

Life

Youth and education, marriage

Prasad was the youngest child of a landowning family from the Kayastha scribe caste . The great uncle had laid the foundation for the family fortune as the large landowner ( zamindar ) and diwan (treasurer) of Hathwa Raj, the feudal lord of Hathwa in Bihar .; Prasad's father lived as a country gentleman who spoke both Persian and Sanskrit and, in addition to Hindu Ayurveda, also practiced the Muslim Unani medicine. In addition to his mother tongue Maithili , Bengali and Hindi, the young Rajendra also learned from a Maulvi , a Muslim scribe, Persian, the country's former court and diplomatic language; he owed his mother's lifelong fondness for the narratives of the Indian national epic ' Ramayana . Classes were then held in English at the college in nearby Patna . In 1902 he was one of the very few from Bihar in the then capital of British India , Calcutta , to enter the prestigious Presidency College of the University of Calcutta as a student , from which he graduated with excellent grades as a Master of Law and where he was awarded by his fellow students Student Union Secretary was elected. As was customary at the time, Prasad had already been married at the age of thirteen (1898) and in 1909 he had two sons.

Acquainted with the ideas of the Swadeshi movement through his older brother , which, in response to plans by the British to partition Bengal in 1905, called for a boycott of foreign goods, he soon became involved in the intellectual, socially oriented Dawn Society , also a result of the protest against the partition of Bengal, and the establishment of the Bihar Students Association. His plan to apply for admission to the country's administrative elite, the Indian Civil Service (ICS), failed due to resistance from the family.

Activity as a lawyer

In 1911, Prasad became self-employed as a lawyer and in the same year joined the Indian political rallying movement of the Congress Party (INC), where he was soon elected to the All India Congress Committee (AICC). Gopal Krishna Gokhale , a leading politician of the party, had previously tried to recruit him for his social organization and made a deep impression on him. Despite the financial problems his family had got into in the meantime, Prasad did not devote himself to the rehabilitation of the ailing family property, but instead pursued his goal through his legal career from 1915 at the High Court of Patna , which was newly established for Orissa and Bihar that he owed not protection and relationships, but his own achievement in being able to continue to work politically and socially. In Patna, too, he was involved in the Provincial Congress Committee there. Even more than his legal knowledge, his excellent memory and personal integrity earned him an excellent reputation in court.

Encounter with Gandhi, beginnings as a politician

Prasad met Mahatma Gandhi for the first time in 1915 at the Satyagraha of Champaran on the occasion of the protest movement of the indigo farmers and then again in 1916, but only made a decision after a new meeting in 1917, at which he represented Gandhi in court, and especially after the events in Panjab and the Rowlatt Act of 1919 to follow Gandhi on the path of non-cooperation , non- violent resistance ( satyagraha ) and civil disobedience , thereby daring to break with the British government in India. In 1920 he let go of his career as a lawyer and lecturer and devoted himself entirely to political and social work, also through founding ("Desh" 1920) or working in magazines ("Searchlight", both from Patna).

As a result of his opposition, Prasad was expelled from the Senate of the University of Calcutta; He no longer had his children taught in English, but only in Hindi-language schools. At a time when Gandhi could still count on a few followers, Prasad, in close contact with Gandhi in the east of the country, propagated his ideas of self-sufficiency, non-violence ( Ahimsa ) and self-government ( Swaraj ), during Vallabhbhai "Sardar" Patel did the same in the west. Prasad mobilized above all the rural clientele and campaigned for the production and wearing of the self-spun khadi . As soon as he got to know Patel, he made a lifelong friendship despite the very different characters; both had spent their childhood in the village and both had taken up the legal profession.

His political activity brought Prasad several prison stays - including in connection with the Salt March (1930) and the Quit India movement (1942) - and health problems ( asthma ). He could only compensate for the lack of a regular income with the help of his brother, who helped him with money; Prasad has always refused financial support from the Congress party.

Rajendra Prasad as Minister of Food at a radio address in December 1947 (excerpt)

Rise in the Congress Party

When a devastating earthquake struck Bihar in January 1934 , Prasad, who was once again in prison, was released by the British government so that he could take part in the reorganization work, even though he was ill himself. The rescue fund immediately organized by him exceeded that of the viceroy by four times that of the viceroy at Rs.3.8 million and was used extremely carefully - a spectacular success that resulted in his appointment as President of the Bombay Section of the National Congress in October of that year. He also demonstrated his organizational skills at the Quetta earthquake in Balochistan in the west of what is now Pakistan in 1935.

When in British India, as a result of the Government of India Act (1935), eight Congressional Ministries emerged from the 1937 elections in the provinces, "Sardar" Patel, Rajendra Prasad and Maulana Azad exercised central control and oversight as representatives of the Congress Party, and When in 1939 the previous President of Congress, the Bengali Subhas Chandra Bose , had to relinquish leadership due to his violent approach and thus his opposition to Gandhi, the Party's Working Committee and the majority in Congress, Prasad jumped into the void; Due to his appreciation of the radical Bengal, he later confessed: "It was a most unpleasant time". As Congress President, Prasad was responsible for the withdrawal of all Congress Ministers from the provincial ministries in November 1939; the Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah filled the gaps only too willing to end of war. When the Congress Party with its Quit India movement, at the height of World War II, demanded the complete withdrawal of the British and announced non-violent resistance, Prasad, along with all other members of the Congress Committee and a further 60,000 people across the country, was immediately arrested. Prasad remained in prison until almost the end of the war (August 1942-June 1945) because of his poor health, not in Ahmednagar , like the rest of the party leadership , but in Bankipur Jail , Patna, in his home province. Like Nehru, who wrote his magnum opus, “The Discovery of India” while in prison, Prasad was also active as a writer in prison; the result was his autobiography Atmakatha , written in Hindi

Minister for Food and Agriculture

At the request of the Viceroy of India, Lord Wavells , Prasad took over in the interim government (September 2, 1946 - August 15, 1947) for a year the ministerial office for food and agriculture, which he liked best because of his rural origins and where he was could also come up with knowledge. During his short term in office, Prasad, at Gandhi's request and against numerous concerns, pushed through the release of grain prices with the usual efficiency and forcefulness and created the popular motto “Grow more food”.

Head of the Constituent Assembly (Constitutional Assembly)

Prasad's organizational and political abilities were also shown when he led the detailed, free and open discussions "(Mehra) of the Constituent Assembly as its elected President (since 1947) with the great approval of all those involved" with infinite patience, skill, charm and determination which met 1946–1950; she worked out the Indian constitution (with additions) which is still valid today .

First President of India 1950–1962 and death

Prasad was elected on January 26, 1950 because of his merits and experience, initially on an interim basis as the first president of India after independence, then formally confirmed for the first time by the Electoral College (India) in the presidential election in India in 1952 . At the end of the five-year term of office, he was re-elected on May 6, 1957 and held the office until 1962. This makes him the longest-serving president since the existence of the Republic of India, despite or perhaps because of his rural origins and his simple appearance . His term of office ran without profound differences with the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (1947–1964), who had been in office for just as long , and Prasad always pointed out the need for better, above all elementary, educational opportunities.

Numerous trips have taken Prasad, who previously only knew northern India, to the south of the country, since 1956 to numerous countries in Asia and Russia.

Due to his deteriorating health, Prasad renounced a (possible) further term in 1962. His wife Rajbanshi (or Rajvanshi) Devi died that same year. She was considered to be "the embodiment of renunciation, selflessness, restraint and veneration ... a Hindu woman standing entirely in the tradition, who put her person completely at the service of her husband"; In the last year of his life, the Indo-Chinese border war of October – November 1962, which ended unfortunate for India , did not completely surprise Prasad, but deeply shook it.

Awards

In 1937 Rajendra Prasad received a doctorate in law from Allahabad University. In 1962 he was awarded the highest civil order of merit in the country, the Bharat Ratna . In addition, Prasad was the holder of numerous domestic and foreign honorary degrees.

Others

Prasad was considered a good stylist; the Hindi version of his autobiography Atmakatha was considered to be the best autobiography in this language to date. In addition to Gandhi and the INC politician Purushottam Das Tandon (1882–1962), Prasad was therefore one of the most important proponents of Hindi as the state language of the new India.

Quotes

• “Prasad was to Gandhi what John was to Christ” - Sarojini Naidu
• "For the moment, Rajendra Prasad seems to be the only excuse for giving Gandhism one more chance to solve a political problem" - Chittaranjan Das 1922
• "The only argument that speaks against breaking off the Gandhi cult is Rajendra Prasad" - "Sardar" Vallabhbhai Patel 1927
• “There is at least one person who would not hesitate to take a cup of poison from my hand” - Mahatma Gandhi
• “Rajendra Prasad did not have Nehru's glamor, nor did he have Sardar Patel's authoritative personality and his pragmatic view of things, but he was thoroughly honorable, highly regarded and popular, not only with politicians, but with the overwhelming mass of citizens ... He had the best academic qualifications of any Congress politician and was the only one to give up the legal profession at the height of his career. ”- KM Munshi

Footnotes

1. ↑ Sinha, Biography, p. 13 f.
2. ^ Roper Lethbridge: The Golden Book of India. A Genealogical and Biographical Dictionary of the Ruling Princes, Chiefs, Nobles, and other Personages, Titled or Decorated, of the Indian Empire . London: Macmillan 1893 (reprinted Delhi: Aakar 2005), p. 174
3. ↑ Ram / Prasad p. 403
4. ↑ Mehra p. 559
5. ↑ With 1,000 against 7 votes; Ram / Prasad p. 404
6. ↑ Ram / Prasad p. 404; Sinha, Biography, p. 22 and p. 162
7. ↑ Sinha, Biography, p. 17
8. ↑ Sinha, Biography p. 21
9. ↑ Mehra p. 560
10. ↑ Ram / Prasad p. 405
11. ↑ Sinha, Biography, p. 35
12. ↑ Ram / Prasad, p. 405
13. ↑ Mehra, Dictionary p. 560
14. ↑ Ram / Prasad, p. 406
15. ^ Prasad, Autobiography, p. 470
16. ↑ On the consequences of this self-disempowerment see Hermann Kulke . Dietmar Rothermund : History of India. From the Indus culture to today. 3rd edition Munich: Beck 2018. p. 376
17. ↑ Sinha, Biography p. 97
18. ^ Jawaharlal Nehru : The Discovery of India . Calcutta: Signet Press 1947 (ND Gurgaon: Penguin / Random House 2010)
19. ↑ Sinha, Biography p. 48
20. ↑ Ram / Prasad p. 406; Mehra, Dictionary p. 560
21. ↑ Mehra, Dictionary p. 560
22. ^ Official website of the Indian Presidents
23. ↑ Ram / Prasad p. 406
24. ↑ Mehra, Dictionary p. 560
25. ↑ Ram / Prasad pp. 404 and 407, translated from English. Illustrations in Sinha, Biography, pp. 48, 79 and 130
26. ↑ Ram / Prasad, p. 407
27. ↑ Sinha, Biography, p. 164
28. ↑ Mehra, Dictionary p. 561
29. ^ Sarojini Naidu, translated and quoted from Mehra, Dictionary p. 561
30. ↑ Chittaranjan Das, translated and quoted from Ram / Prasad p. 403
31. ^ Vallabhbhai Patel, translated and quoted from Ram / Prasad p. 403
32. ↑ Mahatma Gandhi, translated and quoted from Mehra, Dictionary p. 561
33. ↑ KM Munshi, quoted and translated from Sinha, Biography, p. 158

Literature (in English)

• Jagjiwan Ram . Rameshwar Prasad: Prasad, Rajendra (Dr.) (1884-1963) . In: SP Sen (ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Vol.III (1974), pp. 403–408 - The author, former Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram (1908–1986), was a compatriot Prasad from Bihar and a colleague in the interim government 1946–1950, in the Constituent Assembly 1946–1950 and in various ministerial offices of the Republic of India
• Parshotam Mehra: A Dictionary of Modern Indian Histor, 1707-1947 . Delhi u. a .: Oxford University Press 1985, pp. 559-561
• Kewalram Lalchand Punjabi: Rajendra Prasad, First President of India . London: Macmillan 1960
• Rajangam Balasubramanian: Man, Meaning and Morality. Essays in Honor of Professor Rajendra Prasad. New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research 1995
• Angad B. Kohli: First Citizens of India. Dr. Rajendra Prasad to Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma - Profile and Bibliography . New Delhi: Reliance Publ. House 1995
• Manasi Chakrabarti: Rajendra Prasad and the Indian National Movement . Kolkata: Bhattacharya 2007
• SM Wasi: President Prasad. A biography. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink [1962?]
• KV Singh: Presidents of India. Dr. Rajendra Prasad to Smt. Pratibha Patil . Delhi: Vista International Publ. House 2007
• Tara Sinha: Dr. Rajendra Prasad: A Brief Biography . New Delhi: Ocean Books 2013 (eBook) - The author is a granddaughter of Rajendra Prasad (foreword, p. 7)

Fonts (in selection)

• Valmiki Choudhary (ed.): Dr. [Doctor] Rajendra Prasad. Correspondence and Select Documents . 21 vols. New Delhi [u. a.]: Allied Publ. 1984-1992.
• Atmakatha (Hindi "Memories") (1946), also published in English as Autobiography (Bombay et al .: Asia 1957)
• India Divided . Bombay: Hind Kitabs 1946 (ND Penguin 2010)
• Gyanvati Darbar (ed.): Portrait of a president: Letters of Dr Rajendra Prasad. New Delhi: Vikas 1976.
• At the Feet of Mahatma Gandhi . New York: Philosophical Library 1955
• India's Constitution . Delhi: The Publication Division 1957
• The New Indian Constitution . In: Parliamentary Affairs 3 (1949), pp. 420-443
• The Unity of India . Delhi 1963
• The Unity of India: selected speeches, 1951-1960 . Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Publications division. New Delhi: Ministry of information and broadcasting, 1963.
• The Unity of India (selected speeches, 1951-1962) . Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India [1970]
• Sanskrit aur sanskriti [Hindi संस्कृत और संस्कृति , German "Sanskrit and culture"]. Delhi: Prabhat Prakashan 2010. - On the richness of Sanskrit literature

Web links

Commons : Rajendra Prasad  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Newspaper article about Rajendra Prasad in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .