Jagannath Sarkar

Profile

A veteran Indian Freedom Fighter, Communist leader, thinker and writer on social issues, Jagannath Sarkar was born on 25 September 1919 in Puri (Orissa, India). He belonged to an illustrious family of Bengal. His father, Dr Akhilnath Sarkar was a renowned Gynaecologist, one of the pioneering doctors of Prince of Wales Medical College (now, Patna Medical College and Hospital), and his uncle, the well-known historian, Sir Jadunath Sarkar. He grew up in the atmosphere of Bengal Renaissance, his family being deeply inspired by Ram Mohun Roy, Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore.

Interestingly, one of the priests of Ramakrishna Mission at Patna, which young Jagannath frequently visited, introduced him to Marxist literature, then banned in British India. While studying Economics at Patna University, he started closely associating himself with the Freedom Movement and the nascent Communist Party in Bihar. With a keen scientific bend of mind, he was a popular activist among students and the educated class. After joining the Communist Party, he moved to the working class areas of Bihar and now Jharkhand. He fought many battles for the miners' and colliery workers' rights in the forties and fifties.

Dr Akhilnath (who was earlier conferred Rai Bahadur) was known to be not only sympathetic to the cause his son and his comrades were fighting for, he silently kept providing resources from his earnings for the revolutionary activities till his death.

He took over the leadership role of Communist Party in Bihar State in the fifties and sixties when the Party came to power. His legendary leadership against the votaries of military dictatorship and ideology-less rule made him a popular name across the country. Several land reforms in favour of landless labourers were also achieved during this period. Cutting across party lines, he is widely respected for his integrity, honesty and transparency.

All along, he continued to read, analyse and write on several social issues. Secularism, left-wing extremism, tribal development, socialist ideological issues in India, Indian science policy issues are a few of them. A voracious reader, a powerful writer and a sharp analyst, he was a constant source of support to the progressive Hindi daily Janashakti, of which he was the patron and Editor for a long time.

In the seventies, he became a member of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party and moved to Delhi. But true to his convictions, at the age of 65, he decided to cease participation in active politics. He was extremely keen that the younger generation should come forward and play a leadership role in progressive movements.

Unfortunately, many of his writings are not easily traceable. From the set of retrieved work, a selected compilation has been published in the form of a book, ‘Many Streams,’ in 2010.

Many Streams

In an attempt to reach the thoughts and ideology of the Jagannath sarkar to today's generation his friends and colleagues has brought out a collection of his essays.

The book titled 'Many streams' has a collection of selected essays of Jagannath Sarkar and some reminiscences of his friends and colleagues. It was released on May 14, 2010 in Patna by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik of Jawaharlal Nehru University. The final editing of the collection was done by Gautam Sarkar and Mitali Sarkar.

The preface to the book is by Shaibal Gupta, Member Secretary of Asian Development Research Institute, Patna. The Preface of the book book 'Many Streams' Shaibal Gupta provides an analysis of his life and his role in the Bihar CPI and politics. Below is the preface to the book.

This volume on Jagannath Sarkar should have indeed been brought out at least two decades ago, when he was in a relatively better physical condition. Then it would have been easier not only to retrieve the whole range of his encyclopedic academic and political contribution but also to record more substantively the opinions of his many distinguished contemporaries belonging to different ideological and political persuasions. It may not be known to many outside a select circle that he was extensively quoted and written about by national and international academics, from Bipan Chandra to Paul Brass. The references from those different writings could have been compiled in this volume, enriching its content. As a teacher of Marxist literature and other academic agenda, he must have groomed thousands, many of whom later became public figures,academics, party activists, littérateur, etc. These contributions of lasting nature could not be documented in this volume in the absence of a detailed research work on him. Over and above, not being a member of formal academics, documentation was not a professional necessity for him. In any case, most of the CPI documents prepared by him, either for the Bihar unit in earlier years or for the national party in the later period, could not be part of this historic volume. Even this modest volume would not have possibly seen the light of the day, if Jagannath Sarkar had his own ways. Being an intrinsically self effacing man, he would not have allowed a volume dedicated to him a couple of years ago. His present infirmity, due to cardiac dysfunction, possibly helped his family members to bring out the volume rather surreptitiously. Even though the present volume may not wholly reflect the total range of his enormous contributions, it is indeed a commendable effort.

What did Jagannath Sarkar symbolize in the context of the Communist Party of India, especially in the context of Bihar? Bihar was possibly the only state in the Hindi Heartland, which was not only relatively socially liberated but also a theatre of millions of ideologically driven mutinies.

The tradition of the mutiny in the contemporary Bihar could be traced to the peasant movement led by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, who fought to permanently unsettle the land tenurial system of permanent settlement. This movement had a powerful impact in radicalizing the body polity of the state in no uncertain terms. In fact, the trajectory of most of the major political parties of the state was anchored around that peasant movement.

Both the socialist and the communist movements, which acquired a powerful space for themselves in the state, were the ideological progenies of the peasant movement. Even the Congress Party was not unaffected. Unlike in many other Hindi Heartland provinces, the state unit of the Congress Party in Bihar was relatively more radical. In the national politics, the state unit of the Congress Party in Bihar had generally sided with the left of the centre, represented by Jawaharlal Nehru, rather than with the right wing leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel. Over and above, the state unit of the Congress Party tried to steal the radical thunder of the left, by promoting the cause of the agricultural labour through Jagjivan Ram, only of its kind in the country, way back in the 1930s. Thus the ideological polemics and debates were always part of the political discourse in the state.

In this backdrop, it was not sufficient for the political parties to promote only equity-based politics in the state; to create a niche for themselves, there was also a need to have leaders with strong academic and ideological foundations. Some of the torch bearers of the socialist movement in the state, like Jay Prakash Narayan and Karpoori Thakur, were among the most respected in the country in terms of their ideological grounding and political orientation. Even in Congress olitics, leaders like Sri Krishna Sinha and Krishna Ballabh Sahay, Nehruite clones in the state, could hold on to their views in any ideological polemics because of their academic base. In this phalanx of great political stalwarts, Jagannath Sarkar, along with his comrades Indradeep Sinha, Sunil Mukherjee and Chandrasekhar Singh, iv not only created an identity for the Communist Party of India in the state, but sutured the organization as a well-oiled ideologically driven party. This was not without its dividend. In the words of Paul R Brass of the Washington University about Bihar in early seventies, the Communist Party of India (CPI) has steadily improved its political support and its strength in the legislative assembly.

Because of this strength, it could hold on to its own political stance even during the avalanche of the JP movement, the first organized elite revolt in the state, when most political parties, including SSP, got liquidated, abandoning their years of ideology-based party building effort. Whereas the ideological construct of the CPI in Bihar was built by Jagannath Sarkar and Indradeep Sinha, its parliamentary front was built through the efforts of Sunil Mukherjee and Chandrasekhar Singh. This was an unprecedented team. Brass describes this group as members of elite caste from comfortable families…… belonged to the same age group, joined the communist party around the same time, they have remained leadership core of the party…. have a common intellectual orientation… 2 However, this core group which had scripted new annals in the communist movement in Bihar was broken later. First, Chandrasekhar Singh, one of the greatest mass leaders of post-independent Bihar died prematurely. Then, Indradeep Sinha earlier and Jagannath Sarkar later were brought to the Central Party, to strengthen its national core group. That left Sunil Mukherjee alone to lead the Party in the state. With the onset of eighties, ideology-based politics started being relegated to the background. JP movement in Bihar had already created the precondition for it. With the opening of the economy and liberalization, the state centric politics was being slowly abandoned. The anchor of social and political mobilization in this period was either the agenda of positive discrimination or the ground of ethno-religious identity. The predominance of such social or communal agenda allowed the policy of liberalization in the country almost unencumbered.

In any case, for the communist ideologues in the state, economic deprivation got more prominence than the social deprivation, which was always highlighted by the socialist movement. Wherever the communist movement had acquired firm roots like in Kerala or West Bengal, the first phase of the social movement was complete there long before. The agenda of communism got easy sustenance there, because there was no need for it to compete with the issues of social deprivation. In Bihar, communist movement fought valiantly for the economic deprivation for the poor, but its neglect of the issues of social deprivation possibly kept it marginal over the years. As the politics of ideology got relegated, the agenda of party building became a thing of the past. This also ushered a new phenomenon in Bihar politics, where criminals started calling the shots in the party affairs. In this v scenario, the left of all persuasions became irrelevant as a political factor,except in some limited areas. In Bihar also, CPI suffered in spite of its having one of the most powerful organization in the Hindi Heartland. However, the CPI as a party in Bihar had reached its plateau after Jagannath Sarkar suffered brain hemorrhage in 1985. The decline had started thereafter. But even after he started extricating himself from the active politics, he remained a sentinel to party functionaries for its day-to-day affairs, operating from home. For example, he would underline the relevant newspaper or magazine reports and literally keep himself abreast with the day-to-day national and international affairs. Over and above, he used to spend a fortune on buying books of all varieties, covering culture, economics,advanced science and what not. Even though an ideologue and a wholetime communist activist, he could find time to pursue his interest in all components of culture.

Being himself an accomplished Sitarist, he would understand the intricate nuances of classical music, both Indian and Western. If his multifarious interests and knowledge base are analysed, he could well be designated as a renaissance man. Apart from his political, social and cultural interests, he re-invented himself later in his life as a doting grandfather. The bulk share of his affection must have been cornered by his eldest granddaughter, Asmita, apart from Gitanjali and Suzanna. In his younger days, in between his jail sojourn and political agenda, he may not have found sufficient time to teach any of his three offsprings. In contrast, he had all the attention for Asmita, even if it warranted skipping some important meetings. Once in early eighties, a senior correspondent of The Times of India rang me up in the morning to enquire, whether my daughter was ill. I expressed my surprise over his updated knowledge. On probing about the source of his knowledge, I found the answer to be unexpected and touching as well. I learned that the correspondent had gone to cover a coordination meeting of the opposition parties against the then ruling Congress Party, and there he was informed by Laloo Prasad, the then Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, that the meeting was cancelled because of Jagannath Sarkars inability to make it to the meeting due to his granddaughters indisposition. This sort of a stand would have been a blasphemy in the earlier part of Jagannath Sarkars career.

Even though he is not in the mainstream now and is leading a completely retired life, this volume indicates the fund of goodwill that exists for him in the country even now. Most of his contemporaries are no more. Even though he was only a phone call away from the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister in his earlier years, he never threw his weight around. The modesty has been a hallmark throughout his eventful life. This volume does not necessarily give a complete set of his writings. They will, however, give glimpses of the contemporary debate in the realm of ideology, party organizations, and developmental issues of Bihar. The contributors from different backgrounds, who have sketched their reminiscences, indicate the deep admiration and respect that people have for him. In today's world, self-seeking behaviour seems to be the order of the day. Today's youth are neither taught nor are mindful of a life where societal goals need to be pursued by some individuals who are both widely informed and deeply committed. Jagannath Sarkar was one among them and his life and thoughts could certainly be inspirational for today's youth. Mitali, Abhijit and Gautam should, therefore, be profusely thanked for the production of this volume.

References

1. Paul R. Brass Political Parties of the Radical Left in South Asian Politics, in the book, Radical Politics in South Asia MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, P. 329.

2. Paul R. Brass Radical Parties of the Left in Bihar: A Comparison of the SSP and the CPI, Ibid, P. 347. vii