Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia was born on March 23, 1910 in Akbarpur in Faizabad District. After graduating from Vidyasagar  College,  Calcutta in 1929, he proceeded to England and Germany for higher studies and took a Doctorate degree from  Humboldt  University  in  Berlin.

Lohia returned to India in 1933. He became a founder-member of the 'Congress Socialist  Party in 1934 and was the first Editor of the weekly "Congress Socialist". He also became Secretary of the Foreign Department of the Indian National Congress. The approaching shadows of  World War II led him, along with some other younger leaders, to propose the launching of a Satyagraha for Indian independence. He was arrested by the British Government 'for obstructing the supply of men  and material  for the war.

Ram Manohar Lohia took an active part in the Quit India Movement in 1942 and was one of the leaders who went underground. He set up secret radio  stations  in  Bombay, and  Calcutta  and also worked for  "Azad  Daste"  in Nepal territory.  He  was  arrested  in  1944. On release from prison in, 1946, he was offered the Secretaryship of the Congress Party but he declined as he did not agree that the Congress President should also be the Prime Minister or that any member of the Working Committee should be a Minister. He; along with certain other socialist leaders, finally left the Congress in 1948. In 1952 they merged with the Kisan Mazdoor  Praja Party and formed the Praja  Socialist Party. However, he resigned the Secretaryship of the party as a protest against the refusal of Pattom Thanu Pillai, Chief Minister of Travancore-Cochin, to quit office on the issue of police firing on language agitators in 1954. He formed the Socialist Party at Hyderabad and himself became Chairman and Editor of its organ, "Mankind", in 1956. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1963. In 1964, the Socialist Party merged with the Praja Socialist Party, which then came to be known as Somyukta Socialist Party. However, strong differences continued on account of insistence of the followers of Ram Manohar Lohia on Hindi as the national language, the rights of untouchables and the principle of no compromise  with either the Congress or the Communists.

Ram Manohar Lohia died on October 12, 1967, at Willingdon Nursing Home, New Delhi, following  an  operation.

A staunch advocate of socialism, Lohia was a crusader for social justice and always had upper­ most in his mind the cause of the weak and the downtrodden. The high-light of his personality was his refusal to compromise with his basic principles for the sake of political expediency. He believed that by remaining in the wilderness and  insisting on his ideological purity, he was serving the nation, though the results may not be achieved in his life time.

The Posts and Telegraphs Department is proud to bring out a commemorative postage stamp in honour  of this great  son  of India.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India