One of the most influential political figures of the 20th Century India, Jayaprakash Narayan (1902-1979) combined in his public life the selflessness of a sage and the acumen of a political  strategist.
J.P., as he was popularly known, hailed from the Sitabdiara village in Bihar. While a student at the Patna College he threw away hi s text books in disgust after the Rowlatt Act and Jalianwala Bagh massacre and refused to pursue a British-style education. Later, in 1922, he sailed for the United States and joined the University at Berkeley (California). He had to work hard to pay for his needs. From Berkeley he moved to Iowa State University and later to the Universities of Wisconsin and Ohio. During his seven years' stay in America, he drank deep at the fountain of Dialectical Materialism to become a thorough Marxist.
He had already married Shrirnati Prabhav ati in 1920. She was adopted as daughter by Gandhiji and stayed in the ashram  at  Wardha  during  the  absence  of Jayaprakash. On his return from America, he plunged headlong into the freedom struggle with the blessings of Gandhiji. Later he set up the Congress Socialist Party with Acharaya Narendra Dev as President and himself as Secretary, to promote Socialist ideals in the country. Tested in the fires of the British jails where he spent eight years, he emerged with his convictions unscathed. J.P. played an inspiring role during the Quit India Movement which started in 1942. His escapades and underground activities on the face of an intensive manhunt launched by the British administrative machinery forms a thrilling chapter of India's freedom struggle.
After Gandhiji's death  in  1948, Jayaprakash Narayan formed an independent Socialist Party. However in 1954, he made the dramatic announcement of total withdrawal from politics to join Vinbha Bhave's Bhoodan Movement. He went on to champion diverse causes like rural upliftment and reform of the Chambal dacoits.
By 1974 he started moving back to active politics. The contemporary ills of the Indian polity like the destruction of civil liberties, problems of unemployment and inflation and the faltering electoral process worried him. He set rise to a movement of "total revolution", which culminated in establishment of the first non-Congress government of the country in  1977.
J.P. was a gifted theoretician  and a forceful writer who produced thought provoking works on freedom, socialism and democracy. Hi s important works are : Why Socialism (1936), Towards Struggle (1946),  In the Lahore Fort (1970), A Plea for the Reconstruction of Indian Polity (1959), From Socialism to Sarvodaya  (1959) and Swaraj for  the People (1961).
The Department of Posts is happy to release a commemorative postage stamp honouring Jayaprakash Narayan.
Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India