Biography: Lohia-The socialist leader

Lohia was born on March 23, 1910, in Akbarpur village in the District of Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India.

A leader who not only protested against the British rulers, but also raised voice against social injustice, caste discrimination, and welfare of women. A leader who was imprisoned the highest number of times in Independent India than colonial India. He is none other than socialiist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.

Lohia was born on March 23, 1910, in Akbarpur village in the District of Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. He was a socialist political leader, a great thinker and noted freedom fighter of India as well. He made his first contribution to the freedom struggle by organizing a small 'hartal' on the death of Lokmanya Tilak.

While studying at Berlin University in Germany, he organised the Association of European Indians to raise voice against British oppression in India. He pledged to follow the Mahatma Gandhi's footsteps and met Jawaharlal Nehru in 1921. Lohia was attracted to socialism and helped lay the foundation of Congress Socialist Party, founded 1934.

Once again put bind bars for writing an article 'Satyagraha Now' in Gandhi's newspaper 'Harijan'. Lohia vigorously protested against the enrollment of Indians in the Royal Army during World War II for which landed him in jail in 1939 and again in 1940.

His greatness lies in the perseverance of fighting spirit against social discrimination, class inequality in independent India.

In fact, Lohia was disillusioned by socialism propagated by Nehru. In 1963, Lohia became a Member of Parliament for the first time. He wrote a pamphlet named '25000 rupees in a day' when Nehru was prime minister. In that pamphlet, he had said that the amount of money spent on the prime minister for a single day is much more than the poor country could afford.

Lohia was also a great supporter of gender equality. In place of Ramrajya, the ideal society should be named as Sita-Ram-Rajya, he used to say.

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