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Born :- 5 April 1908 Chandwa, Bhojpur District, Bihar
Jagjivan Ram was born at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar, to a family of five siblings, elder brother Sant Lal, and three sisters. His father Sobhi Ram was with British Indian Army, posted at Peshawar, but later resigned due to some differences and bought some farming land in his native village Chandwa, and settled there. He also became a Mahant of Shiv Narayani sect, skilled in calligraphy he illustrated many book of the sect and distributed locally. Jagjivan Ram was born at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar, to a family of five siblings, elder brother Sant Lal, and three sisters. His father Sobhi Ram was with British Indian Army, posted at Peshawar, but later resigned due to some differences and bought some farming land in his native village Chandwa, and settled there. He also became a Mahant of Shiv Narayani sect, skilled in calligraphy he illustrated many book of the sect and distributed locally.
Born :- 5 April 1908 Chandwa, Bhojpur District, Bihar
Died :- 6 July 1986 (aged 78)
Political party :- Indian National Congress-J agjivan (1981–1986)
Children :- Suresh, Meira
Alma mater :- Banaras Hindu University, University of Calcutta
He was a freedom fighter and a social reformer hailing from the scheduled castes of Bihar in India. He was from the Chamar caste and was a leader for his community. He was instrumental in foundation of the 'All-India Depressed Classes League', an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables, in 1935 and was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1937, that is when he organised, rural labour movement.
Political party :- Indian National Congress-J agjivan (1981–1986)
Children :- Suresh, Meira
Alma mater :- Banaras Hindu University, University of Calcutta
He was a freedom fighter and a social reformer hailing from the scheduled castes of Bihar in India. He was from the Chamar caste and was a leader for his community. He was instrumental in foundation of the 'All-India Depressed Classes League', an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables, in 1935 and was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1937, that is when he organised, rural labour movement.
In 1946, he became the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's provisional government, the First Union Cabinet of India as a Labour minister, and also a member of Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution. He went on serve as a minister in the Indian parliament with various portfolios for more than forty years as a member of Indian National Congress (INC), most importantly he was theDefence Minister of India during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, which resulted in formation of Bangladesh. His contribution to the Green Revolution in India and modernising Indian agriculture, during his two tenures as Union Agriculture Minister are still remembered, especial during 1974 drought when he was asked to hold the additional portfolio to tide over the food crisis. Though he supported Indira Gandhi during the Emergency in India (1975–1977), he left Congress in 1977 and joined Janata Party alliance in 1977, along with his Congress for Democracy, he later served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India (1977–1979), then in 1980, he formed Congress (J).
Jagjivan Ram was born at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar, to a family of five siblings, elder brother Sant Lal, and three sisters. His father Sobhi Ram was with British Indian Army, posted at Peshawar, but later resigned due to some differences and bought some farming land in his native village Chandwa, and settled there. He also became a Mahant of Shiv Narayani sect, skilled in calligraphy he illustrated many book of the sect and distributed locally. Jagjivan Ram was born at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar, to a family of five siblings, elder brother Sant Lal, and three sisters. His father Sobhi Ram was with British Indian Army, posted at Peshawar, but later resigned due to some differences and bought some farming land in his native village Chandwa, and settled there. He also became a Mahant of Shiv Narayani sect, skilled in calligraphy he illustrated many book of the sect and distributed locally.
Young Jagjivan started going a local school in January 1914, but shortly afterward his father died prematurely, leaving him and his mother Vasanti Devi to economic hardships. He joined Aggrawal Middle School in Arrah in 1920, where the medium of instruction was English for the first time, and joined Arrah Town School in 1922, it was here that is faced caste discrimination for the first time, yet remained unfazed. An often cited incident occurred in the school, there was this tradition of having two water pots in the school, one for Hindus and another for Muslims, so when Jagjivan drank water from the Hindu pot, while being from an untouchable class, the matter was reported to the Principal, who placed a third pot for "untouchables" in the school, but this pot was broken by him twice, eventually the Principal decided against placing the third pot. A turning point in his life came in 1925, when Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya visited his school, and impressed by his welcome address, invited him to join Banaras Hindu University.
Jagjivan Ram passed his matriculation in the first division and joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1927, where he was awarded the Birla scholarship, and passed his Inter Science Examination; while at BHU he organised the scheduled castes to protest against social discrimination. As a Dalit student, he would not be served meals in his hostel, denied haircut by local barbers, a Dalit barber would arrive from Ghazipur from occasionally to trim his hair, eventually he left BHU and pursued graduation from Calcutta University. In 2007, the BHU set up a Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair in its faculty of social sciences to study caste discrimination and economic backwardness.
He received a BSc degree from the University of Calcutta in 1931, here again he organised conferences to draw the attention towards issues of discrimination, and also participated in the anti-untouchability movement started by Mahatma Gandhi.
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