Ram Manohar Lohia

Ram Manohar Lohia (1910-69), the man of revolutionary ideas and multi-dimensional personality never supported Marxism or Gandhism. But with the amalgamation of visionary ideas of these two, he laid the foundation of Socialism, keeping in mind the present Indian conditions. Lohia believed that election is not a medium to capture leadership, but to express people’s universal will-power. The story of life struggle of this eminent socialist thinker has been presented in this book in an abstract form.

Author of this book, Late Indumati Kelkar started her political career with Quit India Movement in the year 1942. During her stint with freedom movement she was sent six times to jail. With Ram Manohar Lohia’s first complete and official biography and 11 Marathi books on his ideology to her credit, she has also written various famous Marathi books on Mahatma Phule, Savitri Phule, Rajmata Jijabai and Razia Sultan.

Summarisation of Lohia’s biography has been done by Shripad Krishna Kelkar, who was associated with Gandhiji in his service for the Nation. After serving eighteen months in jail in the movement of 1942, he also spent seven years in jail during Civil Disobedience Movement. He married Indumati Kelkar in 1947. He has written and edited books on Quit India and Non-Cooperation Movement and also various other books.

Desh Raj Goyal (b. 1929) was formerly a lecturer of English literature in Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi. He has edited and translated many books for various publications. Among his important translations include Maulana Azad’s work Ghubar-e-Khater in English. He has been associated with and has written and translated books for the Trust.

Thirty years ago Late Indumati Kelkar had written the biography of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia in Hindi. This is the only authentic biography in any Indian language. Mrs Indumati Kelkar had benefited from discussions with and advice of Dr Lohia in verifying the authenticity of several incidents, statements and opinions.

This book is an abridged version of the original biography (1983 edition). Abridging and editing has been done keeping strictly true to the information, its context and analyses the changes with time and the requirements of the readers of the publications of National Book Trust.

In this work I have received valuable help of Dr H.S. Sane of Parshuram Bhau Mahavidyalaya. I feel deeply indebted to him.