Jivatram Kripalani(Nov 11,1888 – Forever)
He was popularly known as Acharya Kripalani. He was an Indian politician, noted particularly for holding the presidency of the Indian National Congress during the transfer of power in 1947. Kripalani was Gandhian Socialist, environmentalist, mystic and freedom fighter. He grew close to Gandhi and became in time one of his most ardent disciples. Kripalani was a familiar figure to generations of dissenters, from the Non-Cooperation Movements of the 1920s through till the Emergency of the 1970s.
Kripalani was involved in the Non-Cooperation Movement of the early 1920s. He worked in Gandhi’s ashrams in Gujarat and Maharashtra on tasks of social reform and education, and later left for Bihar and the United Provinces in northern India to teach and organize new ashrams. He courted arrest on numerous occasions during the Civil Disobedience movements and smaller occasions of organizing protests and publishing seditious material against the British raj. Apart from being a critic of Nehru’s policies and administrative decisions, Acharya Kripalani gradually turned out to be a spiritual leader of the socialists, teaming up with Vinoba Bhave.
His wife since 1938, Sucheta Kripalani, went from strength to strength in the Congress Party, with several Central ministries; she was also the first female Chief Minister, in Uttar Pradesh.
—
A Collection By Chetan.