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Description of  The Dream of Revolution: A Biography of Jayaprakash Narayan

Few figures in modern India have enjoyed such acclaim and adoration as Jayaprakash Narayan. And yet, he has been equally vilified for all that went wrong in the unfinished post-colonial movement for freedom and democracy. Jayaprakash Narayan, or JP as he was universally known, epitomized the Marxian and Gandhian styles of political engagement, and famously brought a powerful government to its knees. Throughout his life, he channelled an emotional hunger for transformative politics, jettisoned easy options, shunned power and incubated revolutionary ideas. A comprehensive study of JP's life and ideas-from the radicalism of his thought process at American university campuses in the 1920s to his political coming of age in the 1930s and subsequent disenchantment with Gandhi's leadership from his infectious confidence about the future of socialism to his seemingly naive plans to outmanoeuvre powerful forces within the Congress from his fractious friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru to his relentless crusade against the stifling of dissent- Read more