J. B. Kripalani

In 1936, he married Sucheta, a teacher in Women’s College at the Benaras Hindu University, whom he first met through her cousin who worked as the Secretary of the Gandhi Ashram at Benares initiated by him.

Unlike him, his wife remained a Congress loyalist and served the Party lifelong. In her political career, she took up various positions with several Central ministries. She became the first woman to chair the position of Chief Minister, in Uttar Pradesh.

He breathed his last on March 19, 1982 at the age of 94.

J. B. Kripalani was born as Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani on November 11, 1888 in Hyderabad, Sind in a Hindu Kshatriya Amil family to Kaka Bhagwandas. His father was in government service, holding the profile of a revenue and judicial officer. He was the sixth of the eight children born to his parents.

Young Kripalani completed his preliminary education from a local school in Sindh before moving to Wilson College Bombay for his higher education. It was therein that he realized his liking for English poetry. Interestingly as much as he liked English poetry then, later he detested English rulers in a similar fashion.

It was while in college that he involved himself in the unrest caused by the students during the partition of Bengal. Forced by the college authorities, he migrated to D. J. Sind College at Karachi, seeking quieter surrounding.

At Karachi, life was no different for young and hot-blooded Kripalani who could not keep himself off from the turmoil and trouble. Following a derogatory remark made by the principal of the college, he actively participated in political agitation which got him ousted from the college.

He later moved to Fergusson College in Poona where he graduated in 1908. Following this, he studied further and finally attained an MA degree in History and Economics.

Upon completing his education, he took up the profile of a teacher and started off as a Professor of English and History at the Muzaffarpur College in Bihar. He continued working in the profile for five years from 1912 to 1917.

His second meeting with Gandhiji in 1917 during the Champaran Satyagraha proved to be a turning point in his life. The ideologies of the latter so much so inspired him that he involved himself in the Indian National Congress.

In 1919, he briefly took up a teaching position at the Benaras Hindu University before moving over as the principal of Gujarat Vidyapeeth, a school founded by Mahatma Gandhi. He served in the chair of the principal for seven years from 1920 to 1927.

During the early 1920s, he committed himself to the Non-Cooperation Movement. He worked on the ideology of social reforms and principles of education that Gandhi promoted in his various ashrams across Gujarat and Bombay.

After his stint at the ashrams in Gujarat and Bombay, he moved towards North India and started teaching and organizing new ashrams dedicated to the Gandhian principles and beliefs in Bihar and United Province.

It was while working at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth that he came to be called as Acharya which struck to his name for the rest of his life.

Unlike him, his wife was a Congress loyalist and served the party all through her life. Interestingly, when he split from Congress, the two Kripalanis were frequently at loggerheads with each other at the Parliamentary sessions

Acharya Kripalani shares his birthday with Maulana Azad, a renowned Indian freedom fighter.