Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani | |
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Kripalani during the Quit India Movement, 1942
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Born |
Hyderabad, Sindh, British India |
11 November 1888
Died | 19 March 1982 Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India |
(aged 93)
Occupation | lawyer |
Known for | Indian Independence Movement |
Spouse(s) | Sucheta Kripalani |
Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani (11 November 1888 – 19 March 1982), popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, was an Indian politician, noted particularly for holding the presidency of the Indian National Congress during the transfer of power in 1947. Kripalani was a Gandhian socialist, environmentalist, mystic and independence activist.
He grew close to Gandhi and at one point, he was one of Gandhi's most ardent disciples. Kripalani was a familiar figure to generations of dissenters, from the Non-Cooperation Movements of the 1920s to the Emergency of the 1970s.
Jivatram (also spelled Jiwatram) Bhagwandas Kripalani was born in Hyderabad in Sindh in 1888. Following his education at Fergusson College in Pune, he worked as a schoolteacher before joining the freedom movement in the wake of Gandhi's return from South Africa.
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 organise new ashrams. He courted arrest on numerous occasions during the Civil Disobedience movements and smaller occasions of organising protests and publishing seditious material against the British raj.
Kripalani joined the All India Congress Committee, and became its general secretary in 1928–29.