Joachim Alva

Joachim Ignatius Sebastian Alva (21 January 1907 – 28 June 1979) was an Indian lawyer, journalist and politician from Mangalore. He was a prominent Christian figure involved in the Indian independence movement.

After Independence, Alva was appointed Sheriff of Bombay in 1949. In 1950, he entered the Provisional Parliament of India. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1952, 1957 and 1962 from North Kanara.

Joachim Alva belonged to the Alva-Bhat, a Mangalorean Catholic clan from Belle in Udupi district. He was educated at Elphinstone College, Government Law College, Mumbai and Jesuit St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.

In 1928, Alva became the first Christian to be appointed as Secretary of the fifty-year-old Bombay Students Brotherhood. Along with Khurshed Nariman, H.D. Raja and Soli Batliwala, he was a pioneer of the Bombay Youth League.

In 1930, Alva founded the Nationalist Christian Party with the goal of drawing the Christian community into the freedom struggle. He was expelled from St. Xavier's College for moving a resolution at the Catholic Students Union urging it to throw open its doors to students of other communities. In 1937, Alva presided over a large meeting of Christians at Bombay addressed by Jawaharlal Nehru. He was actively involved in organizing the "No-Tax" campaign at the Bardoli Satyagraha and appointed Dictator of the War Council.

Imprisoned twice by British Indian authorities on charges of sedition, Alva was jail companion to Vallabhbhai Patel, Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai and J. C. Kumarappa. In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi wrote a letter to Alva to inform him that he had missed him at Yerwada Jail because of his early release.

...
Wikipedia