Jagannath Sarkar was an Indian Communist leader, freedom fighter, and writer on social issues.
Background
Jagannath Sarkar was born in Puri, Orissa, India, on 25 September 1919. His father, Doctor Akhilnath Sarkar, was a gynaecologist at the Prince of Wales Medical College (now the Patna Medical College and Hospital). The young Sarkar grew up in the atmosphere of Bengal renaissance, with his family being inspired by Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore.
Career
Sarkar went on to study economics at Patna University, where he associated with the Freedom Movement and the nascent Communist Party in Bihar, and he became an activist among students and educated people. After joining the Communist Party, he moved to the working class areas of Bihar and then Jharkhand, were, in the 1940s and 1950s, he engaged in campaigns for miners" and colliery workers" rights. Sarkar was a leader in the Communist Party in Bihar in the 1950s and 1960s when it came to power in the state, and he railed against supporters of military dictatorship and ideology-less rule.
But at the age of 65, he decided to cease participation in active politics, wanting the younger generation to play a leadership role in progressive movements.
He was extensively quoted and written about by national and international academics, including Bipan Chandra and Paul Brass. Sarkar died on 8 April 2011, in Patna.
Politics
Sarkar also wrote on a number of social issues, including secularism, left-wing extremism, tribal development, and socialist ideological issues in India, and he was patron and editor of the Hindi daily Janashakti for a time.
Membership
In the 1970s, Sarkar became a member of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party and moved to Delhi.