Biography of J.B. Kirbalani

(1888)

J.B.Kirpalani was a great intellectual and patriot. He is the author of a number of books including an authoritative biography of Gandhi.

He was born in 1888 in an upper-class family in Hyderabad. He was educated in Karachi. He made a mark as a student leader. He was a professor of English and History at the Muzaffarpur College in Bihar for five years. He also taught for a year at the Benaras Hindu University. In 1920, he became a member of the Gujarat Vidyapith founded by Mahatma Gandhi.

J.B. Kirpalani became the President of the Indian National Congress at its Meerut session in 1946, just a year before independence. Later he founded his own party known as the Krishak Mazdoor Praja Party. The party later merged with the Praja Socialist Party. He was closely associated with the Janta Party, which came to power in 1977 riding on the wave of national resentment against the Emergency.

Kirpalani wrote many books. He wrote with biting irony and sarcasm.