Sources & References
Sources &
references
This site is a secondary work. It holds no manuscripts and conducts no original archival research. What it does is set out a researched account and name the published record against which that account can be checked.
A list of sources is worth something only if it is honest about what it is. This one is a bibliography of the standard published record on JP and his period, not a claim that every item on it was consulted for every sentence on this site.
The narrative pages here rest on the well-established account of JP's life as it appears across the biographies, the collected editions and the general histories of the Republic listed below. Where the record is genuinely contested — the reasons for the failure of the 1953 talks, the effect of the 1974 movement, the number of people detained under the Emergency — the pages say that it is contested rather than picking a side. Where a figure or a date could not be established, it has been left out.
Publication details should be verified against a library catalogue. Several of these works have been reissued, retitled or brought out by different imprints, and a catalogue entry may show a year different from the one usually cited.
Primary works by Jaya Prakash Narayan
Described in full, with context and significance, in the reading room.
- 01
Why Socialism?
1936. Written for the Congress Socialist Party.
- 02
Towards Struggle
1946. Selected manifestos, speeches and writings, edited by Yusuf Meherally.
- 03
From Socialism to Sarvodaya
1957. His own account of the central change of his political life.
- 04
A Plea for Reconstruction of Indian Polity
1959. Published by the Sarva Seva Sangh.
- 05
Swaraj for the People
1961.
- 06
A Picture of Sarvodaya Social Order
1961.
- 07
Face to Face
1970. Written out of the work at Musahari, Muzaffarpur district.
- 08
Prison Diary
1977. Kept during his detention under the Emergency in 1975.
Collected and scholarly editions
The first place a researcher should go for the primary record.
- 01
Bimal Prasad (ed.), Selected Works of Jayaprakash Narayan
A multi-volume documentary edition drawing on his papers, correspondence, speeches and published writings, published by Manohar, New Delhi, from 2000 onward.
- 02
Brahmanand (ed.), Towards Total Revolution
Four volumes gathering the writings and speeches of his last period; Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1978.
Biographies and historical studies
Works on JP and on the period of 1974–77. Several have been reissued by different publishers; verify the edition against a library catalogue.
- 01
Ajit Bhattacharjea, Jayaprakash Narayan: A Political Biography
A biography by a journalist who edited the weekly JP launched in 1973.
- 02
Allan and Wendy Scarfe, J.P.: His Biography
A full-length biography drawing on interviews conducted in JP's lifetime.
- 03
Bimal Prasad, Gandhi, Nehru and J.P.: Studies in Leadership
Comparative studies by the editor of the Selected Works.
- 04
Ghanshyam Shah, Protest Movements in Two Indian States
A sociological study of the Gujarat Nav Nirman and Bihar movements of 1973–74.
- 05
Bipan Chandra, In the Name of Democracy: JP Movement and the Emergency
A critical account of the movement and the Emergency by a historian of modern India.
- 06
Gyan Prakash, Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy's Turning Point
A study placing the Emergency in the longer history of the Republic.
- 07
Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil, India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975–77
A detailed political history of the twenty-one months.
- 08
Emma Tarlo, Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi
An ethnographic account of how the Emergency was experienced in Delhi's poorest localities.
- 09
Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History
A journalist's account by a witness to the period.
- 10
Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi
A general history of the Republic; chapters on the movement, the Emergency and the Janata period.
Official and institutional records
The documentary base for the constitutional and legal history.
- 01
Shah Commission of Inquiry, Interim and Final Reports
The inquiry appointed in 1977 under Justice J.C. Shah into the excesses of the Emergency; the principal official record of the period.
- 02
Raj Narain v. Indira Nehru Gandhi, Allahabad High Court, 12 June 1975
The judgment setting aside the 1971 election from Rae Bareli.
- 03
Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain, Supreme Court of India, 1975
The appeal, and the constitutional questions raised by the 39th Amendment.
- 04
ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla, Supreme Court of India, 1976
The habeas corpus case; the dissent of Justice H.R. Khanna.
- 05
The Constitution (38th, 39th, 42nd and 44th Amendment) Acts
The amendments made during and after the Emergency.
- 06
Debates of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, 1975–1978
Including the proceedings on the proclamation and on its revocation.
- 07
Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila
The 1965 award citation and biographical record.
Newspapers and periodicals
Contemporary reporting. Note that Indian newspapers were under pre-publication censorship between June 1975 and early 1977, and reporting from those months must be read with that in mind.
- 01
The Times of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Statesman
Contemporary reporting of the Bihar movement, the Emergency and the 1977 election.
- 02
Everyman's
The weekly JP launched in 1973, a principal vehicle for the movement's arguments.
- 03
Seminar and Economic and Political Weekly
Contemporary analysis and subsequent scholarship on the movement, Sarvodaya and the Emergency.
Archives, libraries and museums
Where the manuscript and institutional record is held. This archive holds no manuscripts of its own.
- 01
Prime Ministers' Museum and Library, New Delhi
Formerly the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library; holds private papers of the period, including collections relevant to JP and to the socialist movement.
- 02
National Archives of India, New Delhi
Government records of the colonial and post-independence periods.
- 03
Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, Varanasi
Publisher and repository of the Sarvodaya movement's literature, including much of JP's Sarvodaya-period writing.
- 04
Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi
Papers and publications relating to Gandhian and Sarvodaya work.
- 05
Jayaprakash Narayan memorial, Sitabdiara
The memorial at his birthplace on the Bihar–Uttar Pradesh border.
Corrections
If any statement on this site is wrong, or a source is misdescribed, the archive would rather be told than left uncorrected. Historical writing about JP is full of confidently repeated details that dissolve on inspection, and this site will not be immune to that. Please write, with the source, to im@digantsharma.com or see Contact.