296. Narendra Dev, Acharya (1889-1956)

Acharya Narendra Deva ( 1889–1956) was one of the leading theorists of the Congress Socialist Party in India. His democratic socialism renounced violent means as a matter of principle and embraced the satyagraha as a revolutionary tactic.

Deva was first drawn to nationalism around 1915 under the influence of B G Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh. As a teacher he became interested in Marxism andBuddhism. He was active in the Hindi language movement. He was a key leader of Congress Socialist Party from its founding in 1934 and was imprisoned several times during the freedom struggle. He was at times a member of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly. From 6 December 1951 to 31 May 1954 he served as Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University. He was one of the most respected vice chancellors of that University. Helped by Nirmal Chandra Chaturvedi, Executive Councillor and a prominent educationist of the state, he started a number of projects for the expansion of the University}

Narendra Deva advocated the abolition of poverty and exploitation not just through the Marxist materialist dialectic but especially on moral and humanistic grounds. Furthermore, he insisted that "without political democracy social democracy was a sham". Deva was active in the peasant movement and served as president of the All-India Kisan Congress.

He remained associated with the Socialist Party and its successor, the Praja Socialist Party, until his death in 1956..

Acharya Narendra Dev was born in 1889.in Sitapur, Uttarpradesh.Naren was influenced by Swami Ramatirtha and Pandit Madam Mohan Malabya when he was young.He passed M.A. in 1913, LLB in 1915 from Allahabad University.While staying in Allahabad He was attracted by the extremists like B.G.Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chndra Pal, Arabindo Ghosh etc. of the Congress.At that time he was also introduced with Sachindranath sanyal and some other revolutionaries.He founded a branch of Home Rule in Faizabad and became its secretary.From this time he entered in politics. He joined Banaras Kashi Vidyapith in 1921 with the permission of Pandit Jawaharlal. He became Principal of this Institution and from that time he was permanently known as "Acharya". Here he studied Marxism. He was a member of Uttarpradesh Congress Committee and AICC since 1921 till he left Congress. He became secretary of the Independence League founded by Jawaharlal and Subhas Bose.He took the leadership of the boycott movement of Simon Commission in Banaras in 1929.He had undergone imprisonment for three months for joining in non-cooperation movement. in 1930.He was also imprisoned in 1932 for "Stop Paying Taxes" movement in Raiberilli. After release he felt the necessity of vforming a Sociakist group within the Congress. In 1934, he was the president of the meeting in Patna to form Congress Socialist Party and Jayprakash Narayan became the first  general secretary of the Party. At the invitation of Jawaharlal he and  Achyut Pattabardhan became member of AICC. and remained in the same capacity till 1938. He was elected in Assembly of UP in 1935. In 1939 at the outset of WWII all the members of Congress resigned from the cabinet and he was in favour of struggle for freedom till it was achieved.During the movement of 1940 and 1942 he along with other Congress members were put to Jail in Ahmmednagar till 1945 without any trial.Being elected in UP assembly he refused to join in the cabinet in 1946 and resigned from the post when he left the Congress to join Socialist party in 1948. He went to China with BijoyLakshi Pandit in a courtesy tour. in 1952.