Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad (born Rajendra Prasad Srivastava; 3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar and Maharashtra. A supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 and the Quit India movement of 1942. After the constituent assembly 1946 elections, Prasad served as 1st Minister of Food and Agriculture in the central government from 1947 to 1948. Upon independence in 1947, Prasad was elected as President of the Constituent Assembly of India, which prepared the Constitution of India and which served as its provisional Parliament.
For other uses, see Rajendra Prasad (disambiguation).
Rajendra Prasad
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Himself
Position established
Himself
Position established
Position abolished
3 December 1884
Ziradei, Bengal Presidency, British India
(present-day Bihar, India)
Mrityunjay Prasad (son)
- Politician
- lawyer
- journalist
- scholar
Bharat Ratna (1962)
When India became a republic in 1950, Prasad was elected as its first president by the Constituent Assembly. As president, Prasad established a tradition for non-partisanship and independence for the office-bearer and retired from Congress party politics. Although a ceremonial head of state, Prasad encouraged the development of education in India and advised the Nehru government on several occasions. In 1957, Prasad was re-elected to the presidency, becoming the only president to serve two full terms. Prasad stayed in office for the longest term of around 12 years. Post the completion of his tenure, he quit the Congress and set up new guidelines for parliamentarians which are still followed.
Early life[edit]
Prasad was born on 3 December 1884 in a Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha family in Ziradei, Bihar.[1][2] His father, Mahadev Sahay Srivastava, was a scholar of both Sanskrit and Persian languages. His mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a devout woman who would tell stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata to her son. He was the youngest child and had one elder brother and three elder sisters. His mother died when he was a child, and his elder sister then took care of him.[3][4][5][6]
Student life[edit]
After the completion of traditional elementary education, he was sent to the Chapra District School. Meanwhile, in June 1896, at the early age of 12, he was married to Rajavanshi Devi. He, along with his elder brother, Mahendra Prasad Srivastava, then went to study at T.K. Ghosh's Academy in Patna for a period of two years. He secured first in the entrance examination to the University of Calcutta and was awarded Rs. 30 per month as a scholarship.
Prasad joined the Presidency College, Calcutta in 1902, initially as a science student. He passed the F. A. under the University of Calcutta in March 1904 and then graduated with a first division from there in March 1905.[7] Impressed by his intellect, an examiner once commented on his answer sheet that the "examinee is better than examiner".[8] Later he decided to focus on the study of arts and did his M.A. in Economics with a first division from the University of Calcutta in December 1907. There he lived with his brother in the Eden Hindu Hostel. A devoted student as well as a public activist, he was an active member of The Dawn Society.[9] It was due to his sense of duty towards his family and education that he refused to join Servants of India Society, as it was during that time when his mother had died as well as his sister became a widow at the age of nineteen and had to return to her parents' home. Prasad was instrumental in the formation of the Bihari Students Conference in 1906 in the hall of Patna College. It was the first organisation of its kind in India and produced[10] important leaders from Bihar like Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Krishna Singh who played a prominent role in the Champaran Movement and Non-cooperation Movement.
In popular culture[edit]
Babu Rajendra Prasad is 1980 short documentary film directed by Manjul Prabhat and produced by the Films Division of India which covers the life of the first president of India.[24]