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Journalism of Courage
As farmer protests continue in India and many other countries across the world over a range of issues, many have recalled former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-66) and his iconic slogan from 1965. “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, which can be translated in English as “hail the soldier, hail the farmer”, was as powerful then as it is today.
Here, we look back at the context in which Shastri coined the slogan. Quotes from historical figures are also an important part of the UPSC Civil Services Exam syllabus.
After Nehru, who?
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and the most towering figure in Indian politics since Independence, died on May 27, 1964, triggering a hunt for a successor.
Top in the running was Morarji Desai, an able and ambitious administrator keen on the top job. Many in the party, however, were not so keen. Within days, “it became clear that Desai would be a controversial choice: his style was too abrasive,” historian Ramachandra Guha wrote in India After Gandhi (2007).
Instead, the diminutive Lal Bahadur Shastri seemed to be Congress’s candidate of choice. “Shastri [was] also a fine administrator, but one who was more accessible, and from the Hindi heartland besides,” Guha wrote. “It helped that Nehru had come increasingly to rely on Shastri in his last days,” he added.
Shastri was the typical soft-spoken “good guy”, almost perennially under-estimated by those around him. He was undoubtedly a man of exceptional integrity — he resigned as the Minister of Railways after a train accident in 1956 — but many doubted his ability to lead India through the myriad challenges it faced at the time.
As JH Hutton, a former British Indian civil servant, wrote to a friend: “I can’t imagine S[h]astri has the stature to hold things together, and all the trouble-makers from Kashmir to Comorin will work to fish in troubled waters, to say nothing of China and Pakistan.” (as quoted in Guha’s book).
Challenge after challenge
Hutton was right to worry — Shastri inherited an India in turmoil. While the Naga independence movement threatened India’s sovereignty, China’s Lop Nur nuclear test in October 1964 sent alarm bells ringing in New Delhi. All while DMK’s anti-Hindi agitation gathered steam. Two men even set themselves on fire in Madras (now Chennai) on Republic Day, 1965, and dissension from within Congress ranks followed.
And then there was Kashmir. Sensing an opportunity, Pakistan President and former military chief greenlighted Operation Gibraltar — a plan to incite a popular uprising against India in the Valley. Beginning in August, Pakistani irregulars crossed the ceasefire line, blew up bridges, and bombed government installations.
While the insurrection did not materialise, Gibraltar sparked a larger Indo-Pak conflict in 1965, just three years after India’s embarrassing beat-down at the hands of the Chinese. The Pakistanis expected India under Shastri to crumble quickly.
But the attack united Indians, across faiths and states, and Shastri showed his metal. “When it came to the conduct of war, Shastri was no Nehru,” Guha wrote. While he certainly preferred peace, “when war came he was decisive, swift to take the advice of his commanders and order the strike across the Punjab border,” he wrote.
Both sides agreed to a ceasefire on September 23, with Pakistan unable to attain any of its initial objectives, although India’s advance into Pakistani Punjab was also halted. It was during this war that Shastri coined the slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, during a public gathering in Uruva village in Allahabad district in 1965.
“Jai Jawan” was for India’s soldiers protecting the country’s vast borders, while “Jai Kisan” was for the humble farmer, going through a crisis of her own.
The 1960s saw shortfalls in food production — growth in agricultural productivity had simply not kept pace with the population growth. Shastri, deeply concerned about the situation, renewed focus on India’s agriculture sector, a marked shift from the Nehruvian focus on industry.
One of his first acts as prime minister was to increase budget allocations for the sector. He also championed efforts to usher in major reforms, laying the foundations of what would become the Green Revolution. Shastri also empowered the likes of C Subramaniam, whom he appointed agriculture minister, and agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, who would go on to head the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
During Shastri’s tenure, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) was also set up, ensuring that farmers got the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their crops, and so was the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Shastri also promoted India’s White Revolution, with the help of Verghese Kurien, by encouraging Kurien to replicate the AMUL cooperative model elsewhere in the country.
Beyond “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”
Shastri’s short tenure saw India’s jawans thwarting the enemy at the border, while the kisans toiled on the fields to feed the country. For the prime minister, both were central pillars for the country’s well-being and security.
This was as true in 1965 as it is today, nearly 60 years later. Over the years, however, various leaders have made their additions to this slogan.
For instance, after the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests which catapulted India to nuclear-power status, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee added “Jai Vigyan”, or “hail science” to the slogan, underlining the importance of scientific development for India’s national well-being. Prime Minister Narendra Modi went one step further in 2019, adding “Jai Anusandhan”, or “hail research” to Vajpayee’s quote.
