November 24, 2025 12:20 PM IST
First published on: Nov 24, 2025 at 12:13 PM IST
The death of Sachchidanand Sinha has snapped the last living link of the Lohia stream of the Indian socialist movement. His illustrious life personified the socialist way of life. Sinha inspired a large number of activists with his simple living, seminal writings and political engagements. His biography of Gandhi (Unarmed Prophet), analysis of the problems of Bihar (Internal Colony), sociological explanation of the caste system (Caste System), political analysis of the emergency (Emergency in Perspective), and institutional critique of post-colonial India (Permanent crisis in India) have become indispensable interventions in the respective fields.
Understanding Marxism, Socialism and Power, and Adventures of Liberty are significant contributions to the philosophy of liberty and socialism. On the other hand, Chaos and Creation is an outstanding work of art and culture. He was one of the few socialists who not only critiqued the wave of globalisation but also underlined the ways out of consumerism and environmental deterioration. His Hindi writings had a much wider impact than his books in English. But, he avoided self-promotion. He was quite uncomfortable knowing that one of the leading Hindi poets, Raghuvir Sahay, had dedicated one of his poetry collections to him. In fact, he considered political work a moral responsibility for all who value liberty and justice.
When Sinha was only 28 years old, Ram Manohar Lohia made him the editor of his journal Mankind in 1956. Hector Abhaywardhan, Rama Mitra, Rangnath, Rabi Ray, Kishen Patanaik, Gaude Murahari, Omprakash Deepak, Badari Vishal Pitti, Indumati Kelkar, Satya Narain Reddy, Krishnanath and Keshav Rao Jadhav were the other members of this team of Lohiaite socialists. Each one of them, including Sinha, made important contributions in different walks of national life in later years.
Born in an affluent rural family that was actively involved with the Indian freedom movement, he got first-hand experience of the living conditions of the working class by working in the railways as a porter, in mining fields as a labourer, and in textile factories as a mill worker. He was a self-taught intellectual with a good command over Hindi, English, German and French. Sinha left college to join the socialist movement led by Jaiprakash Narayan (JP). At the same time, he neither worshipped Lohia nor JP. He did not agree with Lohia’s formulation that Marxism is the latest weapon of Europe against Asia. Similarly, he differed with JP on the concept of “party-less democracy” as he considered the political parties as an important agent of promoting socio-political changes. He was not a follower of any particular thinker but was impressed by the approach of Rosa Luxemburg. Her analysis of the inter-relations between capitalism and imperialism provided the foundational basis for his writings about the rise and fall of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism.
Sinha had a wide variety of political experiences, ranging from campaigning for B R Ambedkar in the first Lok Sabha elections in 1952 to being the election in-charge of George Fernandes from Muzaffarpur parliamentary constituency in the historical election of 1977. But he was most comfortable in the company of activists of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad. He was an active member of the editorial board of Samayik Varta. He was a cautious optimist, not a man in a “hurry”. This characteristic puts him in the league with the likes of socialist leader Kishan Patnaik, author Ashok Seksaria, painter M F Hussain, Lohia biographer Indumati Kelkar, poet Girdhar Rathi, activist Sunil, political reformer Yogendra Yadav, youth leader Arman Ansari and journalist Arvind Mohan.
I have fond memories of him accepting my invitations to inaugurate the international conference on Satyagraha Centenary at Bhitiharwa village in Champaran and a national workshop on poverty alleviation in Mushahari (Muzaffarpur). I was pleasantly surprised when he inaugurated the national conference of constructive workers organised by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Ramashankar Singh, chancellor, ITM University, Gwalior, at Patna. The most memorable part of the programme was that three generations of the Mahatma Gandhi family — from Tara Bhattacharya and Gopal Krishna Gandhi to Tushar Gandhi, and a large section of the leadership of Sampurna Kranti Andolan — gave a standing ovation to Sinha at the end of his keynote speech.
The writer is Bandodkar Chair Professor, Goa University, Goa
