Asoka Mehta

Asoka Mehta (1911-1984) was an Indian freedom fighter and socialist politician. He helped organize the socialist wing of the Indian National Congress, along with Jaya Prakash Narayan, and was heavily involved in the politics and government of the western city of Bombay.

Mehta was arrested during the Quit India movement, and after India's independence, helped organize trade unions in Bombay. He also served as Mayor of Bombay city from 1946 to 1947. Mehta retired from active politics in the early 1950s, and wrote several books on his experiences, on India's freedom struggle and the importance of socialist reforms.

In September,1952 the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party and the Socialist Party merged to form the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) and Asoka Mehta became its general secretary. In 1963, he agreed to become deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and after the expulsion from the party in 1964, he joined Indian National Congress.

ASHOK MEHTA Shri, Son of Shri Ranjitram Mehta. Born at Bhavnagar, October 24, 1911.Education at Wilson College and University School of Economics, Bombay. Unmarried. Social and political worker. Interrupted studies to plunge into national movement. Joined the Civil Disobedience Campaign, arrested and sentenced to 2.1/2 years' imprisonment in 1932.Founder-Member of the Congress Socialist Party and Member, National Executive of the Party, 1937—38.Tendered resignation in protest against the party’s policy towards Communists,1939.Editor Congress Socialist, 1935-39.Sentenced to 1.1/2 years' imprisonment following individual satyagraha, 1940.Arrested in August, 1942 "Quit India" movement, and detained for 3 years, 1942-45.Chairman, Eight National Conference of Socialist Party, Madras, 1950.Member,—(i) Socialist Party, 1948—52, (ii) Praja Socialist Party, 1953— 63.General Secretary, Socialist Party and P.S.P., 1950— 53 and Chairman, PSP from June, 1959 to June, 1963; represented the Party at the Asian Socialist Conference and the Congress of the Socialist International. Pioneer of the Theory of “Compulsions of the backward Economy” Trustee, Bombay Port Trust, 1947-48.Founded, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha in 1949 and was its First General Secretary; Member,—(i) Fair Wages Committee, 1949, (ii) Profit Sharing Committee, 1950, (iii) Working Party on Cotton Textile Industry, 1952, (iv) Central Wage Board for the Cotton Textile Industry, 1959, (v) Konkan Shipping Enquiry Committee, 1960, (vi) Committee on Emotional Integration, 1962, and (vii) Committee on Co-ordination of Physical Education, 1953; Chairman,—(i) Food-grains Enquiry Committee, 1957, (ii) Evaluation Team on Labour and Social Service Camps, 1963and (iii) Power loom Enquiry Committee, 1963. President, National Council of Applied Economic Research; Vice-President,— (i) Institute of Applied Manpower Research, (ii) Indian Council of World Affairs, and (iii) Indian Council for Africa; Chairman— (i) National Planning. Council, (ii) Reviewing Committee of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, (iii) Executive Council of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, (iv) Indian Council for the Future, and (v) Central Institute for Training & Research in Public Co-operation; Member,— (i) National Defence Council, (ii) Central Citizens' Council, (iii) Asia Pacific Division Board of the Council on World Tensions, S.E. Asia Division National Advisory Committee— Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; Recipient of several Honorary Doctorates in Law and Literature. Member, First Lok Sabha, 1954— 57, Second Lok Sabha. 1957—62, Fourth Lok Sabha,1967-71 and acted as Deputy Leader of P.S.P. in Parliament.

Represented India at the U.N. General Assembly, September—December, 1963. Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission from December, 1963-66.Joined Congress Party, 1964.Leader of the Planning Commission Delegation to U.S.S.R., May, 1965 and June-July, 1966 and to U.SA. in April-May, 1966.Appointed Union Minister of Planning, January, 1966 and took over additional portfolio of the Department of Social Welfare, February, 1966.Re-appointed as Union Minister of Planning Petroleum & Chemicals and Social Welfare, March, 1967.Left Congress Party in 1968 over the Czechoslovakian issue. After the split in the Congress Party in 1969 joined Congress(O) and was its President at the time of the formation of Janata Party. Arrested during Emergency in June 1975 and released in May 1976.

Books published: Indian Shipping (1940). Great Rebellion (1946). Who Owns India? (1950). Democratic Socialism (1951). The Political Mind of India, (1952). Socialism and Peasantry (1953). Politics of Planned Economy (1953) and Studies in Socialism (1956). Socialism and Gandhism. Economic Consequences of Sardar Patel. Reflection on Socialist Era. Perception of Asian Personality. The Great Rebellion of 1857. The Communal Triangle in India, Co-author with Achyut Patwardhan.Edited “Congress Socialist” along with Dr Ram Manohar Lohia.He wrote a famous thesis “Compulsions of Backward Economy”. Died 11th December 1984.

Major works

• Economic Planning in India