Morarji Desai
- In full:
- Morarji Ranchhodji Desai
- Born:
- February 29, 1896, Bhadeli, near Valsad, India
- Died:
- April 10, 1995, Bombay [now Mumbai] (aged 99)
- Title / Office:
- prime minister (1977-1979), India
- Political Affiliation:
- Indian National Congress
- Janata Party
Morarji Desai (born February 29, 1896, Bhadeli, near Valsad, India—died April 10, 1995, Bombay [now Mumbai]) was an Indian politician and independence activist who served as the fourth prime minister of India (1977–79), as a member of the Janata Party. He was the first prime minister of independent India not to represent the long-ruling Indian National Congress (Congress Party).
Early life
Born to a Brahmin family, Desai was the eldest of six siblings. His father, a village teacher, died when he was 15. Shortly afterward Desai married Gajraben. He was educated at the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai) and in 1918 joined the provincial civil service of Bombay, which was part of the Indian Civil Service bureaucratic system under the British raj. He worked as a civil servant for 12 years, during which he served as the deputy collector of Ahmedabad (now in Gujarat).
Role in the Indian Independence Movement
Desai strongly believed in Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance, to the extent that he resigned from the civil service in 1930 to join the Indian Independence Movement. He participated in the individual satyagraha (1941) and the Quit India Movement (1942). He was imprisoned several times during the independence struggle. In 1939 Desai and other Congress Party ministers, who held positions in provincial governments across British India, resigned to protest the unilateral decision by the British viceroy, Victor Alexander John Hope, 2nd marquess of Linlithgow, to include India in World War II. Desai served as the minister of revenue twice. From 1937 to 1939 he was minister of revenue, agriculture, forests, and cooperatives in the Bombay Presidency. After the 1946 provincial elections, he became minister of home and revenue in the Bombay Presidency (Bombay state in 1950) until 1952.
Political career
After India gained independence in 1947, Desai emerged as a popular leader. He served as the chief minister of Bombay state from 1952 to 1956. He became the minister of commerce (1956) and the minister of finance (1958) in the Jawaharlal Nehru central cabinet. After the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian parliament) elections in 1967, Desai served as the deputy prime minister and minister of finance in the Indira Gandhi cabinet. In 1969 he resigned the deputy prime ministership after Gandhi removed him as minister of finance. When the Congress Party split that same year, Desai joined the Congress (O, or Organisation) faction, and Gandhi headed the other group, Congress (R, or Requisitionists).
The Emergency and the Janata Party
On June 25, 1975, Indian Pres. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, acting on Prime Minister Gandhi’s advice, declared a national emergency. Under the Emergency, Gandhi’s government enacted laws designed to curb personal freedoms and jail political opponents. Desai was arrested in 1975 for his political activities and detained in solitary confinement until 1977, whereupon he became active in the Janata Party, founded in 1977 by a diverse group of political parties opposed to the Emergency. After Gandhi ended the Emergency that same year, elections were held. The Janata Party swept them, ending the 30-year rule of the Congress Party.
Prime ministership
On March 24, 1977, Desai was sworn in as the first non-Congress prime minister of independent India. He vowed to end poverty in a decade and to ban alcohol. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s stance against alcohol, Desai initiated major steps toward prohibition in 1978.
Desai’s government enacted the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act (1978), which amended Article 352 of the Indian Constitution. The Act removed “internal disturbance” as grounds for declaring a state of emergency and replaced it with “armed rebellion.” The 1975 Emergency had been justified on the basis of an internal disturbance in India.
Desai made serious attempts to achieve peace with Pakistan. He also advocated for normalizing ties with China, provided that China returned all Indian territories captured during the Sino-Indian War of 1962. He sought to reset relations with the United States following the 1974 Pokhran nuclear tests, which had angered Washington. Although he was against nuclear weapons and vowed not to pursue them, Desai refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
After two years of political tension, the Janata Party coalition began to unravel. Desai resigned on July 15, 1979, after numerous defections from the coalition in the parliament, to avoid a vote of no confidence.
Legacy
In politics as well as in life in general, Desai remained unwavering in his commitment to Mahatma Gandhi’s principles. He was a strict vegetarian and urged Indians to follow his example of not consuming alcohol. He told Reuters on his 99th birthday that
Gandhism is still relevant to today’s world, and not just India alone. It means fearlessness, humanity, love for all. These things concern everyone.
The Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, was awarded to Desai in 1991. He had received Pakistan’s highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Pakistan, in 1990, for promoting regional peace. Desai died at age 99 on April 10, 1995, of age-related illnesses.