A stamp released to celebrate the great contributions of Ram Manohar Lohia; Source: Public Domain

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Ram Manohar Lohia is perhaps the most famous activist from the socialist movement in the history of India. He was born on the 23rd of March, 1910, in Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh. He was brought up by his father as his mother died at a young age. Attending the Banaras Hindu University and the Vidyasagar College, even going to the Frederick William University in Germany, Lohia would develop theories and ideas opposite to the British schools of philosophy - even writing his thesis on the Salt Taxation In India, at that time a highly debated topic.

> Ram Manohar Lohia would choose to involve himself in the national movement, being one of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party and editing its main journal, *Congress Socialist*.

Over time, he would develop a critical political standpoint, marking himself out against both the Congress and the other left-wing parties which formed a part of the spectrum.

He would be one of the leading figures in the Quit India Movement. 

> While lading the charge for sabotaging English supplies and Industries, and was caught in 1944, for a two-year-long prison term. In Independent India, he joined the Congress Socialist Party as it split from the Congress.

He would be known for his socialist policies, his writings on the caste system and its effects in India. His work as the Congress Foreign Secretary proved to be extremely substantial- where he coordinated relations with many other countries, which he would often chronicle in his own works. As a member of the Congress Socialist Party, he would also dabble into works on Marxism, the poor, and Indira Gandhi’s socialist policies.

Ram Manohar Lohia is immortalized in his works, and the numerous charities, hospitals and other works dedicated in his name. As he passed away in the late 1960s, he would be known to a generation of socialists, who took him to heart.

Ram Manohar Lohia, known for his work in the Congress Socialist Party as well as being the Foreign Secretary of the INC, was born today in 1910. 