Brajkishore Prasad

Who was Brajkishore Prasad?

Brajkishore Prasad was born in 1877 in a prominent kayastha family in Shrinagar to Ramjivan Lal a zamindar now in Siwan district in Bihar. He had his early education in Chhapra and Patna before moving to Presidency College in Calcutta where he completed his legal training. In between he was married to Phool Devi. He set up a legal practise in Darbhanga and had two sons Vishwa Nath and Shiv Nath and two daughters, Prabhavati Devi and Vidyawati.Prabhavati Devi was married to Jayaprakash Narayan and Vidyawati to Mrityunjaya Prasad,son of Rajendra Prasad.

He met with Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 and was immediately taken in by him. He decided to get involved full-time in the freedom struggle and gave up his legal practice. He was instrumental in Gandhi taking up the Champaran movement where Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha were handpicked with him to successfully lead the movement . Gandhi was so impressed by his dedication that he set aside a full chapter on him in his autobiographical book, My experiments with truth called "The Gentle Bihari".

He remained at the forefront of the freedom struggle in Bihar and collaborating with several colleagues was instrumental is the setting up of Bihar Vidyapeeth. For the last ten years of his life he was severely infirmed and died in 1946.