Nathuram Mirdha

Nathuram Mirdha Biography

Nathuram Mirdha was a prominent politician and popular farmer leader of Marwar region in Rajasthan. He is also known as a freedom fighter and social reformer. Mirdha simultaneously fought feudalism as well as the British. He was a parliamentarian and served as Minister of State for Irrigation, Finance, Food and Civil Supplies. He has also served as the Chairman of National Agricultural Prices Commission and known for his reforms that benefitted farmers. Though he has been a prominent politician of Indian national congress, he left Congress during Emergency period and joined Lok Dal Party under the leadership of Choudhary Charan Singh. He has won Lok Sabha elections in 1971, 1977 and 1980 in Congress ticket and in 1989 on Janata Dal ticket.

Mirdha was born on October 20, 1921 in Kuchera, Nagaur of Rajasthan as the son of Thana Ram Mirdha. After completing Master’s in Economic, he took LLB from Lucknow University. He became a popular farmer leader gaining popularity among common man. He became the secretary of farmers’ organization “Kisan Sabha” in 1946 and then served as Revenue minister in the Jodhpur state. He was a close associative of Justice Kan Singh Parihar who played a significant role in the codification of the Marwar tenancy act 1949 and Marwar Land Revenue Act 1949. He suggested Mirdha to take quick actions for land reforms in Marwar which resulted in giving free ownership rights to farmers overnight. It was his move to fight against feudalism prevailed in India in pre-independence period.

After Indian independence he became active in Indian politics. His son Bhanu Prakash Mirdha was a parliamentarian elected in 1996. He died in New Delhi the same year.

Published: N/A

Updated: May 19, 2014