Balakrishna Sharma

Poet, philosopher and politician, Mr. Balakrishna Sharma holds a unique position among the great stalwarts shaping the destiny of the nation. Nature has endowed him with all her choice of gifts in rare abundance, and he has ungrudgingly placed them unreservedly at the disposal of the nation.

Born in an obscure village in Uttar Pradesh on 8th December 1897, Mr. Sharma was educated in the Christ College Cawnpore. His meeting with Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, that selfless patriot and martyr, profoundly influenced his later life.

K.L. Kamat/Kamat's Potpourri

Congressman Balakrishna Sharma (1897-1960)
Picture of poet, philosopher and a leader Balakrishna Sharma

The nation awakening of the early twenties and Mahatmaji's new political philosophy set his young imaginative mind thinking and he was one of the "three rebels" who left the college and joined the ranks of the Satyagrahis when the non Cooperation movement was launched.

He threw himself into the fight with the zeal of a new convert and was familiar figure at all meetings ably arguing the case for rebellion. He started spreading the message of revolt by writing newspapers and periodicals and addressing public meetings.

He is extraordinarily young for his years, and when he speaks he puts all his energy of his youth and enthusiasm in his words. In all the controversies in which he took part, whether in A.I.C.C or the P.C.C, his words breathed a hot breath of battle. They are a challenge to accepted opinions, and often to authority, but having had his say, if the decision went against him, he accepted defeat with a smile, and loyally carried out the decision.

He is the  "Coming man" of the Congress high circles. His opinions on vital problems of the day are very unconventional. Deeply rooted in the literature, philosophy and the religion of the East, fascinated by the idealism of the West, specially from Moscow, with a blind faith in Mahatmaji's idealism and Jawaharlal's love for organized action, Mr. Sharma is a political enigma. The future has great things in store for him.

He is the President of the Cawnpore (Kanpur) City Congress Committee.

Source: Haripura Congress Souvenir, 1938