Karpoori Thakur Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Other name	Karpuri Thakur
Nickname	Jan Nayak
Profession(s)	• Politician • Freedom Fighter
Famous for	Serving as Chief Minister of Bihar twice
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	5' 8" (172 cm)
Eye Colour	Black
Politics
Political Party	• Socialist Party • Bharatiya Kranti Dal • Janata Party • Lok Dal
Political Journey	• 1952- Became MLA for the first time from Tajpur constituency as a Socialist Party candidate • 5 March 1967 to 31 January 1968- Served as the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Bihar • 22 December 1970 to 2 June 1971- First term as the Chief Minister of Bihar • 1977- Became an MP for the first time from Samastipur constituency • 24 June 1977 to 21 April 1979- Second tenure as the Chief Minister of Bihar • 1980- Became MLA from Samastipur (Legislative Assembly constituency) as a Janata Party (Secular) candidate • 1984- Lost 1984 general elections amid Indira Gandhi's wave • 1985- Became MLA from Sonbarsa constituency
Awards, Honours	• Karpoori Thakur's birthplace, Pitaunjhia, was renamed Karpuri Gram after he died in 1988 • The Department of Posts released a commemorative stamp in his memory in 1991 and 2024 • Bharat Ratna by the Government of India in 2024 • Commemorative coin of denomination Rupees 100 launched in 2024 • Several colleges, schools, and stadiums are named after him in Bihar • Jan Nayak Express Train running between Darbhanga and Amritsar
Personal Life
Date of Birth	24 January 1924 (Thursday)
Birthplace	Pitaunjhia village (now Karpoorigram), Samastipur, Bihar, India
Date of Death	17 February 1988
Place of Death	Patna, Bihar, India
Age (at the time of death)	64 Years
Death Cause	Cardiac Arrest
Zodiac sign	Aquarius
Signature
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Samastipur
School	Local village school
College/University	C.M. College, Darbhanga
Educational Qualification	Bachelor of Arts (BA) Dropout
Religion	Hinduism
Caste	Nai (Hajjam) (mainly worked as a barber) [1]India Today
Controversy	Allegations of Rape [2]India Today [3]India Today Karpoori Thakur was contesting the Bihar Legislative Assembly byelection from Phulparas constituency in January 1978 when rape was alleged by Premlata Rai, a 35-year-old teacher from Kathmandu. She alleged that Thakur raped her in 1975 when he was living in Nepal during the emergency. She said that on the night of 20 July 1975, she returned drunk from a wedding and slept in the house of Professor S.N. Verma in Kathmandu where Thakur raped her in sleep. He started apologising to her when she confronted him about the rape and said that he could not control his desires. Rai claimed that she later sold her ornaments and mortgaged her house for Rs 16,000 to help Thakur. When she tried to meet Thakur when he became the Chief Minister of Bihar, he denied to meet her. On 19 October 1978, she met Thakur in Patna following which she returned to Nepal. She also filed a case against Thakur which was later rejected in the court and judges noted that the charges looked like political conspiracy to stain the public image of Thakur. Thakur maintained his innocence during the trails and said that it was a plan of his political rivals.
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Married
Family
Wife/Spouse	Phooleshwari Devi (Homemaker)
Children	Son- 2 • Ram Nath Thakur (Elder, politician and Rajya Sabha - upper house of the Indian parliament, MP from Janata Dal (United) (also known as JDU) • Birendra (also spelt as Virendra) Kumar Thakur (Younger, Doctor) Daughter- 1 (Name not known)
Parents	Father- Gokul Thakur (Barber & Farmer) Mother- Ramdulari Devi (Homemaker)
Siblings	Brother- 2 • Ramsugat Thakur (Younger) Sister- 6 • Galho • Siya • Rajo • Sita • Parvati • Shail
Other Relatives	Grandfather- Pyare Thakur Daughter-in-law- Kumari Asha Rani (Ram Nath's wife, died in 2020) Daughter-in-law- Kanaklata Thakur (Birendra's wife) Paternal Nephew- Nityanand Thakur (Ramsugat's son, a head clerk in Gokhul Karpoori Phuleshwari Degree College, Karpoorigram, Samastipur) Paternal Nephew's Wife- Nisha Thakur (Anganwadi worker, Wife of Nityanand Thakur) Granddaughters- 4 Ram Nath Thakur's Daughters • Namita • Sneha • Amrita (works in the Bihar government) Birendra Thakur's Daughter • Jagriti Thakur (Doctor, married to Mritunjay Madhav, a Divisional Forest Officer at Himachal Pradesh Forest Department) Grandson- 1 • Abhinav Vikas Thakur (Cardiologist, from his younger son Birendra Thakur) Great Grandson- Aditya Anmol (Namita's son, lives in California and holds a master's degree in public policy)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Karpoori Thakur

• He was regarded as a mass leader of the poor and people belonging to the backward castes of Bihar. He won several elections during his career and handled several ministerial positions such as becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar twice and as Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Bihar. In 2024, the Government of India posthumously awarded him the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour.

• He attended Acharya Narendra Dev’s rally in Khudiram Bose’s village Waini in 1938 after which he became a member of the Indian independence movement. He was later influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Satyanarayan Sinha. In 1940, he passed the 10th division exam from a local school and also established a library in his village while studying in school.
  

  Karpoori Thakur (second from right, sitting) during his teenage years

• He later started teaching at a local school before he was imprisoned for 26 months between 1942 and 1945 taking part in the Indian independence movement. He was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) at C.M. College, Darbhanga; however, Ram Manohar Lohia influenced him after which he dropped out of college and entered politics.
  

  Karpoori Thakur when he decided to enter politics full time

• After becoming a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in 1952, he started his electoral career and served as MLA and MP (Member of Parliament) for various terms (mostly from Samastipur) and lost only one election in 1984 (general elections) due to the Congress wave after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
  

  Karpoori Thakur campaigning during elections

• When he became the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Bihar in 1967, he implemented several key changes to the policy such as removing English as a compulsory subject from the curriculum as he was a supporter of Hindi being the major language, making education free till 8th standard, and making Urdu the second state language of Bihar.
  

  Karpoori Thakur when he became the Education Minister of Bihar

• After becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time on 22 December 1970, he prohibited liquor sales and consumption in Bihar and also introduced several land reforms in Bihar for peasants and small-scale farmers.
  

  Karpoori Thakur (left) taking oath as Chief Minister of Bihar

• On 24 June 1977, he took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the second time. He tried to implement the Mungeri Lal Commission report, which recommended the institution of reservations for Backward Castes in government jobs following which infighting began in his party. His reservation policy later became famous as the Karpoori Formula.
  

  Karpoori Thakur (right) taking oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the second time

• He was against the caste system, and to remove the casteist practices in society at that time, he often went to intercaste marriages to greet the families.
  

  Karpoori Thakur (extreme left) at a wedding

• When he passed the 10th standard with first division, his father took him to a person of upper caste who put his legs on the table and asked Thakur to massage his legs in an attempt to humiliate him due to being born in a backward caste. When he told this incident to Yashwant Sinha, an Indian administrator and politician, he said that the notion was false that a good education and job are enough for respect in society.

• In 1952, he visited Yugoslavia as a member of a parliamentary group. As per one source, he did not have any coat and borrowed a torn coat from his friend, and as per another source, he was shivering as he was only wearing his kurta and dhoti and did not have any coat. Josip Broz Tito, then-President of Yugoslavia, was impressed with his honesty and gifted him a new coat which Thakur later gave to one of his friends after returning to Patna.

• Karpoori Thakur was once approached by his brother-in-law (sister’s husband) who asked for his help to get a job. Thakur thought for many hours, took out Rs 50 from his pocket, gave it to his brother-in-law, and asked him to start a barbershop, their traditional occupation.
  

  Karpoori Thakur after becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar

• He headed many protests and strikes during his career for the rights of corporate workers and government employees. He headed the protest of P & T employees in 1960 against the Indian government for their rights. He started a fast unto death in 1970 for the rights of Tata factory workers in Jamshedpur and did not eat anything for 28 days before their demands were accepted by Tata management.
  

  Karpoori Thakur during a strike

• In 1970, when he became the Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar for the first time, he and his family members lived in the CM House in Patna. During a visit by one of his school teachers, he asked one of his relatives to vacate a bed for the teacher which he did; however, he was not happy. When Thakur came to know about this the next day, he ordered the government officials to transfer the bed from his house to other government residences and started sleeping on the floor. ^[4]Hindustan
  

  Karpoori Thakur at Chief Minister’s residence

• Karpoori Thakur’s younger son, Birendra, got ill in 1974 after he was selected to study in a medical college. He was admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi where doctors said that heart surgery was needed to save Birendra’s life. Birendra was later transferred to AIIMS (All India Institute Of Medical Science), Delhi on Indira Gandhi’s intervention who told Karpoori that she could send Birendra to the USA at government expense for treatment which he denied. Birendra was later sent to New Zealand for treatment on the funds collected by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP).
  

  Karpoori Thakur (left) in 1970s

• In 1977, when he became the Chief Minister of Bihar, Karpoori Thakur decided to procure guns for the Dalits and other backward castes (OBCs) for self-protection, particularly those living in regions that had high caste-related crime records as he believed that police were unable to stop crime efficiently due to which such incidents were happening. He also bought 400 double-barrel (donali) guns; however, other members of his party threatened him with resigning and taking back their support after which he reversed his decision. ^[5]Navbharat Times

• Several popular leaders including Chandra Shekhar, the 8th Prime Minister of India, and Nanaji Deshmukh were present during the birthday celebrations of Jaiprakash Narayan (also known as JP) in 1977 which was organised at the Charkha Samiti Bhavan in Kadamkuan, Patna. One of the people present in the program referred to Karpoori Thakur’s torn clothes and broken slippers that how much salary should be paid to a Chief Minister for decent living following which Chandra Shekhar spread his kurta and started collecting money for clothes of Karpoori Thakur. When he handed over the money to Thakur and asked him to buy a kurta, Thakur replied that he would submit the money to the Chief Minister Relief Fund.
  

  Karpoori Thakur (right) at the program where the Kurta Fund incident took place

• A politician associated with JDU named Nihora Prasad Yadav told an incident about Karpoori Thakur. Yadav once went to meet Thakur in the morning, around 6 am, when Thakur asked him to drop him at the Presidency Hotel where an interview was scheduled with reporters of international newspapers. Reporters were shocked to see him wearing a dhoti-kurta and chappal and commented that no other leader in the world was like Thakur, and he was a real leader of poor people. ^[6]Navbharat Times
  

  Karpoori Thakur in an interview

• When Karpoori Thakur was Chief Minister of Bihar, his wife got ill after which his relatives requested him to take her to a doctor in the official car (Ambassador car) of the Bihar CM. He rejected the request and took her to a hospital in a rented rickshaw. ^[7]Deccan Herald

• He was against dynasty politics and until he was alive, he did not allow his son or any other family member to enter politics. An MLA once suggested that Thakur’s son should also contest elections which angered Thakur who said that only one of them would contest elections. In an interview, Ram Nath Thakur, his elder son, revealed that when he passed matriculation (10th) in 1966, Karpoori advised him to study hard, become a government officer, and take care of his mother and grandparents. ^[8]The Times of India
  

  Karpoori Thakur’s elder son, Ram Nath Thakur

• He rented a taxi to go to Ranchi instead of going in any government vehicle when he had to go to Ranchi from Patna to meet with a boy for his daughter’s marriage in 1970. He did not invite any famous leader, and later, when the marriage was taking place, he stopped any flight from landing at Darbhanga and Saharsa airports to stop any politician from coming.
  

  Karpoori Thakur in 1970

• Popular Indian politician and twice Chief Minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, has often termed Karpoori Thakur his political and ideological mentor (guru); however, he once denied a ride in his jeep to Thakur in the 1980s when he was the Leader of Opposition in Bihar. Thakur requested Yadav to give his jeep to him so that he could go out and eat which Yadav denied and said that Thakur should buy a jeep as he has been two time Chief Minister of Bihar. Allegedly, he also called his Kapati Thakur secretly. ^[9]Hindustan

• Chaudhary Charan Singh, the 5th Prime Minister of India, once visited Karpoori Thakur’s house in his village. When Singh’s head hit the top of the door frame due to its low height, he asked Thakur to increase the height of his doors. Thakur replied that until the house of every poor person in Bihar was well-made, there would be no benefit in doing that.
  

  Chaudhary Charan Singh (standing) and Karpoori Thakur (centre, sitting)

• In 1988, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, the 8th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the ex-Finance Minister in the Indian government, visited Thakur’s ancestral home after his death and was in tears as he could not believe that despite being the Chief Minister of Bihar twice, Thakur did not even build his house properly.

• Karpoori Thakur’s commitment towards the upliftment of the poor and social service was evident in his actions. Harivansh, who has served as Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, talked about such an incident and said that Thakur once received 50 thousand bricks to make his home; however, instead of constructing his home, he used those bricks to make a school.
  

  School made with the bricks donated by Karpoori Thakur

• After becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar, he implemented reservation in government jobs for backward castes and OBCs. Many people protested his decision and used harsh casteist slurs against him and his family. He was hurt by such comments and said to one of his close associates that he would not have to undergo such a situation if he was born a Yadav.
  

  Karpoori Thakur (sitting, third from left) during a press conference about reservation policy

• Popular Haryana leader and 6th Deputy Prime Minister of India, Devi Lal, once toured Patna and told one of his friends to give Rs 5-10 thousand to Karpoori Thakur if he ever demanded and told his friend that the money would be loaned to him. Later, Devi Lal asked his friend several times if Thakur asked for any money; however, his friend always replied that he never asked for anything. ^[10]Prabhat Khabar
  

  Karpoori Thakur with Devi Lal and Prakash Singh Badal (left to right)

• A sweeper named Thakaita died due to a beating by police when Karpoori Thakur was the Chief Minister of Bihar. Thakur initiated legal proceedings against the police officials and performed the last rites of the sweeper as a son. ^[11]Prabhat Khabar

• Karpoori Thakur’s death is considered a mystery by his followers as it has been alleged by a few of his friends that a few months before his death, he preferred a female leader for political works due to which some of his close associates were not happy with him. A few others have claimed that foam was coming out of Thakur’s mouth when he breathed his last, and he was also taking yoga classes from a yoga teacher who ran away when Thakur died, and police were unable to trace him.
  

  Hemawati Nandan Bahuguna, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Ram Awadhesh Singh, George Fernandes, Bhagwat Jha Azad, and Vinayak Prasad Yadav (right to left) paying tribute to Karpoori Thakur

• Karpoori Thakur was popular for being a very honest politician who was never involved in any kind of corruption or illegal practice.  Once a reporter asked him why did he not save money for himself and his family, he said that he was not worldly-wise and not interested in money.
  

  Karpoori Thakur during an interview

• Several famous Bihar politicians such as Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Ram Vilas Paswan have often called him their ideological mentor.

• He served as an MLA and MP for many terms and twice as Chief Minister of Bihar, yet he never purchased a house for his family and never bought a car.
  

  Karpoori Thakur while serving as an MLA

• During Karpoori Thakur’s 100th birth anniversary celebrations, Narendra Modi praised him for his simplicity and vision for the betterment of backward castes particularly OBCs. He also said that Thakur’s dedication towards social justice was an example of social service to the public.

• On 30 March 2024, his son Ramnath Thakur accepted the Bharat Ratna award from President Droupadi Murmu on behalf of Karpoori Thakur.
  

  Karpoori Thakur’s son Ramnath Thakur accepted the Bharat Ratna award from President Droupadi Murmu on behalf of Karpoori Thakur on 30 March 2024