Ram Manohar Lohia was born on 23 March 1910 in a Marwari Bania family[1][2][3] at Akbarpur in modern-day Uttar Pradesh.

After securing the first position in his school at the matriculation examination, he completed his intermediate studies from the Banaras Hindu University in 1927.

[6] While studying here, Lohia wrote his Ph.D. thesis paper on the topic of Salt Taxation in India,[6] focusing on Gandhi's socio-economic theory.

[a] Lohia was greatly influenced by the events that took place in Germany during his stay there, including the rise of Hitler and Nazism.

[8] In 1930, during the session of the League of Nations, Lohia and Menezes, who were present on the occasion, threw bundles of leaflets from the visitors' gallery.

These leaflets denounced Ganga Singh, the then Maharaja of Bikaner (now Rajasthan), and an Indian representative sent by the British Crown to present to the League of Nations.

In 1936, Jawaharlal Nehru chose Lohia as the secretary of the Foreign Department of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

He critically examined the opinions of the Congress leadership, which was greatly influenced by Gandhi,[11] and the Communists who had joined the CSP.

[16] Following his release, Lohia met his friend Julião Menezes in Bombay for a medical consultation in April 1946.

[17] On 18 June 1946, Menezes and Lohia arrived at the designated maidan in Margao, evading and defying the Portuguese police.

About 600–700 people gathered before the duo was physically escorted to the police station, just as Lohia had begun addressing the audience.

The location of the gathering is today known as Lohia Maidan, and the date, 18 June, is celebrated as Goa Revolution Day.

[18] Lohia arrived back to Goa in September 1946 but was immediately arrested and jailed for 10 days at Aguada fort.

[5] On the eve of the India's Independence Day, 14 August 1947, Lohia and Gandhi together helped maintain the peace between Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta.

At the INC session at Nashik in March 1948, the Socialists decided to leave the INC. Further, they resolved to protest for the immediate integration of the princely states into India.

He advocated a programme of "Power within seven years" at this meeting, referring to the proposed rise of socialism in the country.

While Lohia lost the Lok Sabha elections, the Party won seats in Legislative assemblies in multiple states across the country.

[5] The most significant of these was his 1963 speech in the Parliament, in which he exposed the fact that 2.7 crore Indians lived on 3 annas (barely 20 paisa) a day.

He also criticized the government's Five Year Plan, calling its expenditure of 10,000 crores as wasteful, stating that it was only in an attempt to imitate the European ways of living.

[5] In 1967, under Lohia's leadership, the Samyukta Socialist Party defeated the Congress in seven states (including Uttar Pradesh), forming the government there.

This was part of an alliance that was formed by Lohia and Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh.

However, soon after, Lohia realised that the newly elected ministers from his Party were seeking power instead of implementing socialist principles.

[23] In 1978, former Union Health Minister Raj Narain reported that Lohia may have died due to medical negligence.

A commission appointed by the Union government to inquire into the cause of his death found that he had undergone an operation, during which one of the stitches was not properly done.

He stated that mankind is revolting for:[26] Also in 1963, he spoke about the unity of Hindus and Muslims, requesting them to rethink the last 800 years of India's history.