Dr Lohia: The thinker who saw equality as true culture

Dr. Rammanohar Lohia was one of India’s rare visionaries who redefined culture as more than rituals or art.

- Dr Manish Jaisal

For him, culture was a living expression of justice, equality, and collective consciousness, blending politics, ethics, and social transformation—a vision still deeply relevant today.

Born in 1910 in Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, Lohia was influenced early by Mahatma Gandhi. He studied in Varanasi and Kolkata, then went to Berlin University, completing a Ph.D. on Salt Taxation in India. In Europe, socialist ideas shaped his thinking, which he later reinterpreted for India’s social realities. He argued that national progress must rest not just on economics but on moral strength and cultural self-reliance.