The evolution and significance of the slogan, ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’

‘Jai Jawan jai Kisan’ was a slogan given by the Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965. It means – ‘hail the soldier and hail the farmer’. Soon after Shastri took over the Prime Ministership of India after Nehru’s death. India was attacked by Pakistan and at the same time India was facing the scarcity of food-grains. 

Shastri gave the slogan Jai Jawan Jai Kisan to enthuse the soldiers to defend India and simultaneously cheering farmers to do the best to increase the production of foodgrains to reduce dependence on import. Also at that time US suspended all food aid to India due to Indo-Pak war, so the government was compelled to take measures like rationing, creation of state Food Trading Corporation but it did not serve the purpose completely. So in this background the Jai Jawan Jai Kisan slogan gave an impetus to both the army and the farmers to give the best of their potential. 

In 1998, Atal Bihari Vajpayee added Jai Vigyan (Hail Science) to the slogan after the Pokhran test, to underline the importance of science & technology in India’s progress.