A member of the Dangi Koericaste, Jagdeo Prasad was referred to as the "Lenin of Bihar" due to his charisma. He led the Shoshit Samaj Dal and during the early 1970s, at the height of the caste tensions known as the Bihar Movement, he was able to attract much support from both members of the Other Backward Classes and the Dalits in their opposition to upper-caste landlords.
Born in Kurtha village, Jahanabad district of Bihar; Jagdeo Prasad went to Jahanabad town for higher studies. He further moved to Patna University, from where he pursued his post graduation studies.Jagdeo is said to have revolutionary mindset since his early childhood as in his adolescence, he fought to end prevailing practices like "Panchkathia System", in which farmers had to leave 5 katta of their land for the elephant of landlord to graze. Later he came into contact with Chandradeo Prasad Verma, who persuaded him to study the political philosophers to know the prevalent societal condition in depth. Jagdeo agreed and soon he became sympathetic to idea of socialism. Later, he joined Samyukta Socialist Party and in the days of ideological wars between Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayprakash Narayan, he chosed to go with "Lohia". Jagdeo also became editor of the magazine of SSP called "Janata". Later he moved to Hyderabad and started editing two more magazines Uday and Citizen. His ideas brought great fame to the magazines but he had to face intimidation from orthodox section of society.This led him to leave the magazine and move to Patna once again. Though, initially he remained an active member of SSP, he later realised that the fruits of labour of many are reaped by few in the party and given his ideological difference with Lohia, he resigned and formed a new party called Shoshit Samaj Party. He also remained active member of Arjak Sangha platform led by Ramswaroop verma. The "Shoshit Samaj Party" was more a revolutionary organisation than a political party as it urged the landless labourers to grab the lands of landlords, a practice which gave rise to a number of caste armies and private senas in Bihar. The most popular slogan of Jagdeo Prasad, which could still be seen on the walls of houses in his paternal Kurtha village is: Due to his critic of upper caste dominance, Prasad many a times is branded as Anti-forward.He remained Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar for a brief period of time when SSP was at peak.Prasad was called as Bihar's Lenin in his lifetime due to his radical views, he also coined the politically radical slogan of:
Death
Prasad was killed by police on 5 September 1974 while leading a protest involving 20,000 people. There have been claims that his death was ordered by a minister in the Government of Bihar who belonged to the Bhumihar landowning caste, although police said that the protesters were not peaceful, as claimed, and instead were armed. Vinayak Prasad Yadav, then a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party, resigned from the Legislative Assembly of Bihar in protest of this killing at Kurtha.
