Researching Ram Singh

Singh hailed from Saptari district, eastern Nepal. His father, Jaya Mangal Prasad Singh was a wealthy landowner. Singh's first encounter with the realities of political life came abruptly at the age of seven. In 1942 the Indian socialist leaders Jayprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia came to Nepal to mobilise support for the Quit India Movement and organise the formation of a guerrilla army to fight against British colonial rule. The two stayed at Singh's household. One day Lohia and Narayan, along with three other comrades, were caught by Nepalese police and their weaponry was seized. Singh's father and the remaining guerrilla soldiers attacked the detention centre and freed the two Indian leaders. Jaya Mangal Prasad Singh was later arrested and sentenced for the killing of two policemen during the raid. Ram Raja Prasad Singh and his brother Laxman were made to stay in jail with their father. They were released after India became independent.

Ram Raja Prasad Singh went on to study law. Once, whilst studying at Delhi University, he was able to meet with the Latin American revolutionary leader Che Guevara. Guevara advised Singh to take up guerrilla struggle in Nepal. Singh is probably the only Nepalese politician who met with Guevara.

Singh, a young Supreme Court lawyer, contested one of the four graduate seats in the 1971 Rastriya Panchayat election. Singh won the seat on a platform of restoring parliamentary democracy in Nepal, and his victory was seen as a humiliation of the regime. Whilst several other candidates for the graduate seats had declared their wish for gradual democratic reforms (17 candidates contested on a common reformist platform), Singh was the sole candidate to call for immediate transition to democracy.

The presiding officer of the Rastriya Panchayat was reluctant to let Singh be sworn in along with the other members of the assembly. He was arrested by plainclothes policemen inside the lobby of the assembly. A special tribunal sentenced him. On August 26, 1971, he was given a royal pardon and could later be sworn in as a member of the Rastriya Panchayat. After his release, Singh continued to be a vocal advocate of democratic change and began organising public meetings in different parts of the country.

In 1976 he established Nepal Janabadi Morcha (Nepal Democratic Front), a left-wing political movement in Nepal.

Singh claimed responsibility for the 1985 bombings in Kathmandu. He was convicted of the bombings and his property was confiscated by the government. However, Singh escaped Nepal and went into exile in India. At least eight people were killed, including a member of parliament. In the capital, the blasts went off near the royal palace, at the deluxe Hotel de l'Annapurna owned by the royal family, Singh Durbar, the prime minister's office, and parliament. Bombs also went off at the Bhairahawa airport, Nepalganj and Mahendranagar in the west as well as Birgunj, Janakpur, Biratnagar and Jhapa in the east.

He returned to Nepal in 1990.

Singh died on 12 September 2012 during the course of his treatment at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in the capital Kathmandu. He was 77 years old.

He and his brother Sukhlal Singh was among the early Congress workers from Chatra, who lead in Non-co-operation movement with other young congress leaders like Krishna Ballabh Sahay, Raj Ballabh Singh, Badri Singh of Koderma. They also propagated Khadi and mingled with Santhal leaders like Opan Manjhi, Bangma Manjhi for the social reform movement. He and Krishna Ballabh Sahay were firstly imprisoned for a month by British during 1920-21. The India's district gazetteers also makes a note that notable participants in the independence movement from Chhatra district include Babu Ram Narayan Singh, and Babu Shaligram Singh, who lead the Quit India movement and were impassioned several times by British for their national activities. He was known as Chotanagpur Kesri - Lion of Chotanagpur. He was president of Hazaribagh district Congress Committee and worked closely with other national leaders like Rajendra Prasad, Jay Prakash Narayan, Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Shri Krishna Sinha was among the front leaders, during visit of Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Bihar in 1921-26 and in 1941-42

After independence, he disassociated himself from the Congress Party and won first Lok Sabha elections in 1951 from Hazaribagh West as an independent candidate. It was Babu Ram Narayan Singh who first advocated for separate Jharkhand state in the parliament. He was very close to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and was to accompany him with U. M. Trivedi and V. G. Deshpande on his eventful tour to Kashmir.

He was an active member of All India Kshatriya Mahasabha and was instrumental in reviving it in 1947 after independence and also served as association's president in 1955.

Singh was born on 10 March 1934 in Harpur, Saran district, Bihar in a Zamindar family .He was married to Rajkumari Devi and had both a son Sanjay Kumar and a daughter . He attended Rajendra College in Chhapra and had a BA degree.

In 1949, Singh joined the Socialist Party and between 1967–1972 he was secretary of the Samyukta Socialist Party in his home district. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Bihar for the periods 1967–1968 and 1972–1974.

Singh was elected to the 8th Lok Sabha from the Chapra constituency and to the 9th and 11th Lok Sabhas from the Maharajganj constituency. He served briefly as a minister of state in the Department of Rural Development during the government led by Chandra Shekhar. He was a member of the Janata Dal party around this time.

Singh was general secretary of the SJP in 1983–1984 and principal general secretary from 1996. He spent three months in prison in 1964 for his participation in the Bhoomi Andolan and was detained under the provisions of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) for a further three months in 1974 after he had been involved with an andolan led by Jai Prakash Narayan. He was also detained for around 15 months during the Emergency of 1975–76, again under the provisions of the MISA.

Singh died in hospital on 23 February 2006, soon after angioplasty. His wife had predeceased him.