Pariksha SaathiLesson 3 of 10 · Bihar General Knowledge
Modern Bihar and the Freedom Struggle: From 1857 to the JP Movement
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The revolt of 1857 in Bihar
Unrest broke out in Patna in July 1857, when the bookseller Peer Ali rose in revolt; Commissioner William Tayler had Peer Ali hanged on 7 July. On 25 July sepoys of three regiments mutinied at the Danapur cantonment and marched to Arrah, where Babu Kunwar Singh, the zamindar of Jagdishpur, then about 80 years old, took command. They besieged a small fortified house at Arrah held by a handful of Britons and Sikh soldiers. Kunwar Singh then fought across central India, Awadh and eastern Uttar Pradesh, capturing Azamgarh in 1858. Crossing the Ganga on his way home, he was hit in the arm and is said to have cut it off and offered it to the river. He defeated a British force near Jagdishpur on 23 April 1858 and died on 26 April 1858; his brother Amar Singh carried on the fight.
The Wahabi movement
Inspired by Syed Ahmad of Rae Bareli, the Wahabi movement aimed at religious reform and armed struggle. Patna was its main centre in India, run by Vilayat Ali and Inayat Ali of the Sadiqpur family, who sent men and money to the north-western frontier, first against the Sikhs and later against the British. The government crushed it through a series of conspiracy trials, notably the Ambala trial of 1864 and the Patna trial of 1865, and its leaders were transported to the Andamans.
A separate province
For more than a century Bihar was governed as part of the Bengal Presidency. From the 1890s educated Biharis such as Sachchidananda Sinha and Mahesh Narayan, through papers like the Bihar Times, demanded a separate province. After the partition of Bengal was annulled at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911, the province of Bihar and Orissa was created on 22 March 1912 with Patna as capital and Sir Charles Stuart Bayley as the first Lieutenant-Governor. The Patna High Court followed in 1916 and Patna University in 1917. In 1920 Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha became the province's Governor, the first Indian to head a province. Orissa became a separate province on 1 April 1936. Bihar also had revolutionaries: on 30 April 1908 Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw a bomb at Muzaffarpur meant for the judge Kingsford, and Khudiram was hanged at Muzaffarpur.
Champaran and the Gandhian movements
Raj Kumar Shukla met Gandhi at the Lucknow Congress of December 1916 and persuaded him to see the plight of indigo cultivators bound by the tinkathia system, under which they had to grow indigo on 3 kathas of every 20. In April 1917 Gandhi reached Motihari, defied an order to leave, and the case against him was withdrawn. With Rajendra Prasad, Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Mazharul Haque, J.B. Kripalani and Mahadev Desai he recorded thousands of peasants' statements, and the Champaran Agrarian Act 1918 ended the system. During Non-Cooperation, Gandhi inaugurated the Bihar Vidyapeeth at Patna on 6 February 1921, and Mazharul Haque founded the Sadaqat Ashram, later the headquarters of the Bihar Congress. In the peasant movement, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati founded the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha in 1929 and became the first president of the All India Kisan Sabha in 1936.
Quit India and the Patna Secretariat martyrs
After the arrest of the national leaders on 9 August 1942, Bihar saw one of the fiercest risings in India; railway and telegraph lines were cut and police stations attacked. On 11 August 1942 students marching to hoist the national flag on the Patna Secretariat were fired upon and seven of them were killed; the Shaheed Smarak (Martyrs' Memorial) opposite the Secretariat honours them. Jayaprakash Narayan escaped from Hazaribagh Central Jail on Diwali night in November 1942 with companions such as Ramnandan Mishra and Yogendra Shukla and organised underground resistance, including the Azad Dastas trained in the Nepal terai.
Rajendra Prasad and other leaders
Dr Rajendra Prasad, born at Zeradei (Siwan) on 3 December 1884, joined Gandhi at Champaran, presided over the Congress more than once, was elected President of the Constituent Assembly on 11 December 1946, and served as the first President of India from 1950 to 1962, receiving the Bharat Ratna in 1962. Sachchidananda Sinha presided over the Assembly's first sitting on 9 December 1946 as its interim president. Shri Krishna Sinha (Bihar Kesari) and Anugrah Narayan Sinha (Bihar Vibhuti) led the Congress ministry formed in 1937, and Jagjivan Ram of Bhojpur became a national leader of the depressed classes.
Jayaprakash Narayan and the JP movement
JP, born at Sitabdiara on 11 October 1902, helped found the Congress Socialist Party in 1934 and later joined Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan movement. In 1974 a student agitation in Bihar against corruption, unemployment and rising prices, led by the Bihar Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti, asked him to lead it. At a huge rally at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, on 5 June 1974 he called for Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution). The movement spread across India, the Emergency was declared on 25 June 1975, and the Janata Party won the 1977 election. JP, honoured as Loknayak, died in 1979 and received the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1999.
Key facts
- Peer Ali, a Patna bookseller, led the July 1857 rising in Patna and was hanged on 7 July 1857 on the orders of Commissioner William Tayler.
- Danapur mutiny: 25 July 1857; Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur (about 80 years old) led the rebels, won his last fight near Jagdishpur on 23 April 1858 and died on 26 April 1858.
- Wahabi movement: inspired by Syed Ahmad of Rae Bareli; Patna (Sadiqpur family, Vilayat Ali and Inayat Ali) was its Indian centre; Ambala trial 1864, Patna trial 1865.
- Bihar and Orissa province: 22 March 1912, first Lieutenant-Governor Charles Stuart Bayley; Lord S.P. Sinha became its Governor in 1920; Orissa separated on 1 April 1936.
- Muzaffarpur bomb, 30 April 1908: Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki targeted Kingsford; Khudiram was hanged at Muzaffarpur.
- Champaran Satyagraha 1917: invited by Raj Kumar Shukla; tinkathia meant indigo on 3 kathas of every 20; ended by the Champaran Agrarian Act 1918.
- Bihar Vidyapeeth was inaugurated by Gandhi on 6 February 1921; Sadaqat Ashram, founded by Mazharul Haque, became the Bihar Congress headquarters.
- Swami Sahajanand Saraswati founded the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (1929) and was the first president of the All India Kisan Sabha (1936).
- 11 August 1942: seven students were shot while trying to hoist the tricolour on the Patna Secretariat; the Shaheed Smarak honours them.
- JP: born at Sitabdiara on 11 October 1902; Sampoorna Kranti call at Gandhi Maidan on 5 June 1974; Bharat Ratna 1999 (posthumous).
Quick revision
Peer Ali hanged 7 July 1857; Danapur mutiny 25 July 1857; Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur died 26 April 1858; Wahabis at Sadiqpur, Patna trial 1865; Bihar and Orissa 22 March 1912; Khudiram at Muzaffarpur 1908; Champaran 1917, Raj Kumar Shukla, Act 1918; Bihar Vidyapeeth 6 Feb 1921; Sahajanand, Kisan Sabha 1929/1936; Secretariat martyrs 11 Aug 1942; Rajendra Prasad (Zeradei) President 1950-62; JP, Sampoorna Kranti 5 June 1974.