User:Dr. Brajesh Verma/sandbox

Struggle for Bihari Identity: Historical Records

By: Dr. Brajesh Verma

Living without identification is like a humiliation. The Bihari of 19th century had no identification of their own. Bihar was the part of Bengal. The western education had impressed few Bihari families. They started going London for taking modern education, but there they were being humiliated not only by their Western friends, but also by those Indians who had identification of their own states. Sachchidanand Sinha was the first Bihari student who felt identity crisis in London in 1892. He was seated around a table in a restaurant with some English friends. He was trying to convince them about the glory of Bihar. It has a splendid glory during the ancient time. Bihar was the leader of India-politically, administratively and culturally during the ancient time. The English friends of Sachchidanand Sinha had no information about it. As soon as Sachchidanand Sinha started expatiating on the glory of Bihar, one of his English friends joked- Bihar? Where is Bihar in the map of India? How can there be a Bihari culture when no such thing exists? The joke of English boy was like a slap on the chick of Sachchidanad Sinha. Recalling the incident he writes, “It would be difficult for me to convey the Bihari of today the sense of shame and humiliation which I, and some other equally sensitive Bihari friends, felt while prosecuting our studies in Britain, on realizing that we were a people without any individuality, without any province to claim as ours; in fact, without any local habitation with a name.” 1 A year after the incident which had scratched his heart he returned India in early1893. The quip Sachchidanand Sinha had received in London was following his mind. “At the very first railway station in Bihar, I noticed a tall, robust and stalwart Bihari constable wearing the badge with the inscription of “Bengal Police.”2 Returning home from abroad is always a feeling for a person who is fervent of motherland. But Sachchidanand Sinha was not fortunate enough. There was a scratch in his heart. It almost embittered his feelings of joy on returned his home after more than three years abroad. “I resolved then and there to do all that lay in my power to secure for Bihar a distinct and honourable status as an administrative unit….In one word, this was to be thereafter the mission of my life.” He was the first Bihari to consider the problem of vanishing Biahr in details. By doing so he ignored the fact that an agitation for the removal of Bihar from Bengal was already brewing. At least one of the Urdu newspapers of the 70s of the 19th century, the Murgh-i-Suliman published from Munger district had raised the cry of “Bihar for the Bihari” while pleading the case for larger employment of educated Bihari.3 The ancient texts do not refer to a territorial unit called Bihar. It also do not give any name for the areas covered by Palamu, Ranchi, Singhbhum, Dhanbad and to southern plateau of Chotanagpur. The aforesaid areas are now in Jharkhand state which became bifurcated from Bihar on November 15, 2000. The ancient texts mention a lot of about Anga, Magadh, Videha, Vaisali and Karusha kingdoms. Magadh was the central core.4 Under the Mauryas the history of India was the history of Magadh. Patliputra, today’s Patna, became the capital of Magadh in 475 BC. The city remained, on its own merit, a hub of politics under 750 AD when it was ruined; Udantpurivihara (identical with modern Biharsharif) rose to eminence. The territory felt the mass of Muslim arms in 12th century. Among the Muslim invaders Bakhtiyar Khelji was the most furious. He was the habit of making attacks. In 1199 he succeeded in destroying Udantpurivihara. There he found shaven-headed monks possessing much wealth and more books. He ordered to slay the monks. The books were put under observations. On seeing that the city was a basic educational institution of Vihar, he named the whole area Bihar. Bakhtiyar’s Bihar was included in his viceroyalty of Bengal.5 The foundation for the formation of a separate state taking on most of the territories of modern Bihar was outlined by Sher Shah. He by conquering Munger and Bhagalpur extended the eastern boundary of Bihar to the hills of Rajmahal which subsequently became the boundary line between Bengal and Bihar during the Mughal period. Sher Saha also placed both Mithila and South Bihar (now called Jharkhand state) under a single government. He removed the seat of government in 1541 from Biharsharif to Patna. Akbar constituted Bihar into one of the ‘Subas’ in 1575. According to Abul-Fazal, the author of Ain-i-Akbari, this new Suba, extending from Rohtas to Teliagarhi (situated now under Sahebganj district of Jharkhand) about 300 miles in length and from Tirhut to the southern hills ranges about 275 miles in wide were divided into Sarkars and Parganas.6 Bihar remained the status of a suba under the Mughals. After the battle of Buxar, Shah Alam II issued a separate order on August 12, 1765 granting to the English the Diwani of Bihar. The grant gave a legal sanction to the de-facto authority of the English in Bihar, Robert Clive, who received the grant on behalf of the East India Company, did not violate the spirit of the order of the Mughal Emperor. Under Dual government, established by Clive in 1765, a separate revenue council functioned at Patna. With the end of Dual government in 1772 Bihar became a ‘terra- incognita’ (with your true identity concealed). As Bengal eclipsed Bihar in the following years, the latter disappeared from school atlas. The dark and dismal chapter was opened in the political history of Bihar. There was then no Bihar at all. The lower province (Bengal, Bihar and Orissa) were known as Bengal only until March 31, 1912, when the Bihar and Orissa was separated from Bengal. The name “Bihari” was almost unknown. The British introduced English education. The Biharis were not very keen to join the English classes. But the Bengali had a lead. The renaissance in Bengal changed many things and the introduction of English education was one of them which made the Bengali people more advance than the rest of Indians. The English education came in Bihar very late. There was no scope for the Bihari in government job. Only some Bihari Muslims only because of the special treatment they received from the colonial authorities were represented in the government job. W S Atkinson, the director of the public instruction of Bengal in 1861, traced the causes of Biharis’ educational backwardness. His reported on May 3, 1861, “In Bengal proper English education has an ascertained and increasing commercial value. It pays, and therefore, it is sought for. In Bihar, on the contrary, the demand for it has yet to be created. As soon as a certain kind of education is known to be necessary for advancement in life, it cannot be doubted that the people of Bihar will ask for it as eagerly as those of any other country.” 7 The Biharis did not take any interest in going with the modern education in the next decade. The annual report on the education for 1870-71 of the then commissioner of Patna division, RP Jenkins was not satisfactory. He observed in his report that the Bihari boys were not showing sufficient enthusiasm for higher education because the Biharis were excluded from public services in their own province by the Bengalis.8 Even in 1912, when Bihar was separated from Bengal, only 1115 Bihari boys were studying in the colleges and there was not a single girl among them.9 As Bihar was little facility of English education it is not shocking that unlike Bengal it got the ray of western influence much later. Unfortunately Bihar remained in a fudal age. Even after independence there was very slow progress of education in Bihar. According to the census report of 1961, the literacy rate in Bihar was only 19 percent. Nearly 65 percent of the males and 92 percent of the females among the age group 5 or more were illiterate. In rural areas, the situation was more pitiable. About 80 percent population in Bihar, 75 percent of the males and 89 percent of the females who were found literate had not crossed even the primary or the junior basic course of education.10 Thus it was like an isolated part of India against the impact of western influences. Crossing the sea meant ex-communication of a Hindu from his caste and consequent social disability.11 No less a person then Dr Sachchidanand Sinha, doyen among the Indian journalists, had to face this situation at the hands of his Kayastha community as his return from England after his call to Bar; but being a man of firm conviction and resources, he successfully defined them. Later on Dr Ganesh Prasad, who returned from England in 1904 with distinction in mathematics, had also face the same from his community members. The Maharaja of Dharbhanga, Dr Kameshwar Singh was not the exception of it. Today’s Bihari may feel proud of him for his contributions in the field of journalism; he had a bitter experience of social evils prevailing in the Bihari society. The Maharaja was the founder of the most popular newspapers- The Indian Nation (English daily), Aryavarta (Hindi daily) and Mithila Mihir (new series). In spite of his fabulous wealth and status, on returned from England after attending the Round Table Conference of 1932, he was socially boycotted by the orthodox sections of Maithil Brahmanas who formed a so called “Deshi Party” to oppose him and his “Vilayati Party” composed of those who approved of his sea-voyage.12 It was the fear of losing ‘caste’ the Hindus of Bihar generally remained backward in pursuit of science, technology and even humanities overseas.13 But Deep Narayan Singh (1875-1935) of Bhagalpur was exception of it. He never faced such type of social prohibitation due to her family being progressive. He was born at Bhagalpur on January 26, 1875. He went London for higher education in 1891 along with his father, Tej Narayan Singh, the founder of TNJ College (now TNB) in Bhagalpur in 1887. Belonged to Jaiswal community, Tej Narayan Singh was a great philanthropist of his time. Deep Narayan Singh had attended the third Indian National Congress held at Allahabad in 1888 along with his father. He was called to the Bar in London in 1896-the same year in which his father passed away –in London- he returned to India early in 1897. Deep Narayan Singh was such a unique type of political and social worker he never had to face any caste humiliation from his society for his world tours-more than fifteen years in his sixty years old life. Besides engaging in public activities, he was an inveterate traveler, both in India and abroad, and stayed for many years in Europe, especially in Britain and France. His travels abroad covered a period of not less than fifteen years. “Very few of our generation had travelled so extensively in India as Deep-literally from Kashmir to Cope Comorin; while he had visited, time after time, not only the countries of Western Europe, but even Russia, and also more than once, Japan and both North and South America.”14 The result of such extensive peregrinations, during which he used an alert mind and on observant eye, was that Deep Narayan Singh was one of the most well-informed Indians of his generation, on international affairs, and also one of the most broad-minded and cultured, and most popular as well.15 His second wife, Leela Singh (1879-1941) was the daughter of Sir Tarak Nath palit, a leading lawyer and philanthropist, who had donated Rs 30 lakh to the Calcutta University during 19th century. Leela Singh was born in London in 1879. She was highly talented woman, well versed not only in English, but French also. She had supported her husband when he was in Hazaribagh central jail during the freedom struggle in 1930. She died in London in 1941. Until 1920 (when Deep Narayan Singh met Mahatma Gandhi and joined the ranks of Ganghian Congressmen, he adopted Khadi clothing for his costume) he affected foreign style of clothing, and was one of the best-dressed Indians in his time, his suits coming from the most fashionable tailors in Bond Street and Saville Row, in London.15 He struggled for the creation of Bihar and when Bihar was separated in 1912, he went on a world tour and stayed in London and France for mother than four years. Like Hindus, there was no such social prohibition in the Muslim community. A good number of Bihari Muslims belonging to aristocratic families started to go abroad since early 1880s. Amongst them Sir Ali Imam (1869-1932), Syed Hasan Imam (1871-1933) and Mazhar-ul-Haque (1866-1930) have become legendary. The most leading Muslim Bihari, Mazharul Haque (1866-1930), son of Shaik Ahmadullah, was not only the political leader but also a good journalist, a poet and a writer of his time. He was born at Bahpura, Patna on December 22, 1866. Belonged to a landlord family, Mazharul Haque passed matriculation examination from Patna Collegiate School in 1886 and studied for a short time in Patna College and the Canning College, Lucknow. In May 1887 he went to London for higher education. In London Haque devoted his time not only to the study of Law, but other subjects as well. He started there the “Anjuman Islamia” a popular society for Indian student in England. He was called to the Bar in July 1891, and on his returned to home he was enrolled as an advocate of the Calcutta High Court. In 1892 he was appointed as civil judge in Oudh, but soon he resigned from the post and returned to Bihar resumed practice at Chapra and made a name for himself as a sound and capable criminal lawyer.16 The Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress of 1906 was the landmark in the history of freedom struggle because of the proclamation of the idea-Swaraj- under the leadership of the Congress president, Dadabhai Naroji. The Subject Committee was formed in 1906. Bihar was allotted five seats in the All India Congress Committee and the same number of seats in the Subject Committee of the Congress. Mazharul Haque was one of them and the other members of the Subject Committee were Syed Hasan Imam, Deep Narayan Singh, Harihar Prasad Singh and Parmeshwar Lal. 17 The Indian National Congress had passed a resolution in 1891 itself to the effect that Provincial Congress Committee should be organized at the capital of different presidencies and provinces for carrying on the work of political education and they should submit annual reports to their work. But it was in 1908 that Bihar could form the provincial Congress committee.18 At the Sonepur fair in 1908 an important meeting was held presided over by Nawab Sarfaraz Hossain Khan Bahadur at which a Bihar Provincial Congress Committee was formed. The first session of the committee was held in Patna in 1908 with Sir Ali Imam as its President; Mazharul Haque was its vice-president. But very soon in 1911 Haque presided over the conference at Gaya where he advocated the constitution of Bihar as a separate province with legislative and executive councils, a high court and a university of its own. The Bihari wanted modification in the partition of 1905. Mazharul Haque, being a president of the provincial congress pointed out, “The modification of partition is different thing and there is no doubt that both the Bengalis and Biharis will accept and be satisfied with it….” He further remarked that the Biharis only wanted modification. Neither did they want to status quo nor the cancellation of the partition. They wanted compete separation and creation of an independent Bihar.19 He became the chairman of the Reception Committee of the Bankipur session of the Indian National Congress held in 1912, the year Bihar got a separate status as a new province of India. In fact since then new Bihar began to play an active role in the successive phases of Indian nationalism.20 With the beginning of the First World War in 1914, Mazharul Haque and Sachchidanad Sinha were elected to serve on a deputation sent to England by the Congress alongwith Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Bhupendra Nath Basu, MM Samarth, BN Sharma and Lala Lajpat Rai. Moreover, Haque organsied the Home Rule movement in Bihar and was the first president of its Bihar unit in 1916. When the Bolshevik Revolution started in Russian in 1917 and Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagrah movement from Champaran (Bihar), Mazharul Haque was on the zenith of Indian political activities. He also participated in the activities leading to the formation of the Muslim League. In 1906 it was decided by the non-nationalists section of the Muslims to start a political association with the subject of supporting every measure emanating from the government, and to oppose all demands of the Congress. Thus a meeting was called at Dacca for the purpose of starting their organization. Haque once saw the great harm that was likely to result from an association with such objects as these mentioned in the militant out aggressive circular issued by it organizers. With Hasan Imam, he met to Dacca, and the two Bihari nationalists succeeded in pushing into the background the proposed institution, and starting in its place the All India Muslim League, with aims and objects wholly different from those originally proposed. 21 Haque accepted its secretary in the beginning and organized a nursed it very carefully. He also presided over the one of the annual session of Muslim League in Bombay in 1915. The December 1915 session of the Congress and the League were the first held within walking distance of one another, facilitating attendance at both by members interested in fostering Hindu-Muslim unity and hammering out a single nationalist platform. Satyendra Sinha presided over the Congress and Mazharul Haque was the president of the Muslim League. Several Muslim League leaders had argued against holding any meeting this year, fearing that what was said it might “embarrass” the government during the First World War; but President Haque argued, “Our silence in these time would have been liable to ugly and mischievour interpretation…..there is no such thing as standing still in this world. Either we must more forward or must go backward. It is said that our object in holding the League contemporaneously with the Congress in the same city is to deal a blow at the independence of the League, and to merge its individuality with that of the Congress. Nothing could be further from the truth. Communities like individuals have and cherish them individuality… when unity is evolved out of diversity, then there is real and abiding national progress.” 22 The most important phase of Mazharul Haque’s political life started with the non-cooperation and Khilafat movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. He gave up his practice. He started English weekly “The Motherland” and supported the Gandhian era of movement through his paper. Another great Muslim leader who established the identity of Bhari was Sir Ali Imam (1869-1932). He was the eldest son of Imadad Imam and the elder brother of Syed Hasan Imam, born in Neora, Patna district, on February 11, 1869. He passed the matriculation examination from the Arrah Zila School in 1887 and in the same year he left England and was called to the English Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in June 1890. He returned to home in 1890 and the same year he enrolled as an advocate of the Calcutta high court and began his practice at the Patna High Court. Ali Imam was appointed standing council to the committee of India in the Calcutta High Court in 1910. In 1917 he was appointed a judge of the newly constituted Patna High Court and member of the Executive Council of Bihar and Orissa in 1918-19. This was followed by his appointment as Chief Minister of the Hyderabad State in August 1919. He spent over two years at Hyderabad. While administrating the affairs of Hyderabad State, he was nominated in 1920, as the first Indian representative to sit at the first meeting of the League of Nations, a high honour in official estimate at that time. 23 The political career of Ali Imam began when he presided over the first session of the Bihar Provincial Congress conference held at Patna in 1908. In the beginning he supported the scheme of separate electorate and observed, “I am sure without an effective and separate electorate for the Mohamamdans the problem of true popular representation in India will remain unsolved.”24 But a t the same time he emphasized the public politic al unity if India. Presiding over the annual session of the Muslim League at Amritsar in 1908, he declared, “With all the theological, social and ethnic differences between communities in India… the educated Musalmans of India … are tied to her (India) by the served association of age. We yield to have in our veneration of and affection for our motherland.” 25 His presidential address at the Nationalist Muslim Conference held at Lucknow in 1931 marked an epoch in the growth of Muslim nationalism in India. He observed that the Muslim’s share in the ‘concession loot’ could not be ‘fixed by statute… (If) will be in proportion to the contribution he makes… towards India’s freedom. 26 Simultaneously he deprecated aggressive Hindu nationalism which filled him heart with despair and disappointment; and increased his ‘suspicion’ that under the clock of nationalism ‘Hindu nationalism is preached’. He firmly believed in united India but also underlined that ‘regard for the feelings and sentiments, need and requirement of all is the keynote of Indian nationalism. 27 Ali Imam’s public career was fairly a source of satisfaction and prides to all Bihari. He never allowed differences-political or religious- to interfere with his social and friendly relations. His sociality and geniality always appealed to a very large circle of his friends from all classes and communities. Deeply influenced by Western liberalism, he emphasized some of the beneficial results of the British rule growth of western education and English as a common language of the educated Indians and the spread of liberal democratic trends. 28 His view changed sharply by 1931 he developed an abiding faith in Indian nationalism and declared, “This movement among the Indian Muslims will gather force which no power on earth could thwart.” 29 No two Muslim brothers in their day rose to equal fame at the Bar or in public life as the Islam’s of Bihar-Ali Imam, the first Indian to represent Indian at the first meeting of the League of Nations in 1020 and Hasan Imam, the first Indian to presided over the first special Congress session held at Bombay in 1918. 30 Hasan Imam (1871-1933) was born at Neora in Patna district was a boyhood friend of the makers of modern Bihar- Sachchidanand Sinha. In 1889 Hasan Imam was to appear for matriculation, but he left for London to study law. He joined the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in June 1892. About the growing friendship between them, Sachchidanad Sinha said, “I was Hasan Imam’s intimate friend and constant companion in London, and lived in the same house with him for over two years, shared the same study and had many interests in common.31 Hasan Imam was the secretary of the Anjuman Ismamia of London; he was also the secretary of the Indian Society which had, for its president, Dadabhai Naoroji. Hasan Imam returned India in 1892 immediately after his call to Bar, and after getting himself enrolled in the Calcutta High Court, settled down t practice at Patna. His fame as a judge spread for a wide. Eminent Indian lawyers like Lord Sinha and CR Das as well as famous European barristers like Jackson and Eardley Norton were impressed of Hasan Imam’s judicial achievements. The Congress having met in Calcutta in December 1911 under the presidentship of Bishan Narayan Dar, Hasan Imam not only attended the session but also invited its next session to be held at Patna in 1912. At a time when communal politics was taking an ugly turn in different parts of the country, Bihar represented a unique picture of communal harmony. In spite of the formation of the Muslim League in 1906 eminent Muslim leaders were involved in the activities of the provincial congress committee in Bihar. On a memorable occasion Hasan Imam said, “Let the Motherland be first, in your affections, your province the second, and your community wherever thereafter you choose to put it.” 32 In August 1917, it was Hasan Imam who, as president of the Bihar provincial conference, vigorously protested against the internment of Mrs. Besant and uttered a solemn warning to the British, “Whether we shall get at present all that we want it not know to us, since the future is an the keens of the Gods. But about one thing we should be under no delusion and that is whether we get in new or late, today or tomorrow, we shall come into our birthright and nothing- any, no power on earth-can keep us out of our inheritance, if only we ourselves are not slack in pressing our constitutionally on the attention of the great British democracy who are the real sovereign power in the state. 33 Thus he called for an agitation on a huge scale to convince the British democracy of the justice of our claims to self-government. In September 1918, Syed Hasan Imam was elected first president of the first special session of the Indian National Congress held at Bombay to consider the Montagu –Chelmsford report on the reforms which had been issued some months before. He never looked back. His presidential address justified the nation’s choice. Being a president he concluded this session, “I am going from here with a feeling of love for my countrymen enhanced y demonstration that I have received of the affection of the people towards those who are allowed the privilege to serve the people. Gentlemen, I am grateful to you I say- Bande Mataram.” 34 But these leaders developed their political skills during the first decade of 20th century. During the 19th century, when Bengal was leading the country on political fields, there was no political leader in Bihar. Some educated and pubic spirited men of that time were- Harbans Sahay, a distinguished lawyer from Arrah who was the first Bihari to be nominated to the legislative Council of Bengal; Jai Prakash Lal, the Dewan of the Dumraon estate and a successor of Harbans Sahay in the council; Biseshwar Singh, whose house in Patna was the meeting point of the Bihari politicians of the day.35 Another Biahris were Parmeshwar Narayan Mehta, a leading public man of Muzaffarpur, sharfuddin, a judge of the Calcutta High Court and the Patna High Court. Among the new active leaders were the four friends- Sachchidanand Sinha, Mahesh Narayan, Nand Kishore Lal and Krishna Sahay, who were denounced, in connection with the separation of Bihar, as Chehar Darwesh or Four Beggars.36 The Bihar politicians were helpless. They had no journal of their own. They could not express their views in absence of any newspaper or journal. Paradoxically an English journal with a high sounding name “Behar Herald” started in 1875 with the object of championing the cause of Biharis, turned hostile to the very cause of it was supposed to champion. The editor of the “Behar Herald” was Guru Prasad Sen (1842-1900). Born in East Bengal in 1842, Guru Prasad Sen was one of the most distinguished scholars of the Calcutta University, having topped the M.A in History in 1864. He was a gold medalist in B.L. He was appointed a deputy magistrate in 1866. Later on he was transferred to Bihar and posted at Patna. Guru Prasad Sen was in the front rank as a public man and publicist. It was mainly by his efforts that a weekly, “The Behar Herald” was established in Patna in 1874. This was the first English journal in Bihar.37 He maintained and edited it until his death in 1900. Guru Prasad Sen in his later years could not fully appreciated the rising political consciousness of the educated classes amongst the Biahri with the result that he took up an attitude of stern hostility to the scheme for the separation of Bihar from Bengal.38 Unlike Calcutta, Patna had no European mercantile community to support Anglo India Press. Hindi as “Khadiboli” started to develop only from about the end of the 19th century while Urdu had already became established as a court language after replacing Persian. Urdu had also a tradition of new writes.39 Urdu press was established in Bihar prior to English and Hindi. The first newspaper of Bihar was an Urdu weekly, “Urdu Akhbar,” published in 1810 from Calcutta. But another Urdu Weekly, “Noor-ul-Anwar” published from Arrah in 1853 can really claim to be a native of Bihar.40 But the growth of Vernacular journalism was not to the liking of British. The English administration was feared that the indigenous press might harm them by building popular opinion among the literate class. The Santhal Hul (insurgence) occurred in 1855 from Bhognadih village in the Santhal Parganas had put the colonial rule under a direct threat in the region. The leaders of the famous Santhal Hul were Sido and Kanhu Murmu brothers, a native of Bhognadih village, presently situated under Sahebganj district of Jharkhand state, had challenged the mighty English. The colonial rulers wanted to restrict the vernacular press and after the revolt of 1857, the Indian press was almost paralyzed by them. Journalism being a product of modern times had thus initial handicaps in Bihar to attain its take-off stage. Following the transfer of the administration of India from the East India Company to the British Crown in 1858, after the failure of the first War of Independence in 1857, attempts were made for the betterment of economic condition in the country. Very little were done in Bihar. There was no means which could develop the economic condition of the people. That time about 254 cotton mills were running in the country, not a single was in Bihar. Though Purnea and Tirhut were famous for growing jute, there was no jute mill in these areas. After 1880 manufacturing of silk declined in Bhagalpur, Gaya, Ramgarh and Manbhum areas. The ownership and management of the indigo and sugar factories was almost entirely in the hands of British. In north Bihar, during the rainy season, the roads were almost unfit for wheeled traffic. The opening of East Indian Railway, the main line of which passed through Bihar, however proved singularly promising for the transport of goods. During the last decade of 19th century, the loop line of the East Indian Railway run along the south-eastern part of Bihar for some distance, and North Bihar was also connected by a railway running on the northern side of the Ganges. Basically north and south Bihar (now Jharkhand) were connected through the steamer services on the river Ganges. Bihar was invited by famines in 1874 and 1879. The population of Bihar multiplied during the half century following 1858, which the land under cultivation increased to a very limited extent. The condition of the aboriginal population of Santhals, Kols and Mundas was pitiable. 41 It was the Mrugh-i-Suliman, the Urdu newspaper, who raised the issue first in 1876 demanding “Bihar for Biharis.” 42 The demand was later changed into the agitation for the separation of Bihar from Bengal. The slogan the newspaper published was the slogan of the Bihari for more than three decades. At least three Urdu newspapers including “Mrugh-i-Suliman,” “Qasid” and “Nadir-ul-Akhbar” were very famous among the readers of the 19th century in Bihar. The papers had different political views and critical toward the employment of Bengalis in Bihar. “Nadir-ul-Akhbar was started from Munger in 1871 while the “Qasid” was launched from Patna in 1876. Both were the weekly newspapers. The “Qasid” made the charge that Bengali got state patronage and that the poor Biharis were suffering; education was neglected in Bihar; the language of two parts being entirely different the appointment of Bengali Headmasters in Bihar schools tended to the deterioration of its dialect; Bengali had learnt English manners and were likely to influence Bihari customs for the worse.43 With the construction of railway links between Bihar and Bengal, Bengalis did not come to Bihar to settle down and learn Bihari customs as they used to do formerly, rather they now come as visitors and returned to Bengal and so they did not try to learn Bihari customs The concluded by saying that whereas they people of North-Western provinces, the Punjab etc were highly favoured, Biharis were cried down and got discriminatory treatment. During the last decades of nineteen century the condition of Bihar was extremely pitiable. The Bengal Magazine, dated 1880-81, wanted the Bengali who, in its opinion, knew a lot about England but not about India, to understand the condition of Bihar. The paper published an article “Photograph of a Bihar Village.” 44 Therein it painted the condition of Bihar in the following words:- “To an inquisitive native of Lower Bengal nothing can be more interesting –more deeply strike than a study of the pure and unvarnished life of the rural population of interior Bihar. The genuine children of the soil, compelled by wholesome want to shun the corrupt influences of the refinement and civilization of Western Europe, seem like philosophers-born, enamored distress, and lead up to this day a life of antediluvian simplicity…. Bred up in ignorance, and accustomed from their infancy, to circumscribe and control the unruly desires of the human mind, they feel and make others feel, that their humble lot is the lot of the whole human race, and it is owing to this unhappy delusion, that the children are found here to revel up their 11th or 12th year in a state of Adamic nudity…..the common people of Bihar are certainly like those tribes of the Himalayas, beyond the reach of our kind of storm, viz, the storm of expensive civilization which perhaps in no distant day will sweep over the whole of India.” Economic condition was even worst: “The Bengal Magazine of 1881-82 in another article “A Bihar Village” pointed out that “the peasant is contented with little, and that little hardly saves him from starvation. His is the lot of a spoilt child that suffers from all misery which indulgent parents bequeath to their posterity, with their favour; and so poverty marks all his concerns. Expressions like ‘beggars’ ‘train’ are always suppose to exist… but a few months experience of the place has shown that the things they refer to are striking. Pass a few weeks in Bihar and you will see bands of beggars issuing out of their indigent homes and actually surrounding the lodgings of the Bengali residents, when all the precision of a besieging force… Very few well-to-do Biharis can be found among the peasant class…”45 Again the “Hindu Patriot” compared the sadness of Bihar with those of Ireland in a leading article- “Ireland and Behar, a comparison.”46 Griersan in his ‘Antiquary’ remarked that Biharis hated Bengalis. This was resented by Bengali newspapers like the “Dainik” and the “Samachar Chandrika” which accused Griersan of sowing the seeds of disunion with political motives of playing off one province against another according to the policy of the Bihar government.47 The “Reise and Rayyet defamed the people of Bihar while supporting the case of the indigo-planters. The paper like “Education Gazette” wanted more technical education for Biharis. The paper advocated the opening of manufactories in Bihar to relieve if from a part of the economic sorrow. In the early stages no specific demand for Bihar’s separation as such was voiced. Only the grievances were being made. It was Bihar’s leading newspapers the “Behar Bandhu” brought a change against Bengali Vakils in Bihar who had turned out to be the enemies of the introduction of Devanagri script into courts and discouraged their clients to file anything in the Devanagri script.48 Finding such tones of Bihari newspapers the “Burdwan Sanjivani” drew the attention of the people in Bengal to the fact that the ‘Englishman’ for the purpose of ‘divide and rule’ was laboring hard to bring about a split between the inhabitants of Bengal and Bihar. For the first time the demand of “Bihar for Biharis” was noticed to when Sir Ashley Eden, the Governor of Bengal, issued a circular to the effect that certain jobs should be exclusively reserved for Bihari in Bihar. To this move some Bengali newspapers criticized the Governor of Bengal. The “Sahachar” regarded this as a measure to prohibit Bengali from getting job in Bihar. With the emergence of leader like Sachchidanand Sinha and journalist like Mahesh Narayan people’s opinion became changed due to their positive efforts as they tried to convince the people that Bihari should regain their identity which they had lost during the dark phase of the Indian history. The agitation gained momentum when the “Behar Times” was started under the editorship of Mahesh Narayan in 1894. Thereafter the movement came into the able hands and received wide publicity through the paper. Mahesh Narayan (1859-1907), according to Hassan Imam, was the father of public opinion in Bihar.” He was the editor of the “Bihar Times” published from Patna in 1894. It is said that with the birth of the “Behar Times” in January 1894 the period of renaissance in Bihar begun. In July 1907 the paper was rechristened as the “Beharee” and on April 13, 1912, the day on which Sir Charles Bayley- the first Lieutenant Governor of Bihar and Orissa-arrived at Patna, and assumed the reins of the administration of the new province, the paper came out as a daily. The Bihar Times was a pro-Bihari news paper and played a most important role in building public opinion for separation of Bihar from Bengal under the editorship of Mahesh Narayan, however he died in early age of forty-eight in 1907 and unfortunately could not see the creation of a separate state of Bihar. According to Sir Ali Imam, if in Bihar the sacred fire of patriotism had been kindled, the man who did it was certainly Mahesh Narayan.49 Sachchidanand Sinha writes, “Mahesh Narayan was a man with a mission. Flung into life at a very young age among a people then politically inert and socially dormant, a people who had lost all self-confidence, and were content to remain a mere appendage to their more intellectual neighbours of Bengal, he commenced his career as a public man with no friend but his ideal of serving the people, and no fortune but his intense and sincere patriotism. He rushed into the lists where rank and vested interests had arrayed themselves; and fearlessly expounded his mission till his fairly achieved success.” 50 The struggle for the separation of Bihar went ahead when Mahesh Narayan, through the “Behar Times” forwarded a proposal in 1894 to separate Bihar from Bengal. But it was opposed by the “Behar Herald” and the Calcutta newspapers. The “Behar Times” created a tremendous public opinion in Bihar. Leaders started meetings demanding their own identity by making Bihar a separate state. Never was Bihar known to be so much exercised about a mere political affair.51 An influential Anglo-Indian journal, “The Pioneer” published from Allahabad supported the movement in Bihar. The paper was fairly well-established and had come to be recognized as the accredited exponent of Bihari public opinion. The movement took a different shape. The support given by the “Pioneer” was of enormous value. This fact was further confirmed by the anger shown by the Calcutta press against the “Pioneer” for giving its support to the Bihari’s demands. This, according to Sachchidanand Sinha, was confirmed by the fact that Surendranath Banerjee in the “Bengalee” warned the Biharis against any scheme of the separation and wanted them not to believe the “Pioneer.” 52 The “Bengalee” admitted that there was a very sad state of affairs in Bihar. The paper made the British administration responsible for it. According to the paper, there can be no doubt that the administration of Bihar needs the strictest supervision and the most watchful care on the part of the government. But when the question of separation came for its consideration, the paper decried the whole separatist movement and regarded it as a political plot of the Anglo-Indian community in India. The “Bengalee” wrote as follows: “so the separatist movement is not confined to England, but the cry for separation has been raised in this country also. We, of course, refer to the curious movement which has been thoughtlessly set on foot for he compete severance of Bihar form the administration of the Bengal government. The proposal, altogether novel in its character, seems to have been first broached in the columns of the “Pioneer,” in connection with the scheme for the transfer of Chittagong division to Assam. The proposal at that time could not be given credence, but it was feared, “a few, at least, of the Biharis would play into the hands of an Anglo-Indian newspaper, whose counsel we should always be disposed to receive with extreme caution.”53 The paper opposed the idea of separation of Bihar. It mentioned that a committee had been formed in Bihar to gather the opinion of the leaders of different districts. The paper further claimed that some of them in all likelihood had opposed the idea of separation. But the “Behar Times” claimed in 1896, “We are for the constitution of Bihar as a separate provincial administration. It is merely an accident that Bihar is linked to Bengal for administrative purposes; there is less in common between the people of Bihar, than the people of Bengal and the people of Assam, and there is, therefore, no reason, except such as may be found in the question o administrative convenience, whey Assam should be a separate administration and not Bihar, nor is there any reason, why Bihar should be linked to Bengal not to the United-Province (Now Uttar Pradesh) with which it has everything is common.”54 Before coming of Sachchidanand Sinha at home in 1893, the economic and social condition of Bihar was pitiable. About the deplorable condition, Sir John Strachey had expressed the following words, “In Bihar the case is more serious. This great province of Bengal has an area of 32000 square miles, and a population of more than nineteen and half millions. There is hardly any part of British India possessing greater natural advantages of soil and climate, and no part where the condition of the agricultural population is more precarious, or the margin of subsistence smaller.” 55 Lord Lawrence shared his anxiety. He thought that legislation was necessary to protect the ryots. Similarly, Sir Ashley Eden in 1878 confessed the pitiable state of affairs. He described the ryots of Bihar as poor, helpless and unhappy men. The last two decades of the nineteenth century was so devastating for the Biharis that they had to face at least five famines in which a portion of people died of starvation. A Resolution was passed on February 16, 1872 in which the local governments were asked to employ the local people in the uncovenanted services. Again in 1879 Lytton asked to implement the previous resolution of the government with regard to the employment of the local people in the uncovenanted branch of the civil services. These efforts were not crowned with success in Bihar; because the government of Bengal never implemented this resolutions.56 The leaders of Bengal never focused any attention about the deplorable condition of Bihar. Whenever the government issued any specific direction regarding Bihar, they made a hue and cry over it. It was like a humiliation for the Biharis. The attitude of Bengal made them united. Though their agitation had not taken any concrete shape during the last decade of nineteenth century, they had sufficient reason to fight back against the anomalies. By that time, Bengal had a powerful middle class. But in Bihar an educated bourgeoisie class was yet to emerge. In absence of English education, the common Bihari could not challenge the educated Bengali; however a stage was set ready for the movement where Bihari were to be more organized. REFERENCES 1. Sachchidanand Sinha, Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, p. ii-iii 2. Ibid, p.iii 3. Ibid. 4. VPC Choudhary, The Creation of Modern Bihar, Jugeshwar Prakashan, Patna, 1864, p.7 ; RR Diwakar, Bihar Through the Ages, Orient Longmans, Bombay, 1959, p. 52 (Anga identify as Bhagalpur and Munger districts; Videha corresponds with Mithila: Vaisali earned fame in the 6th century BC; And the Paurnik literature speaks of Karusha which is identical with Shahabad) 5. Tabakat-i-Nasiri, English translation, HG Raverty, vol.I, p. 550; The great part of south of the Ganges from the river the Karmanasa upto Rajmahal hills and Purnia was with him, RR Diwakar, p.400 6. English Translation of Ain-i-Akbari by H. Blochman, Calcutta, 1927 7. Bengal General (Education) A proceeding, Agusut 1861, Nos 40-45 8. Ibid, October, 1871, No 8-10 9. Ibid 10. All India Second Education Survey-1965, p 25; Census of India, 1961, Vol-IV, part II, P 56 11. Gazetter of India: Bihar Journalism in Bihar, By N.Kumar, Govt. of Bihar, Patna, 1971, P. IV 12. Ibid 13. Ibid 14. Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, PP 167-168 15. Brajesh Verma, Role of Deep Narayan Singh in the Freedom Movement, Ph.D thesis, Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur, 1983 16. Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, PP 76-77 17. KK Dutta, History of Freedom Movement in Bihar, Patna, 1957, vol-I, PP 150-151 18. RR Diwakar, Bihar Through the Ages, P 652 19. The Beharee, December 15, 1911 20. Qayamuddin Ahmad and Jatashankar Jha, Mazharul Haque, Government of India, New Delhi, PP 90-92, AM Zaidi (ed), The Encyclopedia of the Indian National Congress, New Delhi, Vol VI, PP 289-290 21. Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, P 78 22. Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan, Oxford University press, New Delhi, 1988, P 39 23. Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, P 106 24. KK Dutta, History of Freedom Movement in Bihar, Vol-1, P 196 25. GA Natsan (ed), Eminent Mussalmans, Madras, 1926, P 244, Ram Gopal, Indian Muslims: A Political History-1885-1947, Bombay, 1959, PP 175-176 26. NN Mitra (ed), Indian Annual Register 1931, Indian Annual Register Office, Calcutta, 1931, Vol. I, PP 475-477 27. SP Sen, Dictionary of National Biography, Vol-I, PP 39-40 28. The Hindustan Review, September-October 1932, PP 190-192 29. NN Mitra, The Indian Annual Register, 1931, vol I, P 477 30. K Ishwar Dutta (ed), Congress Encyclopedia: The Indian National Congress- 1885-1920, P 327 31. Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, P 118 32. Congress Encyclopedia, P 324 33. Ibid 34. KK dutta, History of Freedom Movement in Bihar, Vol-I, P228; AM Zaidi, The Encyclopedia of Indian National Congress 1916-1920, Vol-VII, PP 295-296 35. Some Eminent Bihar contemporises, P VI 36. Ibid, PP, xvii-xviii 37. Ibid P 14 38. Ibid P 16 39. Journalism in Bihar, P. v 40. Ibid 41. Bihar Through the Ages, PP 776-777 42. Mrugh-i-Suliman, November 7, 1876 43. The Qasid, January 1877 44. The Bengal Magazine- 1880-81 45. Ibid, 1881-82 46. The Hindu Patriot, April 7, 1879 47. Samachar Chandrika, October, 1887 48. The Behar Bandhu, April 5, 1875 49. Some eminent Bihar Contemporaries, P 43 50. Ibid, P 44 51. Mahesh Narayan and Sachchidanand Sinha, The Partition of Bengal or Seperation of Bihar, Patna, 1906, PP 6-7 52. Some Eminent Bihar Contemporaries, P xii 53. The Bengali, June 20, 1896 54. Griersan (Quoted, Mahesh Narayan and Sachchidanand Sinha, PP 36-37) writes-“Bihar has been for centuries much more closely connected politically with the United Province than with Bengal. The face of the Bihari is ever turned towards the North-West and they have long desired to sever all connection with the people of Bengal.” (the Census of India, 1910) 55. Creation of Bihar, PP 25-26 56. Ibid