Bihar in Modern Times and the Freedom Struggle

Company rule and its effects

• Battle of Buxar (22 October 1764): Hector Munro defeated Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daula and Shah Alam II.
• Treaty of Allahabad (1765): gave the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
• The famine of 1770 hit Bihar hard.
• Permanent Settlement (1793) created zamindars such as Darbhanga (Khandwala dynasty), Bettiah, Hathwa and Dumraon.
  • Peasants faced abwabs (illegal cesses) and evictions.
  • Golghar (1786), a grain store, was built at Patna after the 1770 famine.
• Opium and indigo:
  • The opium agency at Patna had its factory at Gulzarbagh.
  • Indigo planters dominated Champaran, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur.

Early resistance

• Wahabi movement: inspired by Syed Ahmad Barelvi, with Patna as its headquarters. Its leaders were Vilayat Ali and Inayat Ali. It was crushed in the Patna (1865) and Ambala trials.
• 1857 in Bihar:
  • Peer Ali (Patna) was hanged by Commissioner William Tayler.
  • Sepoys at Danapur rebelled on 25 July 1857.
  • Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur (Bhojpur), then about 80 years old, won at Arrah. He fought across UP and recaptured Jagdishpur on 23 April 1858 before dying of his wounds. 23 April is Vijay Utsav in Bihar.
  • His brother Amar Singh carried on the fight.
  • Other centres: Gaya, Rajgir, and Rohini (Deoghar).

Social and educational awakening

• Bihar Scientific Society (1868, Muzaffarpur), founded by Syed Imdad Ali.
• Patna College (1863).
• Newspapers:
  • Bihar Bandhu (1872, Keshav Ram Bhatt), an early Hindi paper;
  • Bihar Times (1894, Sachchidananda Sinha and Mahesh Narayan), which led the campaign for a separate province;
  • The Searchlight (1918);
  • The Indian Nation.
• Hindi movement: in 1881, Hindi in Devanagari replaced Urdu as the court language in Bihar.

Creation of Bihar province

• The Bihar Provincial Conference first met at Patna in 1908, presided over by Ali Imam.
• The Delhi Durbar (12 December 1911) announced a new province of Bihar and Orissa. It came into being on 22 March 1912 (Bihar Diwas). The capital was Patna.
• The Patna High Court opened in 1916 and Patna University in 1917.
• Orissa became a separate province on 1 April 1936.

The Gandhian era in Bihar

• Champaran Satyagraha (1917):
  • Raj Kumar Shukla invited Gandhi at the Lucknow Congress (1916).
  • Gandhi reached Motihari in April 1917 and defied the order to leave the district.
  • He worked with Rajendra Prasad, Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Mazharul Haque, J. B. Kripalani, Ramnavami Prasad and Dharnidhar Prasad.
  • The Champaran Agrarian Committee (with Gandhi as a member) led to the Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918, which ended tinkathia.
  • It was Gandhi's first satyagraha in India.
• Non-Cooperation (1920–22):
  • Bihar Vidyapith, inaugurated by Gandhi on 6 February 1921 at Sadaqat Ashram, Patna.
  • Students left government schools and liquor shops were picketed.
• Swarajists: a strong presence in the Bihar Council.
• The Simon Commission was boycotted at Patna in 1928.
• Civil Disobedience (1930):
  • salt was made at Nakhas Pond (Patna), Bihpur (Bhagalpur) and Champaran;
  • a no-chaukidari-tax campaign was run;
  • the Bihpur satyagraha was led by Rajendra Prasad.
• The 1934 earthquake: relief work was led by Rajendra Prasad. Gandhi called it a punishment for untouchability, and Tagore disagreed.
• 1937 elections:
  • The Congress formed a ministry under Shri Krishna Sinha ("Bihar Kesari"), with Anugrah Narayan Sinha as his deputy.
  • Mohammad Yunus was briefly the first Premier (April–July 1937).
  • The Congress ministry resigned in 1939.
• The Ramgarh Congress (1940), now in Jharkhand, was presided over by Maulana Azad.

Peasant and caste movements

• The Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha was founded at Sonpur (1929) by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. He was the first president of the All India Kisan Sabha (1936).
  • It fought bakasht struggles (1937–39) against the eviction of tenants.
  • Associated leaders: Karyanand Sharma (Barahiya Tal) and Rahul Sankrityayan (Amwari).
• The Triveni Sangh (1933–34) united Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri cultivators in Shahabad.

Quit India in Bihar (1942)

• 11 August 1942: seven students were shot dead while trying to hoist the flag on the Patna Secretariat. They were Umakant Prasad Sinha, Ramanand Singh, Satish Prasad Jha, Jagatpati Kumar, Devipada Choudhary, Rajendra Singh and Ramgovind Singh. The Shaheed Smarak stands at the spot.
• Railway lines and telegraph lines were cut across north and central Bihar. Bihar was among the most intense centres of the movement.
• Jayaprakash Narayan escaped from Hazaribagh jail on Diwali night, 9 November 1942, with Yogendra Shukla, Suraj Narayan Singh and others. He organised the Azad Dasta guerrilla squads from Nepal.

Leaders from Bihar

Leader	Known for
Dr Rajendra Prasad	Champaran; President of the Constituent Assembly; first President of India
Anugrah Narayan Sinha	"Bihar Vibhuti"; Champaran; first Deputy CM and Finance Minister
Shri Krishna Sinha	"Bihar Kesari"; first CM; zamindari abolition; temple entry for Dalits (Deoghar, 1953)
Mazharul Haque	Gave land for Sadaqat Ashram; Home Rule leader
Sachchidananda Sinha	Separate Bihar; interim President of the Constituent Assembly
Hasan Imam	President of the special Bombay Congress (1918)
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati	Kisan Sabha
Jayaprakash Narayan	Congress Socialist Party (1934); Quit India; later "Total Revolution" (1974)
Jagjivan Ram	Dalit leader; Union minister; Deputy PM (1977–79)
Karpoori Thakur	"Jan Nayak"; CM; OBC reservation (Karpoori formula, 1978); Bharat Ratna 2024
Ram Manohar Lohia (UP-born, active in Bihar)	Socialist movement

Exam tip: BPSC's Mains GS I and Prelims both lean heavily on this unit. Learn the seven martyrs' names, the Champaran team, the founding dates (1908, 1912, 1916, 1917, 1921, 1929, 1936) and JP's 1942 escape.