Civil Disobedience Movement and Bihar
- The resolution of the Civil Disobedience Movement was passed in December, 1929 at the Lahore session of the Congress under the chairmanship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
- On January 26, 1930, Independence Day was celebrated with great enthusiasm all over Bihar.
- On March 12, 1930, Gandhiji started the Dandi Yatra with his 78 volunteers from the Sabarmati Ashram, which ended 24 days later after reaching Dandi on April 5, 1930 and breaking the salt law. On this day, Gandhiji announced to start civil disobedience movement across the country from 6th April, 1930.
- Girivardhari Chowdhary, the only representative of Bihar, was among the 78 volunteers in Gandhiii’s Dandi March.
- In Bihar, till the end of June, 1930, a program to break the salt law was carried out because it was not possible to get salt-making soil when the rains started.
- Vareja and Goriyakothi in Saran district were singled out for breaking the salt law.
- The Salt Satyagraha in Saran district was led by Shri Narayan Prasad Singh, Bharat Mishra, Girish Tiwari and Baban Singh.
- In Bihar, salt Satyagraha also spread in areas like Muzaffarpur, Patna, and Shahabad etc.
- This Satyagraha in Muzaffarpur was led by Ramdayalu Singh, Janakdhari Prasad and Thakur Ramnandan Singh.
- The Salt Satyagraha started on April 16, 1930 in Patna. Here a place called Nakhaspind was chosen to break the salt law. Jagatnarayan Lal led this movement in Patna,
- Ambika Kant Singh and Jashulal Gupta were arrested in Patna and sent to Bankipur Jail.
- In Darbhanga district, under the leadership of Satyanarayan Singh, the salt law was broken on April 17, 1930. Satyanarayan Singh and Ramnandan Mishra were arrested in Darbhanga.
- In Munger district, under the leadership of Shri Krishna Singh on 23rd April, 1930, the salt law was dissolved in Gogri. Shri Krishna Singh was arrested in Begusarai and sent to Hazaribagh Jail.
Salt Movement in Bihar
|
|
Location
|
Leader
|
|
Champaran
|
Bipin Bihari Verma
|
|
Bareja
|
Girish Tiwari
|
|
Goria Kothi
|
Chandrika Singh
|
|
Hajipur
|
Bharat Mishra
|
|
Patna
|
Ambika Kant Singh
|
|
Munger
|
Shri Krishna Singh
|
|
Lakhisarai
|
Nand Kumar Singh
|
|
Darbhanga
|
Satyanarayan Singh
|
Programs of Civil Disobedience Movement
|
|
·
|
Violation of the salt law
|
|
·
|
Tax ban movement
|
|
·
|
Protest by women on liquor, opium and foreign cloth shops
|
|
·
|
Boycott of foreign goods
|
|
·
|
Boycott of government services, courts, education centers and titles
|
- Under the leadership of Nandkumar Singh on 20 April, salt was made in Rajaun village near
- On April 22, 1930, a salt making center was opened at Teja Singh’s temple in Barhiya Under the leadership of Shah Muhammad Zubair and Nemdhari Singh the salt law was broken in Barhiya.
- The salt law was broken on April 20 under the leadership of Mahadev Sharif and Deepnarayan Agarwal in Gauripur village under Vihpur police station of Bhagalpur.
Nakhaspind Movement
|
|
·
|
A place called Nakhaspind is in Patna district was chosen for breaking the salt law. It was popular during the days of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
|
|
·
|
The slogan of Nakhaspind Chalo’ used to echo in Patna from 16 to 21 April, 1930. The people took a firm resolve to continue the Salt Satyagraha on the call of Mahatma Gandhi and never bow down to the oppression of the police.
|
|
·
|
On April 16, 1930, a group of people under the leadership of Ambika Kant Singh, the manager of The Searchlight and secretary of the Patna Committee, went towards a place called Nakhaspind in Patna to break the salt law. They were stopped and arrested by the Police. Meanwhile, some groups from the other side reached Nakhaspind and broke the salt law by making salt.
|
|
·
|
Many prominent leaders of Bihar had participated in this salt movement, such as Prof. Abdul Bari, Rajendra Prasad, and Acharya JB Kripalani etc.
|
Vihpur’s Damanchakra
|
|
·
|
In Vihpur of Bhagalpur district, the cycle of repression of the police on the Satyagrahi Swayamsevaks went on with great harshness and ruthlessness. Rajendra Prasad along with his Patna colleagues and Prof. Abdul Bari, Baldev Sahay, Gyan Saha, Murli Manohar Prasad and some others reached Vihpur on June 9, 1930 and addressed a meeting.
|
|
·
|
After the meeting was over, the police starteda lathi charge on the procession going towards the Congress office, in which prominent leaders including Rajendra Prasad were injured. Four members of the Bihar Council, Anant Prasad, Kamleshwari Sahal, Shyamnarayan Singh Sharma and Navalkishore Prasad Singh, resigned against the police atrocities.
|
|
·
|
Rai Bahadur Sudhanshu Bhushan Rai, Public Prosecutor of Bhagalpur, tendered his resignation on July 4, 1930, declaring the police actions in Vihpur and Sabour illegal. Rai Bahadur Dwarkanath also resigned from the membership of Bihar Legislative Council in protest against lathi attack on Rajendra Prasad and Prof. Abdul Bari.
|
- In Bihar, Rajendra Prasad, a well-known national leader, was arrested in Chhapra on July 5, 1930 and sent to Hazaribagh Jail. After his arrest, Dr. Rajendra Prasad nominated Deepnarayan of Bhagalpur as his successor.
- The most important program of the Civil Disobedience Movement was the Karbandi (no tax) movement.
- Chowkidari tax ban campaign had been started in Bihar.
- People of Saran, Champaran, Shahabad, Purnia, Munger, Patna and other districts stopped paying chowkidari tax.
- The Congress Working Committee, in its meeting in Bombay on August 1, 1930, congratulated the people of Bihar for starting the chowkidari tax ban campaign.
- On August 12, 1930, Chandravati Devi, while giving a speech in a meeting in Gaya, insisted on not paying the Chowkdari tax.
- In May 1930, a Swadeshi League was formed in Patna under the presidentship of Sir Ali Imam.
- In the Swadeshi League, Sachchidanand Sinha and KB Dutt were made Vice Presidents, Hasan Imam the Chief Secretary and Baldev Sahay the Joint Secretary.
- During the Civil Disobedience Movement, Rajendra Prasad was released from Hazaribagh Jail on December 14, 1930 after completing his term of imprisonment.
- On May 5, 1931, the Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and this movement started for the second time on January 3, 1932.
- There was a complete hartal on March 26 in Patna in protest against the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on March 23, 1931. Shri Krishna Singh and Jagat Narayan Lal gave fiery speeches in the protest meeting.
- During the civil disobedience movement in Munger’s Gogri police station, 14 women were arrested for the crime of protesting and taking out a procession, in which Anoop Devi, Mrs. Sushila Devi, Mrs. Saraswati Devi were prominent.
- On February 15, 1932, an attempt was made by the revolutionaries to hoist the national flag at ‘Thana Bhavan’ in Tarapur, Munger. 34 people were killed when the police opened fire on the people gathered there.
- During the civil disobedience movement, the inmates of the jail in Chhapra went on a naked strike (Nanga Hartal).
- Gandhiji suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement on April 7, 1934.
- Independence Day was celebrated on the release of Mahatma Gandhi and members of the Congress Working Committee, during which Anugrah Narayan Singh hoisted the national flag in Patna (Bhanwarpokhar Park).
- A non-governmental organization named Bihar Central Relief Committee was established to help the earthquake victims. Its president was Rajendra Prasad and secretary was Baldev Prasad.
- On March 11, 1934, Gandhi again reached Patna on his Bihar visit. In his journey to Bihar, he visited places like Motihari, Chhapra, Sonpur, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, Munger etc. and appealed to the people to help the earthquake victims.
- Gandhiji’s Harijan Yatra in Bihar happened twice in 1934 AD. Gandhiji’s visit to Bihar in 1934 was important from political point of view besides humanitarian work and social reform.
|
