Bihar Day: How Bihar was carved out of the Bengal Presidency in 1912

In his thesis, ‘Provincial Pasts and National Histories: Territorial Self-Fashioning in Twentieth Century Bihar’, Aryendra Chakravartty of Stephen F. Austin State University (USA) writes that the demand for separating Bihar from Bengal started in the late 19th century, partly for two reasons.

One, the residents began feeling that the region was “becoming a backwater and a place of little significance for the new rulers of India”. The other was the discovery of the ancient Mauryan capital of Pataliputra near the modern-day Patna city in 1895, which “not only brought back visions of a glorious past, but also served as a “ghostly reminder of an almost irrecoverable past,” Chakravartty writes.

Before the British East India Company took over Bihar, Orissa and Bengal, the region, particularly Patna, was synonymous with prosperity and prominence. However, soon after the English came to power, the region’s fortunes fell. Moreover, as Bihar, Orissa and Bengal were all part of the Bengal Presidency and placed under one administrative structure, many believed that the British paid attention only to Calcutta, British India’s capital, and ignored the rest of the region.

For instance, the introduction and influence of English language in the Bengal Presidency were mostly limited to the British administrative centres of Calcutta. This led to the rise of a Bengali middle class as they dominated not only the administrative jobs but also other modern-day professions in hospitals, courts and schools. Meanwhile, Biharis, “who once monopolized white-collar jobs in the government until 1835”, struggled to gain employment as they didn’t get an opportunity to learn the new language, Chakravartty mentions in his thesis.

He further says, “In addition, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, the Bengalis developed a sense of cultural superiority that was not only predicated on their early access to English education, but was equally derived from their attachment to Bengali language and literature, which served as hallmarks of Bengali culture.

“Often such an outlook meant that Bengalis, as they moved into parts of northern India, maintained a distance from the local society where such behaviour was usually perceived as an exhibition of professional and cultural superiority.”

How did the demand for a separate state of Bihar come about?

This situation didn’t sit well among the modern-day English-spoken Biharis such as Sachchidananda Sinha and Mahesh Narayan, who played a crucial role in elevating the demand for a separate state of Bihar. Together they founded a newspaper, The Behar Times, in 1894 and began writing editorials and columns, promoting the idea of a separate Bihar.

The demand became much more vocal prior to the 1905 Bengal partition, when Sinha, Narayan and other Biharis “emphasized that the separation of Bihar from Bengal would serve as “the only way in which the different races in the country can be politically unified.” However, their hopes were dashed as the Britishers broke up Bengal along communal lines rather than from the administrative point of view.

But the cause for carving out Bihar from Bengal didn’t die down. In fact, as Chakravartty points out, “following 1905, a majority of Bengalis began to look upon the possibility of a separate Bihar more favorably.” New leaders such as Ali Imam, Hassan Iman, Muhammad Fakhruddin and Mazharul Haque also joined the movement. Meanwhile, much like Bihar, the Orissa region of Bengal also started to witness the rise in demand for a separate state.

In 1908, the first session of the Bihar Provincial Conference was held, where Muhammad Fakhruddin moved a resolution demanding Bihar’s separation from Bengal. Then, in August 1908, the Bihar Provincial Conference, Bihar Landholder’s Association and Bihar Provincial Muslim League came together and addressed Andrew Fraser, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bihar and West Bengal, during his visit to Patna regarding their demand for separation.

“Since this address was considered to be a representative view of both Bihari Muslim and Hindu literati as well as that of the provincial landholders, they claimed that the address was “unique and distinctive” as it did not “emanate from any particular section, caste, class or community,” but instead was “the humble and loyal representation of the views of the sentiments of the entire Bihari community,” Chakravartty writes in his thesis, noting that the address was well received by Fraser, who acknowledged the demand for a separate state.

Finally, in December 1911, during the Delhi Durbar, the British government announced that Bihar and Orissa would be carved out of Bengal on the occasion of George V’s coronation as the Emperor of India. The declaration was notified on March 22, 1912, and the two regions appeared as separate states on India’s map the next month.