Sunday 27 December 2015

K.B. SQUARE, HAZARIBAG: THE STORY OF A MEMORIAL



FROM THE BLOGGER’S LIBRARY: REMEMBERING K.B.SAHAY:1
    

Hazaribagh, the headquarters of the North Chhotanagpur Division of Jharkhand is known as a city of thousand gardens. Some also refer it to a city of thousand tigers. The city is situated in the midst of the forests. In the heart of the city is situated the New Bus Terminal for private buses. As one moves from here towards Ranchi on the N.H. 33, one cannot miss a massive Gothic architecture at the right angle. Erected in 1908 it is the famous Saint Columba’s College.

About three furlongs or so from the bus terminal, the road forks out, the N.H. moving on the right fork with 30-degree slant, while the left fork going straight, leads to the magnificent architecture i.e. the Saint Columba’s College. This creates a triangle to the left incline to the Gothic monument. The triangular plot has a statue of its local hero, Sri. K. B. Sahay, the brightest son of the soil of Hazaribagh who, after serving as the revenue Minister, became the Chief Minister of the undivided Bihar. In a way, it is befitting indeed that the most illustrious alumni of the institution stands right in front of the alma mater as a sentinel warding off evils and beckoning new generations of young men and women to the portals of the temple of learning. The statue stands as a mark of gratitude for a city whose resident never ever forgot this illustrious son. The story of this memorial goes back to the eighties when the residents of Hazaribagh, decided to express their gratitude by erecting a memorial in remembrance of their local hero K. B. Sahay. A committee was constituted to take up the issue with the Government of Bihar. Sri Braj Kishore Jaiswal was the Chairman of this committee and other members on this Committee were Dr. O. P. Gope, Secretary, Sri Dwarkanath Sinha, Treasurer, Sri Srikant Sahay, Deputy Secretary and Sri L. K. Sahay, Deputy Treasurer. Other active members of this committee were all distinguished citizens of Hazaribagh like Sri Nageshwar Prasad noted advocate, Sri. Hafizur Rehman, ex MLA, Sri Damodar Pandey, Ex MLA, Sri Lambodar Pathak, ex MLA, Sri Ram Kumar Ojha, Smt Krishna Srivastava, Ms. Anjali Dasgupta, Sri Krishna Kumar Sinha, Sri Mithileshwari Charan, Sri Javed Akhtar, and Sri Chandrashekhar Prasad. The Committee sought permission of the Government of Bihar to install a statue of K. B. Sahay at the triangular space in front of Saint Columba’s College- the college from which K. B. Sahay had graduated in 1919. What better tribute to an alumnus by installing a statue in front of the college which he attended as a student! The Government of Sri Bindeshwari Dubey granted the space for the purpose and the Chief Minister also agreed to unveil the statue on the 88th birth anniversary of Sri. K. B. Sahay on 31st December 1986. Sri K. B. Sahay had nurtured the political career of Sri Bindeshwari Dubey in the sixties and Sri Dubey acknowledged this fact in his address, while unveiling the statue. I do not have much information about the efforts that went into getting the permission of the Government to allow the triangular space in front of the college or in installing the statue but I do remember vividly the visits by Kantu cha (Chhote papa), stopping over at our place in Jhumri-Telaiya, on way to Patna along with other Committee members a number of times or to board the train to New Delhi/Jaipur for the statue. Finally, the efforts of the Committee materialized and it was a great occasion when the statue was finally unveiled on 31st December 1986 by the Chief Minister of Bihar Sri Bindeshwari Dubey.

The efforts of the Committee did not end here. It also brought out a Souvenir on this occasion in remembrance. This Souvenir was released on 31st December 1986 and it carried articles on K. B. Sahay written by his well-wishers. These articles gave an insight into the life and times of K. B. Sahay and made for interesting reading. The souvenir was edited by Dr. A. N. Prasad, Professor (English), Saint Columba’s College; Hazaribagh and carried articles by distinguished citizens of Hazaribag town. These articles and many more written by prominent leaders of Bihar of the day, bureaucrats, advocates, renowned journalists, and even common man will be reproduced in this blog in the coming days for the benefit of those who may be interested to know K. B. Sahay - as a person, as a leader, and as an administrator. Incidentally Patna edition of “THE HINDUSTAN TIMES” published an article on K. B. Sahay on this day i.e. 31st December 1986, written by Sri. Gutulji Sahay, another son of K. B. Sahay. This article titled “K. B. Sahay: His Life and Times” was a befitting tribute to his father by a son. This article is available on this blog.

This is a small effort to digitize all available published materials and upload them on this blog for the benefit of readers. I invite contributions, text and photos, to enrich this blog. The contributions will be duly acknowledged.

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