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| MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI |
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| KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY |
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| THE HINDUSTAN TIMES 6TH JANUARY 1946 |
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| LETTER K. B. SAHAY WROTE TO DR RAJENDRA PRASAD |
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| LETTER K. B. SAHAY WROTE TO DR RAJENDRA PRASAD ABOUT HIS DISCUSSION WITH SARDAR VALLABH BHAI PATEL IN RIOT CONDITIONS IN BIHAR |
By 1946 it had become clear that the British were interested in
the transfer of power and leave India. In Bihar Sri Krishna Sinha formed the
interim Government and took over as the Prime Minister. K. B. Sahay joined the cabinet
as the Revenue Minister. The decision to divide the nation led to the outbreak
of communal riots in several places, especially Punjab and Bengal- the States
which were to be bifurcated. Sri Krishna Sinha took necessary law and order
measures to control the situation in Bihar. However, despite all efforts to
enforce law and order and maintain peace and harmony, communal riots broke out
in Bihar due to the provocation both by the Hindu and Muslim organizations as
news poured in from Bengal and other States about the riots in those States. A
riot broke out on 24th October 1946 when several Muslim families were targeted
by Hindu mobs in retaliation to the Great Calcutta Killings as well as Noakhali
Riots. The riots were a spontaneous reaction. The Sri Krishna Sinha’s
Government was all geared up to tackle such an eventuality. It came down
swiftly on mischief-makers. In Chhotanagpur region K. B. Sahay was quick to
control lawlessness. He presented a fine example of strict administrator as
riots were contained in this region in a couple of days, though sporadic events
continued till 11th November.
While the Bihar Government was still tackling riots, continuous
questioning by the Central leadership, especially by Mahatma Gandhi, kept the
Bihar Government on tenterhooks, since statements made by them, fuelled the
surcharged atmosphere. K. B. Sahay was perturbed at the manner the issue was
handled by Mahatma Gandhi in Hindu dominated areas vis-à-vis the Muslim
dominated areas. Mahatma Gandhi was concerned at the massacre of Muslims in
Bihar and sought an explanation from the Provincial Government. Mahatma Gandhi
proposed a Commission of Enquiry to be set-up to examine Hindu ‘atrocity’ in
Bihar and also desired the enquiry should be carried out in open to instil
faith in Muslims. K. B. Sahay was opposed to such a move and other such
interventions by Mahatma Gandhi in controlling riots. He believed that it would
affect the morale of the administration adversely. He considered such decisions
weak, administratively that would only vitiate the atmosphere further. Dr
Rajendra Prasad impressed upon Sri Krishna Sinha to apprise Mahatma Gandhi of
the situation in Bihar but the Premier was hesitant to apprise Mahatma Gandhi
in person. Hence the burden of detailing the efforts of the Bihar Government at
controlling riots and the relief operations being carried out fell on the
shoulders K.B. Sahay, who was deputed to meet Mahatma Gandhi. As usual Krishna
Ballabh Sahay did not shirk from this responsibility and agreed to head a
delegation that met Mahatma Gandhi to apprise him of the situation in Bihar and
the efforts made by the provincial government in controlling the riots.
The Bihar Delegation led by K. B. Sahay met Mahatma Gandhi at Chandipur on 5th January 1947. K. B. Sahay submitted a memorandum to Gandhiji containing the notes prepared by the Bihar Government as a reply to and refute certain charges said to have been levelled by the Bengal Premier R. S. Suhrawardy, in a letter dated 15th December 1946 addressed to Gandhiji, regarding the treatment of refugees in Bihar. K. B. Sahay placed all relevant papers before Gandhiji and explained to him the issues in detail. Regarding the Bengal Premier’s charge that Khwaja Nazimuddin and his party were not allowed to enter two refugee camps in Monghyr district on 12th December, K. B. Sahay informed that the party was stopped by a sentry as they had no official permit to enter the refugee camps. The District Magistrate of Monghyr, Khan Bahadur Omar at his discretion had passed orders refusing entry to anybody to assure the safety of the refugees. K. B. Sahay informed Gandhiji that before Khwaja Nizamuddin’s visit, Malik Firoz Khan Noon, who had obtained passes, was not stopped and had visited the camps. Thus no such restriction exists anywhere in the province.
K. B. Sahay also informed Mahatma Gandhi that the management of nearly all Government camps had been in the hands of the Muslim League throughout the state whose volunteers kept a vigil on the safety of inmates of refugee camps. This apart, the armed guard had been provided in some camps to give the Muslims a sense of security and the movements of the refugees were free. As regards the arrest of alleged culprits, the delegation informed Gandhiji that the Patna district figure alone was about 1600 but the progress of work in this respect had been retarded by the absence of complaints and of witnesses who were reported to have left the province.
Concerning the treatment of victims, K. B. Sahay informed Gandhiji that out of a total of 1550 persons admitted to hospital (650 being serious cases) only 30 deaths occurred and the percentage of successful treatment in the Patna General Hospital was 96%. Complaints regarding the quality of food were received only on three occasions and immediate steps were taken wherever possible. The meal fixed for refugee camps consists of rice, dal and one vegetable. In all the Government refugee camps salt, mustard oil, kerosene, fuel etc were provided by the Government- K. B. Sahay informed about the amenities in refugee camps. In affected villages, foodstuffs worth Rs. 44,000/- were supplied free. Multi-vitamin tablets numbering 60,000 and rations at the rate of two seers and ten chhattaks cereal plus pulse and vegetable per week were supplied free. Blankets numbering 60,000, dhotis and sarees numbering 18,902, kurta numbering 7,534, pyjamas numbering 20,000 were also supplied free in these villages. The assistance extended to inmates of refugee camps was explained by K. B. Sahay to Mahatma Gandhi in such detail to convince him of the commitment of an elected Government towards its citizens, irrespective of his caste, creed, gender or religion.
Further, K. B. Sahay also apprised Mahatma Gandhi regarding the effort made by the Government in alleviating fear in the minds of the Muslims of a possible recurrence of such trouble because he felt it was a result of this fear that they became the victim of devious designs of the unscrupulous elements in society. K. B. Sahay assured Gandhiji that the exodus had slowed down over the days and some people had returned from Bengal. The Bihar Government had organized large scale propaganda against the idea of an exodus. Security measures for the protection of Muslims, such as the opening of new police stations and outposts and the establishment of a new sub-division at Hilsa in Patna district and development of road communication in the affected areas were some of the issues under the active consideration of the Government.
K. B. Sahay informed Mahatma Gandhi that military patrolling was carried out continuously and the armed escorts maintain complete harmony with relief workers. Transport and petrol were provided free to all relief organizations. The Muslim League alone was given 3,553 gallons of petrol, the highest gallonage granted to any organization.
Mahatma Gandhi did not appreciate the effort of the State Government and insisted on the institution of an enquiry committee for Bihar to go into the whole issue of riots. This insistence on the part of Mahatma Gandhi at a time when the relief and rehabilitation work launched by the provincial government was in full swing amounted to questioning the integrity of the Government because such a decision would have tarnished the credibility of an elected government terribly. In a letter to Sri Krishna Sinha dated 25th March 1947, Dr Rajendra Prasad suggested him not to shy away from Mahatma Gandhi but keep him informed of the situation in Bihar. However, K. B. Sahay was aware of the repercussions of such a decision which he expressed candidly in a letter to Dr Rajendra Prasad in which he referred to his discussion on the matter with Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel requesting him to talk to Mahatma Gandhi to re-think on his decision regarding the institution of the Enquiry Committee. Verbatim reproduction of this letter dated 1st April 1947 will help understand K. B. Sahay’s views on communal riots better:
‘I discussed the following points with Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel-
1)
The
Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Commission of Enquiry: Bapu wants the enquiry should be open to the public. We think that if the enquiry is open it will add to communal
bitterness.
2)
Our present policy is that we give grants for rehabilitation and for re-building to
Mussalmans who are few in any village leaving them free to build houses for
themselves elsewhere. Bapu wants that it should be open to any Mussalmans to
offer his house and his land to be acquired by the Government which would
become State property and that he would get their price and be free to settle
anywhere else he likes. Our
difficulty in accepting this formula is that it will give the Mussalmans an the opportunity of expressing dissatisfaction with the amount that we give them and
it will also ultimately lead to the establishment of pockets for which the
Mussalmans have been agitating.
Bapu is very insistent that we should accept this formula.
3)
We want
to deal sternly with the Police rebels and those political parties which we
suspect foment the trouble. One of the political parties is the Socialist
Party. This is inconsistent with Bapu’s advice that we cannot ignore the
personality of Jai Prakash Narayan. We feel that if we are to negotiate with Mr
Jai Prakash Narayan we cannot deal sternly with the Police or maintain
discipline amongst them.
4)
Bapu
mentioned Dr Syed Mahmud’s grievance that rehabilitation in Bihar was not
entrusted to him. Our opinion is that if it is entrusted to him it will lead to
undesirable results and that the work that he is in charge is sufficiently
heavy. Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel said that Hon’ble Abdul Qayyum Ansari should
be given rehabilitation.
5)
I
mentioned to Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel that Bapu’s receiving all sorts of
complaints against Congressmen and the Ministry had weakened both. As an
instance, I cited the case of Deputy Magistrate Patnaik, Secretary of
Provincial Executive Service representing his grievance to Bapu. There are
persistent rumours in the province that there will be a reshuffling of the
Ministry and that Law & Order will be entrusted to Dr Syed Mahmud. Bapu
told us that he made it plain to those who met him that it was not for him to
make any change in the Ministry, but the fact that he hears complaints has its
repercussions.
The concluding statement that ‘the
fact that he (Bapu) hears complaints has its repercussions’, sums up the state of affairs in those times when
administrative decisions were getting influenced by heresy and Bapu’s
interference in day to day administration had made controlling riots a tougher
task. Such interference was disliked by Krishna Ballabh Sahay and he put across
his point of view before Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel in no uncertain terms. This
toughness became a characteristic trait of K. B. Sahay who dealt with
administrative matters including controlling riots and keeping in check all
mischievous elements in the society with an iron fist. Such toughness was
essential to enable the law and order machinery function independently,
impartially and transparently to maintain peace and harmony in society. K. B.
Sahay was strictly against any form or type of appeasement that became a recurring feature of Congress government in the late Seventies. (Source:
National Archives, New Delhi)
After independence, K. B. Sahay as the Revenue Minister in
Government of Bihar introduced the Zamindari Abolition Bill in the Bihar
Legislative Assembly. This was vehemently opposed by the zamindars. They
resorted to various measures to forestall the passage of the Zamindari
Abolition Bill. They even sought the support of Congress leaders and were
jubilant when their effort met a supporting voice from none other than Mahatma
Gandhi who, in a prayer meeting at Patna, ‘complained
of growing lawlessness among peasantry and labour. Such lawlessness was
criminal and bound to involve the very peasantry and labour in ruin!’ (The Searchlight, 19.04.1947) Ramnandan Mishra, a staunch leader of Kisan Sabha,
was quick to retort- ‘The report of your speech
published in today's ‘The Indian
Nation’ is unjust and unfair…..
there is a great danger of your speech being used by pro-landlord officers in
crushing the peaceful and yet powerful movement of the kisans…… As regards
violence being resorted to by landlords apart from forced dispossessions, I am
attaching a list of murders, brutal assassinations and incendiaries carried out
by zamindars. The list is not exhaustive but just illustrative. …. I am giving
below a few lines from a magisterial report- ‘the first party are reported to
be turbulent people and number 1 (Babu Baij Nath Singh of Barahiya) is better
known as Hitler. Preparations are afoot on a Hitler style to crush us. If we go
down, nothing can save the Congress and those who profess in your creed…’ (Sahajanand Papers, NMML, New
Delhi)
Gandhi, who had made ambiguity a fine art, was also quick to
tread back and in his post prayer meeting, spoke, for the first time,
unreservedly against the zamindari system and said that ‘this the system was bound to go’. (The
Searchlight) Gandhiji
did not live long to see the ultimate passage of the Zamindari Abolition Bill
in 1950. The Act closed a chapter in the Indian History which had a legacy of
more than a hundred and fifty years in the form of the Permanent Settlement
Act, 1793 introduced by Lord Cornwallis. (Agrarian Reforms from Above and
Below: Bihar 1947-1978 by Arvind N Das)
However, these pull and
push apart, it mustn’t be construed that there were any basic differences
whatsoever in the outlook of Krishna Ballabh Sahay and his mentor Mahatma
Gandhi. There are numerous instances as recorded in the Bihar Legislative
Assembly debates when K. B. Sahay, as the Chief Minister of the State, referred
to Bapu, who he regarded the beacon and the guiding force behind a welfare
state.
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