Thursday, 1 July 2021

'THE LEGACY': 14: DR BIDHAN CHANDRA ROY AND KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY (01/07/2021)




After independence, the issue of reorganization of States was taken up. The interest of his State was of paramount importance to this leader who led from the front when the issue of demarcation of the state boundaries came up at the dawn of independence. This demarcation had become essential in the backdrop of the partition of the nation that divided the States of Punjab and Bengal into two – one half of it going to Pakistan while the other half remaining in India. As a result, the then Bengal Prime minister laid its State claim on several Bengali speaking regions of Bihar. K. B. Sahay was vehemently opposed to such re-distribution of the region on a linguistic basis. He, therefore, opposed the move of the West Bengal Government. At the same time, K. B. Sahay was a nationalist and a strict disciplinarian. He was willing to accommodate wherever possible in the larger interest of the nation, provided the interest of the state of Bihar was not compromised in the process.  

On 26th May 1948, when the issue of demarcation of States on a linguistic basis came up for discussion in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, K. B. Sahay put across the State’s viewpoint quite candidly- “Sir, the Government’s attention has been drawn to a message from the Associated Press of India dated Calcutta, May 20, 1948, published in a local English daily in its morning edition of 21st May stating that the West Bengal Government have made a representation to the Government of India for the inclusion on a linguistic basis in West Bengal of certain areas of Bihar lying adjacent to that province. The West Bengal Premier Dr B. C. Roy told pressmen that he had made the representation in question at the request of his Cabinet. The Provincial Government has decided to lodge a strong protest against this move of the West Bengal Government before the proper authorities. If the Government of India decides to examine the question of redistribution of provincial boundaries of Bihar and West Bengal, the Provincial Government will put forward their claims to areas of West Bengal which have not been included in Bihar because of the affinity of language, culture and race of people inhabiting those areas. The Government has received representation both from Manbhum and Singhbhum and other areas of Bihar saying that the people would like to read Hindi. To counteract effectively the linguistic argument of Bengal, the Government feels that Hindi is the State language of the people of those areas and other areas should get full facilities for learning Hindi. The Government shall not yield an inch of Bihar territories to any other Government of the Indian Union. The Government is already preparing a memorandum to claim the part of West Bengal to Bihar which should legitimately form part of Bihar. We think that every Bengali is a citizen of Bihar. We do not make any distinction on account of speaking Bengali or Oriya or any other language. I assure members that though the memorandum submitted by the West Bengal Government to the Government of India is not in my hands, nevertheless, we will never allow Purnea to become a part of West Bengal. When the Government of India decides on redistribution of provinces, we will lodge our protest and also lay our claim to the areas in Bengal for which the Provincial Government is preparing a memorandum.”

K. B. Sahay’s deep-rooted love for Bihar surfaced spectacularly during the linguistic agitation in Bihar and Bengal. In 1955 Dr B. C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of Bengal succeeded in obtaining clearance from the Congress High Command in the bifurcation of the district of Manbhum and Purnea to stake a claim on Purulia and Kishanganj. Entire Bihar was seething with acute resentment. K.B. Sahay threw in the gauntlet and did not even care the wrath of the Congress High Command to stubbornly put up Bihar’s claim, ignoring possible action that the party High Command could have taken against him for defying its orders. The organizational skills of K. B. Sahay and his fierce leadership style came to the fore when he yoked the united efforts of all the political parties of Bihar in one solid opposition block that forced the Congress High Command to heed to his argument. When the matter came up for a discussion with the Government of India, K. B. Sahay vociferously opposed the merger of Singhbhum, Manbhum and Purnea districts into West Bengal. It was the result of his grit and determination that these three districts remained in Bihar though a portion of areas from Purnea comprising of Siliguri and Darjeeling and from Manbhum comprising of Purulia went to West Bengal. The portion of the Manbhum district that remained in Bihar became part of the Dhanbad district.  

As a leader, K. B. Sahay had a very broad vision and hence he opposed the idea of reconstitution of States on a linguistic basis. He believed that such a decision would undermine nationalistic fervour and result in sub-nationalism. People will pride themselves in calling a Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi or a Tamil instead of Indian. His prophecy proved correct in the post-independent India where we are witness to numerous conflicts on the linguistic ground - those between Marathis and Dravidians, between Hindi speaking North Indian States and Dravidian language-based States of South India, between Bihari and Bhaiyas of Uttar Pradesh on one hand and Shiv Sainiks of Maharashtra on the other. 


(Source: Bihar Vidhan Sabha Debates)

 

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