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| JAI PRAKASH NARAYAN (11 OCTOBER 1902-8 OCTOBER 1979) |
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| KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY (31 DECEMBER 1898-3 JUNE 1974) |
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| DR DAMODAR PRASAD |
A new chapter in the
movement for freedom struggle began in the country. with the announcement
of 'Quit India' by the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi
from the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay on 8th August 1942. Jai
Prakash Narayan and his other associates from the Congress Socialist Party were
cooling their heels in the Hazaribagh Central Jail (now named after Jai Prakash
Narayan) when Mahatma Gandhi gave the call for “Quit India.” Soon Congress leaders
joined them in the same jail due to their participation in the ‘Quit India
Movement’. Krishna Ballabh Sahay joined J.P. in jail on 11th August
1942. With the pre-dawn crackdown and arrest of all front-rank leaders of the
Congress Party, the political horizon was wiped out of leadership all of a
sudden. The leaderless movement was left rudderless. Jai Prakash Narayan was
concerned that with the incarceration of all front-rank leaders of the
Congress, the movement may peter out in absence of alternative leadership or a
second line of leaders. It was necessary that someone took up the cudgels and
lead the mass and provide the leadership. To fill in the leadership void,
Jai Prakash and his associates made a plan to escape from the jail. As per an initial plan it was decided to hide Jai Prakash
Narayan with a few of his close associates in bullock carts that entered the
jail premises every day with supplies of vegetables and other cereals. This
idea was dropped later as it was felt that there was all likelihood of the
carts getting checked at the jail gate at the time of exit. Some of the
comrades of the Congress Socialist Party leaders contemplated openly challenge
the jail authorities by looting the garrison and making their escape with
official arms and ammunition. This idea was also dropped as there was a
possibility of an outbreak of violence which, it was felt, would go against the
spirit of the movement, apart from causing unnecessary casualties.
Finally, it was decided
to escape the jail by climbing its high walls. The Deepawali night of 8-9 November was chosen for the execution
of the plan. The Congress Socialist leaders roped in Krishna Ballabh Sahay
in their plan. K. B. Sahay was a local leader and his support was crucial for
the successful execution of the plan. Krishna Ballabh Sahay sent for his
brother Dr Damodar Prasad, a medical practitioner of repute at Dariyapur
(Patna), who arranged for five hundred rupees. This money was given to this group
for meeting unforeseen expenses after their escape. The forthcoming is based on
the memoirs of noted Hindi literateur Ramvriksh Benipuri called
‘Zanzeerein aur Deewarein’.
On Deepawali day (9th November
1942), some of the inmates took permission from the Jail Superintendent to
celebrate the festival within jail premises. In evening hours, these inmates
arranged for a puja
thali which they lit with
42 earthen lamps. A group of inmates moved around the jail from one ward to the
next ward in procession singing a song in a local dialect- ‘Diwali phir agayi sajani,
Deepak raag saja le sajani’. (दिवाली फिर आएगी सजनी, दीपक राग सजा ले सजनी’). They moved around at a leisurely pace thereby deliberately
delaying the culmination of the procession. These inmates also involved
jail wardens, jamadars, and Nayab Jailor in the celebration to
deflect their attention from their duty. This helped in the successful
escape of Jai Prakash Narayan with five of his associates.
Benipuri credits the
successful execution of the plan to the sincerity of everyone involved in the
plan. He especially acknowledged the role of K. B. Sahay –‘'Krishna Ballabh Babu had a great influence in jail. He
was a leader from Hazaribagh and the jail administration held him in awe. He
had been the Parliamentary Secretary in the previous ministry. Therefore,
no jamadar would dare question him. Hence after J.P. escape when we kept the
jamadars on hold by playing cards, none of them asked us to stop the game for
the customary evening roll-call of prisoners. We kept playing cards till late
night and the jamadar was forced to leave without the roll-call. Such was the
weight Krishna Ballabh carried in the jail. At last, the night passed. We
were proud of our success. It can be asserted that if Krishna Ballabh
Sahay, Sarangdhar Babu, and Yadunath Sahay had not helped, the plan
would have gone bust that night itself, and in all possibility, those who had
run away would have got arrested. The chains kept hanging, the walls
kept looking up and lo, the prisoners were out!'
The next morning the new
Jail Superintendent joined duty and he expressed his wish to meet Krishna
Ballabh Sahay as he had got the posting on his recommendations and therefore he
wished to thank him and also expected Sahay’s support to handle the jail
administration. At this stage, someone advised him that he should instead call
Jai Prakash Narayan since JP carried more weight among the Congress Socialist
leaders who were the chief mischief-makers in jail. Krishna Ballabh Sahay could
not divert Jail Superintendent’s attention from the name of JP. The Jail
Superintendent immediately ordered his sub-ordinate to call Jai Prakash
Narayan. Soon the news broke out that Jai Prakash Narayan had escaped. It soon
became clear that a total of six inmates had escaped.
The escape of JP from the
Hazaribagh Central Jail was a rude shock and a challenge to the British
administration who considered their system un-breached and foolproof. The event
put a big question mark on the efficiency of the British administration and was
especially a blot on jail administration. Almost immediately the visitors’
register was searched out. It became evident that K. B. Sahay’s brother had
visited him. The British police came down heavily on his whole extended family.
The family was forced to leave their residence in Dariyapur locality in Patna
and flee to their native village in Sheikhpura where they remained in hiding
for the next two years. On suspicion of complicity in the escape plot, K. B.
Sahay, Ram Narayan Singh, and Sukhlal Singh were transferred to the Bhagalpur
jail with orders of rigorous imprisonment. Large awards were offered by the
government for information about those who had escaped.
After independence Jai
Prakash Narayan got involved in the ‘Bhoodan Movement’ initiated by
Acharya Vinoba Bhave. J.P. invited Vinoba to Bihar and together they trekked
the various regions of the state seeking land from zamindars.
Vinoba got substantial land in Hazaribagh district but these were largely
fallow tracts not fit for cultivation. On the other hand, Krishna Ballabh Sahay
was trying to abolish the Zamindari System by promulgating the
Zamindari Abolition Act. Both the leaders aimed to establish such a socialistic
order in which even the poorest of the poor especially peasants, landless
labourers and industrial labours could get the right to live with dignity. Jai
Prakash Narayan extended his full support to Krishna Ballabh Sahay in his
effort to abolish zamindari through legislative means. The
other leader to support Krishna Ballabh Sahay in his endeavour was the
eminent Kisan leader Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. The
failure of the ‘Bhoodan Movement’ left J.P. anguished as he questioned the
morality of zamindars in no uncertain terms-"I am
ashamed. We Biharis took a pledge of 32, 00,000 acres in order to
solve the land problem of our province. We have
kept baba (Vinoba Bhave) with us for 18 months, but still, this
vow has not been fulfilled. If we have not enough workers to solve the land
problems in Bihar, how can we ever solve it in the rest of India?” (“Agrarian
Movements In India: Studies in 20 Th Century Bihar”-
By Arvind Narayan Das, 1982)
In 1957, the united force
of the zamindars ensured Krishna Ballabh Sahay’s defeat in the
Legislative Assembly elections. In this election 'Bhumihar’
leader Mahesh Prasad Sinha was also defeated. The Chief Minister Shri
Krishna Sinha nevertheless rehabilitated Mahesh Babu and made him the Chairman
of the Khadi Board but ignored Krishna Ballabh Sahay. The major reason for the
defeat of Krishna Ballabh Sahay was the siege of the landlords against
him. The abolition of zamindari may have happened when
Shri Krishna Sinha was the Chief Minister of the State but it was Krishna
Ballabh Sahay who was instrumental in the drafting and passage of legislation
and abolition of zamindari. Jai Prakash Narayan could not bear this
neglect of Krishna Ballabh Sahay. He got so enraged that he expressed his
grief in no uncertain terms by writing a letter to Sri Krishna Sinha, drawing
his attention towards the injustice meted out to Krishna Ballabh Sahay. On 8th October
1957, he wrote another letter addressed to Dr Rajendra Prasad in which he
enclosed the letter he wrote to Sri Krishna Sinha on 13th September
1957 and sought his intervention to reinstate Krishna Ballabh Sahay. Jai
Prakash did not mince his words when he wrote to Sri Krishna Sinha- ‘You could
have purified the entire polluted political environment of the province and
thus could have ended the conflicts between the warring factions of the
Congress. But you are working only from this point of view
of 'Who was or is with us and who was or is against us'. For example,
your behaviour towards Mahesh Babu and Krishna Ballabh Babu is mentioned. I
did not mean to recommend Krishna Ballabh Babu but to draw attention to your
partisan behaviour. You have explained in great detail how much
and what you have done for Krishna Ballabh Babu in the past. There was no
need to tell me all that. But with that, you should have also mentioned
what Krishna Ballabh Babu did for you in the last twenty years and what kind of
loyalty he had with you. You did everything for Krishna Ballabh Babu as
long as he kept supporting you. Today, when he has separated from you, your
attitude was completely reversed. Your attention was drawn to the
undesirability of such behaviour in the previous letter. If the Congress
is to be revived in Chotanagpur, it cannot be done by suppressing Krishna
Ballabh. ... I only have to say that despite being
beyond ethnicity, due to the competition between you and Anugrah Babu, an
atmosphere of ethnicity was created in the province. Your kingdom was
called 'Bhumihar Rajya' and Anugrah Babu was considered the leader of
the ‘Rajputs’. ... '. Finally, Krishna Ballabh Babu had to intervene
and request Jai Prakash Narayan not to stretch this debate further and end this
episode as he did not want to go against the popular mandate.
The first thing that
Krishna Ballabh Babu did on becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar on 2nd October
1963 was to meet eminent citizens of his constituency. He met Jai Prakash
Narayan at his Sarvodaya Ashram and sought his support. Jai Prakash Narayan
lived in ‘Kadam Kuan’, in Patna-West- K. B. Sahay’s constituency.
Even today ‘Kadam Kuan’ is a Kayasthas’ den. The
place was famously known as the ‘Kadam-Kuan Brain Trust’ as all
major political decisions of the period was taken by the Kadam-Kuan think-tank
comprising of eminent Kayastha citizens who all resided in
this area.
In 1965-66, Bihar witnessed
severe famine. The Krishna Ballabh Sahay Government ensured the availability of
food grains to citizens and also came down heavily on black marketers. Thus a
section of the society went against him. Jai Prakash Narayan came forward to
support the decision of the Government to take stern action against
black-marketeers and hoarders of food grains and supported K. B. Sahay in his
efforts. In the last phase of his tenure, Chief Minister Krishna Ballabh Sahay
had to deal with the student agitations who were opposing the hike in college
fees. Krishna Ballabh Babu publicly declared that he would not tolerate
indiscipline among students and that students should concentrate on their
studies. But the student agitation did not subside as they were instigated by
the opposition leaders who saw blood in this movement and an opportunity to
turn the table on K. B. Sahay. On 5th January 1967 when the
agitation became violent, the Government was forced to open fire on the students
that resulted in the deaths of quite a few students. Jai Prakash Narayan was
hurt by this action of the Government and wrote to Krishna Ballabh Babu
conveying his displeasure- ‘Such political authoritarianism is not acceptable
in a sensitive state like Bihar’- he wrote to K. B. Sahay. But Krishna
Ballabh Sahay did not budge from his firm belief that students should not
interfere in politics while pursuing academics. Neither did he order any
inquiry against his police force. He believed that an inquiry would affect the
morale of the police force. Hence he ruled out any enquiry. Thus K. B. Sahay
sacrificed his position on the altar of his strict sense of discipline in
public life.
But these differences
between these two leaders never became personal and they remained friends
lifelong. In 1971, Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya in Patna was accorded autonomy
and Jai Prakash Narayan was made its Chairman. K. B. Sahay had retired to his
native village Brinda after his electoral debacle in 1967. The government that
followed instituted a commission of inquiry against him in sheer political
vendetta. Jai Prakash Narayan took no time in inviting K. B. Sahay to join him
as a member of the Committee which not only vindicated the political legacy of
K. B. Sahay but also questioned the vindictive attitude of the biased
government of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha- a fellow Kayastha, who had
left no stone unturned to cast aspersion on the personality of a leader of K.
B. Sahay’s stature.
Keeping Krishna Ballabh
Babu in his committee was a sign that Jai Prakash Babu had full faith in
Krishna Ballabh Babu's honesty, integrity and devotion to duty and was fully
aware of the political conspiracy going on against Krishna Ballabh
Babu. On an earlier occasion in 1957 when Jai Prakash Narayan was made the
Chairman of Anugrah Smarak Samiti, he had invited Krishna Ballabh Babu to join
him in the Committee. Incidentally on that occasion also Krishna Ballabh Babu
had lost the election and returned to his native village Brinda to lead the
life of a farmer. Neither Sri Krishna Sinha questioned Jai Prakash’s decision
in 1957 nor did the government of the day question him in 1971.
In 1974, Krishna Ballabh
Babu won the local body elections from Giridih Teachers’ constituency to enter
the Bihar Legislative Council as MLC. Krishna Ballabh Babu had contested this
election on Congress (Organisation) ticket and had defeated the Congress
(Ruling) candidate fielded by Mrs Indira Gandhi. He took the oath of
secrecy on 29th May 1974. He was in Patna when Jai Prakash
Babu returned from Vellore on June 2 after undergoing prostate
surgery. The two leaders met at the Patna airport. Krishna Ballabh Babu
discussed the strategy for a future course of action. Jai Prakash Narayan
informed Krishna Ballabh Babu of he intended to open a front against the
misrule of Abdul Ghafoor in Bihar. Krishna Ballabh Babu requested him to
lead the Congress in the country and mobilize the mass against Mrs
Indira Gandhi. Unfortunately, this could not happen. Krishna Ballabh
Babu died in a controversial road accident near Sindoor (Hazaribagh) on the way
back from Patna on June 3. Jai Prakash was shocked to hear this news- 'I
am deeply shocked to hear about Krishna Ballabh Babu's death in a car
accident. Only yesterday he had come to meet me and he looked so
cheerful. I had never thought that he would leave us so soon. In his
death, the country has lost a great freedom fighter, a champion of land
reforms, and an able administrator. He would be counted as one of the
makers of Modern Bihar’.
Jai Prakash Narayan finally
succeeded in removing Mrs Indira Gandhi from the post of Prime Minister by
defeating her in the 1977 elections. It can be said that it was a parting
gift from a friend to his late friend. The negligence of Mrs. Gandhi's
administration in the treatment of Jai Prakash Narayan during the Emergency led
to deterioration in J.P.’s health. He did not survive this negligence for a
long time. He died on the morning of 8 October 1979. The Atal Bihari
Vajpayee posthumously honoured him with the country's highest
honour 'Bharat Ratna' in 1999.
Courtesy: (i) National
Archives, New Delhi, (ii) Zanzeerein aur Deewarein by Ramvriksh Benipuri (iii)
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Patna, website)
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