KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY- AS AN EMINENT PATRIOT -DR S.M. ISA, STATE MINISTER, P.H.E.D. (BIHAR)

 

KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY 
(31.12.1898-03.06.1974)

Bihar has produced several political leaders of All India fame and even of international image. Shri K.B. Sahay was one of those stalwarts and distinguished political leaders of whom the entire state of Bihar can always be proud.

The varied events, the various activities, and the hectic political phases of his eventful life read like the pages of a memorable saga. In fact, these myriad events mirror the entire gamut of the freedom movement launched in India. His personality is multi-dimensional. It had varied facets. In this brief article, the role of K.B. Sahay as a restless freedom fighter is assessed.

After winning laurels and the coveted ‘Gold Medal’ by standing first in the first class in English literature, he joined Patna College for M.A. He was agog with post-graduate studies and would have come out with flying colours. But destiny willed it otherwise. The clarion call of freedom for our motherland was more strident, more sacred than the mere addition of another golden feather in his academic cap. The Non-Cooperation Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi beckoned him. He enthusiastically responded to his call in 1921. Even as an undergraduate college student, he was anxiously watching the momentous visit of Mahatma Gandhi to the soil of Champaran in 1917 to probe into the atrocities of the British indigo planters on the poor, defenceless raiyats of that district. He also joined the Bihar Congress movement led by Dr Rajendra Prasad in condemning and castigating the repressive Rowlett Act promulgated by the British rulers to gag the spirit of the freedom fighters.

When Maulana Abul Kalam Azad appealed as the Congress President on the 8^th December 1920 to the people of Bihar to enrol more satyagrahis to impart greater momentum to the freedom movement, K.B. Sahay gave full-fledged support. Even when Dr Sri Krishna Sinha and K.B. Sahay were in prison during this period, they gave vent to their resentment when they refused to meet their relatives in the presence of C.I.D. officers. The 35^th session of the Indian National Congress held in Nagpur in December 1920 under the Presidentship of Shri C. Vijaya Raghavacharya ratified the famous resolution on Non-Cooperation Movement passed by the stormy Calcutta Congress session. K.B. Sahay got about organising committees throughout the villages of Bihar to invoke the patriotic spirit of the entire Indian masses to join this movement in overwhelming numbers and enrolling a band of devoted and dedicated national workers for the cause of freedom.

The Boycott of government offices and institutions followed. Government colleges were abandoned. The control of education in the national educational institutions was now vested by the ardent freedom fighters with the National Council of Education, monitored by Congress leaders of Bihar. When the Bihar National College was started in Patna in 1920, K.B. Sahay voluntarily placed his services as a lecturer in English. Dr Rajendra Prasad was the Principal. A host of other freedom fighters like Badrinath Verma, Abdul Bari, Phuldev Sahay Verma, Ram Chariter Singh, Qazi Munemi, etc, joined this institution as its staff.

Apart from his instinctive and emotional attachment to the Congress creed, K.B. Sahay was a cool, incisive thinker, a gifted intellectual. He agreed with the views of Pandit Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das and Yusuf Imam of Mirzapur that constitutional methods should also be tapped to cause another dent against the British Raj by taking recourse to wrecking the British Government from within. K.B. Sahay, along with Narayan Prasad of Chatra and Prof. Abdul Bari of the National College, Patna, supported the Council entry policy spearheaded by Pandit Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das and Yusuf Imam as referred to above.

On the 20^th February, 1923, K.B. Sahay and others met at Patna. They formed a provincial branch of the Swaraj Party. They again met at Gaya on the 9^th May, 1923, and set up a new Executive Committee. The Swaraj Party made considerable headway in Bihar. K.B. Sahay was one of the elected members. He was elected from the Hazaribagh constituency. K.B. Sahay was a very vocal and spirited member of the Legislative Council. One example would illustrate. On the 12^th March 1924, a motion was tabled in the Legislative Council by Jimat Vahan Sen, castigating the Board of Revenue, Bihar Government for miserably failing to control the affairs of the Wards Estates, particularly the bungling in the Bettiah Raj affairs. K.B. Sahay boldly and fearlessly condemned the British Raj English Manager.

Dr Rajendra Prasad took up constructive schemes of development of Bihar on the national pattern, particularly in the realm of national education and the spread of Khadi. On the 19^th February 1924, a definite resolution was moved in the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council to the effect that in all public schools, arrangements be made for teaching boys and girls above the age of ten regarding the art of spinning by Charkha. K.B. Sahay, along with Jimat Vahan Sen, strongly supported this resolution. On account of his ceaseless propaganda about the Khadi programme as laid down by the Indian National Congress, he, along with Ram Narayan Singh, was arrested under Section 108 of the Cr. P.C. They were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for refusing to furnish the sureties. The British Government in Bihar could not allow such anti-British activities. District Magistrate, Patna, declared the Sadaqat Ashram as unlawful. He seized the Sadaqat Ashram, and Dr Rajendra Prasad, K.B. Sahay, Braj Kishore Prasad, and Jagat Narayan Lal were arrested. They were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months each. A mighty challenge to the British was thrown by the Indian National Congress led by Mahatma Gandhi in August 1942. On the 5^th August, 1942, the ‘Quit India Movement’ was started by Mahatma Gandhi, supported by all prominent leaders of the Indian National Congress. K.B. Sahay, always a dedicated and devoted soldier in the freedom movement in India, supported this movement.

On 12 April 1942, Dr Sri Krishna Sinha, the leader of the Congress Party in Bihar, presided over the District Political Conference in Hazaribagh. K.B. Sahay, Jagjivan Ram and Basavan Singh also addressed the crowded meeting where thousands of adivasis (Khervars) assembled.

A sensational incident took place on the 9^th November, 1942, in the Hazaribagh Central Jail. Six prominent political leaders, viz. Jai Prakash Narayan, Ram Narayan Mishra, Jogender Shukla, Suraj Narayan Singh, etc, dramatically escaped from the Hazaribagh Central Jail. The British rulers of Bihar of those days suspected the hand of K.B. Sahay and Sukhlal Singh in this sensational event. Consequently, K.B. Sahay, along with Ram Narayan Singh, Sukhlal Singh, etc, were secretly transferred overnight from the Hazaribagh Central Jail to the Bhagalpur Central Jail. The British had no doubt read the writing on the wall. They got ready to pack up. Freedom, which had eluded the Indian people since 1857, at last dawned. The British handed over complete independence to the freedom fighters of India on the 15^th August, 1947.