Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is an able administrator and has managed to push Bihar back on the path of progress. His efforts at minimalising the damage caused under the Jungle Raj of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi’s rule have been praiseworthy to say the least. Nitish Kumar has been the Chief Minister of Bihar for the past 13 years except when he had appointed Jitan Ram Manjhi as the Chief Minister for a brief period of time. Nitish Kumar’s coalition with the BJP and NDA has led to a new era of growth and prosperity for Bihar. Speaking at a seminar organized on the eve of the 160th death anniversary of Veer Kunwar Singh, Nitish Kumar blamed the British for the backwardness of Bihar today. He said that Bihar had been meted out with the harshest possible treatments for its participation in the 1857 revolts. This comment has been received in many ways by the press and other parties depending on their perspective. Some have agreed with Nitish Kumar while others laughed and joked about the statement given by Nitish. The truth, however, is somewhere closer to the statement given by Nitish. A brief history of Bihar’s political scenario is necessary to understand the context in which Nitish Kumar had uttered these words.
The 1857 revolts began in Meerut on 10 May, 1857 against the resentment emerging from British rule and its harsh taxes and preferential treatment being meted out to the rich landowners and princes. The condition of Bihar under British colonial rule was pathetic. The able bodied men were taken by force or under pretence of jobs to faraway countries like Fiji and Mauritius for sugarcane farming. Farming in the region had been reduced to that of cash crops such as indigo and opium, yes, opium. Opium was sold in China by the Britishers, the closest fields under the British rule at that time was the fertile Ganga basin of Bihar and Bengal. Both indigo and opium were sold from India to China by the British East India Company for huge profits. The bonded labourers received next to nothing in return for their hard work. This helped the Britishers in recruiting more people for their plantations in Mauritius and other countries.
The 1857 revolt was supported by all of Bihar except a few landowners who were benefitting from the opium and indigo trade. Kunwar Singh led the revolt and carried it for a prolonged period of time, even after the death of the revolt in the rest of India. The revolt ended when Kunwar Singh died fighting against the Britishers, and with it died the hopes of the population for freedom from oppression. The Britishers having regained control over Bihar favoured the landowners and princes who had supported the British forces. Farms snatched from farmers were given on agreement to produce indigo, a crop which destroyed the productivity of the land. Indigo could not be eaten by the farmer who spent months growing it and it was simply useless for everyone apart from the Britishers. This tradition went on for a long time in region. Mahatama Gandhi led the Champaran Satyagraha movement of 1917 in Bihar on the request of the indigo farmers. Approximately 100 years of indigo farming from before 1857 to till 1917 had reduced the fertility of the soil in Bihar to a great extent. The Britishers can therefore be blamed for the poor state of Bihar today.
That was not all though, the next shock which came for the region was even more violent, and this time it was homegrown. The Student Movement of India, called the JP Movement after Jayaprakash Narayan started in Bihar. The Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi to save her seat as the Prime Minister of India is the darkest phase in the history of modern India. The sheer number of political prisoners taken in during the Emergency is enough to show the horrors which the public had faced in those times. The defeat of Indira Gandhi in the 1977 elections paved way for the Janata Party to form government at the Centre. All the candidates of Congress in Northern states such as UP and Bihar lost their seats, while Indira Gandhi and Sanjay both lost their Lok Sabha seats. The Janata Party led by Morarji Desai formed the government at the Centre which was too ill-equipped and too disorganised to lead the nation. Bihar suffered the most under Emergency and after it as well. The hate for Bihar had set in too deep in the hearts of Indira Gandhi and her successors. The state was never awarded the required funds for development. A state as big and as populous as Bihar received little to nothing in terms of the Central Government’s help.
The State governments of Bihar in the 1990s too played a significant role in maintain the sad condition of the state. Lalu Yadav and his divisive caste based politics in Bihar led to the rise of a different kind of political situation in the state. Voters were bought, lured in by flaunting caste and money, while scams were committed with alarming frequency. Criminals enjoyed a free reign in the state where every regional party maintained its rank of criminals in order to win elections. Lalu Yadav and his party Rashtriya Janata Dal can be named as the prime culprit for pushing Bihar into regression. The lack of co-ordination between the Central Government in India and State Governments in Bihar is also a big reason for the undeveloped state of Bihar today. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, Lalu Yadav was the CM of Bihar, when Manmohan Singh’s government came to power in the Centre, Nitish Kumar in coalition with BJP was ruling in Bihar. After the 2014 elections when PM Modi came to power, Nitish Kumar broke ranks with BJP to join Lalu Yadav and Congress to form government in Bihar.
Nitish is in power today and he has come back to join hands with the BJP in the state. It is exactly what the state needs, finances and grants from the Centre and an able leadership at the state level to properly utilise the funds. It is important for everyone to realize the importance of a strong command and backing for a state to grow. Nitish Kumar’s statement on the colonial mistreatment of Bihar was accurate, and he must make all the right decisions in the future in order to bring back prosperity to the state.