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Patna,(BiharTimes): Efforts made by Bihari intellectuals , the British move to make Chittagong a part of Assam, their decision to provide quota to the Hindi-speakers in the government job and the campaign by newspapers like Bihar Times contributed to the growth of Bihari sub-nationalism in the post-1870 years. This led to the subsequent carving out of Bihar from Bengal on March 22, 1912.
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This view was expressed by Prof Ratneshwar Mishra while delivering a lecture on the evolution of Bihar in Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library on Saturday evening. He said that while Aligarh was the source of Muslim intellectual of Bihar the Kayastha Mahasabha was based in Allahabad. Thus the movement for separate Bihar had some external influence also.
Prof Misha said that a large number of Bengalese started coming to Bihar after the Permanent Settlement of 1793. Since they had knowledge of English language they managed to get government jobs. Many of these Bengalese suffered from superiority complex and would look down upon the people of Bihar. There were 50,000 Bengalese in Bihar in 1881 but the number swelled to 1,25,000 by 1891. Similarly Patna district had 600 Bengalese in 1881 while their numbers went upto 2,000 by the year 1891.
Biharis in fact wanted preferential treatment for themselves and had no animosity for Bengalese. The newspapers and various Bihari scientific, literary and cultural associations also played an important role in the emergence of the concept of Bihar.
Prof Mishra said that the British decision first to merge Chittagong and then Dhaka to Assam also contributed to the creation of Bihar. He said the plan was also to merge the Chotanagpur plateau with Central Province (now Madhya Pradesh). It is upon this that many Bengalese started advocating that if Bengal is too big and unwieldy why carry the unwilling Biharis and in contrast parting away the willing Bengalese of Chittagong and Dhaka. It is their willingness to accept Bihar as a reality which also paved the way for the creation of a separate state.
The decision to adopt Hindi in schools and offices taken by the Lt Governor of Bihar also led to the growth of Bihari sub-nationalism. The British started giving quota to the Hindi speakers in the job. The boundary of Bihar emerged gradually and depended on the area of operation on which Hindi could be used.
Presiding over the meeting Prof Surendra Gopal, head of the department of History, Patna University, said that the role of Dr Rajendra Prasad and Ali Imam can not be ignored in the creation of Bihar. The study which confirmed that Patna was the capital of the first all India empire and that Ashok was from Bihar also created a sense of Bihari pride.
The director of the Library, Imtiaz Ahmad, while thanking the scholars and participants said that the Library would be organizing a series of lectures on the evolution of Bihar.
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