Bihar Movement

The JP movement also known as Bihar Movement was a

Bihar Movement
political movement initiated by students in the Indian state
of Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Date 18 March 1974 -
Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, against 25 June 1975 (emergency)
misrule and corruption in the state government. It later Location Bihar, India
turned against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government Corruption in public life
Caused by
in the central government.[1][2] It was also called
Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution Movement) and Goals Dissolution of Bihar
legislative assembly
JP Movement.[3]
Methods Protest march, street protest,
riot, hunger strike, strike
Resulted in Did not succeed, emergency
Contents imposed
Early Protests Parties to the civil conflict
Total Revolution Janata Indian
Party National Bihar Sikshak
End and aftermath
Congress Sangharsh Samiti
Commemoration
Bihar Chhatra
References
Sangharsh Samiti
Further reading
Lead figures
External links
Jayprakash Indira Satyendra
Narayan Gandhi, Narayan
Shyam Abdul Sinha,
Early Protests Sunder Das Gafoor Karpuri
Thakur
When the Nav Nirman movement resulted in the forced
resignation of the Gujarat government, student protests had
already begun in Bihar. Unlike the Nav Nirman movement, political student outfits like Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) connected with the Jana Sangh, Samajwadi Yuvajan Sabha (SYS) connected
with Samajwadi Party, and Lok Dal took an active role in the JP movement. All India Students Federation
(AISF) connected with the CPI was also involved.[1]

Opposition parties called a statewide strike from 1973. This resulted in police firing on strikers in Bhopal,
the capital of Madhya Pradesh, causing the deaths of eight students on 17 August 1973 owing to their
participation in the JP Movement. The Raina Enquiry Commission also confirm that the action of the then
Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh was in excess and the Government had not handled the situation
properly.

On 18 February 1974, the Patna University Students Union organized a convention which invited student
leaders from the whole state.[1] They formed Bihar Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti (BCSS) to spearhead the
agitation.[2] Lalu Prasad Yadav was chosen as a president. Among the several contemporary youth leaders
were Sushil Kumar Modi, Narendra Singh, Bashistha Narain Singh, Chandradeo Prasad Verma, Md
Shahabuddin & Ram Vilas Paswan. Their demands were related to education and food in hostels.[1]
BCSS called for a gherao at Bihar Legislative Assembly during a budget session on 18 March 1974.[3]
They blocked all roads to the assembly and damaged government properties, including the telephone
exchange and the residence of former education minister Ramanand Singh, which was set on fire.

Chief Minister Abdul Ghafoor convinced student leaders that he would look into demands. But students at
colleges and universities kept protesting and damaged properties at some places.[3] The killing of three
students by police in Patna provoked student opposition across Bihar.[1] BCSS declared a statewide strike
on 23 March.[3] Meanwhile, JP visited Gujarat to witness the Nav Nirman movement on 11 February and
declared his intention to lead on 30 March 1974.[1] BCSS approached JP to lead the agitation [2] while he
was withdrawing himself from the Bhoodan movement. He agreed.[1]

On 1 April 1974, Indira Gandhi responded to the Bihar Movement's demands

for the removal of the elected government. She asked, "How can such persons
who continue to seek favours from the moneyed people ... dare to speak of
corruption?" [4] A silent student procession of 10,000[3] was held in Patna on
8 April. On 12 April, government opponents died in police firing at Gaya
during the Paralyse the Government programme.[1] Students also demanded
dissolution of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. People demonstrated by
blocking roads such as NH 31 and imposing a self-curfew.[3] JP went to Delhi
and attended a conference of Citizens for Democracy, an organization
demanding civil rights, held on 13 and 14 April.[1] During May 1974 various
students' and peoples' organisations kept demanding dissolution of the
assembly and also demanded the government's resignation, but did not
Indira Gandhi
succeed.[3]

Total Revolution
On 5 June, he told people at a Patna rally to organize a protest at the Bihar Legislative Assembly, which
resulted in the arrest of 1,600 agitators and 65 student leaders by 1 July 1974. He advocated a program of
social transformation by participation of youth in social activities. He called it Total Revolution (Sampurna
Kranti) Movement. Protests and closure of colleges and universities also occurred on 15 July. Some
colleges started after that and examinations were held. JP told students to boycott examinations but many
students appeared in examinations.[3] He called for a three-day statewide strike starting from 3 October and
addressed a massive public gathering on 6 October.[1]

Demanding the resignation of MLAs started on 4 November, much as the Nav Nirman movement had
done, but 42 out of 318 MLAs had resigned before that, including 33 from opposition parties. Many MLAs
refused to resign.[3] Government tried hard to stop people from reaching Patna for the movement and also
lathi charged people.[1]

On 18 November, at a massive gathering at Patna, he spoke to the Congress government of Indira

Gandhi.[1] He realised the importance of fighting within the democratic system rather than a party-less
democracy so he contacted opposition parties, which finally resulted in the formation of the Janata Party.

End and aftermath

The Bihar Movement turned into a Satyagraha and volunteers kept protesting at the Bihar Legislative
Assembly, inviting arrest starting on 4 December. Indira Gandhi did not change the Chief Minister of Bihar,
Abdul Ghafoor, because she did not want to give in to protestors' calls for the dissolution of the assembly
as she did in Gujarat.[1]
JP kept travelling all across India, strengthening and uniting opposition parties to
defeat Congress. The election in Gujarat was delayed until Morarji Desai went on a hunger strike
demanding it be held. The election was held on 10 June and the result was declared on 12 June 1975, with
Congress losing. The same day(12 June 1975), the Allahabad High Court declared Indira Gandhi's election
to the Lok Sabha in 1971 void on grounds of electoral malpractice. The court thus ordered her to be
removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running in elections for six years. It effectively
removed her from the Prime Minister's office. She rejected calls to resign and went to the Supreme Court.
She recommended President V. V. Giri to appoint A. N. Ray as a Chief Justice to get a favourable outcome
in the case.[1] JP opposed such a movement in his letters to Indira Gandhi and called for her to resign.

She imposed a nationwide Emergency to safeguard her position on the night of 25 June 1975. Immediately
after proclamation of emergency, prominent opposition political leaders Jayaprakash Narayan & Satyendra
Narayan Sinha were arrested without any prior notice, so were dissenting members of her own party. JP
was held in custody at Chandigarh even after he had asked for a month's parole for mobilising relief in
areas of Bihar gravely affected by flooding. His health suddenly deteriorated on 24 October, and he was
released on 12 November; diagnosis at Jaslok Hospital, Bombay, revealed kidney failure; he would be on
dialysis for the rest of his life.[1]

After Indira Gandhi revoked the Emergency on 21 March 1977 and announced elections, it was under JP's
guidance that the Janata Party (a vehicle for the broad spectrum of the anti-Indira Gandhi opposition) was
formed. Considered to be an election of newcomers, a huge crowd of youth activists and leaders used to
gather[5] before the residence of the Bihar Janta party president Satyendra Narayan Sinha. The Janata Party
was voted into power, and became the first non-Congress party to form a government at the Centre in India.
In Bihar, after the Janata Party came to power, Karpuri Thakur won the chief ministership battle from the
then Bihar Janata Party President Satyendra Narayan Sinha to become the Bihar Chief Minister in 1977.[1]

Commemoration
On 17 February 2002, Sampoorna Kranti Express, named in recognition of the Bihar Movement, started its
service between Rajendra Nagar Terminal in Patna and New Delhi. It is one of the fastest train services in
India, traversing a distance of 1001 kilometres in under 14 hours.[6]

References
1. Krishna, Ananth V. (2011). India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=8v7Vr2iQUHkC&q=navnirman+gujarat&pg=PA120).
Pearson Education India. p. 117. ISBN 978-81-317-3465-0. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
2. Dhar, P. N. (2000). Excerpted from 'Indira Gandhi, the "emergency", and Indian democracy'
published in Business Standard (http://business-standard.com/india/news/the-nav-nirman-m
ovement/80363/). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-564899-7. Retrieved
23 November 2012.
3. Tiwari, Lalan (1 December 1987). Democracy and Dissent: (a Case Study of the Bihar
Movement - 1974-75) (https://books.google.com/books?id=td6zIMI_pwAC&q=Democracy+a
nd+Dissent:+(a+Case+Study+of+the+Bihar+Movement+-+1974-75)). Mittal Publications.
p. 260. ISBN 978-81-7099-008-6. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180511111824/ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=td6zIMI_pwAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy+and
+Dissent:+(a+Case+Study+of+the+Bihar+Movement+-+1974-75)&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Srm3UL
_WCo6QrgeWloDwAQ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA) from the original on 11 May 2018.
4. Tiwari, Lalan (1 December 1987). Democracy and Dissent: (a Case Study of the Bihar
Movement - 1974-75) (https://books.google.com/books?id=td6zIMI_pwAC&q=Democracy+a
nd+Dissent:+(a+Case+Study+of+the+Bihar+Movement+-+1974-75)). Mittal Publications.
p. 123. ISBN 978-81-7099-008-6. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180511111824/ht
 tps://books.google.com/books?id=td6zIMI_pwAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Democracy+and
+Dissent:+(a+Case+Study+of+the+Bihar+Movement+-+1974-75)&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Srm3UL
_WCo6QrgeWloDwAQ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA) from the original on 11 May 2018.
5. Ruled or Misruled: Story and Destiny of Bihar (https://books.google.com/books?id=SVu8Cg
AAQBAJ&pg=PT298&dq=janta+party+satyendra+narayan+sinha&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahU
KEwjdy_-lpZjMAhXC3KYKHVGQCCgQ6AEIMDAF#v=onepage&q=janta%20party%20saty
endra%20narayan%20sinha&f=false) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201805111118
24/https://books.google.com/books?id=SVu8CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT298&dq=janta+party+satye
ndra+narayan+sinha&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdy_-lpZjMAhXC3KYKHVGQCCgQ6AE
IMDAF) 11 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine, p. 298
6. "Sampurna Kranti Express to be one of the fastest train" (https://m.timesofindia.com/city/patn
a/sampoorna-kranti-exp-to-be-one-of-the-fastest-trains/articleshow/507346.cms). Times of
India. Retrieved 8 April 2021.

Further reading
Krishna, Ananth V. (1 September 2011). India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian
Politics. Pearson Education India. p. 117. ISBN 978-81-317-3465-0.
Tiwari, Lalan (1 December 1987). Democracy and Dissent: (a Case Study of the Bihar
Movement - 1974-75). Mittal Publications. p. 260. ISBN 978-81-7099-008-6.
Nargolkar, Vasant Sadashiv (1975). JP's crusade for revolution. S. Chand. p. 215.
Sharma, Jai Kishan (1988). Total revolution. Jan Hit Prakashan. p. 304.
Raj, Sebasti L. (1986). Total revolution: the final phase of Jayaprakash Narayan's political
philosophy. Satya Nilayam Publications. p. 285.
Radhakanta Barik, Politics of the JP Movement (Radiant Publications, Delhi, 1977)

External links
Jayaprakash Narayan, An Open Letter to Mrs. Indira Gandhi, 5 December 1975 (http://www.li
beralsindia.com/freedomfirst/ff452-04.html)
JP: the prophet of people's power, The Hindu, 11 October 2002 (https://web.archive.org/web/
20061111112534/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/10/11/stories/2002101103560900.htm)
[Usurped!]

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