Krishna Singh (politician)

Sri Krishna Sinha
Premier of Bihar Province
In office
20 July 1937 – 31 October 1939
Preceded by

Muhammad Yunn

s
Succeeded by Governor's rule
Member Of Constituent Assembly
In office
9 December 1946 – 26 January 1950
Preceded by Post Created
Succeeded by Post Abolished
1st Chief Minister of Bihar
In office
1946–1961
Deputy CM Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha
Preceded by Position Created
Succeeded by Deep Narayan Singh
2nd Finance Minister of Bihar
In office
5 July 1957 – 31 January 1961
Preceded by Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha
Succeeded by Deep Narayan Singh
Personal details
Born (1887-10-21)October 21, 1887
Khanwa, Nawada, Bihar
Died 31 January 1961(1961-01-31) (aged 74)
Political party Indian National Congress
Children Two sons
Nickname(s) Sri Babu, Bihar Kesari

Sri Krishna Sinha (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961) known as Dr. S. K. Sinha, Sri Babu and Bihar Kesari was the first Chief Minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961."[1] Along with the nationalists Dr. Rajendra Prasad [2] and Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Shri Babu is regarded among the Architects of Modern Bihar. led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham temple (Vaidyanath Temple, Deoghar), reflecting his commitment to the upliftment and social empowerment of dalits.[3] He was the first Chief Minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system.[4] He underwent different terms of imprisonment for a total of about eight years in British India. S.K.Sinha's mass meetings brought hordes of people to hear him.[5] He was known as "Bihar Kesari" for his lionlike roars when he rose to address the masses.[5] His close friend and eminent gandhian Bihar Vibhuti Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha in his essay mere Shri Babu wrote that, "Since 1921, the History of Bihar has been the history of the life of Shri Babu".[6]

The former President of India, Pratibha Patil, released a book on the letters of exchange between Sinha and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru titled Freedom and Beyond.[7][8] The Nehru-Sinha correspondence touches on subjects such as Indian democracy in the making in early years of Independence, Centre-State relations, role of governor, turbulence in Nepal, Zamindari abolition and education scenario.[7][8] Sinha was known for his scholarship and erudition and he had given his personal collection of 17,000 books to the public library in Munger in 1959 which is now named after him as Sri Krishna Seva Sadan.[9]

Family and early life

Singh was born on 21 October 1887 in Khanwa in Nawada district of Bihar. His paternal village is Maur, near Barbigha in the then Munger District that is now part of Sheikhpura District. His father was a religious, middle-class member of a Bhumihar Brahmin family. His mother, who was also an unassuming and religious-minded person, died of plague when he was five years old. He was educated in the village school and at Zila School in Munger. In 1906 he joined Patna College, which was then an affiliate of the University of Calcutta. He studied law and started practicing in Munger from 1915. In the meantime, he married and had two sons, Shivshankar Singh and Bandishankar Singh (more commonly known as Swaraj Babu) who later held various posts in the state government.[10]

Freedom struggle

Singh first met Mahatma Gandhi in 1916 at Central Hindu College, Benares and later at Shah Muhammad Jubair's house in December 1920. At Munger, he vowed to work relentlessly to free India from the British rule.[10] He gave up practising law in 1921 to take part in Gandhi's non-cooperation movement.[10]

He was arrested for the first time in 1922 at Jubair's house and Congress Seva Dal was declared illegal. For this he was known as Bihar Kesari by the people. He was released from jail in 1923 and on the day of Tulsi Jayanti performed in the play Bharat Darshan at Central School, Kharagpur. In the same year he became member of the All India Congress Committee.[10]

Krishna Singh (right) with Anugrah Narayan Sinha during the swearing-in ceremony of independent Bihar's first government on 15 August 1947

In 1927, Sinha became member of the Legislative Council and in 1929 became General Secretary of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC). In 1930, he played an important role in the Namak Satyagrah at Garhpura. He suffered severe scalding injuries to his hands and chest while being arrested, was imprisoned for six months and then was again arrested and imprisoned for two years during Civil Disobedience movement. He was released after Gandhi–Irwin Pact and again started with his nationalist work and work with the Kisan Sabha. On 9 January 1932 he was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000. He was released from Hazaribagh Jail in October 1933. He was involved in relief and rehabilitation after the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. He was the President of Munger Zila Parishad from 1934 to 1937. In 1935, he became member of the Central Assembly.[10]

Sinha was also the President of the BPCC in 1936 with Anugrah babu as his deputy, a member of its working committee and [6]in fact, Shri Krishna Sinha & Anugrah Narayan Sinha were the life and soul of the Provincial Working Committee and of the Congress organisation in the state for over thirty years. This long period of service at the help of the state is a proof not only of the great popularity and confidence which he enjoyed in the party but it symbolises also his great qualities as a co-ordinator between party and government.[11]

On 20 July 1937, he became the Premier of Bihar province when Congress came to power. Under the Government of India Act of 1935, Sinha formed his Cabinet at Patna on 20 July 1937. He and[12] his colleague Anugrah Narayan Sinha disagreed with the governor on the issue of the release of political prisoners and resigned. The then governor had to accede to the demands for release of prisoners from Cellular Jail (Kalapani) and Bihar Tenancy Act was reformed in favour of peasants. They then resumed office. But they again resigned in 1939, as did all Congress chief ministers, over the question of involving India in the Second World War without the consent of the Indian people. Along with Anugrah Narayan Sinha, a prominent Gandhian and the first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of Bihar,[12] he is considered one of the makers of modern Bihar.[10]

Sinha was always interested in self-study and his ideas and speeches were noted for their wisdom. He was a staunch opponent of casteism and defended the oppressed and the oppressed. Impressed by his courage, in 1940 Gandhi described him as "the first Satyagrahi" of Bihar.[13] He was jailed for nine months (22 November 1940 – 26 August 1941). When the Quit India movement started in 1942, he was arrested on 10 August. He was released in 1944 from Hazaribagh jail after he became seriously ill. In the same year his wife died at Prince of Wales Medical College.[10]

As the former Prime Minister of Bihar he attended the Simla Conference and also became the member of Constituent Assembly of India which framed the Constitution of India.[13]

Sinha served Bihar continuously from 1946 until his death on 31 January 1961 at the age of 73. In 1978, the Ministry of Culture established a science museum called Srikrishna Science Centre. The biggest conference hall in Patna, Shri Krishna Memorial Hall is also named after him.[10]

Legacy

Almost all the development projects in Bihar during this period involved the leadership pair of Singh and A. N. Sinha. It includes several river valley projects right from Koshi, Aghaur and Sakri to other such river projects. The first five-year plan period was given to the development in rural development works mainly in the agricultural sector. Bihar became the top state in the country's first five-year plan. From the second five-year plan period, Singh brought several heavy industries like Barauni Oil Refinery, HEC plant at Hatia, Bokaro Steel Plant, Barauni Fertiliser Plant, Barauni Thermal Power Plant, Maithon Hydel Power Station, Sulphur mines at Amjhaur, Sindri Fertiliser Plant, Kargali Coal Washery, Barauni Dairy Project, etc. for the all round development of the state.[14]

Arun Kumar says Sinha made an immense contribution in the cultural and social development of the state. He established the Rajendra Chatra Niwas at Calcutta for Bihari students, the Anugraha Narayan Sinha Institute of Social Studies (ANSISS) at Patna, Lok Rangshala of the Bihar Sangit Nritya Natya Parishad, Sanskrit College at Patna, Ravindra Bhavan at Patna, Bhagvan Buddha's statue at Rajgir Venu Van Vihar as well as orphanage at Muzaffarpur.[14] Lok Rangshala of the Bihar Sangit Nritya Natya Parishad, Sanksrit College at Patna, Ravindra Bhavan at Patna, Lord Buddha's statue at Rajgir Venu Van Vihar, as well as an orphanage at Muzaffarpur were opened by him.[15]

In a formal legal sense, the Chief Minister can be persuaded or forced in the interim to resign or retire by the legislature to which the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible. Singh successfully defied a motion of no-confidence on five occasions.[16]

Sinha maintained good working relations with the secretariat officials and protected police from demoralization because police, having done away with pre-independence legacy no longer symbolised tyranny, domination, intimidation and oppression. He emphasised that in democratic India, policemen symbolised efficiency, service, protection, and help to the people. Caste played no role in promotion, transfer, posting and in working relationship of police officials with ministers or the Chief Minister in the fifties.[17] S. Q.Rizvi, a retired senior Indian Police Service official, said, "About the qualities of head and heart of this great man, it could be summed up in three words 'Humanism, Integrity and Secularism'. Dr. S. K. Sinha was a great leader and idealist endowed with great intellectual attainments. But what to me appeared the most prominent feature was that as a politician he had absolute integrity. A rare quality in a political leader of an area besieged with problems of caste and of low level mental make-up."[10]

Sinha was a progressive leader who introduced substantive land reform legislations at the early period of Bihar's history. He favoured the growth of agricultural capitalism and he wanted to do away with the constraints and hindrances in the way of the growth of productive forces in agriculture, but some critics thought he was less enthusiastic about post-zamindari agrarian reforms. Yet, leftists grant credit to Sinha for getting the Bihar Tenancy Act passed in the early years.[18]

Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer said that Singh was among those who were "heavyweights in their own right and brought into political administration a texture of nationalism, federalism, realism, and even some touch of pragmatic socialism", and that he "lived poor, died poor and identified himself with the poor."[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Walter Hauser (February 1997). "Changing images of caste and politics". Retrieved 8 April 2008.
  2. ↑ http://jamui.bih.nic.in/districtProfile/jamuiHistory.html and
  3. ↑ Arun Kumar (25 January 2005). "Bhumihars rooted to the ground in caste politics". The Times of India (India). Retrieved 5 April 2008.
  4. ↑ Abhay Singh (6 July 2004). "BJP, Cong eye Bhumihars as Rabri drops ministers". The Times of India (India). Retrieved 21 March 2008.
  5. 1 2 Sharma, L.N. (2013). Politics and Good Governance. Regal Publications, New Delhi. pp. 310 (at p. 277). ISBN 978-81-8484-269-2.
  6. 1 2 3 Kumar (principal editor), Dr. Vijay (2013). Srkrishna Singh Smriti Granth: Vichar aur Darshan. Patna: Bihar State Archives. pp. 692 (at p. 164). ISBN 978-93-81456-18-7.
  7. 1 2 Pranava K Chaudhary (1 June 2009). "Prez releases book on Nehru, Sri Babu letters". The Times of India (India). Retrieved 1 June 2009.
  8. 1 2 "Sri Babu promoted L N Mishra, reveals recently released letters to Nehru". Bihar Times. 2 June 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2009. Archived 25 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prasad, R.C. (1987). Shri Krishna Singh: A Biography. N.K.Enterprises, New Delhi. p. 186.
  11. ↑ Sharma, L.N. (2013). Politics and Good Governance. Regal Publications, New Delhi. p. 212. ISBN 978-81-8484-269-2.
  12. 1 2 "First Bihar Deputy CM cum Finance Minister; A N Sinha". Indian Post. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
  13. 1 2 Prasad, R.C. (1987). Shri Krishna Sinha: A Biography. N.K.Enterprises, New Delhi.
  14. 1 2 Arun Kumar (1 January 1998). "Shri Babu: A Visionary Par Excellence". Tribute to a legend: a Times Special Report, The Times of India.
  15. ↑ Sharma, L.N. (2013). Politics and Good Governance. Regal Publications, New Delhi. p. 310. ISBN 978-81-8484-269-2.
  16. ↑ Sharma, L.N. (2013). Politics and Good Governance. Regal Publications, New Delhi. p. 195. ISBN 978-81-8484-269-2.
  17. ↑ Sharma, L.N. (2013). Politics and Good Governance. Regal Publications, New Delhi. p. 184. ISBN 978-81-8484-269-2.
  18. ↑ Sharma, L.N. (2013). Politics and Good Governance. Regal Publications, New Delhi. p. 11. ISBN 978-81-8484-269-2.

External links

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