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SPECIAL ARTICLES
Non-Development of Bihar: A Case of Retarded Sub-Nationalism
Shaibal Gupta
It if argued in this paper that the absence of sub-nationalism, has acted as a stumbling block in the economic development of Bihar. No movement to preserve the regional market as an exclusive preserve of the nascent Bihari bourgeoisie too off and outside business and industrial interests have got entrenched in the state's economy.
Neither traditional traders and artisans nor the agricultural classes could develop as industrial entrepreneurs hi Bihar. This failure of Bihari capitalists to develop the forces of production has also been responsible for the lack of sub-national economic awakening in Bihar.
Apart from the stagnating influence of colonial ride. Bihar has to reckon also with the Permanent Settlement, which in Bihar "possessed its worst elements and contained none of its redeeming features The feudal Bihari leadership closely allied with outside capital was opposed to any radical tenancy reform and was indifferent to indigenous industrial development.
The absence of a sub-national consciousness even after independence has been the by-product of Bihar's backwardness, its 'semi-feudal' production relations. Even now no class is able to break new ground. A multi-class endeavour is thus required to lift the constraints on Bihar's stunted sub-nationa-lism and, its corollary, retarded economic and industrial growth.
THE question, whether modern Bihar is a mere 'geographical entity delineat-ed out of administrative compulsion or is a sub-national identity, has been incessantly asked and debated. Bihar came into existence in 1912 as a separate province along with Orissa. Seven decades are sufficient to gestate a region's sub-national identity and its very important component of eco-nomic nationalism. Bihar's failure to do so is all the more glaring against the background of the successes achieved by Assam2 and Orissa,3 dur-ing this period, in forging their sub-national identity which had always combined with economic nationalism. In spite of it, these two states have not made any significant breakthrough from a backward economy to an ad-vanced industrial state. Nevertheless, the sub-national awareness is a neces-sary pre-condition for even rudimen-tary economic development. The Indian sub-continental syndrome is testimony to the fact that the states that have progressed had sufficiently sub-national consciousness.
Does Bihar possess some inherent deficiency by which one can explain this failure? The splendour that Bihar was once upon a time, paled into insignificance nearly 1,000 years ago. The last flicker of Bihar's glory as a centre of history and culture faded with the downfall of the Palas.
Without hazarding a precise formu-
lation of the yet largely unprobed concept of sub-nationalism, it is ten-tatively proposed to use the term for any movement which seeks to make the regional market an exclusive pre-serve of the local bourgeoisie. How-ever, it may retain notable cultural aspirations from the past, though it would be mainly manifest in the capi-talist and industrial transformation of the economy. Indeed, sub-nationa-lism would be very much a necessary condition for such a transformation. Any analysis of sub-nationalism, therefore, would inevitably require an insight into the concept of nationa-lism, both in the Western and Indian contexts and in its inter-relationship with sub-nationalism.
ORIGIN OF NATIONALISM IN EUROPE
Nationalism, as a political pheno-menon, is a product of modern Europe. It is generally believed that the earliest nation states, of England, Spain, Portugal and Holland, emerged during the period of fifteenth and six-teenth centuries.4 According to Stalin the nation originated in the "process of the elimination of feudalism and the development of capitalism".5 Only with the advent of the industrial revolution did nations emerge in Central and Eastern Europe. Matternick, as early as in the nineteenth century, referred contemptuously to Italy as a mere 'geo-graphical expression, It was only after
the bourgeois revolution of 1789, which swept away multiple local loyalties, did France develop as a full-fledged nation.0
The creation and emergence of nations, subsequently, all over Europe in eighteenth and nineteenth century, was done with the initiative of the bourgeoisie with an eye to secure the domestic market behind the national walls. So the bourgeoisie unfurled the flag of nationalism because, in the words of Stalin, "The maricet is the first school in which the bourgeoi-sie learns its nationalism".7
The above explanation for the development of nationalism in Europe found a responding echo in India as well. In the words of Niharanjan Roy, it is an "urban phenomenon brought about by a national bourgeoisie which happened to be the product of highly developed mercantile and fast-developing industrial economy, some-what homogeneous in its ethnic, linguistic and cultural composition and in its political economic aims and aspirations."'
Along with a liberal brand of na-tionalism deriving sustenance from the modern ideas of the West; another brand of nationalism which was essen-tially revivalist in trend and was based on Hinduism emerged. The first of these leaders was Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-83), whose aim wad to restore Indian culture to its pris-
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tine dignity by "seeking India for Indians''.' Though he belonged to Bombay Presidency, the Punjab be-came the rallying point of his reviva-list movement under the banner of Arya Samaj. "The Hindus who domi-nated the mercantile interest in that province", notes B B Mishra, "found an opportunity to counteract on a religious plane, the feudal influence of the great land-holders who were generally Muhammadons ' 0 To a certain extent this phenomenon was witnessed in UP as well. With comp-lete disregard of other components, such as Islam, Christianity, etc, this brand of nationalism denied the com-posite character of Indian culture. In most of the Hindi-speaking areas the impact of Arya Samaj was experienced.
Bihar was immensely influenced, negatively, by the revivalist move-ment of Arya Samaj. To the call of Swami Dayanand many in Bihar res-ponded with great enthusiasm. Ac-cording to S N Pandey, "the majo-rity of Aryas in Bihar belonged to the lower castes. Contrary to this. Arya Samajists in the United Pro-vince were recruited from the edu-cated upper class".11
As noted earlier, nationalism first emerged as a regional or sub-national phenomenon, particularly in non-Hindi linguistic areas such as Bengal. Gujarat, Maharashtra, etc. But, in the Hindustani-speaking area, the regional phenomenon unfolded differently. Let us very briefly discuss the problems of language and nationalities of this region.
LANGUAGE
The term 'Hindi' is applied to two groups of dialects, viz, Western and Eastern. Western Hindi has four main dialects: Bundeli of Bundelkhand, Braj Bhasa of Mathura, Kanauji of Central Doab, and Vernacular Hindus-tani of Delhi and upper Doab. Eas-tern Hindi has three dialects, viz, Awadhi of Oudh, Begheli of Baghel-khand and Chattisgarhi of Chattis-garh. Eastern Hindi has Bihari to its east and Marathi to the south, both being outer languages. Along with above dialects Hindi literature in-cludes the literature of parts of Rajasthan in the west and Bihari in the east which, strictly, are not Hindi at all.12
' Hindi or High Hindi developed as a standard language through the language programme which was offer-ed to the British Civil Servants at the
college of Fort William, Calcutta, in the 19th century. It was fashioned on the Vernacular Hindustani of Western Hindi spoken in Delhi and Upper Doab.13 In fact, long before the advent of British rule this dialect, which is also known as Khariboli, covered quite an extensive area as a link language.
Delhi being the capital of India, was the most important administrative and trading centre of the Hindustani-speaking areas during the Muslim period. Khariboli was the spoken language of Delhi. The dispersal of this dialect was brought about by the traders, both Hindu and Muslim, who in course of their mercantile assignments, spread to Lucknow, Faizabad, Prayag (Allahabad), Kasi fVaranasi), Patna and other eastern cities. Being the dialect of the most important strategic centre, it got the opportunity to develop in comparison to other dialects like Bhojpuri, Awa-dhi and others. Subsequently modern Hindi and Urdu developed from this dialect.34
Politically, Bihar was tagged to Bengal even during the pre-British days leading to its economic back-wardness. Moreover, being culturally and linguistically a part of the Hindus-tani speaking area, Bihar was rela-tively conservative. While the social reform of various streams swept the three presidencies, in spite of solid phalanx of orthodox opposition, the Arya Samaj' movement that found some following among backward castes acted more as a vehicle of con-servatism rather than of regeneration. In Bihar, the unit of social movement was castc. not village or region.15
Evidence of various castes involved in the reform movement is practically lacking.
That is why, apart from its econo-mic stagnation, Bihar's cultural insu-larity accounts for the dichotomy of its split personality. Thus Bihar has a number of territorial entities with definite dialects like Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili superimposed on a formidable hierarchy of castes. Lingu-istically, Grierson puts those dialects into a common group known as 'Bihari languages'. One can contest Grierson's classification but they are definitely distinct from Hindi and more related to Bengali, Assamese and Oriya, as i l l these dialects were derived from a common root known
as Ardha Magdhi Aprabhansa. "Like Bengali or Oriya no common Bihari
language has ever emerged".1' The language of tribal Bihar was another problem.
"The politics of language in Bihar", writes Brass, is complicated by the fact that the official language of the state is not the mother-tongue of any major population group' It became the official language of the state be-cause the predominant ethnic groups in Bihar, the Magajtii and Bhojpuri peoples, lacking a standard literary language of their own, choose t
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homogeneous state did not conflict with tho concept of nation. It was a demand for a reorganisation of exist-ing province which had been primarily created to meet the needs of British ad m inis t ration".30
The movement for the separation of Bihar from Bengal was Bihar's first effort to assert its own regional iden-tity in terms of sub-nationalism. At the regional level, participation for a separate Bihar was "facilitated through the aggregation of primordial loyalties like religious group, caste association and the regional identities".21 The westernised Bihari elites were carriers of this movement. Though Bihar was politically linked with Bengal, this class emerged very late in comparison to its Bengali counterpart. Initial efforts to impart modern English edu-cation were not popular. In fact, many landlords were hostile to i t ' 2
But the position changed with the posting of W Taylor as Commissioner of Patna. "Bihar was in touch with Calcutta on account of the Supreme Court established in that city to decide appeals from the court of Bihar", writes Pandey. "The movement in favour of English education and the influx of English-educated Bengalis from Calcutta and its suburbs prepar-ed the ground for English education in Bihar".33 Going in for an English education, which was an important condition for social mobility, became the hallmark of social prestige.
In the beginning Muslims and subsequently the Kayasthas both being very close to pre-British adminis-tration, were first to realise the im-portance of modern education. The sectarian bodies such as the All India Kayasth Conference and the Mohamadan Association became the vehicles for the spread of English-oriented education. So we find, in the early phase, the domination of these two communities in the intellec-tual and professional sectors of Bihar. In the course of their professional ac-tivities (including service jobs), they had to compete adversely with the Bengali settlers who had earlier en-trenched themselves in the administra-tive, educational and professional spheres. With the passage of time, other communities, like Bhumihars, Rajputs, Yadavas and others, formed their sectarian organisations which initially played a limited reformist role in connection with dowry, modern education etc. A number of caste Sabhas were established; in 1889 itself the Bhumttlar Brahmin Mahasabha
w.is formed by the UP and Bihar landlords at Patna. Subsequently, it was followed by the establishment of the Sarjupuri Brahman Sabha (1905). The Ramani Kahar Sabha (1906), the Rajput Sabha (1906), the Marwari Youngmen's Association (1907), the Dnsadh Sabha (1911), the Gope Jatiya Mahasabha (1912), the Keot Sabha (1912), the Kurmi Sabha (1912) and others".21 Despite the limited progres-sive role played by the caste organisa-tions, these institutions failed to gene-rate a feeling of cross-caste oneness. Caste movement greatly brought about disequilibrium and strained social re-lationship among people of Bihar,25
According to Jata Shankar Jha, this is because "the contemporary govern-ment records show that Knyvett, the superintendent of police, Patna, was instrumental for the caste movement... He deputed his subordinate police officers of those castes to organise their castemen and he himself presided over a number of their early meet-ings".25 In the wake of the role of the alien government in helping the caste movement in Bihar, there was proliferation caste journals. Import-ant ones weie: (1) Divija Patrika (2) Kshatriija Patrika (in 1890) (3) Ka~ hatriya Samachar (4) Khatri Hitaishi (5) Teh Samachar (1912) published from Barh by Kali Prasad Das (6) Ma-harui Mayanka (1919) published from Hasua (Gaya) (7) Bhumihar Brahmin Patrika (8) Ranniar Hitaishi (9) Ka-yastha Kauamudi (10) Madhtja Deshi-ya Vanik Patrika published from Muzaf-t'arpur (11) RautUar Vaisya (Laherias-arai) (12) Surtdik (Patna) and others".27
Among other caste journals were Kay as t ha Samachar Kayastha Hitaishi, Tailik Prabhakerf Tailik Vaishya Ban-dhtt, Vanik Patrika, Nishad (new Ni-shad Journal) Kehsri Sandesh, Kaivar-ta, Hai Hai Patrika, Bhudcva, Kush-waha and Yadavesh.2' Incidentally, out of 10, eight papers were published by the trading caste community, so the caste movement got further buttressed and strengthened in Bihar which help-ed in the vivisection of Bihar's sub-national identity.
ECONOMIC SUM-NATIONALISM
Even in pre-British days, Bihar was tagged to Bengal which ended its in-dependent political and economic per-sonality. Bihar was rfeduced to a transit route long before thd advent of British rule, further pushing it to economic backwardness. "Bowrey did not exaggerate the commercial import-
ance of Patna when he observed that this was a country of very great traffic and commerce and is really the great gate that openeth into Bengal and Orissa, and consequently into most parts of India".' But the emergence of British power finally sealed Bihar's fate for nearly two centuries. "Bengal (that is Bengal, Bihar and Orissa)" writes Bagchi, "was the original stamp-ing ground of British colonialism in India... biggest export base to the British".80
Even in the eastern zone, all areas did not suffer equally. The peripheral one, such as Bihar, Orissa and Assam, remained backward in relation to Bengal where the centre of colonial rule was located. In the absence of "British settlement in the province" of Bihar no "comparable class of comprador bourgeoisie could emerge here"3 1 as in the other presidency towns. This was the reason why, apart from Bihar, Orissa and MP, even with rich natural endowments, could not develop as a industrialised state. In fact, the backwardness of Bihar stands out more prominently if we take into consideration the economic paradox of Bihar's poverty amidst natures bounty of a vast expanse of fertile land and inexhaustible mineral resources. Such a geographical ad-vantage can hardly be seen anywhere else in India and has very few parallels throughout the globe.
After the advent of the British and with the emergence of westernised elites, the demand for the separation of Bihar from Bengal got momentum. We do not propose to recount all the events that led to the successful form-ation of Bihar as a province. Three major factors - viz, Bihari intelligent-sia, Bengali settlers and British im-perialism interacted and determined the character of regional and econo-mic consciousness of Bihar.
BIHARI INTELLIGENTSIA
Let us first discuss the factor of indigenous elites, "The historians have tried to characterise this class as an elite group, have sought to em-phasise the determining role of the attitude and social behaviour of this group to the exclusion of more basic structural feature of the economy".32
The movement for a separate Bihar was spearheaded by professional and educated elites and not by the Bihar bourgeoisie. This is because of the preponderance of feudalism in Bihar. Even the social base of these elites was limited, as the original combina-
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tion of Muslim and Kayastha, which was directed against the Bengali set-tlers unlike Utkal Sammillani of Orissa, which wanted to develop the Oriya nationality consisting of differ-ent categories of people residing in Orissa and accepting it as their pro-vince. Gopabandhu, the foremost leader of Oriya national movement "did not like to create a 'pseudo nationality' in the name of any community. Many Bengali and Telugu intellectuals who had settled in Orissa joined this move-ment. Gopabandhu argued that the Utkal Sammillani was part of the national movement".-13 The movement in Bihar mainly revolved around dis-crimination against Biharis in the matter of education and jobs.84 The movement had no wider ramification. Being an essentially anti-Bengali movement, it spared the colonial power. In fact, the leaders of the Bihar Separation Movement opposed the boycott movement of Bengal (1905) with a view to getting patronage from the British government, for the ful-filment of their aim of Bihar as a separate province.
SWADESHI MOVEMENT
The class limitation of the move-ment for the separation of Bihar is reflected in the absence of political thought based on economic national' ism. Without contesting the justifica-tion of the demand for reservation of jobs for the local people, they could not look beyond their noses, British imperialism distorted the economic and social development of Bihar. While the Industrial Revolution was sweep-ing through England, India was under-going systematic de-industrialisation. In the Gangetic belt of Bihar the effect of the de-industrialisation was stagger-ing.115
In spite of the catastrophic effect of the modern industry over tradi-tional industrial community all over India, the national leadership in India "hailed every step taken towards the introduction of new industries, lament-ed the absence of Indian endeavour in any field visibly opened to effort, and exhorted all and sundry to take themselves to trade and industry. Their battle cry was that, we must become capitalists and enterprisers... a nation of traders, machine-makers, and shopkeepers. To some of them, in-dustrialisation was the most import-ant, if not the sole criterion of the progress of a people, and the only sense in which the economic develop-ment of a country might be said to be
taking place".30 That is why, for "encouraging Indian industries, both traditional and modem" there was widespread "propagation of the ideas of Swadeshi.... Though the Swadeshi movement made its first mark in the history of modern India in the course of the all-India agitation against the partition of Bengal in 1905... the idea for the dramatic success of the move-ment at this particular juncture had long been prepared in the preceding decades.... Arising spontaneously and mostly in an unorganised and isolated manner, the Swadeshi movement had gathered widespread support in its early years not from the recognised public associations of the period but from the vernacular press and from the local efforts of innumerable face-loss mfen".37
The Swadeshi movement made rip-ples in the peripheral areas of Bengal. "The leader of the Utkal Sammillani, was the grand old man of Orissa, Ma-dhusudan Das, who wanted to indus-trialise Orissa but failed for want of financial help from the colonial state".1' In spite of hostility towards Bengali in Orissa, 381 swadeshi bran-ches were set up by January 1905. Madhusudan Das "supported non-poli-tical swadeshi economic enterprise, but not surprisingly, kept strictly aloof from the openly anti-British-boycott campaign started by the Beng-alis".
IMPACT OF SWADESHI MOVEMENT M BIHAR
Bihar being definitely developed in all respects in relation to Orissa failed to find a responding echo during the swadeshi movement. That is why probably during the subsequent evolu-tion of regional consciousness of Bihar, the manifestation of economic nationalism was strikingly absent. In Bihar, when Surendra Nath Banerjee visited to propagate the idea of Swa-deshi in the autumn 1906 in Bhagalpur it "created a split between the Biharis (both Hindus and Mohamedans) on the one side and the Bengalis on the o ther- , the movement consequently was confined to places where there were Bengali settlements.... Apart from residents, middle class Bengalis who flocked to Chhotanagpur country towns (Deoghar, Simultala, Madhupur, Giridih, etc). . in the Puja vacations also tried to spread the movement with the result that in Deoghar the local people termed, Swadeshi 'babu tamashaV' So economic national consciousness though developed ii
Orissa, ironically a far more backward region, remained still-bom in Bihar.
Thus, the anti-British component, the most important ingredient of Indian nationalism, was missing in the case of Bihar because of strong feudal features. Even nationalism assumed a secondary position; Sachchidananda Sinha, the foremost leader of this movement, eulogised "local patriot-ism"41 The Beharee, a noted journal of Bihar, adopted the motto "we are Behaitee first and Indian afterwards'' in opposition to the "nationalist ideas preached by the Congress".41
With the advent of British rule, caste did not vanish, but got modified. The modification varied from place to place. The Bhadralok in Bengal dispensed with caste organisations as a vehicle for politics; but the concept itself continued to determine the ritual status of man. A similar process did not take place in Bihar where the elite classes seized upon these organisations not only to maintain their ritual status but also to initiate and expand social and educa-tional activities. This led to the use of caste organisations for political pur-pose. "Although the caste association' functioned", writes Roy, "in the social realm for a cause which is primarily social, they nevertheless prepared the background for transforming social identity into political identity. Had other avenues of social advancement and status mobility been available... it is doubtful whether politics would have been so much influenced by the caste".43 Nevertheless, the caste identity collectively presents the picturc of the fragmented identity of Bihar. Caste may induce certain amount of oneness among a group of people, but it can-not generate national oneness. Even when the Swadeshi movement in Bengal sufficiently enthused the most advanced section among the Bihari elites, the Kayasthas, they formed a Kayastha Trading Company at Arrah "with a view to encouraging the community to undertake commercial and other pro-fessions".44 Even in the world of trade they could not go beyond the limits of caste, which proved to be the greatest stumbling block for the de-velopment of Bihari bourgeoisie or entrepreneurs in the subsequent period.
BENGAIL SETTLERS
Despite the political links between Bihar and Bengal linguistically and culturally Bihar was more connected with the Hindusthani speaking area. This lack of cultural affinity restrained
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