The Making of a Province- Select Documents on the Creation of Modern Bihar (1874-1917)

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The Government of Bihar on the eve of centenary year of the creation of the Province of Bihar in 1912 has undertaken various measures to commemorate the historic event. Efforts have been taken not only to confine it to government departments but to bring it into the ambit of public domain through involvement of educational and cultural institutions and organizations. One of its objectives is to publish and reprint monographs, books, reports, etc., which focus on different aspects of society, culture and history of Bihar. The present work of documentation entitled "The Making of a Province: Select Documents on the Creation of Modern Bihar, 1874-1917" is part of that effort. The work, in a thematic framework, traces the evolution of the movement for the separation of Bihar from Bengal and in the process, it enters into some interesting by-lanes of the movement which shall make it an informative and interesting reading. It shall be useful reference work to those interested in study of history of Bihar of late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Government shall endeavor to encourage such studies on other aspects of the history and culture of the state. Such works of documentation bridge the gap between archival sources and common readers and consequently helps in the process of dissemination of knowledge.

The Directorate of Bihar State Archives, created in 1956 (formerly known as Central Record Room), has a rich tradition of publication of standard works of documentation related to different aspects of history of Bihar. The process dates back to 1954, when selection from unpublished Correspondence of the Judge-Magistrate and the Judge of Patna by K.K. Dutta was published. His second work of documentation entitled Farmans, Sanad and Parwanas was published in 1962. On the eve of birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Government of Bihar decided to document speeches and writings of Gandhi and consequently the work of documentation entitled Gandhi in Bihar edited by K.K. Dutta was published. Another work related to Gandhi, Select Documents on the Mahatma Gandhi's Movement in Champaran edited by B.B. Misra was published in 1963. This work on account of its seminal importance and demand has been reprinted by the Bihar State Archives in 2013. A reprint of the August Kranti authored by Baldeo Narayan was published in 2008 under the Bihar Gaurav Srinkhala Prakashan Series.

The present work of documentation is focused on the movement for the separation of Bihar from Bengal and its final fulfillment in the constitution of a 'self-contained' province of Bihar and Orissa having a Legislative Council, an Executive Council, a Board of Revenue and the Chartered High Court and a University. The documents which have been included comprise a broad gamut of sources incorporating official correspondences, reports and addresses, memorials, petitions, announcements, news reports, editorials, letters to editors, speeches, memoirs, private correspondences, pamphlets and representations of political, social, economic associations. Added to it the proceedings of the legislative institutions such as Bengal Legislative Council, Imperial Legislative Council and British Parliament have also been looked into. Despite touching upon such a wide array of the sources it is admitted that not all the sources which are termed as "documents"¹ have been consulted. As far as the contents of the documents are concerned efforts have been made to chronicle the hopes, aspirations, disillusionments, ideas, events, the sense of timing of the protagonists, colonial government's mindset and the shift in the official rhetoric and the consequent reactions. It also incorporates the highs and the lows, the complexities and even relatively silent zones of the long-drawn struggle and in the process draws attention to the fact that the movement was not linear in character as it had various twists and turns, leading to shift in tactics and strategy of the stakeholders in the movement. Some of the documents or topics may appear detached from the core theme but they in a subtle way converge on the overarching thematic framework of the dynamics of the movement.