page_title: Bihar Movement
section_title: Early Protests
hierarchical_section_title: Bihar Movement / Early Protests
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped from Defense Department, US government (DSD.LBL.gov). Indira Gandhi and Dr. Seaborg (cropped out).
context_page_description: The Bihar Movement was a political movement initiated by students in the Indian state of Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, against misrule and corruption in the state government. It later turned against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government in the central government. It was also called Sampoorna Kranti and JP Movement.
context_section_description: 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 CPI was also involved.
  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. They formed Bihar Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti (BCSS)  to spearhead the agitation. Lalu Prasad Yadav was chosen as a president. Among the several contemporary youth leaders were Sushil Kumar Modi, Narendra Singh, Basisth Narayan Singh, Md Shahabuddin & Ram Vilas Paswan. Their demands were related to education and food in hostels.
  BCSS called for a gherao at Bihar Legislative Assembly during a budget session on 18 March 1974. 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. The killing of three students by police in Patna provoked student opposition across Bihar. BCSS declared a statewide strike on 23 March. Meanwhile, JP visited Gujarat to witness the Nav Nirman movement on 11 February and declared his intention to lead on 30 March 1974. BCSS approached JP to lead the agitation  while he was withdrawing himself from the Bhoodan movement.  He agreed.
  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?"   A silent student procession of 10,000 was held in Patna on 8 April. On 12 April, government opponents died in police firing at Gaya during the Paralyse the Government programme. Students also demanded dissolution of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. People demonstrated by blocking roads such as NH 31 and imposing a self-curfew. JP went to Delhi and attended a conference of Citizens for Democracy, an organization demanding civil rights, held on 13 and 14 April. During May 1974 various students' and peoples' organisations kept demanding dissolution of the assembly and also demanded the government's resignation, but did not succeed.
caption: Indira Gandhi
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Glenn T. Seaborg at the dedication of Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Trombay, India in 1967. Credit the United States Information Service, Bombay, India. Laboratory Directorate", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "400", "Image YResolution": "400", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:05:29 00:22:23", "Image Artist": "Photolab", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "\u00a9 2010 The Regents of the University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory", "Image ExifOffset": "524", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "662", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6083", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1071", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1542"}