Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as '' Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist politician, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, who was the first Deputy Chief Minister and the

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

of the Indian state of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

(1946–1957). He was also a Member of the

Constituent Assembly of India Constituent Assembly of India was partly elected and partly nominated body to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the Provincial assemblies of British India following the Provincial Assembly elections held in 1946 and nominated ...

, which was elected to write the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India, legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures ...

and served in its first Parliament as an independent nation. He also held a range of portfolios including Labour, Local Self Government, Public Works, Supply & Price Control, Health and Agriculture. A.N. Sinha, affectionately called Anugrah ''Babu'', was a close associate of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

during the freedom movement and worked with Bihar Kesari Sri Krishna Sinha to lead the Gandhian movement in Bihar. One of the leading nationalists in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

from

after Dr

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

, he was elected as the Congress Party deputy leader in the state assembly to assume office as the first Deputy

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

cum

of independent

, and re-elected when the Congress Party won Bihar's first general election with a massive mandate in 1952.

Early life

He was born to Visveshwar Dayal Singh on 18 June 1887 in a family of Poiwan village of the former Gaya district (later Aurangabad) in Bihar in the

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

caste. His younger son Satyendra Narayan Sinha became chief minister of Bihar. He became the Secretary of the Bihar Students Conference founded by

and the Chanakya Society of the Patna College. In 1915 he was appointed Professor of History at the T.N.B. college in Bhagalpur where he remained until 1916.

Freedom movement

In 1917, heeding the call of

to the nation, he left his flourishing law practice to join the Champaran Satyagraha movement. The Champaran experiment formed a vital chapter in the development of the Gandhian method in India and he was catapulted to the national stage. He served as a teacher in Bihar Vidyapeeth founded by

for motivating young meritorious youths. Among his first students was young Jayprakash Narayan. In 1922 he organized the Gaya

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. In the following year he became one of the General Secretaries of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). When Rajendra Prasad was elected Chairman of Patna Municipality, Sinha was elected Vice-Chairman. As he was soon elected Chairman of the Gaya District Board, he resigned. He was the pivotal force behind the Civil Disobedience Movement led by M K Gandhi, in the year 1930 which is considered an important milestone in the history of Indian Nationalism. His patriotism earned him 15 months of rigorous imprisonment in 1933–34. When the M8 Nepal–Bihar earthquake occurred on 15 January 1934, Bihar Central Relief Committee was set up on 17 January 1934, under the Presidency of Rajendra Prasad and Sinha became its Vice-President. He took the task of raising funds to help the people and the relief and rehabilitation work was organized in an elaborate and efficient manner. He was elected as a member of the Central Council in 1935 from Sahabad-cum-Patna Constituency with a massive margin. He became a member of the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the bicameral Bihar Legislature of the state of Bihar in India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is ...

in 1936. In the provincial autonomy granted by British, under the Government of India Act of 1935, the first Congress ministry was sworn in on 20 July 1937 and he became the Deputy Premier cum

province. He and Premier Sri Krishna Sinha disagreed with the then Governor Maurice Garnier Hallett on the issue of the release of political prisoners and both resigned. The Governor had to give in and they again resumed their offices. But they again resigned in 1939, as did all Congress governments in the country, over the question of involving India in the Second World War without the consent of the Indian people. He was among the first freedom fighters to respond to Gandhiji's call for

Satyagraha Satyāgraha (from ; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone who practises satyagraha is ...

in 1940–41. He was arrested by the British authorities and imprisoned in the Hazaribagh Central Jail in 1942. In 1944 he was released and devoted himself to serving the epidemic-ridden people. After independence he dedicated himself to the all round development of Bihar as

and as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

Exemplary government

The first Bihar Government, both in 1937 and 1946, was characterized by the values of the

. Its two eminent leaders Shri Krishna Sinha and Anugrah Babu were nationalists of unimpeachable integrity and great public spirit. They ran an exemplary government in Bihar. Almost all the development projects needed for the state of Bihar were done by the leadership pair of Shri Krishna Sinha and Anugrah Narayan Sinha. It included 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. In fact, Bihar became the top state in the country's first five-year plan and it was announced by Sinha in the assembly. The then

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

sent Paul H. Appleby to assess the administration in states and in his famous report, he described Bihar as the best governed state in India mostly due to the excellent leadership of Shri Krishna Sinha and Anugrah Narayan Sinha. Since the second five-year plan period, Sinha spearheaded the process of rapid industrialization of Bihar and bought several industries for the all round development of the state. He served India's international interests. He successfully led the Indian Food and Agriculture delegation to Nepal and also the Indian delegation to the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

(ILO) in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. He also actively led a number of Government and voluntary organizations in India and abroad.

Political legacy

Anugrah Narayan Sinha 1988 stamp of India

Along with nationalist

and his close colleague in the Indian independence movement Shri Krishna Sinha, the first Chief Minister of Bihar, Anugrah Narayan Sinha is considered one of the ''architects of modern Bihar''. His younger son Satyendra Narayan Singh (who was affectionately called "Chhote Saheb") also became a prominent freedom fighter and later became Chief Minister of Bihar. His grandson Nikhil Kumar, a former IPS, has served as the

Governor of Kerala The governor of Kerala is the constitutional head of state of the southern Indian state of Kerala. The governor is appointed by the President of India, and holds office at the President's pleasure. The governor is ''de jure'' head of the govern ...

. Sinha served the state continuously, barring war years (Second World War 1939–1945), as the Deputy Chief Minister cum

from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 till his death on 5 July 1957. ''Lok Nayak''

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), also known as JP and ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian politician, theorist and Indian independence activist, independence activist. He is mai ...

Bihar Vibhuti's Legacy Drifting into Oblivion?
. PatnaDaily (6 January 2012). Retrieved on 7 December 2018. served as the Chairman of ''Anugraha Smarak Nidhi'' (Anugrah Memorial Fund). The Department of Posts released a

commemorative stamp A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event, person, or object. The ''subject'' of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike defi ...

in his memory. The 125th birth anniversaryGovt to make documentary films on Sri Babu, Anugrah Babu
Times of India (14 September 2012). Retrieved on 7 December 2018. of Anugrah Babu was also celebrated by a state level committee headed by Bihar

Nitish Kumar. In 2013, various programmes were organized throughout the year in Bihar and biographies of ''Shri babu'' and Anugrah ''Babu'' were included in the school syllabus.

References

Resources

* Anugrah Narayan Sinha, ''Meray Sansmaran'', an autobiography * Anugrah Abhinandan Granth samiti. 1947 '' Anugrah Abhinandan Granth.''

. * Anugrah Narayan Centenary Year Celebration Committee. 1987. '' Bihar Bibhuti : Vayakti Aur Kriti'',

. * A.J. Philip, ''A gentleman among politicians'' * Dr. Rajendra Prasad, ''Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Correspondence and Select Documents'' * R. R. Diwakar, ''Bihar Through The Ages'' * Bihar State Archives, ''Documentaries and Articles on Dr. A N Sinha'' * Bameshwar Singh, ''Congress ministries under the High Command shadow,1988'' * Bimal Prasad (editor). 1980. ''A Revolutionary's Quest: Selected Writings of Jayaprakash Narayan.'' Oxford University Press,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. * P. S. Appu, ''The All India Services: Decline, Debasement and Destruction''

External links

Dr.Anugraha Narayan Sinha-Selected SpeechesContributions of Bihar's first Deputy Chief Minister recalled
* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=uzNnwUasQ3wC&dq=bihar+anugrah+babu&pg=PA287 Dr. Zakir Hussain speaks on Anugrah Babubr>Dr. Rajendra Prasad-Correspondence and Select Documents:Letters to Anugrah Narayan SinhaOfficial website of S.N.S.I.B.M., Ranchi

Dr. S. K. SinhaBihar Governor, CM remembers Anugraha BabuThe first polls, first rift,first rush:Bihar 1952 SK Sinha Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinha, Anugrah Narayan 1887 births 1957 deaths Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar Indian independence activists from Bihar Gandhians Members of the Constituent Assembly of India People from Aurangabad district, Bihar University of Calcutta alumni People from Aurangabad, Bihar Finance ministers of Bihar Patna University alumni Members of the Central Legislative Assembly of India Prisoners and detainees of British India Members of the Imperial Legislative Council of India Bihar MLAs 1952–1957 Bihar MLAs 1957–1962 Deputy chief ministers of Bihar People from Gaya district