Kishanganj Movement! A New Horizon for Seemanchal

By: Mumtaz Naiyer

In recent times Kishanganj was in news for AMU Centre Bihar Movement on the name of proposed Aligarh Muslim University off campus. The movement was first archetype in the region called Seemanchal due to its proximity with three neighbouring countries, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Kishanganj once known as Kala-pani for its backwardness is one of the most deprived district of India in terms of education, employment and basic infrastructure viz. road, electricity, schools and hospitals.

The area is neglected for many decades by State as well as Central govt. Even though it’s have a strategic location, the central and state govt. policies, schemes and aids never reach here. The buck stops somewhere in the middle. The Babudom can be easily identified in the area due to the unawareness and ignorance of civic population; lack of education and consciousness is the solitary reason. The literacy rate is most terrible here in comparison to the Bihar’s literacy rate (Males: 73.39%, Females: 53.33% as per 2011 census report) in general and national literacy rate as a whole. One can comprehend the enormity of the situation that over all literacy rates is below 35%, the most awful is the female literacy rate which is 18% in towns and just 2% in rural areas.

Seemanchal comprising of six district of Bihar, namely Katihar, Purnea, Araria, Kishanganj, Supaul, Madhepura and one district, Uttar Dinajpur from neighboring West Bengal is the most underdeveloped region in the country. So much so Seemanchal has been represented in Parliament mostly by outsiders. Few of the prominent faces who represented Kishanganj Parliamentary constituency are well-known journalist M J Akbar, former IFS, Syed Sahabuddin, BJP’s Muslim face, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Md Taslimuddin. None of them brought any socio-economic changes in the area. Neither they brought any development on any front viz, education, health, employment, nonetheless they always made tall claims to bamboozle innocent public. Apart from unemployment, this area is facing myriad of problems; like lack of good educational institutions, polytechnics, engineering & medical colleges, super-specialty hospitals, small and large scale industries. Health, drinking water and sanitation are other major issues. It falls in the Gangatic region and hence it’s an agriculture belt, but no agriculture college or agriculture research centre ever established here, moreover, there is no facility of soil testing for farmers. Not this area only even contemporary Bihar has a grossly inadequate educational infrastructure creating a colossal mismatch between demand and supply. There are number of reasons for this, one of the prominent reason is, after independence, Bihar lost the pace in terms of establishing centers of education. This problem further gets exaggerated by the growing aspirations of the people and an increase in population. The yearning for higher education among the general population of Bihar has led to a substantial migration of the student community from the state.

The providence of Bihar changed completely not for good though, after Janata Dal came to power in the state in the year 1990 on the back of its victory at the national stage in 1989. Lalu Prasad Yadav became Chief Minister after winning the race of legislative party leadership by a slight margin against Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from the Janata Party and close to eminent Janata Party leaders like Chandrashekhar and S N Sinha. Later, Lalu Prasad Yadav gained popularity with the masses through a series of popular and populist measure. Although Lalu Prasad Yadav is praised for giving voices to backward classes and downtrodden but he failed to bring the derailed wagon of development of the state onto the track. These problems further get compounded when he anointed his wife Rabri Devi as the CM and he ruled the state through proxy. In this period, the administration deteriorated hurriedly and we can say that there was almost an administrative collapse. The worst affected area was Seemanchal, where no govt. aid scheme or policy reached during this entire interlude. No developmental plan was ever implemented. At the same time Nations was fast catching up with the development brought about by the duo Narshimha Rao and Manmohan Singh the then Prime minister and Finance minister respectively by series of economic reforms. The Economist magazine reported in year 2004, “Bihar had become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronize, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties". One can envisage the severity of loss that might have occurred to this region called Seemanchal which have had never been on the agenda of state as well as Central govt. despite of sizeable population of more than 20 million.

Bihar’s fortune changed again in 2005, this time we can say for good as alienation build-up among the masses including the middle classes, the RJD was voted out of power and Lalu Prasad Yadav lost an election to a coalition headed by his previous ally and now rival Nitish Kumar. Despite the separation of financially richer Jharkhand, Bihar has actually seen more positive growth in recent years under his leadership. In the past six and seven years Bihar made fast progress and has implemented many novel ideas and projects. Nonetheless, the fate of Seemanchal is remaining same as it was in Lalu’s era especially in terms of education, employment, health and basic infrastructure. It would be gross mistake on part of Bihar Govt if they continue overlook such a large area with more than 2 crores population which is more than many states across the country. Thereby, it would be premature to conclude that Bihar has progressed and the derailed wagon of development is back on track.

Coming back to the Kishanganj Movement which is in fact an education movement brought about by locals, especially by educated youths, professionals, students, socialites, academicians, and journalists. Moreover, the role of local politicians could not be overstated also. For the first time Seemanchal area witnessed such a massive movement for establishing an educational institution, nevertheless many people termed it as second Aligarh Movement. The onset of this movement can be traced back to early 2009, when Kishanganj was identified as one of the fifth centre for the Aligarh Muslim University, after the Sachchar Committee recommended setting up of more institutions focussed at the needs of the Muslims in the minority dominated areas. Bihar government had initially suggested setting up of campus in Katihar, but later shifted the plan to Kishanganj. But political meddling and bureaucratic hurdles have had delayed the process. This entire political jolt gave birth to the Kishanganj Education Movement.

The renowned author Chetan Bhagat in one of his blog said, “And this is the most exciting part of coming back to India. To be the ambassador of change in your own world, you don’t have to be a celebrity, authority and powerful person to effect change. You just have to change yourself, and set an example for others. Slowly people will see the right path.” These views are highly endorsed by some of the native of Seemanchal. They have come under the banner of 'AMU Centre Co-ordination Committee (AMUCC) to press the Bihar government to allocate the required land immediately. The Co-ordination Committee is working for last two year, holding conferences, meeting political leadership, as well as AMU Administration and the Bihar Government. Their relentless struggle paid off as Bihar Govt has given approval for establishing the AMU Centre Kishanganj. There are many positive outcome of this movement. This movement has instilled enthusiasm among local youths, professionals, students, academicians and many more. All of them are ready to work for the betterment of the area and society. Raghibul Hasan, a native of Katihar and a research scholar at prestigious AIIMS, New Delhi, says, “We need manpower, dedication and determination to succeed our AMU mission. Further every people of Seemanchal needs to explore the benefit from AMU centre maximally, needs to open your eyes to take responsibilities and contribute each and every developmental work carried out in our area.” Now the liabilities has increased many fold thereby I wish AMUCC and other organizations along with the local politicians should work hard for overall development of the area. I am damn sure this will change the fate towards prosperity and Kishanganj will be an educational hub in the east. It will definitely help minority dominated Seemanchal to join the mainstream, not only this, there will be a radical change in the socio-economic status of the area. In a nut shell we can say, Kishanganj Movement has brought a new horizon for Seemanchal.

The author hails from Thakurganj block of Kishanganj district, and currently works as Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India.