Tributes being paid to the socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan in Patna, Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: It has been 50 years since socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan gave the call for "Sampoorna Kranti" on June 5, 1974 at the historic Gandhi Maidan here.
Addressing a massive gathering on that day, he had thundered, "...it is a Total Revolution we want, nothing less".
While five decades have passed on since that historic moment and much has changed in the capital city of Bihar, the legend of "JP", as he was popularly known, lives on in political speeches, statues, and in names of bridges, boulevards, public buildings, institutions and some streets in the state.
Under the firebrand "JP", the agitation in Bihar took the shape of a 'Total Revolution' and the initial demand for resignation of the then Ghafoor ministry in the state ultimately turned into a larger demand for dismissal of the Indira Gandhi government.
The "Bihar Movement" during the turbulent 70s eventually led to the Emergency.
On Wednesday, the Patna district administration paid floral tributes to the socialist leader also known as "Loknayak" at a roundabout which has an imposing statue of him, facing the Gandhi Maidan.
The pedestal of the statue also carries some of the lines that poet Ramdhari Singh "Dinkar" had earlier written for Narayan and his struggle for social justice.
"Senani Karo Prayan Abhay, Bhavi Itihas Tumhara Hai; Ye Takhat Abha ke Bujhte Hain, Sara Akash Tumhara Hai," reads a couplet on a side of the pedestal.
Patna has another imposing statue of "JP Setu", installed at Income Tax roundabout in the heart of the city.
The city's airport, new Ganga bridge -- "JP Setu" completed a few years ago -- the huge Ganga drive along its banks, a university in Chhapra in north Bihar, a public building -- Loknayak Jayaprakash Bhawan" -- at Dakbunglow Chouraha, are named after him, while a long road in Kankarbagh area is called "JP Senani Path".
Sudhir Kumar Jha in his book A New Dawn: Patna Reincarnated talks about the "JP movement" as the agitation is popularly known in Bihar. He writes in his book that on June 5, 1974, Narayan addressed a mammoth gathering at the Gandhi Maidan.
"This is a revolution, friends! We are not here merely to see the Vidhan Sabha dissolved. That is only one milestone on our journey. But we have a long way to go... After 27 years of freedom, people of this country are racked by hunger, rising prices, corruption... oppressed by every kind of injustice... it is a Total Revolution we want, nothing less!" the book quotes from his historic speech.
The movement that began with a call of "Sampoorna Kranti" in Patna, later spread to Delhi, where "JP" also addressed a huge gathering at Ramlila Maidan.
A train that connects Delhi and Patna is called "Sampoorna Kranti Express".
Patna native Rajiv Soni, who was a 21-year-old student at Patna University in 1974, and lived along Fraser Road near Gandhi Maidan recalls that historic day.
"I remember there was a huge number of people in streets in front of our house, and they were heading to Gandhi Maidan nearby. There were a lot of policemen on duty. My parents had asked me not to venture out of home," he told PTI.
Soni, also an avid photographer, and now Kolkata-based, had taken photographs related to the funeral of "JP" after he died in 1979. .