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[shivam at sarai.net]

Research posting by I-Fellow Prabhat Kumar --- 

========= 


I, Prabhat Kumar, am pursuing Ph.D. in modern history discipline at the
Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. The precise
topic of Ph.D. research is "The Makings of an Intelligentsia in Colonial
Bihar: 1870-1947". My research project at SARAI is an endeavour towards
writing a history of a public association, namely, YUVAK SANGH, of Patna.
Public associations like this had played a crucial role in drawing a large
number of people into public life and building up linkages between the
educated urban middle class and the people in rural areas. Yuvak Sangh or
Youth League of Patna was established in 1928 by the young intellectuals of
Bihar at the inspiration of the ongoing worldwide youth movements. Along
with the establishment of the Yuvak Sangh, its mouthpiece Yuvak (Monthly)
was also brought out. It was published from the Yuvak Ashram (office of the
Yuvak Sangh in front of Patna College).

The persons associated with the Yuvak Sangh had come out into active
political life in the wake of the Champaran Satyagraha (1917) and the
Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22). The C.I.D. Reports in the Home
Political Special Department File suggest thast the same group of
intellectuals not only proved to be casus belli in the formation of Bihar
Socialist Party (1929) – a precursor of the Congress Socialist Party
(1934), but also were proactive in the Civil Disobedience Movement
(1930-32). The pages of Yuvak suggest that its contributors were the same
group of intellectuals, viz. Rambriksha Benipuri, Prajapati Mishra,
Gangasharan Sinha, Swami Sahajananda Saraswati, Awadheshwar Prasad Sinha,
Kishori Prasanna Sinha, Phulan Prasad Verma, Jagdish Narayan, Manindra
Narayan Roy, K.B. Sahay, Prof. Gyan Sahay etc. In the coming years all of
them turned out to be  leading local congressmen, socialists, communists,
and peasant leaders. The editor of  Yuvak and one of the founder members of
the Sangh and the Bihar Socialist Party  (B.S.P.), Benipuri wrote in his
autobiography that Yuvak was the first journal  disseminating socialist
ideas among the youth of Bihar. The content of the journal  suggests that
the Sangh was not simply disseminating the socialist ideas among its 
targeted audience; its agenda was far broader. Its aim was to construct an
image of ideal  youth in the age of nationalism and shaping its readers
along the same lines through  poems, stories, sketches, essays etc. on a
variety of issues.

The subjects covered, ranged  from the contemporary international youth
movements and exemplifying biographical sketches of national and
international personalities like Napoleon, Mussolini, Nehru, Jatin Das
etc., to stories about male and female sports stars; health and physical
exercises; the kinds of food to be taken; moral sermons like how the youth
should act, behave and think; the kind of literature to be read; the
careers to be pursued etc. The importance of celibacy (Brahmacharya) was
emphasized more than once. These sermons were supported with vivid pictures
depicting women tempting youth. There was a debate whether marriage was an
obstacle or a necessity for the youth participating in the national
movement. The contemporary agenda of social reform was reflected through
the articles on the problems of untouchability, poverty and the ubiquitous
woman question. It had pieces on the need of the youth to be patriotic, and
the need to revolt against status quo. These articles were backed with
theoretical essays on socialism and revolution. This paper will be divided
into three sections. In the first, we shall try to situate Yuvak Sangh in
the historical context of contemporary Bihar. A brief sketch of the
different other existing and preceding public associations and social
organizations will be given. For instance, Bihar witnessed the emergence of
a number of caste associations, social reform and service organizations
especially in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

I shall analyse the similarities and departures in the agenda and the
nature of Yuvak Sangh vis-à-vis different caste associations,
seva-samitis, Bihari Chhatra Sammelan etc. This will be followed by brief
biographical sketches of leading figures associated with the Sangh, which
can gleaned from the available memoirs, autobiographies and biographies.
This will throw some light on the nuanced understanding of a broader
category of middleclass intelligentsia of Bihar. The last section will
analyse in detail the ideas propagated by this group of intellectuals
associated with Yuvak Sangh on the basis of their writings in Yuvak
(whatever issues I could look into) and in the light of the larger
intellectual circle in Patna, both contemporary and preceding, I would pose
certain questions. What constituted an ideal youth an enunciated in their
writings? Was this construction of the image of ideal youth simply informed
by the brahminical Hindu masculinist discourses? If this was so, how did
this nationalist imagery reconcile with the idea of socialism/revolution?
Were socialism and revolution themselves amorphous categories? How did they
reconcile with the "woman question" and the problem of caste?

SOURCES
Bihar State Archive, Patna
Files and Documents of the Home Department of Bihar and Orissa on Sewa Dal,
Bihari Chhatra Sammelan, various caste associations and the Yuvak Sangh.
Annual Report on the Newspapers and Periodicals published from Bihar and
Orissa for various years.
Bihar Rashtra Bhasha Parishad Library and Khadga Vilas Press Library,
Patna; Sharda Sadan Pustakalaya, Lalganj (Hajipur); Nehru Memorial Museum
and Library, Delhi Kshatriya Patrika (Patna, 1980), Sri Harishchandra Kala
(Patna, 1885), Shiksha (Patna, 1897), Lakshmi (Gaya, 1901), Manoranjan
(Arrah, 1902), Patliputra (Patna, 1914), Desh (Patna, 1920), Marwari Sudhar
(Arrah, 1921), Yuvak (Patna, 1928), Ganga (Sultanganj, 1930), Searchlight,
Indian Nation, Bihar Herald (various years)
etc.
Autobiographies and Memoirs
Rambriksha Benipuri, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Kishori Prasanna Sinha, Rahul
Sankrityayana, Manindra Narayan Ror, Anugrahnarayan Sinha, Sahajananda
Saraswati, Rajendra Prasad, Shivpujan Sahay etc.