Bihar’s Congress legacy: Historic session sets stage for CWC meet in Patna

In the shadow of the Ganga’s timeless flow, where whispers of India’s freedom struggle still linger in the air, the Indian National Congress is set to reconvene in Bihar’s heartland.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at the iconic Sadaqat Ashram marks a poignant return to roots, the first such gathering in the state since Independence.

Coming hot on the heels of Rahul Gandhi’s high-octane ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ – a 16-day odyssey across 25 districts that galvanized opposition forces against alleged “vote chori” – this session arrives amid the feverish buildup to the forthcoming Bihar’s assembly elections.

With the Mahagathbandhan eyeing a revival against the ruling NDA, the CWC’s deliberations could redefine not just electoral arithmetic but the party’s national narrative.

Bihar, often called the cradle of revolutions, has long been a crucible for Congress’s evolution.

From the misty fields of Bankipore in 1912 to the storm-swept grounds of Ramgarh in 1940, the state’s soil has absorbed the sweat and resolve of leaders who shaped the independence movement. These plenary sessions weren’t mere assemblies; they were battlegrounds of ideas, where moderates clashed with radicals, and unity was forged amid division.

As Patna buzzes with anticipation – delegates streaming in under a September sky heavy with monsoon promise – a glance back reveals how these gatherings propelled the Congress from a debating society to a mass mobilization force, a legacy now invoked to combat contemporary democratic threats.

Seeds of Unity: The 1912 Bankipore Session and the Quest for Reforms

The first Congress plenary in Bihar unfolded in December 1912 at Bankipore (now part of Patna), a session that symbolized the party’s expanding footprint in the eastern heartland.

Presided over by Raghunath Narayanas Mudholkar, a moderate lawyer from the Central Provinces, the 27th annual gathering drew a diverse crowd, including a significant number of liberal voices from across the social spectrum.

With general secretaries D.E. Wacha and D.A. Khare at the helm, the event was chaired locally by Mazharul Haque, a visionary Muslim leader whose reception address would echo through the annals of the freedom struggle.

In an era scarred by the 1905 Bengal Partition and the Morley-Minto Reforms’ bitter pill of separate electorates, delegates arrived with demands sharpened by disillusionment.

The resolutions were a clarion call for constitutional overhaul: an elected majority in the Imperial and Provincial Legislative Councils, the scrapping of separate electorates in local bodies, and the establishment of an executive council in Punjab.

Yet, in a nod to pragmatism – and controversy – the session deemed English proficiency essential for local body membership, a stipulation that underscored the elite contours of early nationalism. Satisfaction was expressed over governmental hints at provincial autonomy, a reform that would later crystallize in the 1919 Montagu-Chelmsford blueprint, albeit inadequately.

Haque’s speech, delivered with fervour, struck a chord beyond policy. “A great and powerful party of liberal Muslims has arisen whose aims and ideals are the same as those of the Congress,” he proclaimed, urging Bihar’s people to weave bonds of fraternity and love against imperial divide-and-rule tactics.

This was no abstract plea; it was a blueprint for Hindu-Muslim unity, vital in a province where communal fault lines were already deepening.

The session’s significance lay in its role as a bridge-builder, planting seeds of inclusive nationalism in Bihar’s fertile political soil. It affirmed Congress’s transition from a Bombay-centric elite forum to a pan-Indian platform, drawing in regional stalwarts like Bihar’s own Rajendra Prasad, who would later helm the Constituent Assembly.

Attendance figures, though not precisely recorded, swelled with moderates dominating the discourse, reflecting the post-1908 Swadeshi lull. Yet, this gathering’s true import emerged in retrospect: it honed the party’s reformist edge, pressuring the Raj into incremental concessions while fostering alliances that would sustain the Gandhian surge a decade later.

In Bihar, where land revenue burdens and famine scars fueled unrest, Bankipore became a symbol of hope – a reminder that self-rule began with self-assertion.

Ideological Firestorm: The 1922 Gaya Session and the Birth of Swarajya

A decade on, as the Non-Cooperation Movement’s embers cooled after the Chauri Chaura tragedy, Gaya hosted the 37th session in December 1922 – a powder keg of post-suspension soul-searching.

Chittaranjan Das, the fiery Bengali barrister dubbed Deshbandhu, ascended the president’s dais amid 3,248 delegates, with Braj Kishore Prasad as reception chair and a trio of secretaries: Moazzam Ali, Vallabhbhai Patel, and the rising Bihar star Rajendra Prasad. The air crackled with debate, as the shadow of Mahatma Gandhi’s abrupt halt to mass agitation loomed large.

The centerpiece was the incendiary resolution on council entry – a schism that would birth the Swaraj Party. Das and Motilal Nehru’s “Pro-Changers” advocated infiltrating the reformed legislatures to wreck them from within, a tactical pivot to sustain momentum.

Opposing them were Gandhi’s “No-Changers,” led by C. Rajagopalachari, who insisted on unwavering boycott to preserve moral purity.

The Jamiat-ul-Ulema’s fatwa branding council entry as “mamnoon” (permissible but discouraged) added theological weight, yet the house voted overwhelmingly for continuation of the snub – a pyrrhic victory that prompted Das’s dramatic resignation.

Resolutions thundered forth: a call to muster “men and money” for impending Civil Disobedience, a stern warning against further national indebtedness, and an appeal to shun government loans. Solidarity extended to the Akalis’ non-violent defiance in Punjab and Kemal Pasha’s Turkish triumphs, underscoring global anti-imperial synapses.

This was Congress at its most fractious yet fertile, channeling grief over Non-Cooperation’s truncation into resolve.

Gaya’s legacy?

It catalysed the Swaraj Party’s formation in 1923, injecting dynamism into a moribund phase and scoring legislative wins that exposed colonial frailties. For Bihar, it amplified local voices – Prasad’s involvement foreshadowed the province’s pivotal role in Quit India.

The session encapsulated the movement’s maturation: from prayer petitions to power plays, Gaya reminded that freedom demanded not just satyagraha but strategy.

Defiance Amid Storms: The 1940 Ramgarh Session and Wartime Reckoning

By March 1940, as Europe’s guns roared into World War II, Ramgarh – a dusty outpost near Ranchi in undivided Bihar – became the 53rd session’s unlikely stage. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the scholarly polymath and Congress president since 1939, presided over proceedings disrupted by relentless rains that forced an early adjournment.

With Acharya J.B. Kripalani as general secretary, the gathering – swelled by tribal Tana Bhagats trekking miles – confronted Britain’s unilateral declaration of India as a belligerent.

Only one resolution emerged, but it was seismic: unequivocal rejection of wartime complicity without Indian consent, reaffirming the demand for complete independence. Azad’s presidential address, a tour de force of eloquence, dissected the “real problem of the day” – British intransigence – while weaving threads of minority inclusion.

“I am a Muslim… profoundly conscious of the glorious traditions of the last thirteen hundred years,” he declared, imploring Indian Muslims to embrace national unity over separatist whispers. Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, and Prasad were in attendance, their presence underscoring the session’s gravity.

Rain-soaked pandals on the Damodar riverbank symbolized the tempest: external war, internal resolve. Ramgarh galvanized the All-India Congress Committee against the August Offer’s paltry concessions, paving the way for Individual Satyagraha and, ultimately, Quit India.

In Bihar, it evoked the 1857 echoes, blending Adivasi fervour with urban nationalism. Azad’s vision of a composite nation – where Muslims’ fate intertwined with India’s – remains a bulwark against communalism.

The CWC: Executive Nerve Center of the Freedom Engine

Parallel to plenaries, the Congress Working Committee – birthed at the 1920 Nagpur session under C. Vijayaraghavachariar – served as the movement’s high command. Comprising 15 AICC-elected luminaries led by the party president, the CWC orchestrated policy, from Non-Cooperation blueprints to wartime strategies.

Though no full CWC conclaves dotted Bihar’s pre-Independence calendar – provincial committees like the 1924 Purnea meet handled local fires – its shadow loomed large, directing Bihar’s cadres in salt satyagrahas and underground networks. 

Post-1947, the CWC evolved into a strategic powerhouse, navigating Nehruvian socialism to coalition-era manoeuvres. The Patna rendezvous – at Sadaqat Ashram, founded by Dr. Rajendra Prasad as a freedom nerve center – is historic: the first in Bihar since 1947, attended by Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and 170 members.

Amid whispers of seat-sharing in the Mahagathbandhan, it will dissect the Yatra’s momentum: Gandhi’s August 17 launch from Sasaram, tracing Bharat Jodo paths, exposed alleged voter deletions, framing elections as a “second freedom struggle” against electoral sabotage.

Bridging Eras:

Lessons for Bihar’s Polls and Beyond 

As delegates converge, Bihar’s Congress tapestry – woven from 1912’s unity vows to 1940’s defiant roar – mirrors today’s crossroads.

The Yatra, concluding with a Patna mega-rally, fused Rahul’s street savvy with Tejashwi Yadav’s Yadav base, drawing lakhs and denting NDA complacency. With final rolls out September 30, the CWC could amplify “vote adhikar” into a national clarion, echoing Gaya’s tactical boldness and Ramgarh’s moral steel.

In a state where caste calculus collides with caste census dreams, these sessions remind: Congress thrives on inclusion, not exclusion.

The 2025 polls, post-Chhath and Diwali, test if Bihar’s revolutionary spirit can upend Nitish Kumar’s alliances.

As the Congress president Kharge invokes Prasad’s legacy, the message is clear – from Bankipore’s petitions to Patna’s protests, the Congress’s Bihar bond endures, a beacon for democracy’s defenders. 

~Hasnain Naqvi is a former member of the history faculty at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai