A History of the Searchlight: Colonial Bihar- Independence and Thereafter (An Old and Rare Book)

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The Searchlight fascinated me in 1964 when Manindra Narayon Ray was serialising his reminiscences of The Searchlight, in The Indian Nation. It was published in 24 series. Manindra had played a pioneering role in the battle for freedom being a sub-editor and later an assistant editor of The Searchlight. The publication of his reminiscenes gave me an insight into the history of the freedom movement, activities of revolutionaries and the role of The Searchlight in the battle for freedom. In 1965, Patna University enrolled me as a research scholar for a Ph. D. degree on "Impact of International Events on the Growth of Nationalism in India" and during the course of my research I traced several files in the Bihar State Archives relating to the activities of Manindra Narayon Ray which formed the basis of my study on the freedom movement and youth revolt in Bihar to oust the English from India.

I joined The Searchlight as staff correspondent on February 13 1969, which broadened by base and an idea to write a history of The Searchlight cropped up in my mind. I began collecting materials and went through all available files of The Searchlight and its predecessors, The Behar Times and The Beharee in course of my study. The Behar Times was launched in 1894 and The Searchlight ceased publication in 1986. So, the study covers a period of 92 years, from 1894 to 1986.

The Searchlight was a longer-lived than its predecessors of rivals leaving behind a history of 68 years. It was the sole representative of the public opinion in Bihar and was well ahead of any rival in political and social influence. Mahatma Gandhi regarded The Searchlight as one of the few really nationalist English paper in the country.

The Searchlight was launched on July 15, 1918. Its first board of directors consisted of 14 eminent citizens of the State whom The Statesman had humorously described "as formidable as an Allied War Council." They were Hasan Imam (Chairman). Mazharul Haque, Rai Bahadur Purnendu Narayan Sinha, Khan Bahadur Sarfraz Hussain Khan, Brajkishore Prasad, P. K. Sen, Parmeshwar Lal, Ganesh Dutt Singh, Bishun Prasad, Kulwant Sahay, Bhuvaneshwar Mishra, Nirsu Narain Sinha, Rajendra Prasad and Sachchidananda Sinha. They were all patriots and eminent publicmen. The same year (1918) Hasan Imam was called upon to preside over a special session of the Indian National Congress held in Bombay from August 28 to September 1 to consider the Montagu-Chelmsford Report. Mazharul Haque, Purnendu Narayan Sinha, Sarfraz Hussain Khan and Prameshwar Lal had been prominent members of the Home Rule League. Brajkishore Prasad, Mazharul Haque, and Rajendra Prasad had also worked as co- workers of Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran Movement. Sachchidananda Sinha had already got the status of the father of modern Bihar being instrumental in securing a separate province for Bihar. Others were eminent lawyers of the Patna High Court dedicated to the cause of freedom movement. In 1921, when diarchy was introduced in provinces under the Government of India Act, 1919, Ganesh Dutt Singh was elected a member of the Behar and Orissa Legislative Council. Later, in 1923, he became minister of Local Self-Government and Medical Relief and continued for 14 years until introduction of Provincial Autonomy in India in 1937.

The history of The Searchlight is the history of the freedom movement in Bihar and in its pages have been recorded the activities of all publicmen of the province. The employees of the paper both from the editorial and management sides were freedom fighters. The paper had to deposit security to the government just before publication of its first issue because its manager, Ashesh Kumar Bannerjee, was a revolutionary having been prosecuted under the Defence of India Rules. The first editor of the paper, Syed Haider Hussain, was a prominent Congressman and the first Muslim of the country to become a member of the Servants of India Society. Its Managing Editor, Maheshwar Prasad, was the former editor of The Beharee who had shaken the foundation of the British Raj by publishing a series of nine editorials in the Beharee under the heading The Planters and the Riots highlighting the oppression by the European Indigo planters against the peasants of Champaran.