Manacaud Suresh /Thiruvananthapuram
Rahul Gandhi’s latest political yatra through Bihar has underlined not just his determination, but also the Congress party’s deep historical roots in the state.
Bihar, the land that nurtured the Mauryan and Gupta empires and witnessed Ram’s mythical journey in the Ramayana, has long been a theatre for epochal battles—political, social, and moral.
Now, Rahul Gandhi retraces those steps, invoking a legacy that links him with the great struggles of the past.
In April 1917, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi set foot in Champaran to witness firsthand the plight of indigo farmers oppressed under British exploitation.
What began as a simple visit turned into the launch of India’s first experiment with satyagraha. Standing unarmed against the might of the British police, Gandhi ignited a movement that would later blossom into the struggle for independence.
More than a century later, Rahul Gandhi’s march through Bihar, calling out today’s “vote looters,” deliberately echoes the spirit of Champaran.
In 1946, as partition loomed and communal riots swept across India, Bihar too was in flames. It was here that Jawaharlal Nehru delivered a historic speech at Bihar Sharif, pledging to fight communal violence even at the cost of his life.
“They cannot fight unless they trample over my dead body,” Nehru declared. Within a year, he would hoist the tricolour at the Red Fort. His defiance in Bihar established Congress’s identity as a bulwark against sectarian hatred—an identity Rahul Gandhi invokes in his own campaigns today, resisting what he describes as divisive and false propaganda.
By 1977, Bihar was again torn by caste violence and communal unrest. When Dalits and Muslims were massacred at Bihar Sharif and Belchi, it was Indira Gandhi who rushed to the state.
Her journey through the region became legendary—when her jeep got stuck in deep mud, she rolled up her sari and trudged through the muck, before locals brought forward an elephant named Moti to carry her to Belchi.
That image of Indira riding through the villages on an elephant became a symbol of Congress’s bond with the people. The crowd’s slogan, “Aadhi roti khayenge, Indira ko laayenge” (We will eat half a roti, but we will bring Indira back), soon became a reality when she returned to power.
In 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress Sandesh Yatra brought him to the historic Islamic learning centre at Kankwa Rahmania in Bihar.
Founded in 1900, it had hosted Gandhi, Maulana Azad, and Nehru during the freedom movement. Rajiv’s visit symbolised continuity, and nearly four decades later, Rahul Gandhi, alongside Tejashwi Yadav, addressed people at the same venue during his Vote Adhikar Yatra.
The unbroken thread of Congress’s presence in Bihar stands in sharp contrast, party leaders say, to the shallow roots of its political opponents.
Rahul Gandhi’s latest march through Bihar, concluded this week, was pitched not merely as a political campaign but as a continuation of Congress’s century-old legacy in the state.
Like his great-grandfather Nehru, his grandmother Indira, and his father Rajiv, he walked into Bihar carrying the message of resistance against exploitation, division, and authoritarianism.
As he addressed gatherings, Rahul quoted the same ideals that once guided the Congress in its freedom struggle. Party leaders framed the yatra as the reopening of an account of affection that the Modi government tried to seal shut.
For Rahul Gandhi, Bihar was not just another stop on his political calendar—it was the reaffirmation of a generational bond between the Congress party and the people of the state.
The writer is a senior Congress leader from Kerala
