The tale of a library and a club on the bank of Ganga in Bankipur has lessons which are yet to be decoded.
The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Bankipur was opened for public in October 1891 by Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh, a native of Chhapra. The library was declared an institution of national importance by an act of Parliament in 1969.
Bankipur Club was founded in 1865 by James Patrick Willoughby Johnston, a British colonial police and intelligence officer who served extensively in the Indian Police (IP) within the Bihar and Orissa cadre.
The library culture arrived after the arrival of club culture.
From the earliest times, there is an unending conflict between library culture and club culture is an eternal conflict. It is the conflict between the pleasurable (preyas) and the preferable (shreyas), which is one of the subjects of the Katha Upanishad. It is the constant struggle between The Pleasant and The Good.
In the immortal Nachileta-Yama dialogue Katha Upanishad says:
अन्यत् श्रेयः उत अन्यत् एव प्रेयः। ते उभे नानार्थे सती पुरुषं सिनीतः।
तयोः श्रेयः आददानस्य साधु भवति उ सः अर्थात् हीयते यः प्रेयः वृणीते ॥
श्रेयश्च प्रेयश्च मनुष्यमेतः तौ सम्परीत्य विविनक्ति धीरः ।
श्रेयो हि धीरोऽभि प्रेयसो वृणीते प्रेयो मन्दो योगक्षेमाद्वृणीते ॥
"The joy of the preferable ever abides, but not what seems pleasant to the senses. Both these, differing in their purpose, prompt humans to action. All is well for those who choose the joy of the preferable, but they miss the goal of life who prefer the pleasant.
Perennial joy or passing pleasure? This is the choice one is to make always. The wise recognize these two, but not the ignorant. The first welcome what leads to abiding joy, though painful at the time. The latter run, goaded by their senses, after what seems immediate pleasure."
The defeat of the natives in the 1757 and 1764, paved the way for the beneficial owners of British East India Company which entered India through Surat, Gujarat in the early 17th century to set up a rubber factory. The rubber was very elastic, it reached Bengal and Bihar in mid 18th century before reaching Allahabad and Delhi. In early 19th century, the beneficial owners of the erstwhile company made Bankipur, a strategic location for the colonial State besides Danapur. The British settlement used to be in Bankipur although till the late 19th century, it was like a village.
Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the legendary physician and former Chief Minister of West Bengal, was born in Bankipore, Patna, on 1 July 1882 before Bihar’s separation from Bengal in 1912. On June 30,1917, The Bihar Herald had published a satirical article criticizing the renaming of railway stations in the newly created Bihar. The fact remains renaming creates cognitive dissonance and has undecipherable cognitive costs.
Out of five chapters, in at least two chapters of the book Provincial Metropolis: Intellectuals and The Hinterland in Colonial India (2025), published by Cambridge University Press, David Boyk dwells on the significance of Bankipur.
The elite residents of Bankipur had played a significant role in the separation of Bihar from Bengal. The facts remains that the communities of Bengal and Bihar are communities of the same fate.
The colonial state had developed Bankipur region, away from Patna city. Modern Patna developed around Bankipur. It emerged as one of the most educated constituencies of Bihar with a cosmopolitan outlook beyond sectarian considerations. Although these beneficial owners ruled India for some 200 years, the natives of Bankipur and elsewhere are yet to comprehend that all history is contemporary history and are yet to decode how narratives are weaponised.
Have lessons been learnt from the defeat of 1757, 1764 and 1857?
If communities of Bankipur have to teach moral science to their children and grand children, will they not teach them the art of segregating the preferable from the pleasurable? For long unwise common sense club has been chosen disregarding library of good sense? Will the library get preference over the club?
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