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Sri Krishna Sinha

Gandhi called him Bihar‘s first Satyagrahi. As Chief Minister, he became the first in the country to abolish the zamindari system outright.

Sri Krishna Sinha on a 1988 Indian commemorative postage stamp. GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons.

📑 Contents

21 October 1887: Born at Khanwa, in Nawada district, Bihar.
Studies law, and begins legal practice at Munger, from 1915.
1922: First jailed for his freedom-movement activities; spends about eight years in prison over his lifetime.
1930: Plays a key role in the Namak Satyagraha at Garhpura, suffering severe scalding injuries during his arrest.
1940: Mahatma Gandhi calls him “the first Satyagrahi of Bihar.”
1937: Becomes Chief Minister under Bihar’s first Congress Ministry, a post he holds, barring a wartime gap, until his death.
Becomes the first Chief Minister in India to abolish the zamindari system.
31 January 1961: Dies in Patna, at age 73.

Shri Krishna Sinha, known as Sri Babu, was born on 21 October 1887, at Khanwa, Bihar.
Mahatma Gandhi called him “the first Satyagrahi of Bihar,” in 1940.
He became Chief Minister under Bihar’s first Congress Ministry in 1937, a post he held until his death in 1961.
He was the first Chief Minister in India to abolish the zamindari system.
He led the movement for Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham temple at Deoghar.
He is regarded, alongside Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha, as one of the Architects of Modern Bihar.

He was jailed multiple times from 1922, spending about eight years in prison across his freedom-struggle career.
During his arrest at the 1930 Namak Satyagraha, at Garhpura, he suffered severe scalding injuries to his hands and chest.
His government passed the Bodh Gaya Temple Act in 1949, creating a management committee with equal Hindu and Buddhist representation for the Mahabodhi Temple.
As Chief Minister, he backed major river valley projects on the Koshi, Aghaur, and Sakri rivers.
He introduced heavy industries into Bihar, including oil refining and fertiliser production.
In 1959, he donated his personal collection of 17,000 books to Munger’s public library, later renamed Sri Krishna Seva Sadan in his honour.

His zamindari abolition made Bihar a national first, not just a regional reform. Other states later followed a path he had already tested.
Leading Dalit entry into a major temple went beyond land reform. It put him directly against entrenched social, not just economic, hierarchy.
Nearly a quarter-century in office, spanning independence itself, gave him rare continuity. Few Indian leaders governed the same state across such a long, transformative stretch.
Donating 17,000 personal books to a public library reflects a scholarly streak behind the politician. His legacy wasn’t only land reform and industry.