25/01/2023
: A Forgotten Maithili Hero who tried to Change the Fate of Mithila.
It is my heartfelt wish that every Maithil should know, understand and learn from him. The more I read and came to know about Laxman Jha, former Vice-Chancellor of LNMU and the Pioneer warrior of Mithila Campaign, a sense of reverence automatically arose in my mind.
Shri Laxman Jha ji was born in *Rasiyari* village of Darbhanga district. Initial studies took place under the guidance of famous scholar "Pandit Ramanath Jha". Since childhood, there was a natural distance from material and worldly things.
He started actively participating in the freedom movement from the age of 11, protesting against the 'Simon Commission' and participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930-31 at the age of 15. He was only 18 years old at the time of the 1934 earthquake but joined *Rajendra Prasad's Bihar Central Relief Committee* and did relief work. He did inter from Bhagalpur, after receiving gold medal in graduation in Sanskrit from Patna College, his post-graduation studies were interrupted due to the 1942 movement. He was so active in the movement that when Rajendra Prasad was arrested, he was made the General Secretary of the Bihar Pradesh Movement Committee for the leadership of the August Revolution and further in the movement, after the incident of hoisting the flag on the secretariat and the death of seven students in police firing entire Bihar jumped into the August Revolution. Laxman Jha came under the grip of high fever of malaria, he had to come back to the village, but as soon as he came to the village, he announced the *independent Janata Raj*, for 1 month the British rule in the Birol area was completely lifted and the Janata Raj continued, which was supervised by volunteers. After the British power was restored, Laxman Jha left for Nepal but later someone informed and he was arrested. His next 5 years were spent in Bhagalpur Jail.
After released from jail and he went to England for further studies in 1947 on the scholarship of Bihar Government.He had taken admission in MA, but due to freedom movement, his MA was not completed, after going to England, he directly sought permission for PhD. A panel was set up for the interview of a student seeking PhD without MA directly, the interview happened in such a way that after that he was given honorary degree of MA and also allowed to do PhD directly. He completed research on "Mithila and Magadha" under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Keddingshaw and returned to India in 1949.
Government job was a verbal condition for the scholarship he got to study. He did the job of deputy director in Patna's Kashiprasad Jaiswal Research Institute, later he also contested the 1952 election but lost due to the conspiracy and devious tricks of his own party leaders. Then he announced his retirement from politics, but the government sued him in the condition of five years government job. By the way, there was no written document of this condition for the scholarship, he had only given a verbal promise, but the leaders knew that Laxman Jha would not lie.And the same happened that even after the refusal of his lawyer, he accepted his word in the court and as a result, the attachment of his entire land of 43 bighas was ordered. But no one had the audacity to auction his land, later his elder brother himself went to the auction and redeemed the property of the house.
After that he worked as a lecturer in CM College Darbhanga and also started publishing *'Mithila'* weekly magazine. He criticized the leaders so much that as a result, saying that he did not have an MA degree from any Indian University, he was removed from the post. This is what Laxman Jha wanted, so he didn't even appeal against it further. Between 1963-1972, 130 of his articles were published in the leading newspaper of that time, *The Indian Nation* , run by *Darbhanga Maharaj*, but later due to the Congress trend of the newspaper, the Karad broke from there too. Even after having 43 bighas of land in the village, he did not buy anything from there, instead he used to get his expenses by printing articles. There was a clear refusal to touch government money, when he refused to take freedom fighter's pension, Indira Gandhi sent a special envoy and proposed double the amount, but still he did not agree. In 1977, when his disciple Karpoori Thakur became the Chief Minister, he requested him to become the *Vice-Chancellor of Mithila University.*
*He put a condition that they will not take salary*, will not use government accommodation for their living and will work without any political or upper pressure. Within a few days, he started writing a new chapter of change in Mithila University, was so strict about his duty that he stopped the salary of many teachers who did not take classes. It was Mithila's misfortune that the foolish teachers here could not tolerate such a learned and manly person, Lakshman ji resigned after getting angry due to their uncivilized behavior.
After this he got engaged in writing-devotion and meditation. He was a scholar of both Indian and Western studies, but he never used the name of doctor. He did not marry and remained celibate throughout his life. He wrote more than *50 books including Hindi, English and Maithili*, but did not want to publish them in his life. Between 1950-52, eight booklets were published in which *he criticized Nehru and the British about the conspiracy and wrongful transfer of power*, Nehru ji banned all those books.
Laxman Jha ji gave a new look to the campaign of Mithila-Maithili and kept it alive through many small and big movements. *To unite Mithila, which was divided between India and Nepal under the Sugauli Treaty, he started a pillar-breaking campaign on the border and refused to accept Mithila as divided*.He did a big movement for a separate *Mithila state in 1952*, later he got away from active politics but continued to work for Mithila-Maithili. We could not make a personality like him our hero, this is our biggest failure.
Scholar so much that there is no comparison, agitator since childhood, ascetic like *Vairagi-Nirmohi-Videh*. His lectures on archeology were published on BBC those days. Such a scholar who tried to change the bad situation of Mithila University. Another interesting fact is that his real name was *Chandra Narayan Jha*, after being very mischievous in childhood, he was called 'Lakhan' because of being like a village man, Lakhan Jha was also named in the BA certificate, but when Oxford When he went, he changed his name to Laxman Jha.
He died on this day in 2000 AD. Every Maithil should know and understand him and every Maithil-Mithila-Maithili campaigner should consider him worshipable.
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