IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES OF BIHAR

Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was the first President of India, in office from 1952 to 1962  He was an Indian political leader, and lawyer by training, Prasad joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian Independence Movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar. A supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1931 and the Quit India movement of 1942. After the 1946 elections, Prasad served as Minister of Food and Agriculture in the central government. Upon independence in 1947, Prasad was elected as President of the Constituent Assembly of India, which prepared the Constitution of India and served as its provisional parliament.

Kunwar Singh (1777 – 26 April 1858) (also known as Babu Kunwar Singh and Kuer Singh) was a notable leader during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He belonged to a royal house of Jagdispur, currently a part of Bhojpur district, Bihar, India. At the age of 80, he led a select band of armed soldiers against the troops under the command of the British East India Company. He was the chief organiser of the fight against the British in Bihar. He is popularly known as Veer Kunwar Singh.

Shri Krishna Singh (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Sri Krishna Sinha, was the first Chief Minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961. Along with the nationalists Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Singh is regarded among the Architects of Modern Bihar. He led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham temple (Vaidyanath Temple, Deoghar), reflecting his commitment to the upliftment and social empowerment of dalits. He was the first Chief Minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system. He underwent different terms of imprisonment for a total of about eight years in British India. S.K.Sinha's mass meetings brought hordes of people to hear him. He was known as "Bihar Kesari" for his lion like roars when he rose to address the masses. His close friend and eminent Gandhian Bihar Vibhuti Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha in his essay mere Shri Babu wrote that, "Since 1921, the History of Bihar has been the history of the life of Shri Babu"

Jayaprakash Narayan (11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or Lok Nayak ( The People's Leader), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, communist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the mid-1970s opposition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for whose overthrow he called a "total revolution". His biography, Jayaprakash, was written by his nationalist friend and an eminent writer of Hindi literature, Ramavriksha Benipuri. In 1999, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in recognition of his social work. Other awards include the Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1965. The Patna airport is also named after him. The largest hospital run by the Delhi government and the teaching hospital of the famous Maulana Azad Medical College, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Hospital, is also named after him. It was formerly called Irwin hospital. There is also a park in his name, situated on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, in New Delhi, just opposite to Maulana Azad Medical College. On 1 August 2015, the Chhapra-Delhi-Chhapra Weekly Express was renamed as "Loknayak Express" in his honour

Jagjivan Ram (5 April 1908 – 6 July 1986), known popularly as Babuji, was an Indian independence activist and politician from Bihar. He was instrumental in the foundation of the All-India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables, in 1935 and was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1937, after which he organised the rural labour movement.

In 1946, he became the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's interim government, the first cabinet of India as a Labour Minister and also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution. 

Sahajanand Saraswati  (1889–1950), born in Ghazipur district, North-Western Provinces in British India, was an ascetic, a nationalist and a peasant leader of India.

Although born in North-Western Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh), his social and political activities focussed mostly on Bihar in the initial days, and gradually spread to the rest of India with the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha. He had set up an ashram at Bihta, near Patna and carried out most of his work in the later part of his life from there. He was an intellectual, prolific writer, social reformer and revolutionary.

Syed Hasan Imam (31 August 1871 – 19 April 1933) was an Indian politician who served as the President of the Indian National Congress.

He was the fourth Muslim (After Badruddin Tyabji, Rahimtulla M. Sayani and Nawab Syed Muhammad Bahadur) to become the President of Indian National Congress

Ramabriksha Benipuri  (1899–1968) was a freedom fighter, Socialist Leader, editor and Hindi writer. He was born in a small village named Benipur in the Indian state of Bihar. He had spent nine years in prison for fighting for India's independence. He was the founder of Bihar Socialist Party in 1931 and Congress Socialist Party in 1934. He served as the president of Patna District Congress Committee of Indian National Congress from 1935 to 1937 during the Indian provincial elections, 1937. He was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) from Katra North in 1957. In 1958, he was elected as the Syndicate Member of Bihar University (Now Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University), Muzaffarpur.

Rambriksha Benipuri hailed from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and took active part in the Indian freedom movement. He was also a journalist of Hindi Literature and started several newspapers like Yuvak in 1929 and regularly contributed in various others to spread the idea of nationalism and freedom from British rule

Babu Amar Singh was a revolutionary in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and brother of Babu Kunwar Singh. After the death of Babu Kunwar Singh on 24 April 1858, Babu Amar Singh became the chief of the army and despite heavy odds, continued the struggle and for a considerable time ran a parallel government in the district of Shahabad. In October 1859, Amar Singh joined the rebel leaders in the Nepal Terrain

Yogendra Shukla (1896–1960) was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter born in Bihar. He served in the Cellular Jail (Kalapani), and he was among the founders of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). Along with Basawon Singh (Sinha) he was among the founder members of Congress Socialist Party from Bihar.

Yogendra Shukla and his nephew Baikuntha Shukla (1907–1934) hailed from Jalalpur village in Muzaffarpur district (now Vaishali district) of Bihar. From 1932 to 1937, Yogendra served prison sentence in Kalapani, as one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He became famous for his many exploits. He was a senior associate of Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Datta and had even trained them. He had to serve prison terms for a total of more than sixteen and a half years for his revolutionary activities. During imprisonment in different jails of India, he was subjected to extreme torture, which corroded his iron constitution. He died in a sick condition and he had also become blind.

Ram Dulari Sinha (1922–1994) was a nationalist, freedom fighter Indian National Congress, Indian parliamentarian and a Union Minister. She was elected Vice Chairman of the International Labour Organisation, was the first woman in Bihar to gain a master's degrees and also the first woman from Bihar to be appointed as Governor when she became Governor of Kerala from 23 February 1988 to 12 February 1990.

Ganga Sharan Singh (1905-1988) was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament of India, for three terms (1956–62 and 1962-68 from Bihar and then a nominated member in 1968-1974).  He was prominent in the Indian National Congress party and a co-founder of the Congress Socialist Party.He was close to Rajendra Prasad, India's first President.  He shared a house in Patna with his close friend and nationalist Jayaprakash Narayan.

Baikuntha Shukla (1907–1934) was an Indian nationalist and revolutionary. He was the nephew of Yogendra Shukla, one of the founders of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).

Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as Bihar Vibhuti, was an Indian nationalist statesman, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, who was the first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–1957). He was also a Member of the Constituent Assembly of India, which was elected to write the Constitution of India and served in its first Parliament as an independent nation.  He also held a range of portfolios including Labour, Local Self Government, Public Works, Supply & Price Control, Health and Agriculture. A.N. Sinha, affectionately called "Babu Saheb", was a very close associate of Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle movement and worked with Bihar Kesari Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha to lead the Gandhian movement in Bihar  One of the  leading nationalists in the Indian independence movement from Bihar after Dr Rajendra Prasad, he was elected as the Congress Party deputy leader in the state assembly to assume office as first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of independent Bihar, and re-elected when the Congress Party won Bihar's first general election with a massive mandate in 1952. Loknayak Jay Prakash Narayan in his essay "Hamare Anugrah Babu" wrote that, "In modern times, there are only a rare few people who have been owed to Bihar as much as our Anugrah Babu. He was one of the leading makers of modern Bihar, and for many years Bihar got his leadership.The people of this state are indebted to this great son of Bihar's land."

Thakur Jugal Kishore Sinha (1908–1983) was an Indian politician. He was elected to the 1st Lok Sabha from Muzaffarpur North-West Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar in 1953 (presently, Sheohar constituency). He was part of the freedom movement and also known as the Father of cooperative movement in India. He married Ram Dulari Sinha, who, like him, was a leader of the freedom movement, and who later became Union Minister and the Governor of Kerala.