C A T– Cat. Cat means billi. D O G– Dog. Dog means kutta.

Before 1951, this was the only way Nepali students studied English. Furthermore, in schools in the Terai region bordering India, Nepalis standing in line would recite the Indian National Anthem while singing the national anthem:

Jana-Gana-Mana Adhinayaka Jaya Hey
Bharata Bhagya Vidhata.

Narayan Prasad Arjel, who had memorized this very national anthem of India, had just returned to Biratnagar in 1956 after passing his MA from Lucknow University, when local intellectuals immediately caught hold of him.

At that time, intellectuals including Manmohan Adhikari’s father Ramchandra Adhikari, former Prime Minister Matrika Prasad Koirala, and Chandrika Prasad Lohani were working day and night to establish a college in Biratnagar. However, they were unable to find a person to teach the curriculum in the Nepali language. Therefore, they were becoming frustrated.

Narayan Prasad’s arrival in Biratnagar injected a happy boost into them. Sure enough, they arrived at Narayan Prasad house with a proposal. Initially, Narayan Prasad was not agreeable to teaching. But then he thought, why sit idle when he didn’t have another job. It was for this reason that he accepted the proposal of the seniors.

Following this, Biratnagar added another milestone to the educational history of Nepal. During the Rana period itself, in 1936, the Aadarsha School was first established under the initiative of Krishna Prasad Koirala to educate the children of the public in a thatched house.

In 1956, Morang College was established. This college is older than Tribhuvan University and also became the second college after Tri-Chandra College in the capital to receive affiliation from Patna University.

At that time, Tribhuvan University had not been established. Therefore, college education was conducted by taking affiliation from Patna University (Calcutta University during the Rana period).

Furthermore, there was a shortage of teaching masters. There were some experienced Nepali teachers in Kathmandu. But this was not the case for the Terai. Amidst the compulsion to call teachers from India itself, all activities, including teaching, were similar to those in Indian schools and colleges.

With the arrival of Narayan Prasad, teaching in the Nepali language began at Morang College. He was appointed Headmaster. The college’s results were also good. Not only Bahun and Chhetri, but also Rai, Limbu, Marwari, Madhesi, and others enrolled there.

Narayan Prasad Arjel. Photo: Bikram Rai/Nepal News

Everyone seemed happy with the instruction being given in Nepali. It was also a new experience for the new generation of students enrolling in college. Because, in many schools, teaching was done in the Hindi language.

In this situation, in 1957, it was announced that the main language of education in Nepal would be Nepali. At that time, Mahakavi (Great Poet) Laxmi Prasad Devkota was the Education Minister.

Around this time, in 1958, an incident occurred in Biratnagar that shook the entire Nepal. The event was on January 17, 1958. And the issue became—Hindi should be made the national language.

On this day, agitators who came from the Indian border at Rangeli circled the town, shouting ‘Hindi language lekar rahenge’ (We will get the recognition for Hindi language), and besieged the Bada Hakim’s (Chief Administrator’s) office at Goswara. The voice that rose from that crowd, which arrived in the hundreds without prior notice, was– ‘Hindi bhaasaa zindabad.’ ( Hail Hindi language).

Under whose leadership was that movement carried out? It was not initially revealed. But after understanding it in detail, it was not difficult for the administration to figure out—the movement was carried out with the active participation of Terai Congress leader Bedananda Jha.

“I was working at the college at that time. Bedananda had created a ruckus in the market,” says 91-year-old Narayan Prasad, recalling the old incident.

Local Marwari Tolaram Dugad and Dr. Awadh Narayan, among others, were also involved in the incident. At that time, Tarka Bahadur Shah(father of Rishikesh Shah) was the Bada Hakim of Biratnagar. When the incident occurred, he had returned to Kathmandu for some work.

“I was astonished to see that even the parents of my own students were involved in the Hindi language movement,” he says.

The agitators who came from the Indian border in Rangeli created a ruckus in the market for a while. After receiving information about this incident, Rais and Limbus from Dharan and Itahari arrived in Biratnagar by car and truck.

Fortunately, no unpleasant incident occurred there. “When the movement started saying that Hindi should be made the national language, people from Dharan and Itahari started coming towards Biratnagar by car and truck,” recalls Lila Prasad Lohani, former director of Biratnagar Jute Mills, “The Nepalis who came from Dharan and Itahari had naked khukuris in their hands.”

It was predicted that a river of blood would flow in Biratnagar during that incident. But the local government, led by the then-Inspector Pahalman Singh (PS) Gurung, did an extraordinary job. Some traders who had joined the Hindi language movement fled and entered the homes of locals. “Tolaram Dugad and others came to my father’s (Chandrika Prasad Lohani) house to plead for help. If the intellectuals of Biratnagar had not taken the initiative at that time, the incident could have taken another turn,” says Deepak Lohani, another intellectual from Biratnagar.

The administration also played a positive role in this incident. To pacify the agitators of both sides, an all-party meeting was organized, including intellectuals and politicians from Biratnagar. In this very meeting, the agitators also accepted—it is not appropriate to declare Hindi as the national language in Nepal.

Bedananda Jha. AI-generated image

“Actually, that was Bedananda’s political stunt. Later, when he came to visit France after becoming a minister, he was telling me—I showed everyone. At that time, I was the Ambassador to France,” says Narayan Prasad.

In the first general election of 1959, Bedananda stood from Siraha. He thought that everyone would vote for him because he had led such a big movement in the Terai. But he failed badly. In that election, not only him, but all the leaders of the Terai Congress lost their security deposits.

In 1961, supporting King Mahendra’s move, he was appointed Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Panchayat system. Arjel states that he met Bedananda in France while he was the Minister of Industry and Commerce. “He knew me well. That’s why he brought up the incident of 1958. I was surprised to hear his story,” he says. In 1979, Bedananda was also appointed Nepali Ambassador to India.

After this, no incident occurred in Biratnagar for a long time. Once, in 1975, a bomb was thrown at King Birendra near Koshi Provincial Hospital.