Karpoori Thakur

Some Lesser Known Facts About Karpoori Thakur

• He was regarded as a mass leader of the poor and people belonging to the backward castes of Bihar. He won several elections during his career and handled several ministerial positions such as becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar twice and as Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Bihar. In 2024, the Government of India posthumously awarded him the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour.

• He attended Acharya Narendra Dev’s rally in Khudiram Bose’s village Waini in 1938 after which he became a member of the Indian independence movement. He was later influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Satyanarayan Sinha. In 1940, he passed the 10th division exam from a local school and also established a library in his village while studying in school.

  

• He later started teaching at a local school before he was imprisoned for 26 months between 1942 and 1945 taking part in the Indian independence movement. He was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) at C.M. College, Darbhanga; however, Ram Manohar Lohia influenced him after which he dropped out of college and entered politics.

  

• After becoming a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in 1952, he started his electoral career and served as MLA and MP (Member of Parliament) for various terms (mostly from Samastipur) and lost only one election in 1984 (general elections) due to the Congress wave after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

  

• When he became the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Bihar in 1967, he implemented several key changes to the policy such as removing English as a compulsory subject from the curriculum as he was a supporter of Hindi being the major language, making education free till 8th standard, and making Urdu the second state language of Bihar.

  

• After becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time on 22 December 1970, he prohibited liquor sales and consumption in Bihar and also introduced several land reforms in Bihar for peasants and small-scale farmers.

  

• On 24 June 1977, he took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the second time. He tried to implement the Mungeri Lal Commission report, which recommended the institution of reservations for Backward Castes in government jobs following which infighting began in his party. His reservation policy later became famous as the Karpoori Formula.

  

• He was against the caste system, and to remove the casteist practices in society at that time, he often went to intercaste marriages to greet the families.

  

• When he passed the 10th standard with first division, his father took him to a person of upper caste who put his legs on the table and asked Thakur to massage his legs in an attempt to humiliate him due to being born in a backward caste. When he told this incident to Yashwant Sinha, an Indian administrator and politician, he said that the notion was false that a good education and job are enough for respect in society.

• In 1952, he visited Yugoslavia as a member of a parliamentary group. As per one source, he did not have any coat and borrowed a torn coat from his friend, and as per another source, he was shivering as he was only wearing his kurta and dhoti and did not have any coat. Josip Broz Tito, then-President of Yugoslavia, was impressed with his honesty and gifted him a new coat which Thakur later gave to one of his friends after returning to Patna.

• Karpoori Thakur was once approached by his brother-in-law (sister’s husband) who asked for his help to get a job. Thakur thought for many hours, took out Rs 50 from his pocket, gave it to his brother-in-law, and asked him to start a barbershop, their traditional occupation.

  

• He headed many protests and strikes during his career for the rights of corporate workers and government employees. He headed the protest of P & T employees in 1960 against the Indian government for their rights. He started a fast unto death in 1970 for the rights of Tata factory workers in Jamshedpur and did not eat anything for 28 days before their demands were accepted by Tata management.

  

• In 1970, when he became the Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar for the first time, he and his family members lived in the CM House in Patna. During a visit by one of his school teachers, he asked one of his relatives to vacate a bed for the teacher which he did; however, he was not happy. When Thakur came to know about this the next day, he ordered the government officials to transfer the bed from his house to other government residences and started sleeping on the floor. ^[4]Hindustan

  

• Karpoori Thakur’s younger son, Birendra, got ill in 1974 after he was selected to study in a medical college. He was admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi where doctors said that heart surgery was needed to save Birendra’s life. Birendra was later transferred to AIIMS (All India Institute Of Medical Science), Delhi on Indira Gandhi’s intervention who told Karpoori that she could send Birendra to the USA at government expense for treatment which he denied. Birendra was later sent to New Zealand for treatment on the funds collected by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP).

  

• In 1977, when he became the Chief Minister of Bihar, Karpoori Thakur decided to procure guns for the Dalits and other backward castes (OBCs) for self-protection, particularly those living in regions that had high caste-related crime records as he believed that police were unable to stop crime efficiently due to which such incidents were happening. He also bought 400 double-barrel (donali) guns; however, other members of his party threatened him with resigning and taking back their support after which he reversed his decision. ^[5]Navbharat Times

• Several popular leaders including Chandra Shekhar, the 8th Prime Minister of India, and Nanaji Deshmukh were present during the birthday celebrations of Jaiprakash Narayan (also known as JP) in 1977 which was organised at the Charkha Samiti Bhavan in Kadamkuan, Patna. One of the people present in the program referred to Karpoori Thakur’s torn clothes and broken slippers that how much salary should be paid to a Chief Minister for decent living following which Chandra Shekhar spread his kurta and started collecting money for clothes of Karpoori Thakur. When he handed over the money to Thakur and asked him to buy a kurta, Thakur replied that he would submit the money to the Chief Minister Relief Fund.

  

• A politician associated with JDU named Nihora Prasad Yadav told an incident about Karpoori Thakur. Yadav once went to meet Thakur in the morning, around 6 am, when Thakur asked him to drop him at the Presidency Hotel where an interview was scheduled with reporters of international newspapers. Reporters were shocked to see him wearing a dhoti-kurta and chappal and commented that no other leader in the world was like Thakur, and he was a real leader of poor people. ^[6]Navbharat Times

  

• When Karpoori Thakur was Chief Minister of Bihar, his wife got ill after which his relatives requested him to take her to a doctor in the official car (Ambassador car) of the Bihar CM. He rejected the request and took her to a hospital in a rented rickshaw. ^[7]Deccan Herald

• He was against dynasty politics and until he was alive, he did not allow his son or any other family member to enter politics. An MLA once suggested that Thakur’s son should also contest elections which angered Thakur who said that only one of them would contest elections. In an interview, Ram Nath Thakur, his elder son, revealed that when he passed matriculation (10th) in 1966, Karpoori advised him to study hard, become a government officer, and take care of his mother and grandparents. ^[8]The Times of India

  

• He rented a taxi to go to Ranchi instead of going in any government vehicle when he had to go to Ranchi from Patna to meet with a boy for his daughter’s marriage in 1970. He did not invite any famous leader, and later, when the marriage was taking place, he stopped any flight from landing at Darbhanga and Saharsa airports to stop any politician from coming.

  

• Popular Indian politician and twice Chief Minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, has often termed Karpoori Thakur his political and ideological mentor (guru); however, he once denied a ride in his jeep to Thakur in the 1980s when he was the Leader of Opposition in Bihar. Thakur requested Yadav to give his jeep to him so that he could go out and eat which Yadav denied and said that Thakur should buy a jeep as he has been two time Chief Minister of Bihar. Allegedly, he also called his Kapati Thakur secretly. ^[9]Hindustan

• Chaudhary Charan Singh, the 5th Prime Minister of India, once visited Karpoori Thakur’s house in his village. When Singh’s head hit the top of the door frame due to its low height, he asked Thakur to increase the height of his doors. Thakur replied that until the house of every poor person in Bihar was well-made, there would be no benefit in doing that.

  

• In 1988, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, the 8th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the ex-Finance Minister in the Indian government, visited Thakur’s ancestral home after his death and was in tears as he could not believe that despite being the Chief Minister of Bihar twice, Thakur did not even build his house properly.

• Karpoori Thakur’s commitment towards the upliftment of the poor and social service was evident in his actions. Harivansh, who has served as Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, talked about such an incident and said that Thakur once received 50 thousand bricks to make his home; however, instead of constructing his home, he used those bricks to make a school.

  

• After becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar, he implemented reservation in government jobs for backward castes and OBCs. Many people protested his decision and used harsh casteist slurs against him and his family. He was hurt by such comments and said to one of his close associates that he would not have to undergo such a situation if he was born a Yadav.

  

• Popular Haryana leader and 6th Deputy Prime Minister of India, Devi Lal, once toured Patna and told one of his friends to give Rs 5-10 thousand to Karpoori Thakur if he ever demanded and told his friend that the money would be loaned to him. Later, Devi Lal asked his friend several times if Thakur asked for any money; however, his friend always replied that he never asked for anything. ^[10]Prabhat Khabar

  

• A sweeper named Thakaita died due to a beating by police when Karpoori Thakur was the Chief Minister of Bihar. Thakur initiated legal proceedings against the police officials and performed the last rites of the sweeper as a son. ^[11]Prabhat Khabar

• Karpoori Thakur’s death is considered a mystery by his followers as it has been alleged by a few of his friends that a few months before his death, he preferred a female leader for political works due to which some of his close associates were not happy with him. A few others have claimed that foam was coming out of Thakur’s mouth when he breathed his last, and he was also taking yoga classes from a yoga teacher who ran away when Thakur died, and police were unable to trace him.

  

• Karpoori Thakur was popular for being a very honest politician who was never involved in any kind of corruption or illegal practice.  Once a reporter asked him why did he not save money for himself and his family, he said that he was not worldly-wise and not interested in money.

  

• Several famous Bihar politicians such as Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Ram Vilas Paswan have often called him their ideological mentor.

• He served as an MLA and MP for many terms and twice as Chief Minister of Bihar, yet he never purchased a house for his family and never bought a car.

  

• During Karpoori Thakur’s 100th birth anniversary celebrations, Narendra Modi praised him for his simplicity and vision for the betterment of backward castes particularly OBCs. He also said that Thakur’s dedication towards social justice was an example of social service to the public.

• On 30 March 2024, his son Ramnath Thakur accepted the Bharat Ratna award from President Droupadi Murmu on behalf of Karpoori Thakur.