Following the arrest of the leaders, there were hartals almost throughout the province of Bihar and thousands of workers at Jamshedpur, Jharia and Katra stayed back from their work. Processions were taken out on the 11th of August and there were successful attempts to hoist flags on Government buildings particularly at Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Saran, Muzaffarpur, Santal Parganas and Purnea. Muslims also took part in the movement. Attempts were made m\even in remote villages to paralyse the Government machinery by sabotaging means of communication and getting control of Government buildings. The daring escape of Ramnandan Mishra, well-known socialist leader of Bihar, along with Jaya Prakash Narayan in October 194 gave a great impetus to the movement. Jaya Prakash rightly said, "what Ballia did as a District, was done by the province of Bihar as a Whole". The situation was particularly bad in north Bihar where many thanas had to be shifted to headquarters and Europeans removed to places of safety.
In Patna, the situation took a serious turn on 11th August when a huge procession of students inspite of severe lathi charges was able to hoist the national flag on the eastern gate of the Patna secretariat. For two hours and a half the processionists struggled against a huge contingent of police to hoist the national flag on the top of the building. The military fired 13 to 14 rounds resulting in the death of seven students and injuries to several. The secretariat tragedy made the situation grave and as a Government officer wrote: "The rapidity with which the movement spread and the masses responded to the Congress call went beyond the imgination of the authorities". On 12 August telegraph and telephone lines were cut at many places, roads were blocked and bridges damaged. Railway between Gulzarbagh and Patna city near Futwah were tempered with. The Government admitted in the Central Assembly that Patna was completely cut off from the rest of India for some time. The Police Stations at Bakhtiyarpur and Mokameh were attacked and burnt. There were cases of destruction and incendirism at places like Masaurhi, Naubatpur and Bikram. Two military regiments reached Patna on 13 August and an aeroplane was made to fly over the city. At Arrah, the military opened fire resulting in several casualities. In spite of suppressive measures adopted by he Government to crush the revolt, large mobs continued to move about and attacked police stations, post offices and other Government buildings. Some of the persons attacking bridges and dismantling rail roadtracks were machine-gunned from the air.
At Monghyr, police opened fire at Khagaria Bajar resulting in several deaths. Out of the 7 stations in Monghyr on the East Indian Railway, all except Monghyr, Jamalpur and Jhaja were damaged. The thanas of Teghara, Simra Ghat, Rupnagar and Bachchwara were completely burnt down. An aeroplae crashed in Monghyr and two of the crew were beaten to death by the crowd. Soon the people were able to take control of the thanas of Surajgarh, Chautham and Tarapur and setup panchayats and defence parties for purposes of efficient administration. The working of these panchyats was supervised by a central commite at tarapur which organised its which organised its own corps of volunteers to work for peace and order, whenever necessary, and set up a jail for the punishment of offenders.
A huge procession at Muzaffarpur disarmed the constables and officers at Katra Police Sation. The police stations at Lal Ganj, Belasaud and Minapur were brought under their control by the people. The worst affected place, according to the Commissioner of Tirhut, was Hajipur. A large mod attacked the S.D.O. and a police party at Sitamarhi on 17th August, relieved them of their guns, and killed them. The administrative machinery of the British Government was completely paralysed and people set up their own Government and courts under the leadership of Gobind Singh, Ram Bhadur Singh and Krishana Singh. The police station was set up in a temple at Rampur village. In Manhar thana, the people's government functioned under Madan Jha from 18th August to 3rd September 1942. The Pupri thana in Sitamarhi sub-division and Karaka remained under people's control for several days. About the working of the Government, a British Government official wrote: "The political organisation around this district is such that the like of it has never been seen. They have code of signals by whistle, tick-tacking similar to book makers tour at Epsom and at night signalling by light both flash light and oil. The rapidity of the movement and operation of them is incredible".
By 17 August several police and railway stations and post offices in Bhagalpur were in possession of the crowds and as the Commissioner of Bhagalpur wrote to the Chief Secretary in his letter of 15 November, "It was impossible for a drummer even to show his face near Shuja Gunj (a part of Bhagalpur town) to make announcements regarding curfew, etc. "Near Narayanpur, a bomber crashed, resulting in the death of the pilot. The three other occupants were done to death by the mob.
The people declared the establishment of a national government in north Bhagalpur. Under the guidance of the indomitable revolutionary Siaram Singh, the Congress workers had set up a parallel administration at Sultanpur and appointed their own daroga. They offered stiff resistance to the military when it raided Sultanganj and siaram could not be arrest. A congress bulletin also appeared daily from Bhagalpur and the authorities were unable to stop its publication. In Madhipur, the situation went completely out of control and all Government Offices were in the possession of the people who ran their won government for a few days. Shiva Nandan Mandal was the Officer-in-charge. Chitra Narayan Sharma was in charge of Saharsa camp while Cheddi Jha Dwijvar was the central authority at Saifabad where a wireless set circulated the news summary to other camps. Each village had its own panchayat and over five villages there was set up a circle panchayat. With the arrival of the military on 9 August, however, the situation changed.
In Purnea, lakshmi Narayan Singh Sudhasan was the leader of the movement. At Katihar and Dharhara, the situation took a serious turn and police opned fire on mobs, resulting in several casualties. The young men of Purnea formed a Dhrub Dal called after the name of Jagnnath Dhrub to oppose British authority in India. Jhaua railway station was burnt own by a huge mob of Santhals, armed with bows and arrows. Several persons were killed at Baupauli when a Police Inspector fired indiscriminately on a mob of 1,000 through the barbed windows of specially constructed quarter of iron frame with asbestos roof. The Assistant Sub Inspector and three others were , however, overpowered by the mob and burnt alive. On 5 August, Bhamdaha, miles from Purnea, became the centre of a grim tragedy. The Sub-Inspector of Police Station evaded handing over the keys of the malkhana to the mob, which has beseiged it, by his arguments and counter arguments till the arrival of the Baluchi military men who fired some hundred rounds and according to local version, "the firing continued for long and the people were falling dead or injured like birds."
In Saran, there were demonstrations by thousands of persons; post office at Maharaj Gunj was burnt; Chapra Kutchery and Ekma Railway stations were set on fire; Siswan police had to be got evacuated and as a Government Report said "the situation has degenerated utterly and complete chaos and lawlessness prevailed." At Karabara five British and one Anglo-Indian soldiers who had fired on a meeting were disarmed and finally killed. The leader of the movement in this area was Jaglal Choudhary, a former congress Minister, who was later sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He had made plans, according to official sources, to resist troops with spears, lighted torches and boiling oil. In Manjhi, Ekma, Dighwara, Darauli, Raghunathpur, Siswan, Parsa, Balkunthpur and Garkha, the British administrative machinery was completely paralysed. An efficient administrative system was set up by the people in these areas. Swatantra Mandal was the highest body which worked through village panchayat above which ere thana panchayats. There were four main departments under Swatantra mandal; (1) Department of Dislocators, (2) Publicity Department, (3) Village Defence Department, (4) Volunteers Department or Sevak Dal. The head of each of the departments was known as Adhyaksha whose orders were carried out by Sevak Dals under him. Due to extensive damage to rails, traffic on Patna Asansol lines, Patna-Gaya lines and Patna Muzaffarpur lines of the B.N.B. Railway was suspended for several days. Many bridges including those at Jhir Kuba and Akbarpur were destroyed.
In Santhal Parganas, the movement was quite intense in Deoghar, Sarwan and Pahapur. Sarath police station and post office were burnt. Mahagama post office was also set on fire. Prafulla Chandra Patnaik of Daman-i-Koh organised the Paharias for the movement and divided them into five divisions, for procuring food, intelligence, obstructing roads, wrecking bridges and official residences and lastly for arresting enemies. A parallel government also worked at Sarwan for some time.
Ranchi in Chota Nagpur, Dalbhum and Jamshedpur in Singhbhum were other storm centres of the movement. Tana Bhagats were very active in Ranchi and telephone and telegraph wires were cut at several places, and Bishnupur Police Station was burnt. Trilochan Karmarkar, B.R. Bose and B.G. Gope were the leaders of the movement at Jamshedpur. About 20,000 people of the Tata Iron & Steel Mills in Jamshedpur went on strike and declared that they would not return until a national government was formed. The management, however, persuaded them to return when it beacame clear that railwaymen were not going to strike. The most significant incident was the strike by policemen of Jamshedpur which alarmed the authorities and British soldiers had to sent out to control the situation. Sweepers too went on strike. In Palamu, the workers of the Japla Cement Factory struck work for a number of days. Govindganj thana in Champaran and a large number of thana in Shahabad passed under the control of the rebels who ran their own Government. Ramashraya Dubey was the chief organise at Champaran. Dumraon in Shahabad became famous for the bravery displayed by its people in their attempt to hoist the national flag on the thana. Kapil Muni, a young man of 21, was the first to fall a victim to the bullets of the Police Inspector, followed by three others in quick succession.
The two revolutionary groups Siaram Dal and Parsuram Dal were very active in Bihar. With a band of 150 young followers, Siaram Singh, the founder of the former Dal, carried on guerilla activities in Bhagalpur and adjoining districts and helped to paralyse the Government in these parts. It helped "organisation of panchayats, and defence parties in many villages, punished thieves and vagabonds and helped parties which were harassed by Government officers, sometimes even by intimidating the latter." In the region around Biharpur they set up a sort of parallel Governement. During an attack, on Sombarsa Police Station, the staff of which had gained notoriety for its oppressive conduct, Sardar Nitayanad Singh and Arjun Singh lost their lives. Parsuram Singh, the organiser of the Parsuram Dal, caused much headache to the local officers of Bhagalpur district. There was another equally important group under Mahendra Gope.
Troops and police were let loose on the province and unspeakable atrocities were perpetrated on the people. Shrinarain Mehta who extensively toured in villages during those days in his capacity as a leader of the National War Front was an eye witness to the "oppression of the police, of troops, of vandalism, of wanton destruction and loot of private property, of whole villages burnt, of extraction of money and threat of arrest and in some cases of actual physical torture." Mobs were machine-gunned at many places in Bihar. Patna, Bhagalpur, Monghyr, Shahabad and Gaya were some of the districts which came virtually under military rule. Yuba Sahni was arrested on the charge of killing a police sub-inspector, Leo-Walker, and sentenced to death. He died on the gallows in the Bhagalpur jail. Guerilla leaders, Brinchi Missir and Kare Tanti were shot dead by the police in north Bhagalpur and north Monghyr respectively. In Patna, all incoming and outgoing traffic was controlled and every citizen coming out on the street was asked to show his identity card. People in different mohallas, even respectable persons of high position and status were dragged out of their houses and forced to do the work of clearing the old structures on the roads. The inhabitants of village Futwah were most cruelly treated. Many houses at Kaba, Rajipur and the entire village of Parsa were sprinkled with petrol and set on fire. Many persons were flogged at Barh and at Naghar in Biiram thana. The British soldiers entered the village Lasanrhi in Shahabad before dawn and forced their way into the houses of the people, broke their articles, killed 10 or 12 persons and injured many. Similar incidents happened at Deoghar in Santhal Parganas where there were even attempts to molest womens. Tenbrook and his soldiers were very active in Gaya and Muzaffarpur. Masrakh, Baikunthpur, Baniapur and Parsa thana were the targets in Gaya while at Muzaffarpur houses at Garnaul Bidhauli, Goraul, Kanhauli and Jandha were burnt, and indiscriminate looting was resorted to at Hajipur. Many other parts of Muzaffarpur suffered the same fate. Salisbury was as revengefully oppressive in Darbhanga as Tenbrook was at Muzaffarpur. Loot, arson and asaults went on unstrained for a number of days. Even women were stripped off their ornaments at some places. Houses at Phulparas, Laukhani and Lakhna were burnt. Monghyr suffered no less at the hands of the military. In the area covered by the villages JhaJha, Bandera, Bhumi, Mahadipur and Deothia where the air crew had benn killed, military atrocities were terrible. There was machine-gunning of the people from air as a result of which over 50 persons died and many injured. Soldiers penetrated into villages, burnt many houses and whipped and flogged the inhabitants. Terror-stricked men, women and children fled away to escape dishonour and molestation at the hands of the troops. On 2 September 1942, there was reckless military firing at Rohiyar resulting in the death of 10 persons. Many houses in this village were burnt. Earlier, there had been an air crash near Badla Ghat railway station (in Rohiyar) and the two British survivors had been killed by the villagers. British troops inder Capt. Chapman and Lt. Hayes came to Khagaria and let loose terror over the people. Lt. Hayes "removed a number of arrested from the thana lock-up at the Balja Police Station and whipped them and indulged in similar reprisals in the bazar without the knowledge of the Sub-Divisional Officer or the Superintendent of Police", as the S.D.O. of Begusarai mentioned in a report.
Inhuman physical tortures were inflicted on the people of Saharsa, Sonbarsa and Supaul in Bhagalpur. Their houses were burnt and properties looted. One Lahtar Chaudhary was forced by the military to stretch himself on a table "stripped off his clotjes and was given 26 furious strokes of canning." Millitary firing at Kihanganj resulted in the death of 4 persons. To crush the movement in Bhagalpur, moblie columns of the military were organised under the directions of Blewitt and Major Hawkins to act as a 'striking force'. The severe military firing at Sultan Ganj resulted in the death of about 65 persons, according to unofficial estimates. The indiscriminate police firing on the prisioners at Bhagalpur Central Jail who had broken out into open rebellion and set fire to a factory and godown killing 3 jail officials, resulted in the death of 29 persons and injuries to 87. Under orders of Blewitt, Tilakour was ravaged and many of its inhabitants were flogged. Capt. Degg, another British Officer, ravaged Sarwan in Santhal Parganas. A party of military which raided Lasari village in Shahabad District (15th September), met with determined resistance from the people whereupon they opened fire, killing and injuring several. According to official records, the police fired on 96 occasions, killing 166 persons and wounding 508.
The total collective fines imposed in the province of Bihar was a little over 24 lakhs of rupees, out of which more than 20 lakhs were recivered by the end of November 1942. Katra, Pupri, Minapur, Sitamarhi and bairagaria and Hajipur in Muzaffarpur district, some villages in Bhagalpur District, Sonepur, Manjhi, Dighwara, Marhowra, Siwan and Darauli in Saran, Ladwa and Rupauli in Purnea, Mokameh, Fatwa, Barh in Barh sub-division and Samastipur, Madhubani and Darbhanga suffered the most.
Revolutionaries played an important role in the struggle of Bihar and other provinces. Jaya Parkash Narayan was their leader. Along with some others such as Kartik Prasad, Braj Kishore Prasad Singh, Dr. Baidyanath Jha and Shayam Sunder Prasad, took shelters in Tarai, Nepal, and set up a centre for training of Azad Dastas. Sardar Nityanad Singh was the chief instructor. But under pressure from the British Government these leaders were arrested by Nepal Government and confined in Hanuman Nagar Jail. With a band of his Azad Dastas, Nityanand and Suraj Narayan Singh led an attack on the jail, overcame the gaurd and got the leaders relesed. In Bihar, an independent council was set up under Suraj Narayan Singh.
