1763

Situated about 8 kms from Bankipore, is a towering structure built as a memorial by the British. The complex where it stands is one of the oldest cemeteries of the Europeans in Patna. It dates back to the year of 1763 when, on the orders of Nawab Mir Qasim, many British officers were killed. This incident, which was one of the earliest forms of resistance against the British, came to be known as the Patna Massacre. 

Image Source: British Library

1917

This sprawling ground in the heart of the city was originally known as the Patna Grounds. Today it is known as the Gandhi Maidan.

Initially a horse-racing track and a golf course that was accessible only to the British population of Patna, the Patna Grounds became open to all when it took on a new, revolutionary role, serving as the epicenter of movements that changed the course of the Indian Freedom Movement. Most notable among these were the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917, and the Quit India Movement of 1942. 

At the peak of the freedom movement, crowds flocked to this site to listen to some of the most distinguished leaders of the cause - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Pandit Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad, and Rajendra Prasad, among others.

1921

This Ashram on the banks of the Ganga was established by Mahatma Gandhi at the peak of the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1921. The Ashram takes its name from the Urdu word 'Sadaqat', and the Sanskrit word 'Ashram'. Translated into English, the Sadaqat Ashram became the ‘House of Truth’. This ‘House of Truth’ was meant to symbolise Hindu-Muslim unity and was visited by many leaders of the freedom movement. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the Republic of India, lived there after retirement. Its premises also housed the Bihar Vidyapeeth - an educational institution for Indian students, run by Indian educators.

1921

From a printing press at the Sadaqat Ashram, the Gandhian and nationalist leader Maulana Mazrul Haque edited, printed and published Motherland.

Motherland was a weekly magazine that discussed Gandhian ideology, and urged the people of Patna to put aside their differences - communal or otherwise, and unite in the struggle for India’s Independence.

While Motherland was its most prominent publication, the Swadeshi printing press at the Sadaqat Ashram also published a range of other journals, magazines and books, in both English and Urdu.

1942

This towering, bronze installation commemorates a historic event that unfolded during the Quit India Movement of 1942.

On the 11th of August 1942, a group of students from Patna went up against the British Military Forces, and as a form of protest, stormed the building known today as the Old Secretariat. They had a singular aim - to hoist the Indian national flag atop the Secretariat. Seven of these students, the youngest aged fifteen, were martyred before they could succeed. However, it is said that an eighth student, disguised as a gardener, took up his compatriots’ cause, and successfully hoisted the flag at the Secretariat.