BeharHerald

Behar Herald dated 22nd & 31st August 2026

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The Great Indian Peninsula Railway – the GIPR – is the railway that operated India’s first commercial passenger line between Bombay and Thane in 1853. The Bombay-Thane line was not merely India’s first passenger railway route. It was the beginning of a system that transformed the country. The railway that began with three locomotives, 14 coaches and about 400 passengers on April 16, 1853 eventually grew into the vast Indian Railways network. And today’s central railway suburban system still runs across much of that original landscape. That continuity is extraordinary. We should be proud of it. But pride cannot simply mean celebrating the first train every April 16 and then allowing the physical evidence of that story to disappear year after year.

India’s First Railway is Disappearing Piece by Piece – Can We Save What’s Left? An old Sion railway structure bearing GIPR-era markings is now facing demolition. Modernisation must not come at the cost of Mumbai’s railway heritage.

'The Great Hedge of India' was a vast network of thorny bushes, trees, brushwood, customs posts and patrol routes designed to stop untaxed salt from entering areas where the British charged higher duties.

Everyone needed salt and the colonisers knew to capitalise on it. Thus began the story of the hedge.

Why the British needed a giant wall

The problem was caused by different salt prices and taxes across British-controlled areas. Traders bought cheaper salt in one region and sold it for a profit in areas where taxes were higher. It cut into British revenue.

To stop this, the East India Company set up customs posts and checkpoints in the early 19th century. In 1843, the system came under the Inland Customs Department, which stopped untaxed salt from entering high-tax areas, especially the Bengal Presidency. As British territory expanded, so did the customs line.

When the British built a 4,000-km wall of thorns across India to tax a kitchen ingredient 'The Great Hedge of India' was a vast network of thorny bushes, trees, brushwood, customs posts and patrol routes. | India News

Hirbai Ibrahim Lobi was a social worker from Jambur village in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district and a prominent member of the Siddi community, a small African-origin community that has lived in parts of India for centuries.

Who was the woman who placed her hands on President Murmu’s shoulders at the Padma Awards? Meet Hirbai Ibrahim Lobi, the Siddi social worker who changed more than 700 lives | Hailing from the Siddi tribe, Hirbai Ibrahim Lobi receives the Padma Shri award from President Droupadi Murmu. She works for the upliftment and development of the Siddi tribal community.

The Flood That Brought Patna to Its Knees

On 25 August 1975, Patna witnessed one of the worst floods in its modern history. A breach in an embankment reportedly sent huge volumes of water into the city, submerging areas such as Kidwaipuri, Samanpura and the Secretariat.

Electricity and communications failed, rescue resources were scarce, and the Police Lines and police stations were flooded. Reports also emerged of weapons being looted and law and order breaking down.

With regular police services badly disrupted, NCC cadets of Patna University reportedly played an important role. Their duties included patrolling, rescue, relief work and maintaining security. The NCC Naval Flotilla operated boats, while Army, Air Force and Signals personnel also assisted with the emergency.

The Patna University area became an important base for relief operations, including helicopter activity. Army units were later brought in to help restore order and recover looted weapons.

The 1975 flood was more than a natural disaster—it was a crisis that tested Patna’s administration, infrastructure, communications and security system.

Many details, especially reports of criminal activity, survive through eyewitness and oral accounts and should be verified with contemporary newspapers, official records and photographs.

51 years later, the story of Patna’s great flood deserves to be remembered and properly documented.

The deep involvement and complete sense of identity of the Indian woman with the sari, has made her resist the pressure to change her style of dress, inadvertently providing continuity in weaving traditions of every part of the country. The sari represents a culture in which the woven and textured-with-pattern garment; unpierced or intruded upon by the stitching needle; was considered not only more appropriate in terms of aesthetics and climate, but was also an act of greater purity and simplicity. It is difficult to historically ascertain the sari’s evolution as a single piece drape, though in many parts of India (Kerala, the six northeast states, Rajasthan and Gujarat), its possible preceding versions of two or three-piece drapes, continue to be worn.

A new book looks at the history of the sari and all that it supports socially and economically An excerpt from the Introduction to ‘Saris: Tradition and Beyond’, by Rta Kapur Chishti.

PATNA: Acceding to a major demand of protesting job aspirants, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Thursday announced that the Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE-4) would now be conducted in a single phase instead of separate preliminary and main exams.

Bihar govt accedes to job aspirants' demand, announces single-phase teachers' recruitment exam PATNA: Acceding to a major demand of protesting job aspirants, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Thursday announced that the Teacher Recruitment Examinat

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Ministry of Tourism, Government of India Kedar Prasad Gupta Information & Public Relations Department, Government of Bihar

Remembering Hrishikesh Mukherjee, fondly known as Hrishi-da, the master storyteller who pioneered India’s ‘middle cinema’ and brought the warmth, humour and everyday realities of the Indian middle class to the screen through four decades of filmmaking.