Seraj Anwar/Patna                

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India is a well known fact. However not many know that before Nehru there used to be the ‘Prime Minister’ in India.

He was Barrister Mohammad Yunus, from Patna Bihar. He was sworn in as the ‘Prime Minister of India on April 1, 1937.’

Yunus became the Prime Minister of Bihar in pre-independence India. Back then heads of provincial government used to be called Prime Ministers. The election of the Prime Minister was held in each province and it started in 1937.

Yunus with his relative Muzaffar Imam in London

He became the Prime Minister of Bihar on April 1, 1937 and continued till 19 July 1937.

There is an interesting fact behind how he became the first Prime Minister of India.

In 1935, the British Parliament enacted a law called the Government of India Act. Under this elections were held in all the provinces of India and the head of the provincial government who emerged from the elections was then called the Prime Minister.

This post is equivalent of today’s Chief Minister.

The elected head of Bihar province was the first to be sworn in as the Prime Minister, hence, he became the First Prime Minister of India.

RJD spokesperson and socialist leader Shivanand Tiwari recalls the contribution of Yunus in laying the foundation of the modern India. He said during his 190 day tenure, Yunus did amazing things. He took special initiative in solving problems of farmers and maintaining communal unity.

He also laid the foundation of buildings like what people today see as Bihar Legislature and Patna High Court.

Mohammad Yunus was the first to take the oath of office among the provincial heads under the British India.

It happened that during the British Raj, the results of elections held in all the provinces of India in 1937 showed Congress winning by an overwhelming majority in all the provinces of the country, including Bihar.

However, the Congress was not ready to give a role to Governor (A Britisher) in the governance of the provincial government. Because of this disagreement, the Congress refused to form the government despite winning the elections.

Due to this, Mohammad Yunus of Muslim Independent Party got the chance to form the government in Bihar.

Mohammad Yunus was born on May 4, 1884, in a village named Panhara, in Pathari block near Patna. His father Maulvi Ali Hasan Mukhtar was a well-known lawyer at that time.

Mohammad Yunus, a lawyer, started his political career with the Congress, but later he quit the party and formed his own party right before the 1937 provincial elections.

He died on 13 May 1952 in London. Mohammad Yunus also played an important role in the formation of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party after India gained independence.

Kashif Yunus

Yunus's great-grandson and Barrister Mohammad Yunus Memorial Committee Chairman Kashif Yunus says that India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India, but there were many Prime Ministers in the country even before Independence.

Kashif Younus has found his name in the pre-independence records, but later his name was removed from the government archives.

It is due to Kashif's efforts that since 2013, the birth anniversary of Yunus is celebrated at official levels. The decision to celebrate his death anniversary was taken by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2012.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar releasing a book on Mohammd Yunus

However, even today Yunus appears to have been forgotten in many places like the website of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The list of Bihar's Premier and Chief Ministers on the website does not begin with Mohammad Yunus. It starts with Shrikrishna Singh, who became the Prime Minister of Bihar immediately Yunus.

Srikrishna Singh of the Congress became the Prime Minister of Bihar on July 20, 1937. He held this post till October 31, 1939.

Srikrishna Singh took the oath of office on 23 March 1946 just before the independence. After Independence when India framed its own constitution, the first time elections were held in 1950, the head of the government formed in the provinces was given the designation of chief minister.

The Congress also won the elections in 1950 and Babu Srikrishna Singh Azad became the Chief Minister of Bihar in India.

Besides being a politician and a lawyer, Yunus was also a successful entrepreneur, banker and publisher. The Grand Hotel he built in Patna was the first modern hotel in the then Bihar.

Mohammad Yunus used to live in a part of his hotel. Also, this hotel used to be an important political center at that time. Kashif says that those staying at Grand Hotel included big leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and Subhash Chandra Bose.