The 'Bharat Bandh' called by Congress and various opposition parties on Monday against soaring fuel prices failed to evoke response in West Bengal and Tripura, but affected life in BJP-ruled Assam and Arunachal Pradesh besides Bihar and Odisha.
In Congress-ruled Mizoram, the shutdown had no impact.
Reports of arson, vandalism and disruption of rail and road traffic poured in from various parts of Bihar during the shutdown.
In Patna, bandh supporters indulged in vandalism in the old city area, where they also placed burning tyres on railway tracks disrupting movement of trains.
In West Bengal, normal life largely remained unaffected by the shutdown.
The ruling Trinamool Congress opposed the bandh but held a rally against spiralling prices of the petroleum products.
The Congress called a shutdown for six hours from 9 am, while the CPI(M)-led Left Front called a 12-hour bandh starting from 6 am in West Bengal.
Almost all schools and colleges were open with the scheduled examinations underway and the office-goers were seen rushing to office. Train services were also normal.
Official sources said the state secretriat recorded 98 per cent attendance.
A senior Kolkata Traffic Police official said all measures had been taken to ensure that normal life was not impacted by the bandh.
Slamming the Congress, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Delhi cited the death of a three-year old girl in Bihar as she could not get medical help in time due to pro-bandh protesters allegedly stopping an ambulance and asked if Congress president Rahul Gandhi will take the responsibility for this.
Sub-divisional Officer, Jehanabad, Paritosh Kumar confirmed the death of the child but said "Pramod Manjhi, resident of a village in Gaya, was bringing his daughter to a hospital as she was suffering from symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea."
He said had there been no delay in finding a vehicle, the child's life could have been saved and added the bandh supporters did not prevent the three-wheeler, which carried her.
At Rajendra Nagar in Patna, activists of Jan Adhikar Party floated by controversial Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav vandalized a number of private vehicles.
In Bihar, private schools and a sizeable number of shopping establishments remained closed.
Government offices and banks, however, functioned normally and at some places, the bandh supporters were seen making way for ambulances and hearses.
A Bhubaneswar report said train services were hit as bandh supporters squatted on tracks at many places in Odisha during the bandh.
At least 10 trains were cancelled and several others regulated in the jurisdiction of the East Coast Railway, an ECoR official said.
Vehicular movement also came to a grinding halt in many places of Odisha as Congress workers resorted to road blockade at various junctions by burning tyres in places such as Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Khurda, they said.
Life was hit in BJP-ruled Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by the shutdown.
Congress workers attempted to stop movement of trains by squatting on railway tracks and tried to block national highways and main roads across the state by burning tyres and setting up bamboo barricades, police said.
In Guwahati, Assam Congress president Ripun Bora along with party in-charge for the state Harish Rawat led hundreds of party workers during a rally this morning. The protestors tried to forcibly enter the state secretariat, officials said.
They were prevented by police and security forces from entering the secretariat. The protestors were taken into preventive custody for violating section 144 of CrPC and for not giving prior information to the authorities about their protest rally. They were later released, officials said.
Life was affected in another BJP-ruled state Arunachal Pradesh.
All shops and business establishments including banks and educational institutions were closed in the state and private vehicles were off the road.
In Shillong, Congress organised a "Protest Walk" as Meghalaya High Court has banned bandhs.
AICC general secretary and party in-charge of NE, Luizinho Faleiro, said banks in the country may collapse with the rupee depreciating fast against the dollar and even currencies of neighbouring countries are "stronger and more stable".
"Banks may collapse because the rupee has collapsed. It is a frightening situation ... There is a total meltdown of the economy. The rupee and the GDP both have collapsed," Falerio said, adding, unemployment is growing and the people are waiting for BJP's promised "acche din".
In BJP-led Manipur normal life was hit in the bandh where supporters of opposition political parties and legislators took out processions.
In contrast in Congress-ruled Mizoram, shops, offices and educational institutions were open and there was no impact of the 'Bharat Bandh' anywhere in the state, officials said.
The bandh failed to evoke response in Tripura and Nagaland too.
Barring Garhwa district, normal life remained unaffected in Jharkhand.
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