Bihar and India- A perspective

Ever heard people saying, “Bihari jaisi baat mat kar”? All the rickshawallah, Chaiwallah, Autowallah in Delhi has a generic name: “Bihari”.

It’s a fashion in our country to abuse Bihar and Biharis, few times justifiable too. We have seen how Mumbai handled bhaiyas in recent times. In many parts of the country, people don’t have good reputation about Bihar and it is shown in their attitude. Ever thought why is it so? And more importantly, do Indians deserve to have such feeling about one state of their country.

Let’s analyse few of the typical feelings about Bihar and Biharis:

Bihar is poor, backward land of the cow belt

Yes, Bihar is poor. It is in fact one of the poorest states of the country. It is a part of BIMARU states. But does India deserve to raise a finger?

Not long ago, India was said to be the land of snake charmers. “Slumdog Millionaire”, poverty porn has swept the Oscars recently and most of us would agree that it shows the real face of India. India has the largest number of people below poverty line in this world. India is at 127th place among all the countries in terms of HDI. We are better off than few countries in Sub Saharan Africa.

The status of Bihar in India is somewhat comparable to the status of India in the world. Isn’t it?

Biharis don’t have civic sense

 Ever seen the trains passing through Bihar, it’s dirty. Any village and town in Bihar is pathetically dirty and unhygienic. But does India deserve to raise a finger?

The cleanliness at Patna railway station is not worse than that at Delhi station. The civic sense of people in Pune is not better than that of people in Purnea. The road and traffic condition in Kolkata is even worse than that at Dhanbad. Collectively we Indians are worst in civic sense. We are good at claiming our rights but bad at exercising our duties.

The status of Bihar in India is somewhat comparable to the status of India in the world. Isn’t it?

Bihar is the exporter of cheap labour to other states

Ever seen the trains going from North Bihar to Punjab and Delhi? People are loaded like animals in the cage. Migrant labourers; the backbone of agriculture in Punjab and Haryana and the backbone of Bihar’s economy. Yes, Bihari migrant labourers are taking away the jobs of local people in many parts of the country, but does India deserve to raise a finger?

India is the largest exporter of cheap labourers to Middle East. Ever seen the “Emirates” flight from Kozikode to Dubai? Indian cheap labourers have taken away the jobs of millions of Americans sitting thousands of miles away. “Bangalored” is the word for outsourcing in Oxford dictionary, and we abuse Biharis for taking away the jobs of local people. Is a farm labourer loosing his job to Bihari migrant different from an American loosing his job to an Indian, having M.Sc. in Physics and ready to do data entry job at dirt cheap rate?

The status of Bihar in India is somewhat comparable to the status of India in the world. Isn’t it?

Biharis are very good at pulling each other down

Biharis are believed to be very good in leg pulling. “Why can’t they mind their own business” is a usual comment about people from Bihar.

There is joke in Europe that they don’t cover the buckets having Indian crabs ‘coz every time a crab tries to escape, others pull them down. No doubts, Indians are one of the most intelligent people on this earth, but the collective intelligence is definitely way below the expectations. Similarly, Biharis are one the most intelligent people in India. Don’t believe that. Check out the results of JEE or UPSC. But again, the collective intelligence of the state is way below the expectation.

The status of Bihar in India is somewhat comparable to the status of India in the world. Isn’t it?

While in Germany, once I encountered a person, who actually felt good in making fun of India. Suddenly I recalled how people feel good in making fun of Bihar back there in India.

They are poor. They are backward. They don’t work at home but once outside, they work hard. They are very intelligent individually, but collectively they are dumb. They always look for short cuts. They are arrogant. They don’t have civic sense. They don’t know how to behave.....

Now try to replace “They” with “Indians” once and then with “Biharis”. You will be amazed.

The status of Bihar in India is somewhat comparable to the status of India in the world. Isn’t it?