Biharis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Bihari (disambiguation).
For
Muhajir (Pakistani)
.

Bihari (listen

Magadhis.[1] They are also further divided into a variety of hereditary caste groups.[2]
In Bihar today, the Bihari identity is seen as secondary to caste/clan, linguistic and religious identity but nonetheless is a subset of the larger Indian identity.
Muhajir people of Pakistan (formerly West Pakistan) because of Partition.[6][7]

History

Main article: History of Bihar
Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of Mauryan Empire with Jain monk Bhadrabahu.
Phalgu in Bodh Gaya
, Bihar
Sher Shah Suri

Bihar is one of the longest inhabited places in the world with a history going back to the

Magadh including the Nanda Empire, Maurya Empire and the Gupta Empire.[9] All of these empires had their capitals in Pataliputra (modern-day Patna
). Two of India's major religions also have their origins in Bihar.
Gautama Buddha who was the founder of Buddhism, achieved enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, Bihar. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, was born in Vaishali in North Bihar.[10]

Bihar is home to two

Bodhisattvas.[11]

The founder of Sur Empire, Sher Shah Suri was born in Sasaram, a city in the state of Bihar in present-day India into a Pashtun family.[12][13] During the period of Islamic rule, much of Bihar was under the sway of local Zamindars or chieftains who maintained their own armies and territories. These chieftains retained much of their power until the arrival of the British East India Company.[14]

Martial tradition

A Purbiya camel rider in Bihar, India in 1825.

Many academics including Dirk Kolff and

Purbiya soldiers from Western Bihar have long served as soldiers in the armies of Kings in Western regions of India. Mughal sources also record that many peasant soldiers were recruited from Northern parts of Bihar (Tirhut).[16]

In late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the middle peasant castes like Koeri, Kurmi and Yadav also got recruitment in the British Indian Army as soldiers. According to William Pinch, after 1898, the social resurgence and claim for higher status in the social hierarchy attracted the peasant communities towards the military service.[17]

The Bihari Soldiers of British army played a major role in the

Muslim Communities of the Punjab.[18]
This martial heritage continued into the late 20th century with the formation of private armies or senas that were formed to maintain the interests of specific castes.[15]

Servan-Schreiber described this martial tradition as follows:[19]

For any traveler on the roads of Bihar, an inescapable image comes to mind. That of a peasant who always keeps his wooden club or lathi at hand, under no circumstances letting it out of his reach. The Biharis, who constitute a martial race in India similar to the Sikhs or the Pathans, in keeping with the role conceived by the British colonial administration, were a mother lode for Monghol and English army recruiters. Their independent fighting spirit, which has earned them a reputation for toughness, has been in evidence throughout their history.

Clothing

A group of High caste Bihari women in Gopalganj district (1915)
A man from Bihar, attending Kumbh Mela.
Agriculture workers in Gopalganj, ca. 1915.

The traditional dress of Bihari people includes Chapkan (

Salwar kameez. The saree is worn in "Seedha Aanchal" style traditionally.[22] Nevertheless, Western shirts and trousers are becoming popular among both the rural and urban male population.[22] And Salwar-Kameez for women in urban Bihar. Jewellery such as rings for men and bangles for women are popular. However, there are some traditional Bihari jewelries like "Chhara", "Hansuli", "Kamarbandh", etc.[22]

Language and literature

Main articles:
Literature in Bihar
See also:
Urdu Language in Bihar
Magahi are sociolinguistically a part of the Hindi Belt languages fold, thus they were not granted official status in the state.The number of speakers of the Bihari languages is difficult to count because of unreliable sources. In the urban region, most educated speakers of the language name Hindi as their language because this is what they use in formal contexts and believe it to be the appropriate response because of unawareness. The uneducated and the rural population of the region regards Hindi as the generic name for their language.[27]

Despite the large number of speakers of

Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters in Bihar.[28] These languages was legally absorbed under the subordinate label of Hindi in the 1961 Census. Such state and national politics are creating conditions for language endangerment.[29]
The first success for spreading Hindi occurred in Bihar in 1881, when Hindi displaced Urdu as the sole official language of the province. In this struggle between competing Hindi and Urdu, the potential claims of the three large mother tongues in the region – Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi were ignored. After independence Hindi was again given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950.[30] Urdu became the second official language in the undivided State of Bihar on 16 August 1989. Bihar also produced several eminent Urdu writers including Sulaiman Nadvi, Manazir Ahsan Gilani, Abdul Qavi Desnavi, Paigham Afaqui, Jabir Husain, Sohail Azimabadi, Hussain Ul Haque, Dr. Shamim Hashimi,[31] Wahab Ashrafi[32] etc.

Bihar has produced a number of writers of Hindi, including Raja Radhika Raman Singh, Shiva Pujan Sahay, Divakar Prasad Vidyarthy,

Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who is among the greatest writers in Bengali, resided for some time in Bihar. Upamanyu Chatterjee also hails from Patna in Bihar. Devaki Nandan Khatri, who rose to fame at the beginning of the 20th century on account of his novels such as Chandrakanta and Chandrakanta Santati, was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Vidyapati Thakur is the most renowned poet of Maithili (c. 14–15th century). Satyapal Chandra[33]
has written many English bestseller novels and he is one of India's emerging young writer.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Bihar

According to the 2011 census, 82.7% of Bihar's population practiced Hinduism, while 16.9% followed Islam.[34]

Religion Population
Hindu
 82.7
Muslim
 16.9
Others 0.4

Caste and ethnic groups

Main article:
Bihar caste-based survey 2022

Bihari society follows a rigid caste system. The castes of Bihar are divided into

Bihar caste-based survey 2022, it conducted in the same year. This was first caste census to be conducted after Indian independence. The data published provided an insight into demographic detail of various caste groups of the state. It was found in this report that Other Backward Class and Extremely Backward Castes together account for approximately 63% of the population of the state of Bihar.[35] The detailed data of the census report titled Bihar me jati adharit janganana (caste based census in Bihar) reveals that the Other Backward Class (OBC) population in the State is 27.1286% while, the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) comprises 36.0148%. The Scheduled Caste population in Bihar is at 19.6518% while the Scheduled Tribe population is 1.6824%. The General Caste also called Forward Castes are 15.5224% of the total population of the state.[36][37]

Caste Groups of Bihar[38][39]
Caste Groups Population (%)
OBC 27.12%
EBC 36.01%
Dalits(SCs) 19.65%
Forward caste 15.52%
Adivasis(STs) 1.68%

The total population of the state was approximately 130 million.

Mallah, the fishermen (bearing surnames of Sahani, Nishad and Kewat), Lohar (blacksmiths), Teli (traditionally worked as oil pressers) and Nonia (traditionally they made salt). [41][42]

Among the other prominent caste groups of the state, the Yadavs comprised 14.26% of the surveyed population, while Kushwaha and Kurmi formed 4.27% and 2.87% of the population respectively. These three caste were part of Other Backward Class category in the state, which is different from the Extremely Backward Castes, who are considered more socio-economic backward group.[43][44] Among the General Castes, Brahmins were recorded to be 3.66 per cent, while the Kayasthas were recorded to be 0.60 per cent of the total population.[45] The Bhumihars constituted 2.86 per cent of the total population.[46] The Rajputs were 3.45% of the surveyed population in this census report.[47]

Caste Population Percentage
Yadav 18,650,119 14.2666%
Kushwaha (Koeri) 5,506,113 4.212%
Kurmi 3,762,969 2.8785%
Brahmin 4,781,280 3.6575%
Teli 3,677,491 2.8131%
Mallah (Nishad) 3,410,093 2.6086%
Nonia 2,498,474 1.9112%
Kanu
 2,892,761 2.2129%
Bania 3,026,912 2.3155%
Bhumihar 3,750,886 2.8693%
Rajput 4,510,733 3.4505%
Dushadh
 6,943,000 5.3111%
Musahar 4,035,787 3.0872%
Kayastha 785,771 0.6011%
Ravidas 6,869,664 5.255%

Bihari politics

Main article: Politics of Bihar

The politics of Bihar is influenced by

Jan Adhikar Party are also active.[48]

Bihari sub-nationalism

In 1923, a special session of the

self-respect of the Biharis.[49][50]

According to social scientist Dr. Shaibal Gupta, the beating of students from Bihar in Mumbai in October 2008 has consolidated Bihari sub-nationalism.[51]

Anti-Bihari sentiment

Main article: Anti-Bihari sentiment

See also

References

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  23. ^ "The Bihar Official Language Act, 1950" (PDF). Cabinet Secretariat Department, Government of Bihar. 1950. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  24. ^ a b Chitransh, Anugya (1 September 2012). "Bhojpuri is not the only language in Bihar". Hill Post. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
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    . ...the number of speakers of Bihari languages are difficult to indicate because of unreliable sources. In the urban region most educated speakers of the language name Hindi as their language because this is what they use in formal contexts and believe it to be the appropriate response because of lack of awareness. The uneducated and the urban population of the region return Hindi as the generic name for their language.
  27. ^ Jain, Dhanesh; Cardona, George (2003). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 500. The number of speakers of Bihari languages are difficult to indicate because of unreliable sources. In the urban region, most educated speakers of the language name either Hindi or Urdu as their language because this is what they use in formal contexts and believe it to be the appropriate response because of unawareness. The uneducated and the rural population of the region regards Hindi or Urdu as the generic name for their language.
  28. ^ History of Indian languages Archived 26 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, "Bihari is actually the name of a group of three related languages—Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magahi—spoken mainly in northeastern India in Bihar."
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  51. ^ Ahmad Faizan, "Bihar violence: Raj the gainer", The times of India, Pune, 27 October 2008, pp. 6

Bibliography

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