Racism faced by Bihari people in India

Bihar has had slower economic growth in the 1990's and then many of the other larger states in India. In the 1990s the economy of Bihar collapsed under the weight of political and social problems resulting in a mass migration of poor workers, and middle class professionals seeking work in more developed states of India like Maharashtra, the North East, Delhi, Western Uttar Pradesh (Noida), and Punjab. The free movement of people seeking work from one part of the Indian Union is guaranteed in the constitution. Millions of Biharis have left their home state to work in developmental projects, and also to seek general work in other parts of India. As a consequence, Biharis have been subjected a growing degree of prejudice and violence. The current prejudiced view of Biharis in India in line with all mass migration events... However, some commentators point out that migration occurs due to demand from the market concerned rather than as believed by many in India today, that migrants are moving to only to take jobs away from local people for lower wages.

Definition of Racism, Xenophobia and Prejudice

According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on Race, colour, religion,descent, or national or ethnic origin. This definition does not make any difference between prosecutions based on ethnicity andrace. Xenophobia has been defined as being 'an unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign.. . Prejudice
, has been defined as an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand, preconceived preference or idea, irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion.

Commonly understood causes of Racism, Xenophobia and Prejudice towards Biharis

Historical

Indian journalist, M J Akbar, commented that there may be an historial scope to the anti Bihari prejudices of Indians. After the attacks on Biharis in Assam and Maharashtra in 2003 he suggested that nineteenth century British colonial government attitides to Bihari peoples is what Indians today have adopted as their stereotype. He said, The European treated the Bihari with unconcealed contempt. The Indian converted him into an unconcealed caricature. Caricature too is a form of hatred. The joke that folds you into the embrace of laughter also lacerates the victim, particularly if he is required to join in the fun out of a “sense of humor”. When the joke becomes part of the mass idiom, a staple of Hindi cinema, and a cornerstone of advertising, then it has become more than a joke. It is now a stereotype.. The colonial government used Bihari migrants to work in the colonies after the abolotion of slavery in 1833 by the British Empire. The recruiters selected so-called hill coolies, who were generally employed as labourers on indigo plantations. During the low season, they came into the towns to seek work. From 1844, certain towns in the northern provinces - Delhi, Bihar, Oudh and Bengal - were recognised as magnets for potential recruits. . Thus, the policy that the British introduced in 1844 to recurit Biharis for a new system of labour was continued by independent India and has very much become part of the culture of workers in Bihar.

Social & Cultural

Almost 58 per cent of Biharis are below 25 years age, which is the highest in India. In years to come, with higher than average birth rates, Bihar will become one of the most over populated states inside India. There is a fear in states with smaller populations that Bihari culture could dominate local languages and customs as migration of poor workers conmtinue from those states. This feeling that local customs would be overwhelmed by migrants was a key feature of the MNS campaign in Maharashtra and feelings of resentment in Punjab..

This fear is amply personified by the rise of Bhojpuri cinema in non-Bhojpuri speaking states. Bhojpuri cinema has become very sucessful in Punjab and Maharashtra due to the large Bihari and Uttar Pradeshi migrant populations in those states. Punjabi comedian Jaspal Bhatti, who has produced three Punjabi films, said instead of assimilating with the culture of the state, the migrant population was seeking to decimate Punjabi culture and cinema. Bhatti also blamed Punjabi film producers for not coming up with healthy films. He said this was a worst phase ever for Punjabi cinema as producers were incurring heavy losses.

In Mumbai, Raj Thackeray had also complaied to theatre owners for their reluctance to exhibit Marathi movies. Producers of Marathi movies complained that it is becoming difficult to hire theatres in Mumbai to release their productions. About a decade ago, the Maharashtra government made it compulsory for theatres to show Marathi movies for at least 180 days a year. In Maharashtra, due falling audience for Marathi movies, exhibitors prefered to show Bhojpuri language movies. In March 2008, Bhojpuri filmmakers in Mumbai expressed disappointment that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) removed the exemption from Bhojpuri movies for the payment of Entertainment Tax (ET). The BMC decided to give ET exemption only to Marathi and Gujarati movies in Mumbai.

Economic

Lower Local Wages

Bihar has a per capita income of $148 a year against India's average of $997. Given this income dispartity, migrant workers (as seen with Mexicans, Telugus in the USA or Punjabis in Canada/ Britain) moved to better paid locations and offered to work at lower rates.. For example, in Tamil Nadu inter-state migrant construction workers are paid about Rs.60 to Rs.70 a day against the minimum of Rs.130 per day.. After thousands of migrant workers left Nashik, industries were worried that their costs would increase through more expensive local workers.

Impact on Urban Infrastructure

In an interview with the Times of India, Raj Thackeray, leader of the MNS said; "The city (Mumbai) cannot take the burden anymore. Look at our roads, our trains and parks. On the pipes that bring water to Mumbai are 40,000 huts. It is a security hazard. The footpaths too have been taken over by migrants. The message has to go to UP and Bihar that there is no space left in Mumbai for you. After destroying the city, the migrants will go back to their villages. But where will we go then?"

The strain to Mumbai's infrastructure through migration has also been commented by mainstream secular politicans.. The Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, felt that unchecked migration had placed a strain on the basic infrastructure of the state. However, Vilasrao Deshmukh has maintained and urged migrant Bihari workers to remain in Maharashtra, even during the height of the anti North Indian agitation.

Apart from Maharashtra, Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, said that because of people migrating from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Delhi's infrastructure was overburdened. She said, that "these people come to Delhi from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but don't ever go back causing burden on Delhi's infrastructure."

General Racism & Prejudices faced by Biharis

Biharis bring Poverty, Crime, Violence

Goa Minister Comments, 2008

The Home Minister of Goa, Ravi Naik who belongs to the Indian National Congress, remarked that should a rail line open between Patna and Panjim, Goa's capital, then the state would have an influx of beggars and criminals.

Disparaging Text Message

Shiv Sena leader, Sri Bal Thackeray, commented in the Shiv Sena newspaper, Samnna on why Biharis are disliked outside Hindi-speaking North India. He quoted part of a text message as the title of his article. The message suggests that Biharis bring diseses, violence, job insecurity, and domination, whereever they go. The text message says, "Ek Bihari,Sau Bimari. Do Bihari Ladai ki taiyari,Teen Bihari train hamari and paanch Bihari to sarkar hamaari".

Lawbreakers, Ungovernable

Lieutenant Governor Tejender Khanna, an almnus of Patna University and of Punjabi origin, said that people of North and North-West India took pride in violating the law, especially traffic rules. Khanna said that “In this region, the situation is such that commonly it is a matter of pride to violate the law. The behaviour pattern in South India is such that the people naturally stay within the limits of the law" and he added that “It is a specialty of North and North-West India that the people feel a sense of honour and pride in violating law and boasting that no action has been taken against them,”. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati demanded that Khanna be removed from his post.

Bihar, with other Hindi speaking states, are the sick states of India

BIMARU

Dr Ashish Bose, a Bengali retired govt servant coined the epithet BIMARU. Even official planning commission records use this term. BIMARU resembles the Hindi word for illness, Bimar. The BI in BIMARU stands for Bihar. Ther other Hindi-speaking states that are included in BIMARU are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Bihar, and other North Indian states, have also been held accountable for holding India's GDP ranking below the double digit number.

Biharis Responsible for Poor Image Abraod, Badly Educated, Not Intelligent

Bihar Doctors

The Indian Health Minister from Puducherry (South India), Anbumani Ramadoss, stated that it was a doctor from Bihar was the reason why UK derecognized Indian medical degrees in the 1970s. Ramadoss said senior doctors told him that Britain unilaterally revoked recognition to the medical degrees issued by India because a doctor from Bihar practicing in the UK did not know where the spleen was. Ramadoss later aplologised for his remarks.

Culture is Dirty

Bhojpuri Cinema

Bhojpuri culture hs been viewed by non-Biharis as vulgar to local cultures and customs. In 2006, protests took place in Kolkata by women's rights organisations against the vulgarity in Bhojpuri cinema.

Consequences in Maharashtra, North East, Punjab, Kashmir

Maharashtra

The 2003 Railway Exams Crisis

In 2003, the Shiv Sena alleged that although 500 Maharashtrian candidates appeared from Nagpur were selected, the final results on July 21, 2003 declared only ten of them successful. However, 90 per cent of the successful candidates were from Bihar. Activists from the Shiv Sena ransacked a railway recruitment office in protest against outsiders being among the 650,000 candidates set to compete for 2,200 railway jobs in the state. Eventually, after attacks on Biharis heading towards Mumbai for exams, the central government delayed the exams.

The 2008 Migrant Worker Crisis

The 2008 attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra began on February 3 2008 after violent clashes between workers of two political parties—Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP)—at Dadar in Mumbai, capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The clashes took place when workers of MNS, a splinter faction formed out of the Shiv Sena (a major political party of Maharashtra), tried to attack workers of SP, the regional party based in Uttar Pradesh, who were proceeding to attend a rally organised by the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). Defending his party’s stand, MNS chief Raj Thackeray explained that the attack was a reaction to the "provocative and unnecessary show of strength" and "uncontrolled political and cultural Dadagiri (bullying) of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar migrants and their leaders". ultimately arrested Raj Thackeray and Abu Asim Azmi (a local SP leader) on charges of instigation of violence and causing communal disturbance. Although released that same day, a gag order was imposed on both leaders to prevent them from making further inflammatory remarks. and another 15,000 fled Nashik in the wake of the attacks. The exodus of workers caused an acute labour shortage, affecting local industries. Analysts estimated financial losses of Rs. 500 - 700 crore., and created 10,000 internal refugees. . Similar violent incidents have also taken place recently in Manipur and Assam.

Punjab

In early 2008, bombs exploded in Ludhiana which killed six people and injured a further 30 in a blast in one of the three cinema halls in a multiplex. The halls were frequented by migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. NDTV reported that not many in Ludhiana were surprised that militants targeted a local theatre showing a Bhojpuri film given the growing Punjabi resentment to Bihari-Bhojpuri migrant workers. NDTV added that even local journalists displayed a total lack of sympathy, and an SMS started doing the rounds that "this is what happens when they think they can form a mini Bihar here".

Jammu & Kashmir

Military Police Training

370 recruits of the Bihar Military Police had joined two training centres at Udhampur and Jagnoo on June one for a 40-week-long training course. The BMP trainees had alleged that one of the recruits was called by an instructor to his room on June 20 and an attempt to sexually harass him was made. When the recruit raised an alarm, his colleagues rushed there and rescued him. The BSF strongly denied the allegation and maintained that the recruits, part of a 370-strong group, had left the course as they were unable to sustain the tough training course at Udhampur.

Batmaloo Attack

In July, 2008 a Bihari Muslim migrant worker lost his entire family in a attack at a railway station. Muhammad Afroz lost his wife and four children when a grenade hit the bus station in Batmaloo where migrants and Hindu pilgrims were waiting.

Consequences in Bihar: Government Responses

The Bihar government has taken steps to ensure that the migrant Bihari community faces less prejudice then before. The state has taken to two pronged approach.

Firstly, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been openly critical the central government and those in positions of power who have not acted to protect Bihari migrant workers or have made prejudiced comments towards Bihari people. Secondly, the government has also taken steps to stem the flow of migration of workers by investing in roads, reducing crime, jailing corrupt and criminal politicians, and opening the state to investment.

The government has had a strong measure of sucess in this area. In 2008, the state government approved over Rs 70,000 crore worth of investment, has had record tax collection, broken the political-criminal nexus, made improvments in power supply to villages, towns and cities . They have laid greater emphasis on education and learning by appointing more teachers , opened a software park, and a new IIT in Patna. Ministers who have failed to live up to election commitments have been dismissed .

Since November 2005, there has been a significant fall in the number of migrant workers in many parts of India, notably in the Punjab. However, migrants returned to Maharashtra.. .

Bihar's GSDP grew by 18% over the period 2006-2007, which was higher then in the past 10 years and one of the higest recorded by the Government of India for that period..

Consequences with Biharis

Bihari responses have varied, and have depended upon the nature of the expression against Biharis in a particular state.

After the 2003 attacks on Biharis in Maharashtra and Assam, the biggest change took place in 2005 with the defeat of the RJD government. The hold of Lalu Prasad Yadav on the mindset of the Yadav and Muslim communities was broken due to a lack of development, corruption, and crime. Biharis rejected caste based politics for the first time in 20 years and voted for the NDA, which come in on a banner of ‘development with justice’.

After the early 2008 migrant crisis and bombing of the Bhojpuri cinema hall in Punjab, Biharis have decided to firmly stay away from states of the North East and the Punjab also. However, other Biharis migrants have found that returning to Maharashtra is still an option for them despite the violent nature of the agitation. Culturally, Biharis appear to have rejected films based heavily on Punjabi culture. In August 2008, a film called Singh in Kinng starring Akshay Kumar was a box office superhit in India, and Indians worldwide. However, the film floped in Bihar. Bihar has been where Akshay Kumar's films, from Jaanwar to Hey Babyy, have acquired a blockbuster status. In this case, the heavy usage of Punjabi language, culture was said to be the main cause of the movie being rejected by Bihari audiences. Some argued that Bihari audiences simply couldn't understand the languange and so didn't watch the movie. However, the film was a superhit even in Bengali speaking state of West Bengal, where Punjabi lingo is not understood.

Bihari educated elites have responded differently to the growing racism as they are not directly affected by the violence. Polling has not been done for Bihari elites, but there appears to be a growing disenchantment with India, and with it, the first signs of a new Bihari-Bhojpuri nationalism which had been dormant since the Indian rebellion of 1857-58..

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu