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Bihari (listenⓘ) is ademonym given to the inhabitants of the Indian state ofBihar. Bihari people can be separated into three mainIndo-Aryanethnolinguistic groups:Bhojpuris,Maithils andMagahis.[1] They are also further divided into a variety of hereditarycaste 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.[3] Biharis can be found throughout India, and in the neighbouring countries ofNepal,Pakistan andBangladesh. During thePartition of India in 1947, manyBihari Muslims migrated toEast Bengal (renamed toEast Pakistan; laterbecameBangladesh).[4][5] Bihari people are also well represented in theMuhajir people ofPakistan (formerlyWest Pakistan) because ofPartition.[6][7]
Bihar is one of the longest inhabited places in the world with a history going back to theNeolithic age.[8] Since that time, Biharis have long been involved in some of the most important events inSouth Asian history. Biharis were the founders of many great empires based out ofMagadh including theNanda Empire,Maurya Empire and theGupta Empire.[9] All of these empires had their capitals inPataliputra (modern-dayPatna).Two of India's major religions also have their origins in Bihar.Gautama Buddha who was the founder ofBuddhism, achievedenlightenment inBodh Gaya,Bihar.Mahavira, the founder ofJainism, was born inVaishali in North Bihar.[10]
Bihar is home to twoUNESCOWorld Heritage Sites, theMahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya where the Buddha attainednirvana and the Buddhist monastic university ofNalanda. Until at least the 13th century, there was still a significant number of Buddhists in Bihar who mainly followed theMahayana andVajrayana schools until they were assimilated into Hinduism. However many village temples still retain idols of the Buddha andBodhisattvas.[11] Many famousBuddhist andHindu philosophers and scholars have originated or studied in Bihar during the period from the 5th to 13th century at institutions likeNalanda andVikramashila includingKamalaśīla,Ratnākaraśānti,Śāntarakṣita,Abhayakaragupta,Udayana andGaṅgeśa.[12][13]
Various native kingdoms also flourished in Bihar during the medieval period including theLater Gupta dynasty,[14][15]Karnats of Mithila,Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya and theKhayaravala dynasty.[16]
The founder ofSur Empire,Sher Shah Suri was born inSasaram, a city in the state ofBihar in present-day India into aPashtun family.[17][18] During the period of Islamic rule, much of Bihar was under the sway of localZamindars or chieftains who maintained their own armies and territories. These chieftains retained much of their power until the arrival of theBritish East India Company.[19]
Many academics includingDirk Kolff andWalter Hauser have noted that Bihar has a history of armed activism among its peasantry.[20] For centuries,Purbiya soldiers from WesternBihar 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).[21]
In late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the middle peasant castes likeKoeri,Kurmi,Paswan andYadav also got recruited into theBritish 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.[22]
The Bihari Soldiers of British army played a major role in theIndian Rebellion of 1857 against the British following the suppression of the uprising, British authorities decided not to recruit troops from Bihar. Then they decided to recruit troops fromSikh andMuslim Communities of thePunjab.[23]This martial heritage continued into the late 20th century with the formation of private armies orsenas that were formed to maintain the interests of specific castes.[20]
Servan-Schreiber described this martial tradition as follows:[24]
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.
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The traditional dress of Bihari people includesDhoti and Chapkan (Angarkha)[25][26] orKurta (replacing the olderchapkan which is a robe fastened on the right or on the left)[26] for men andSaree for women. In ruralBihar, men also wear a sort of plaid calledGamchha, which is often tied around the head as turban or headscarf and sometimes thrown round the body or over the shoulders.[26] In everyday life women wearsaree orSalwar kameez. The saree is worn in "Seedha Aanchal" style traditionally.[27] Nevertheless, Western shirts and trousers are becoming popular among both the rural and urban male population.[27] AndSalwar-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","Tika", "Nathiya" , "Bichhiya" , "Dholna" , "Patwasi" , "Panjeb" , "Matarmala" ," etc.[27]
Hindi is the official language of the State.[28] Maithili (61 million speakers includingBajjika dialect which has 11 million speakers in India),[29] and Urdu[30] are other recognised languages of the state. Unrecognised languages of the state are Bhojpuri (60 million), Angika (30 million) and Magahi (20 million).[29][31]Bhojpuri andMagahi are sociolinguistically a part of theHindi Belt languages fold, thus they were not granted official status in the state.The number of speakers of theBihari 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.[32]
Despite the large number of speakers ofBihari languages, they have not been constitutionally recognized inIndia, exceptMaithili which is recognised under theEighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters in Bihar.[33] 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.[34]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 andMagahi were ignored. After independence Hindi was again given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950.[35] Urdu became the second official language in the undivided State of Bihar on 16 August 1989. Bihar also produced several eminent Urdu writers includingSulaiman Nadvi,Manazir Ahsan Gilani,Abdul Qavi Desnavi, Paigham Afaqui,Jabir Husain,Sohail Azimabadi,Hussain Ul Haque,Shamim Hashimi,[36] andWahab Ashrafi,[37] among others.
Bihar has produced a number of writers of Hindi, includingRaja Radhika Raman Singh,Shiva Pujan Sahay, Divakar Prasad Vidyarthy,Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar',Ram Briksh Benipuri,Phanishwar Nath 'Renu',Gopal Singh "Nepali" and BabaNagarjun.Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, the great writer andBuddhist scholar, was born inU.P. but spent his life in the land ofBuddha, i.e., Bihar.Hrishikesh Sulabh and Neeraj Singh (from Ara) are the prominent writer of the new generation. They are short story writer, playwright and theatre critic. Arun Kamal and Aalok Dhanwa are the well-known poets. Different regional languages also have produced some prominent poets and authors.Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who is among the greatest writers inBengali, 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 asChandrakanta andChandrakanta Santati, was born inMuzaffarpur, Bihar.Vidyapati Thakur is the most renowned poet of Maithili (c. 14–15th century).Satyapal Chandra[38] has written many English bestseller novels and he is one of India's emerging young writer.
According to the 2011 census, 82.7% of Bihar's population practiced Hinduism, while 16.9% followed Islam.[39]
| Religion | Population |
|---|---|
| Hindu | 82.7 |
| Muslim | 17.70 |
| Others | 0.4 |
Bihari society follows a rigid caste system. The castes of Bihar are divided intoForward Castes,Other Backward Class, Extremely Backward Caste, Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes. There exists a category among the Schedule Castes called Mahadalit, which was created by theNitish Kumar government to identify more socio-economic backward groups among the Schedule Castes. In October 2023, Government of Bihar released the report ofBihar caste-based survey 2022, it conducted in the same year. This was the 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.[40] The detailed data of the census report titledBihar 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.[41][42]
| Caste Groups of Bihar[43][44] | |
|---|---|
| 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.[45] The largest social category of Extremely Backward Castes in Bihar comprise nearly 130 castes, which historically worked as service providers for other caste groups. In the local political context, they are termed asPachpania. The prominent castes of this category are Nai (barbers),Mallaah, the fishermen (bearing surnames of Sahani,Nishad andKewat),Lohar (blacksmiths),Teli (traditionally worked as oil pressers) andNonia (traditionally they made salt).[46][47]
Among the other prominent caste groups of the state, theYadavs comprised 14.26% of the surveyed population, whileKushwaha andKurmi 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.[48][49] Among the General Castes,Brahmins were recorded to be 3.66 per cent, while theKayasthas were recorded to be 0.60 per cent of the total population.[50] TheBhumihars constituted 2.86 per cent of the total population.[51] TheRajputs were 3.45% of the surveyed population in this census report.[52]
| 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% |
Notable local foods of Bihar includeDal Pitha,Litti Chokha,Chana Ghugni,Mutton Kabab,Reshmi Kabab,Kadhi Bari, Puri Sabzi,Malpua, Sattu Paratha, Doodh Pitha, Bajka, Kopal/Arikanchan ki Sabzi and many kinds of veggies etc. The famous sweets includeImarti,Laung Lata, Parwal ki Mithai, Khowa Lai,Tilkut,Anarsa,Khaja, Laktho,Gulgula etc.[53]
The politics of Bihar is influenced bycaste and religion based consciousness to a large extent. The upper castes dominated the politics and political parties till 1967. But after 1967, the resurgence of middle castes took place and the castes likeKoeri,Yadav andKurmi replaced the upper castes, becoming the new political elites of the state . SomeDalit caste likePaswan andChamar also performed well in politics,Bhola Paswan Shastri andRam Sundar Das were former Chief Ministers from respective caste andJagjivan Ram became Deputy Prime Minister and first Labour Minister of India. Since 1990, the Politics of Bihar is dominated by regional political parties likeJanata Dal (United) andRashtriya Janata Dal, while a number of small parties likeRashtriya Jan Jan Party,Plural party,Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal andJan Adhikar Party are also active.[54]
In 1923, a special session of theCongress took place inDelhi. During this session, an issue of sitting arrangement came up whereby the delegates from Bihar were not given seats in the front row.Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi registered his objection to this discriminatory arrangement after which Bihari delegates were also given appropriate seats. His protest was admittedly on the issue ofself-respect of the Biharis.[55][56]
According to social scientist Dr.Shaibal Gupta, the beating of students from Bihar in Mumbai in October 2008 has consolidated Bihari sub-nationalism.[57]
During thePartition of India in 1947, manyBihari Muslims migrated toEast Bengal (renamed toEast Pakistan; laterbecameBangladesh).[4][5] Bihari people are also well represented in theMuhajir people ofPakistan (formerlyWest Pakistan) because ofPartition.[6][7]
...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.
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.
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