A Bus Ride In Delhi Revealed How ‘Bihari’ Is Seen As An Obscenity, Not Identity

Two years ago in Delhi I was returning from office. After finishing my metro part journey I boarded in a local bus from Luxminagar metro station for Gandhinagar, my uncle’s place.

Bus after some span of its starting halted at Rameshnagar. A person who was accommodated in last seat beside me, rushed towards the exit gate of bus for descending at Rameshnagar. During this, his leg stroked with the leg of a gentleman, who was sitting at the second front seat. Anyhow he managed to snap out of it and stepped at exit gate.

This incident of striking the legs was never going to be ignored by that gentleman. The reaction was so vitriolic “ bhai dikhta nhi kya aankh se? Bihari khi ka..”. First person who was going to descend after stopping of bus, countered “sorry bhai sahab, lekin gali mat do, bihari na hu mai”.

After that he went out of the bus. This whole scene made me flabbergasted. The first two seconds I spend in thinking that how that gentleman knew that the first person is from Bihar. The very next moment I latched on that the gentleman used the Bihari word not on the basis of stateism, but on the basis of the his characteristics. What was it? Bihari word became here an obscenity.

In india when people say word Panjabi, the very first thing which strikes in their mind is the people who are food lovers. Guajarati reminds people, who like to have their own business rather than working in any MNC. In the same way Haryanvi resembles people having nice physic. I do agree with this because these are their special features. But one example which I didn’t include among those was Bihari, which means low class people, those who cannot speak even Hindi properly forget about the English, those who are not civilized.

And yes I am in those who do not agree with this last example and hope that after reading this article number of people of this group would increase.

It is well said that movies are the mirror of the society but I strongly believe that society is the mirror of the movies. I have a valid logic for this. In India yash chopda’s movies made us know about beauty of the Switzerland. Isn’t it?

In the same way our movies drawn a picture in our mind that how uncivilized and corrupted state Bihar is and of course people of Bihar. We have to postulate because we never been there like Switzerland.

I have a keen interest in movies, but hardly name of any movie strikes in my mind in which, they messaged about positive aspects of Bihar. If any movie needs a character of who does not speak good English or makes laugh audience with his bestial activities, than cast him belonging to Bihar.

If there is any character of rickshawala or sabjiwala than give them a get up of Bihari. I would not have remonstrated on it if you have shown that the person who has poor English was a great mathematician. That rickshawala and sabjiwala have their sons qualified IAS. And yes these are true stories. But you won’t.

Recently watched a movie in which there was a character of a Bihari girl who was drug addicted, moreover she was illiterate to validate that she is from Bihar. Does she represent the all girls of Bihar? No never. In many of movies it is shown that one IPS officer from other state comes in Bihar and washes up the crime and corruption from the Bihar beside it why this is not shown that an honest IPS officer goes in other state and makes that state out of corruption.

Is there no any corruption in other states or Bihar does not produce enough IPS officers? I would not increase number of words in this article by including the famous personalities from Bihar. One can Google it but I am pretty sure many of you do not need it because you know about them.

A very talented writer used the word NRB (Non residential Bihari) in her article. NRB are those who are basically from Bihar but settled in some other states. In the context of my subject there are two types of people are here. First those who knows Bihar by been there. Second those who know Bihar by movies means incompletely. So these NRB are those who come in the                       second category but try to keep them in second category.

They are ashamed to call themselves as Bihari. I appeal to those NRB, if you know Bihar then please help the second category people to understand the real Bihar.

I also request to all those filmmakers, yes we need entertainment but not at the cost of image of any state. It’s not only about the image of Bihar it’s also about future of that talent who feels a wrong perception about him whenever he goes outside of Bihar. Then in this climate how he would be able to nourish globally.

Point is that every coin has two faces but an optimistic human nature advocates remembering its positive side rather than negative aspects. Why don’t we remember the Bihari by their dare to sell their properties to educate their children, by their labor to crack hardest exams in India like UPSC and IIT, by their sharp minds to became great engineers and doctors and last but not the least by their polite nature?

Every type of people exists in every part of country and their categorization is always a threat for solidarity of India. Still I am hoping for transition the meaning of word Bihari from obscenity to brand.

 By : Abhishek Sharan

Source: Youth Ki Aawaz