By: Shalini Singh
There is one thing that I really despise – is the fact that people do raise eyebrows when you utter the word Bihar. The sacred seat of learning is now a laughing stock for India and probably the whole world. There is no doubt this is due to the miserable failures of the Bihar government in recent years, hence very people see a scoop in Bihar. It has been described as the “wild west” during the gold rush- not quite but not far off if you take the likes of criminals of Siwan and Gopaljang. Sounds a little like Afghanistan. Not quite but the section of India that was praised for its honesty and described as the most progressive of all Indian states during its first years of independence has slipped into anarchy and turmoil.
Nevertheless winds of change have started to blow. Visiting Patna, the capital of Bihar today you will notice families thronging to restaurants and shops at Maurya Lok during evenings suggesting that some sort of normality has taken over. There is now little fear of being kidnapped for ransom. There was a time when wards of government employees were being kidnapped for money; basically anyone with some cash on their hands was a potential candidate for kidnapping. Have you seen the move “Apaharan” by Prakash Jha. What a movie.
Last time I was in India (Patna) I could not find a decent book in Bihar. Most of them were either short sections on Global Indian history or individual events (such as the Kisaan or farmers movement). This was rather disappointing. Harder still is to find history books on Patna especially in the English Language, suggesting that very few people have made steps to write about the glorious past of Bihar. Its high time for a book on the history of this ancient land.
