By: Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak
In Bihar, 45,000 murders, 27,000 cases of dacoities, more than 9,000 cases of rape and no fewer than 27,000 cases of kidnappings were committed during the nine years of the Laloo-Rabri rule. This was revealed by the Central government announcement on February 13. A newspaper report in June, 1998, spoke of 3,500 political assassinations, 51,528 murders, between March 1990 and March 1998. As per the crime statistics of the State police headquarters released in 1997, every hour an average of 16 persons are killed, kidnapped or robbed in Bihar. The crimes on railways in the Bihar sector are the highest in the country.
Sad to say, the land of Emperor Ashoka and Lord Budha is now struggling for survival. And this is the irony of our times and tragedy of Bihar. Today, over 40 per cent of the state's population live below the poverty line. The literacy figures pull the national average down. The rot in the field of education is perhaps the most noticeable. The mushroom growth of sub-standard degree colleges and the chronically late academic schedules have made a mockery of the education system. The central problem is land reforms. Unfortunately Bihar remains largely untouched in spite of legal enactments and central directives on land ceiling and distribution of surplus agricultural land. Even today there are benami land holdings exceeding, 1,000 acres or more.
The mass of landless agricultural labour is made up of Dalits who are at the mercy of the landlords. The main grievance of agricultural labourers is the denial of minimum wages; they are paid only half the prescribed wages and that too partly in cash and partly in kind. When they refuse to work, at the instance of CPI (ML) and other leftist Kisan organisations, the Ranvir Sena and other gangs descend on the villages and punish them.
The Ranvir Sena is known to be the private army of upper caste landlords and its main target is the extreme leftist organisations like CPI (M) and CPI (M), People's War Group. Confrontations between them had taken place periodically but the killing of Dalit agricultural labourers had been frequent as they are defenceless when attacked. All these armed gangs are equipped with modern weapons including AK47 and a large number of locally made unlicensed guns. Between the Belchi massacre in 1977 to Shankabigha and Narainpur massacres in Jehanabad district in 1999 as many as 595 persons were killed in the running battles between landlords and landless workers.
Much more can be said about the agony of Bihar which was in the forefront of administrative efficiency and good political leadership during the early years of independence. It deteriorated alarmingly because of one basic factor criminalisation of politics. The second factor is the systematic weakening of administration by politicians in power who, in connivance with corrupt officials, have looted the state.
Today, to quote the Asian Development Research Institute, "Bihar has nothing to offer except history; Bihar defies all hopes." The inter-caste dispute, growing illiteracy, political corruption, population boom, institutional decay, brain drain, and the growing violence have virtually destroyed the social fabric of the state. The refusal of major political parties to improve things has speeded up the decline.
However, Bihar must principally blame itself for its plight. In the past two centuries its people have not seized opportunities to create productive assets, even when surpluses from the land were available. There has generally been little effort to invest in agriculture, including flood control, primarily because the entrenched feudal attitude saw no need for it as the big landowners had enough for themselves even in times of flood and drought.
In the absence of effective land reforms, the bulk of the populace has had little money and insufficient incentive to put their hearts into the land they plough. Violence around land and rural wages has become endemic, even when it is not organised. Corruption has become a critical institutional barrier to development, nearly as significant as the absence of land reforms. Good governance in Bihar can come about only if land reforms, investments in land, and a medicum of industrialisation precede it.
A few decades ago, the Bihari worker did not venture farther than neighbouring West Bengal, mainly Calcutta, and the coal-mining area of Raniganj. Now nearly the whole of India is their stage for being exploited, because their earnings are below market rates since the migration is born out of desperation. Of course, the better-off Bihar migrants first go to Delhi for education, then to London or New York. In the last century, Bihari labour was sent to the West Indies, Fiji and Mauritius under colonial whip to work on plantations.
What Bihar needs today is not a politician but a statesman who should be able to lead the people of all religions, castes, and political groups and heal old wounds. The immediate task is to restore law and order situation, attract industrialists, and invite new investment, give good and modern education to people, specially women, be tough with goons and good with law-abiding citizens, end the politics of crime, defeudalise the system and lead the state to glory. It may be a tall order, but there is no short-cut to success in Bihar which is way behind in the race to find a new future for its people.
Contrary to popular belief, Bihar has been known for good administration. In fact the state has always been proud of its administrative talents. The Mauryas, the Lichchavis and Shershah Suri are widely acclaimed for their good administrations. Many features of their administration are retained even today despite changes in legal, social and political situations. The Mauryan administration with a large and efficient bureaucracy, an extensive spy network and a penal code, was based on the principle of Kautilaya's "Arthshashtra", which is a book on the art of governance.
The British paid special attention to Bihar because it produced some great administrators who were known for their ability. After independence, the first Chief Minister of Bihar, S.K. Sinha, was a great administrator. The Appleby Report in 1949 described Bihar as the most efficiently managed State in the country. The decline in administration was a later-day phenomenon, caused mainly for lack of upright political leadership. Whichever party has been in power at the centre has always wanted the state to be ruled by its own puppets whether they were acceptable to the majority of people in the state or not.
In Bihar, Lord Buddha got his enlightenment and Jainism was launched in the state. These two religions had considerable influence. Bihar boasted of the famous Nalanda University. Chinese traveller Fahien praised this university in his memoris. Another university in Vikramshila also proved to be equal to Nalanda. Bihar is the land of many cultures, the most notable among them being Mithila, which once covered an area larger than the present Madhya Pradesh (a large part of it later went to Nepal and West Bengal). The Mithila culture has many salient features like Mithila paintings, Maithilee language, Mithila folksongs and most famous Panjikaran system. Mithila figures in the Hindu mythology and also in the Ramayana. Mithila has been a centre of learning. Chanakya, Yagyabalkya, Udyanacharya, poet Vidyapati and Ayachi were born here. Aryabhatt, famous mathematician, also belonged to Mithila.
Sadly, as much as fifteen per cent of the state's population is obliged to migrate to other states in search of livelihood. Probably, Bihar produces more migrants than any other state in the country. Migrant Bihari agricultural labour produced Green Revolution in Punjab where they also served as cannon fodder for Punjab terrorists in the eighties. But they could do nothing in their home state for lack of proper leadership.
