Will Biharis outshine Punjabis, Gujaratis?

When Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that Biharis are a necessity for Delhi and the Indian Capital can't run without Bihar, he was not far from the truth. I took his statement seriously but also with a pinch of salt. I started counting the 'Bihar factors' which affect my daily life, directly or indirectly. I made an objective list of such people which included my newspaperwala, domestic help, car cleaner, iron lady (washer-women), plumber, electrician, kiranawala, vegetable vendor, my neighbour and my office colleagues. These are the people without whom my life would come to a standstill. Out of ten factors, I realised six were to do with Bihar, leave aside the countless number of friends and colleagues. It started dawning on me the importance of Bihar factor in my life.

I am not a Bihari but my grandmother hailed from parts of Uttar Pradesh which adjoined Bihar and she shared a common dialect with them. She always identified such people and introduced them to us as 'Ye bhi hamare desh ke hai' (They also belong from the land we come from). She always developed instant rapport with them and before we could realise they would be part of our familily. They would be duly invited to family functions, ceremonies, birthdays and anniversaries. As long as she lived, she had a bunch of such loyal and affectionate friends who stood by her through her failing health. Some of them would come from far away just to enquire about her. Whenever my father got a new posting, we would say, 'Now, grandma would not find her deshwala in the new city." But we always proved ourselves wrong.

At times, she would unfairly take advantage of her regional affiliation and struck good bargain with the vegetable vendors who inescapably hailed from Bihar. Her immaculate parting dialogue would be, 'tum to hamare desh ke ho' while paying half the price for the vegetables. The vendor would encouragingly accept it with a reciprocate smile and would leave. My mother always envied her and regretted she couldn't master my grandma's art.

You may call it a family drama. But if you are smart, you would have got a sense of what I set out to say. When I say six out of ten factors of my life have to do with Bihar, these factors have nothing to do with the menial or low-paid job alone. When I put my professional life into retrospect, I realise three of my seven bosses were from Bihar. Many of my colleagues are from Bihar and are doing better than colleagues from other states. If you count the number of Biharis in Civil Services, IIT, Medicine, Information Technology or as entrepreneurs, their number has steadily increased over the years.

If 1960s and 70s were the decades for Gujarati entrepreneurs who migrated in large number to overseas and made fortunes, the 80s and 90s were that of Punjabis who flooded Canada, Australia and the US. The 21st Century saw the demographic migration tilting in favour of people from other states inclduing Bihar. There are large number of high skilled, top-paying jobs in IT which is manned by Biharis in other countries. What's the drive force that has made it possible? Is it shrinking employment opportunities in Bihar or its high population density or limited landed resources, poverty, education or a new streak of obsession 'we will make it'. The attitude was humbly visible in ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ jackpot winner - Sushil Kumar - a computer operator and tutor from Bihar.

While talking about Bihar, let me also dispel yet another misunderstanding with the word 'Biharis' which is often used derogatorily. The word is as neutral as the words Sardars, Punjabis and Gujjus. But its meaning changes depending on the manner it's spelled, including the tone, the context and who is saying it. A sardar means a leader and a Punjabi means, a person from Punjab. But the moment the word Sardar is referred to a Sikh, what comes to our mind is innumerable funny jokes and eccentricities that has been deliberately and with malafied intention, attached to it.

Likewise, when we talk about Biharis what comes to people's mind is poverty, deprivation, rustic simplicity etc. But the same is true for the people of other states too. It is simply because people from a particular region are outdoing and have come out to make a living, they become a visible face of misconstrued impressions. At times a malafide impression is deliberately created by bonafide residents who have been adversely affected by the change in demography and those who have missed out on economic opportunities usurped by the new migrants.

This happened in post-Independence era when large number of Punjabi migrants came to Delhi and settled down. As any new migrant would do, they worked hard and through their enterprise usurped the economic opportunities of the existing community thereby earing their wrath. In turn, they became butt of ridicule and were levelled as nouveau-riche, devoid of cultural values. A migrant nonetheless has to fight a battle of survival than cultivating cultural values.

Now, Biharis are exposed to the same vagaries as the Punjabis in the post-partition period. The only difference is while the Punjabis left everything back in Pakistan and came to India empty-handed, the Biharis still retain their roots and have taken up new economic opportunities with renewed vigour. No doubt, Punjabis in the Capital still have considerable clout and economic advantage but are slowly losing in terms of new economic opportunities. While the poorer Biharis have taken to brick and mortar industries, the skilled and educated are slowly establishing their grip on new economic opportunities overseas.

I agree that I may be prejudiced as I don't have substantial data to prove my inference. But if generalisation could lead you to new assumptions, there is no harm giving it a thought. After all we human beings have only three degrees of separation.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the blog are that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The Sunday Indian)

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