By: Raj Shekhar
February 19, 2005

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Jaan ke Nnahi Kiye Thhe! Jann ke Nnahi kiye Thhe! … uttering these crying words with his folded palms, bending back and eyes brimming with tears - the character of Hiraman  (played by Raj kappor) pleads as he is beaten up by two men whose horse carriage (Tanga) overturns after their horse swerves to avoid Hiraman’s bullock cart loaded with bamboos and he takes his 2^nd vow- never to carry bamboo logs again in his cart! 

Those who have seen and remember this touching vignette, an all time great Hindi movie ‘Teesri Kassam’ based on great Hindi writer from Bihar Phanishawrnath Renuji’s ‘Mare Gaye Gulpham’ would appreciate the gentle, innocent and the naivety of Bihar. (inclusive of Jharkhand of course). This simple scene speaks volumes of wistfulness and poignancy of our native place and the Bihari character. We Biharies are not sophisticated, do not mean to harm anyone and even, if we end up in any situation where others feel hurt or affected by our unintentional move all we say in a genuine expression: Jaan ke nnahi kiye thhe!  

Bihar has become a land of destitute and a deprived population facing violence and lack of law and order under the corrupt politicians of current days. These self serving politicians and mafia of criminals have given this land, a cradle of non-violence, a new title of “the bad place, ‘Bihar’ ”. Yet, Bihar is also known as Dharmbhumi, Karmbhumi as well as matribhumi of the many great Indian personalities in whom the whole nation, as well as our Indian culture take pride in, irrespective of religion. From Gautam Buddha’s Vihar (Bihar) where teachings of non-violence spread all around the globe, to Mahaveer’s preaching of non-violence encompassed not only the human but any form of life, to the Emperor Asoka who denounced violence after witnessing the horror of brutality against humanity himself and established the true secular Rajdharm to promote the religious harmony. Who can forget his grandfather Chandragupt and his brilliant counselor and friend Chanakya, who drove away the Greek garrison that Alexander had left in Taxila and established the empire of the Maurya Dynasty. This great empire covered the whole of North India and part of Afghanistan, from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea with capital situated in modern city of Patna.  A place of knowledge, the University of Nalanda near Patna outdated one of the oldest universities of the world- the University of Oxford-by many hundred years and attracted students from all over India and China. In the medieval times Sher Shah, a Bihari from Sashasram, defeated Humayun in the early stages of Monghal empire and drove him out of India and showed the efficiency in administration and land reform in his short ruled kingdom as he died accidentally. Another great Bihari after Sher Shah to challenge the mighty Mughal Aurangzeb was a man of courage, Guru Govind Singh, the last guru of Sikhs also hailed from Patna City, Bihar. He did not just give an entire new look and identity to Sikhs with the five “K” features, but transformed them into a proud and powerful military community. ‘Raj Kumar Shukla, an ordinary farmer from Betiiah’, Bihar, (a name and his native place probably not even mentioned  in Indian History), nevertheless, the credit goes to him to recognize the power of Mahatma Gandhi of the South Africa fame, to pursue him and  bring him to Champaran, Bihar to make his Karmbhumi after South Africa. An initiation of Gandhi’s battle with the British started from Champaran which gave a new turn to the Indian struggle for freedom through non-violence. Incidentally, Mahatma Gandhi writes in his autobiography that before he founded his Satyagrah Ashram in Ahmedabad, to choose a proper place for his Ashram after returning from South Africa to India, he had short listed three places and Vaidyanathdham (Deoghar), Bihar(now Jharkhand) was one of them.  

After standing on the peak of summit of past achievements and progress, the current Bihar seems to be spiralling downward and has touched the bottom of stagnation in all types of positive growth, compared to the rest of India and loosing as well as the true Bihari image- brave but simple, tough but humble. 

Yes, we have lost that humble image of Hiraman in the eyes of the rest of India. It is not that we would like to cherish other images of Biharis such as simple personality but brilliant

legal mind of our first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad; Chief minister Mahamaya Prasad Sinha a politician and eloquent speaker in sixties who stole hearts of millions of young Bihari students irrespective of castes and creed, when he called them “Mere Jigar Ke tukro” who lost his voice in his last days and could only speak with his teary eyes; Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, a teacher and poet whose powerful words in his  “Rashmi-Rathi” splashed emotions and  recreated sounds of the battle scenes of Kurukshetra showing the Ang Naresh Karn’s anguish and capturing the pathos Karn embodies, surpassing any Shakespearian tragedy drama; Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Narayan or simply JP, a frail and an emotional leader who shook the whole nation with his determined resolve to challenge the mighty Mrs.Indira Gandhi and at the same time some recall his yearning to have Churra Dahi (probably only Biharis can appreciate this delicious treat) as breakfast in Jaslok Hospital in Bombay, during his last days away from Bihar. The rustic country bumpkin image of Lalu Prasad Yadav a master of political theatrics and a source of entertainment for many, nevertheless a shrewd politician as well as many other types of negative or comic characters in Bombay Hindi movies, dominate our Bihari image these days and yes, this is also reflection of our Bihar. 

There is no shortage of the criminal elements either in Bihar to tarnish our Hiraman’s innocence and yet Bihar equally sends brilliant scholars, scientists and skilled workers to the rest of India and abroad who are also like Hiramans at heart but urbanite, sophisticated and utter ‘sorry’ word  instead of ‘Jaan ke Nnahi Kiye Thhe’ when they feel that their Bihar would have also benefited by their services or helped the remaining brave souls residing in Bihar struggling to uplift the living conditions there whose efforts largely remain un- applauded. Maybe some of the genuine Hiramans have taken a 4^th vow- not to return their native land- Bihar, for unknown reasons or due to their own circumstances, or a reason that could be a widely known secret of deteriorating law and order. Who knows if some of them would like to break their solemnly taken 4th vow and return to their Bihar someday like Tagore’s story character of wanderer merchant Kabuliwala returns to Afghanistan to his old surviving mother and little daughter not caring the impoverished condition of his native land’s bosom!         

Raj Shekhar

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