Chhath, Champaran meat, and changing mindsets: Quiet reclamation of the image of Bihar and Bihari

New Delhi: As attention swivels to Bihar in this season of elections and thousands return home to cast their vote, the spotlight is shining on Bihari migrants -- the men and women who travel far to make a living and keep many a wheel going in their adopted states.

Though the two-phase Bihar assembly elections end on Tuesday, the results rippling nationwide and paving the way for a new state government, it is not just about politics. Biharis away from home are asserting their identity. And reconfiguring the bracket they were slotted in.

“Bihari” was an identity that carried baggage, but somewhere in the last decade, that word began to glow again, said Anup Sharma, a Gurugram-based strategic communications advisor who was born and grew up in Bihar.

Politics isn’t the only thing to be credited for this transformation.

“Chhath Puja, for instance, was once a quiet, region-specific festival. Today, its imagery of women offering arghya to the setting sun, families singing traditional songs travels across continents through social media,” Sharma told PTI.

“You’ll see it trending on Instagram from Mauritius, Mumbai, Delhi Yamuna banks to New Jersey alike. That’s not politics; that’s belonging going global. What was once a riverbank ritual has become a bridge between generations and geographies,” Sharma told PTI.

In his view, the deeper story is that of recognition.

“When parties organise ghats or make arrangements for devotees in cities like Mumbai or Delhi, they aren’t just courting votes they’re acknowledging presence. Migrants who once lived on the margins are now seen as contributors, as cultural torchbearers,” he said.

The Chhath fever sweeps through large swathes of India a week after Diwali. It’s when a sort of “homecoming” happens for hundreds of thousands of Biharis who return home for their biggest festival.

Over the last few years, those who could not return home have been embraced with fanfare by state governments, including in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.

Other prominent markers of Bihar’s culture and lifestyle have increasingly found acceptance outside the state – from shops selling Champaran meat and “litti chokha” to social media creators showing hidden gems of Bihar and stand-up comedians cracking self-aware jokes.

Does this point to a paradigm shift in the image of Bihar and its people? How integral are they now to India’s growth? Has the term “Bihari” outgrown its connotation and become as acceptable as say, Punjabi, Marathi, or Bengali? There is no absolute answer to these questions but the Bihari diaspora feels there is a change in the air, a sweet smell of broken stereotypes, and a future that looks different, if not entirely positive, from a grim past once riddled with stigma, poverty, and lack of opportunities and acceptance.

According to the 2011 census, there are more than 74.5 lakh migrants from Bihar across the rest of India. Another report, published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute for Human Development, found that in 2021, 39 per cent of Bihar’s migrants left the state for employment.

It is not only political posturing that is putting Biharis in a positive light, there is quiet and positive transformation happening with regards to Bihar’s cuisine, infrastructure, tourism, and the larger work profile of the Bihari people.

Who were once only visible at the two ends of the professional spectrum – blue-collared labourers and white-collared bureaucrats – are now occupying the entire gamut of structured employment.

Abhay K, a writer-poet and diplomat who was also born and brought up in Bihar, said there has been “organic growth” in the professionals from the state working in different parts of India and the world and they are asserting their culture wherever they are.

“Professionals from Bihar are making contributions in a range of areas including in the cutting edge technological fields (IT, AI, biotechnology etc.), finance, investment, management, administration, diplomacy, literature, medicine, education, politics, apart from being migrant labourers. Calling someone from Bihar, a Bihari, is no more a slur. It’s a matter of pride,” said the author of “Nalanda: How it Changed the World”.

He added that there has been significant development in Bihar, including the opening of “the best museum in India” and the reopening of the Nalanda University – a place worth visiting for its architectural marvel along with the ruins of Nalanda Mahavihara.

Admitting that migration is still happening in large numbers and the image of the Bihari migrant is improving slowly but steadily, Patna-based entrepreneur Neehar R there is a need to create more opportunities in the state.

“Politics does play its role in creating visibility, especially during festivals, but the real push has come from the people themselves who’ve started rediscovering Bihar in their own ways. People and politics both are changing the 'dasha' and 'disha' of Bihar — and that’s the best part,” said the founder of Bihar Say, a PR and branding platform that is dedicated to “reconnecting Biharis across the globe”.

The “rediscovering of Bihar” has come about in many ways, including through social media content creators and stand-up comedians who have been featuring the state in their videos.

While comedians like Sharon Verma, Shreya Priyam, Priyesh Sinha and actor Satish Ray turn the stereotypes on their head to make self-aware jokes about being their identity, Instagrammers like ‘Sizzle with Shikha’ with over 13,000, Arya Gupta with nearly two lakh, and Ashish Jha with nearly one lakh followers create Bihar-specific content.

American vlogger Drew Hicks and Korean Lee Yechan making content in Bhojpuri may catch an Instagram newbie unaware but their popularity among their 12 lakh and over three lakh followers, respectively, is earnest.

There is a long way to travel still of course. It’s not all positive in the big Bihar story, the slivers of hope bright but few.

As Gurugram-based Manvendra Prasad, managing partner at IntelliNexus Ventures, sees it, stereotypes and negative impressions will continue “till Bihar catches up with the rest of the country in terms of economic prosperity”.

“In parts of the country where the poorer sections of Biharis are more prominent as against the presence of professionals the image is still poor and discrimination visible, for instance in Punjab. Anecdotal evidence shows that there is a sizable anti-Bihar feeling online,” Prasad said.

It is only the strong “acceptable” presence of the Biharis, borne of the exodus of the 90s, among the middle-class across the country – the college student, the software engineer, the banker, the doctor, the startup founder, the film actor – that has made Chhath Puja, Champaran meat or even makhana add to the positive change in the image of Bihar, he added.