Tuesday, January 30

Resurgent Bihar-NRB meet.

2 comments:

Shalu said...

I went through the works done by you. All I have is praise for you and friends. Very few books on the History and people of Bihar are available. Well done. There is one thing that I really despise – is the fact that people do raise eyebrows when you utter the word Bihar. Consider an English translation. I would be willing to help in any capacity I can.
http://www.bihar.ws

Chandan said...

Thanks SB :)
We are working on the English version..& wud be nice if u cud join us.

The word Bihar, was coined almost during the same period as the word Hindustan.. and possibly by the same phratry of invaders. Hindustan was a region specific word..and denoted ppl who lived east of river Sindhu (Indus)..up to Bay of Bengal ..but now has reincarnated into a definitive religion specific definition..a deeply rooted non adjectival word.
Bihar as a word is undergoing that same trans(dis)figuration..& if left unchecked cud end up as a term generalizing the scum of the earth. If u look at the recent use of the word 'Bihar', specially by the print media.. ..its increasingly being used as an adjective to denote everything that wrong with Indian sys. of administration;poverty,crime,non development...this is the worst form of generalization. Ironically, India was viewed as almost the same adjective about 15 years back .Did we learn anything ?