The Folklorization of Bihar
There is a new dating website out of Bombay, named after the erstwhile Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi.
“We were inspired by Laloo Prasad and the marital bonding he shares with his wife,” said Bullet Mehta of Wiantech, the Mumbai-based software company promoting the website ‘laloorabri.com’.
I have often wondered about the peculiar “inspiration” Lalu and Bihar in particular excite in the national Indian imagination. Most people are apt to roll their eyes in despair at the mention of Bihar, followed by a sigh of relief that they don’t actually live there. On the other hand there is a constant invocation of Bihari-ness that seems very important to national life. To take a ubiquitous example, Hindi movies that need a rustic character would be bereft without a Bihari. Indian village life is always somewhere in ‘Dehat,’ a sort of netherworld in the Eastern UP/Bihar region, and as such a fixture in our national cinema. I had blogged earlier about a film called Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav, and the general impression that most people think of Bihar as a joke, and if it doesn’t irritate them, it amuses them.
I wonder what role this folklorization (I use this term loosely and not entirely accurately, but you know what I mean. I hope) has to play in making sure Bihar never develops, and never stops being the provider of much of India’s raw materials and cheap labor.
Also look at Amitava Kumar’s rant about a newspaper ad in Bombay.
January 31st, 2006 at 4:17 am
Hi,
I am the guy who made this website.
You know, im a very optimistic person. I have been taught and have learnt over time to find the “good” part in everyone’s character. We as Indians are taught, pick the good habits from people. How much we do? God alone knows.
Its funny because, I think even the worst characters in history, say Adolf Hitler, has so many good things that we can pick up. Its not easy for one man to dream of uniting the world under one flag, though his ways of doing it were completely wrong. Still, its amazing how you can pick up a half broken army and lift their spirits up to win a war!
Similary, I dont comment on his political influence, but if you see my interviews in newspapers or TV channels, you will see that in our Indian conservative culture, how many people do we know, who accept, let alone bring forward their better half to their level. It really amazing. Your best friends leave you in times of trouble and they both have stood by each other at all levels. This is the inspiration.
Bill Clinton is made fun off all the time, but that doesnt mean he was a bad president.
Bottom Line: You bring yourself to such a level that even when people make fun of you, you take it in your stride, smile and deliver what you have to.
Enjoy!
Bullet
February 1st, 2006 at 3:00 am
I don’t know what role this attitude plays in keeping Bihar where it is, but it certainly is no help to anyone from Bihar. I have actually faced discrimination in academic circles in India; so much so that I chose to run away to the US to pursue a Ph.D., despite there being reasonably good institutes in India!
I shudder to think what they will do to me when I try to come back to my own country.
Also, I think it is VERY important to make a distinction between Lalua (as he is referred to by Biharis) and other Biharis. Lalua is THOROUGHLY disliked, even hated, in Bihar, by most Biharis. The reason is simple - he is behind 90% of the extortion industry running in Bihar right now. He is also responsible for about 50000 disappearances - mostly of low-caste and minority Biharis - in the decade of his rule.
But people DO NOT want to see this, do they? They don’t want to see how many Biharis go on to do a Ph.D. in the sciences vs. how many from the “developed” metropolitan areas do - no, sir, that is just SO boring. What IS interesting is to make fun of and discriminate against the Biharis as and when possible, because they know we do not really have a choice.
Indians do to Biharis what the White countries do to India.
And the idiocy goes on…..
April 26th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
I think Bihar is more of a cliched thing for people inmedia and films and by extension to general people. Same thing happening in Maharashtra or Punjab may not attract attention but if that happens in Bihar it may make a front page news. There is a deep seated bias against Bihar. See in Hindi films politicians from mharashtra and all places speak l;ike a biharis. This bias has to be challanged by creativity of people from Bihar like Prakash Jha has done through his films like Damul, Mrityudand, Apharan and Gangajal. it needs an insider’s with and creativity to take that up.
Now that Bihar is changing the image will change too. Roads are better, electricity situation is better than delhi, Law and order is definitely better than many states and there is a government which is working. So the public image is changing too. One of my kerlaite friend who had gone to patna on some important business mission came back suitably impressed not only by roads, and infrastructure but keen to learn and well behaved people. More such stories will change all that. soon we shall have a Dil Wale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge set in Bihar and not in mustard lines Punjab.
June 8th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Spread the thing in a better way
June 20th, 2006 at 7:41 am
We are Bihari are theselves responsible for the whole thing, although many things are due to generalization of the facts which should not be spread by the media. But interestingly, it happens in case of Bihar. More, no electricity, no transport, no law order, no respect for the Bihar intellectuals who even want for the upliftment of Bihar are not allowed by the system. After serving 8 years in other states I thought to serve Bihar, interestingly I have to many unexpected things, now I want to leave Bihar.
January 11th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
I am not only frustrated and disappointed at the way central govt treats Bihar, punjab picked up guns it got super status infact it jogged into a growth rate of 11%,kashmir said screw others and pm is ready to do lunch in lahore, the tribal ulfa picked up guns appeasement follows and may be north east goes to China, regionalism is bubbling with marathis,bengalis,south indians, why the biharis are sleeping ?They have to realize that they are the heart of india ,land of ashoka who gave India the form of country. Buddha got fed up everywhere and got enlightened here, Mahavir gave jainism here, Gandhi had no where else to start his career but Bihar and Tatas had nowhere else to earn but Bihar. If rest of india doesn’t realize Bihar’s value may be high time it should seek seperatist agenda of its own.