While the figure looks certainly promising and encouraging, it would make more sense if you compare all these indices per 1000 persons of the population among different states. Otherwise all these figures just indicate that Bihar has more number of IIT'ians just because Bihar has more population. However, I totally believe that the reputation precedes us more than anything else and it is just a bad image in many cases. - Ravindra Kumar - Jan. 11, 2006

Ravi Pandey Ji, you are absolutely right! Your idea is very good. It is just the image and their habit of Bihari Bashing. You are not just throwing something but you are absolutely right. - Vipin Singh - Jan.12, 2006

Mr. Pandey is right that Bihar is much better than south Indians in several ways that is education crime and more IAS officers etc and is the false propaganda by south Indian states, however I feel it is not right to critisise other for our lapses.

Why educated persons from our state opt to work outside the state and what is there contribution in the development of Bihar.

Only those commercial and industrial establishments who have remained in the state in spite of all odds are contributing to the development and we must support them instead of extorting.

I think it is right time for participating in the development of our state and to refrain from critising others - Vinod Bhanti - Jan.12, 2006

I will suggest that all Biharis agree to encourage Ravi Pandey. After all, we are Bihari and no matter where we live, our roots are in Bihar. We all are brothers and we should cooperate for any good purpose. I agree that our main problem is the perception that we hate each other. So please forget now religion, caste and colour and become just one Bihari and do what he has suggested and think along the lines of what we can do to enrich life in Bihar. - S. M. Khurshid Anwar, New York, USA - Jan.12, 2006

Having spent 5 years in Tamil Nadu with my Tamil friends, it becomes my moral duty to clarify a few things here. I had 3 years of my education in southern Tamil Nadu. By the end of the first semester, I was conversant on Tamil. Now whenever I meet a Tamil guy, I can anticipate that he is going to become my friend as soon as I speak to him in his mother tongue. Most of the Tamils that I know, were more hospitable to me, when they came to know of my state. And the fact that an 'outsider' is speaking Tamil, just wins their hearts. I'll go even farther to say that on contrary, when a Non-Bihari tries to speak, say, Bhojpuri to a Bihari on his first meeting, probability is that the Bihari will consider it as an attempt to make fun of him. Also, with due respect, I could not appreciate the way in which one of our friends has made the statement "Biharis hate each other".

One who knows many languages always has a wider circle of friends. At the risk of sounding boastful, let me tell you that I speak all the dialects of Bihar. I can speak a tribal language of Chhotanagpur as well. Thanks to my Bengali friends, I know Bangla too. I listen to songs in all these languages and love them. I wish I knew more to understand their literature as well.

Hatred is created by a bunch of people for their own selfish motives. And only people with less knowledge get misguided by them. We cannot generalize whole of a state based on these few people, or we carry the risk of being racist ourselves. Not that I have not met people having an 'attitude' towards Bihar, but in most of the cases they were ignorant, not worthy of attention. - Kumod Jha - Jan. 12, 2006

Question is not whether we should learn more languages or not, I think it depends on available time and capability of individual and not all of us have time to learn Maithili, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Bhojpuri and so on. This idea that you learn Tamil to win their heart then we will get into endless race, I mean then we will have also have to learn, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali, Punjabi and on and on. Moreover people working in ‘Nautanki’ have to learn many accents and many languages but the same can not be accepted from common people.

My language is Magadhi and I am not comfortable with Bhojpuri, Maithili or Angika. I can somehow manage myself in broken Hindi or broken English. As soon as I start, “Hum kahte hain…”, there is that typical smile on the face of listeners. Nobody smiles when I speak in Magadhi but I am ready to sacrifice my Magadhi for Hindi! In fact we the people of Bihar have sacrificed our languages for Hindi. After sacrificing our own language we are neither left with Hindi nor with Magadhi, Maithili, Bhojpuri or Angika. We are happy to support the cause of Hindi but we also have to pay for that. Biharis in India are like Bihari Muslim refugees in Bangladesh, neither acceptable to Pakistani nor acceptable to Bengali. How can these Bihari Muslims be accepted when they will speak Urdu in Bengal, similarly how can Maithili accented Urdu be acceptable to Punjabi accented Urdu speaking in Pakistan?

What people will have to understand that we Biharis have accepted Hindi for bigger cause i.e., national unity and like them we also used to have our own language and we really do not belong to far away land Africa simply because we Biharis have started speaking this new language called Hindi and this acceptance of Hindi is in no way a threat to any other non-Hindi languages. They all may gang up but it is not the mistake of we Biharis. It is their mistake. They should have tried a bit harder to force their respective language as national language, instead of replacing Magadhi with Hindi we would have been equally happy to replace Magadhi with Marathi or Tamil and yes I am not a ‘nautanki’ fellow that I will learn all languages, I am already finding it hard to speak Hindi properly. - Vipin Singh - Jan. 12, 2006

I stayed in Tamil Nadu for 2 years. Whenever I would ask the people there a question in English or Hindi 90% of the population will stare at me with hate. Almost all my other North Indian friends who could not speak Tamil had the same experience. Unfortunately I was there as a professional and not as a student so I did not have the time to learn their language. Tamils are very fanatic about their language. The Sri Lankan problem and the rabid anti-Hindi agitation there are clear examples. Unfortunately we Biharis have sacrificed our mother tongues for Hindi and have got only mockery in return because of our accent. Just checks out the Hindi movies, the villains and jokers have all Bihari accent. The author has written an excellent article. We need to face this problem head on rather than ignore it. - Rajendra Kumar - Jan, 12, 2006

Mr. Vipin, you are right, question is not whether we should learn more languages or not. Yes, it depends on the availability of time and interest (I'd say instead of capability). I had no intention of enforcing my interest/ways on others. I would not have learnt Tamil had I not gone to Tamil Nadu. We should not give our own example in a discussion. It was my fault, thanks for pointing that out. Yes, I am more like a 'nautanki' fellow by nature, but I think I have a right to be the way I like to be. And so has everyone else. I have never experienced others not taking me seriously because of my 'nautankiness'.

Coming back to the point, the question is not about learning language at all, but to give space to others and show genuine interest/respect for other's language and culture. It has worked for me, I cannot say if the same will work for others as well.

Another friend pointed out that he felt 90% of the population in Tamil Nadu showed hatred towards him for he spoke Hindi/English. I think God was kind to me that I probably met the rest 10% of them.

My Hindi speaking juniors at my college tell me how much love they get from the canteenwala and tea-shop walas nearby, with a mention of my name to them. They say 'Do you know your senior Kumod? Oh, he used to sing Tamil songs, you know.' And my juniors say, 'Oh yes, we have heard about him from a lot of people here.' Sorry, again I am trying to praise myself by giving my own example. - Kumod Jha - Jan, 13, 2006

Dear Kumod, You are a heck of lucky person. Well part of your luck was created by yourself. You learned Tamil and started singing in Tamil . You did what Tamil wants to be happy. If we learn Urdu and start singing Gazals then we can make our Muslim brothers happy, we can give Kashmir and make Pakistan happy, give Bodoland and make ULFA happy, give Punjab and make Sikhs happy, we can elect Laloo and make Yadavs happy, elect Jagannath Mishra and make pundit ji happy, we can let Saurav play and make Bengalis happy, elect Bush and make Republicans happy, elect Kerry and make Democrats happy, we can give jobs and make unemployed happy, give food and make beggars happy...

Well your solution looks darn simple. Just give everybody what they want.

The problem is even Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Allah, and Jesus together can not do that. - Kaushal Das - Jan, 13, 2006

Reading the comments gives the sad impression that we are straying from the original message of creating a positive image of Bihar. We can do this without fighting each other over the language. It is a sad reflection of us that we value our "self" more than that of our collective "status" and collective "well being". That has been part of the problem. Biharis as individuals have been exceptionally good and contributed a lot to the well being of India. But collectively we have failed because we do not believe in "community values". Biharis have been at least partially responsible for the bad image/impression of Bihar being created by whom ever by not challenging them rather than colluding with them and letting them win without putting up a fight.

Let us join our forces in this collective fight of ours with all our might to restore our image our prestige. Let us make a simple pledge that we will not let others win in their attempt to bash Bihar or Biharis in whatever name whether Lalu or some one else. We will challenge them as initiated by Ravi. If we do not fight for our prestige; no one else will. It is our collective battle, we have to fight it. So let us unite and fight against our bashers not fight amongst us. - Awadhesh Prasad, Canberra, Australia - Jan. 13, 2006

I am surprised at Mr. Das' reaction towards Kumodji's comments. Apparently, he missed the spirit of his message which, I think, was of appreciation and understanding of different culture and language and not that of appeasement. I don't think Kumodji was preaching appeasement - at least I didn't see it in that sense. Knowing about different language and culture can only help you, never hurt you.

To Kumodji, you're a much better person than I am. Someone calls you 'nautanki-wala' and you kept your cool. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction, you presented your case in a very mature, sensible fashion. I can only tip off my hat to you. Please continue to write here, I for one, really like your style of writing. - Anil Kumar - Jan. 13, 2006

I have already been named 'Holier Than Thou' by one of my good friend in response to an article of mine, and now you have called me 'Holier Than Thy Lord'. Kaushal ji, I am not a saint, I am an ordinary selfish man. I learnt Tamil not because it made Tamils happy, but because it made ME happy instead. If I were a person who does things just to appease others, my comment would not have made you and Vipin ji upset. I'd rather have added more comments like "Biharis hate each other but still Biharis are great because Tamils hate all outsiders" and "Bihar is top at corruption and crime, but are corruption and crime not in other states as well?". Because I did not tell anything of this sort, does not mean that I have less respect for my state or my people.

How can learning a language be compared to giving Kashmir away? Why am I making an impression that I've made a compromise with my self-respect by learning Tamil? Why do readers think that there was a 'fight', and instead of challenging my 'enemies', I betrayed my own army and joined the enemy. That I took the path of obsequiousness. And even after clarifying that I am not proposing a solution to learn languages to win other's hearts, 'language' has replaced the topic of the original article itself. I have started feeling guilty for the author of this article.

Is showing genuine respect to other languages/cultures as illogical an idea as pleasing everyone on earth? Didn't I say that my (selfish) attempt ultimately helped my juniors (most of them are Biharis) in a way?

I am impressed by the patience of the authors who continue to write to this website. I was expecting some of them to comment here (who encouraged me to write), but that did not happen. Mr Anil, your comment came as a big relief to me. Through one of your comments, I understood that you are much senior to me. Getting appreciation from you means a lot to me, sir. See, I called him sir, trying to appease him to win his heart and support for me alone. After all, to be politically correct, I am not a Bihari but a Jharkhandi trying to appease Biharis to win their heart. - Kumod Jha - Jan. 13, 2006

Interesting article and good comments. However, there seems to be a gulf between the perception of Tamil thinking and the reality on the ground among some readers. Having done my Pre-U and part of B. Sc. in Madras before proceeding to Pondicherry for the MBBS, I can safely say that I count several hundred Tamils among my friends and have had interaction with thousands of them over the decade I spent in India. To say that Tamils hate Biharis or North Indians is doing great injustice to a very warm, hospitable people. In fact to an average Tamil, Bihar may well be in California. How can they harbour hatred to a people they don't even know about? Perhaps Northerners when they come down South with preconceived ideas of impending discrimination would probably misinterpret an ignorant look when spoken to in English or Hindi as 'staring with hatred'. North Indians are in fact looked up to as educated and cultured people perhaps because of the type that comes to Tamil Nadu for education or business.

An understanding of the Tamil psyche is important before we pass judgment on them as racists or Hindi-haters. A Northerner has a much better chance of living, thriving and being considered as one of their own among Tamils than if the roles were reversed. Having traveled the length and breadth of India several times I have experienced first hand, great difficulty in communication and sometimes outright hostility for not knowing Hindi. Can I therefore conclude that all Northerners or 90% of them are racists? Definitely not. Bihar bashing may exist. Find solutions for that from within and not scapegoats from without. If a Bihari friend of mine, Ajit Kumar Singh, who read law at Madras in the late seventies is reading this I wish you could give a first person account of your stay in Tamil Nadu.

Finally, the Sri Lankan quagmire is not because of Tamil language fanaticism but the systematic discrimination of the entire Tamil race there by the government. - Dr Ignatius Joseph, Malacca, Malaysia - Jan. 13, 2006

Dear Anil ji, like you I too appreciate writing style and cool of Kumud ji. However, some hard and strong facts can not be simply overwritten by a pure and emotional feeling. I love Hindi as much as I love my mother. Since I can feel my feeling for Hindi I can very well feel feeling of Tamil for Tamil, feeling for Bengali for Bengali and feeling for Marathi of a Maharashtrian.

But shrugging of a 35 year struggle of a state against Hindi, an all out attack against Hindi our national language and it's 500 million speaker, a common miserable experience felt by thousands of North Indians, no there is no way I am going to buy this as a minor nuisance by some bunch of people as argued by Kumud ji.

We fully understand appreciation and understanding of different culture but of course accepting everything perpetrated against us gracefully only makes us cowards. - Kaushal Das - Jan. 13, 2006

This article is about how to propagate a good image of Bihar and how some non-bihari top politicians like Jayalalitha also made a mess like Bihari top politicians.

If it is of any comfort, these non-Bihari politicians also are made fun of in cartoons and media. Being more closer to Delhi and active in Delhi politics, Hindi belt politicians got more share of these cartoons than Jayalalitha. But believe me, movies and general media in south Indian languages make enough fun of their own politicians. May be the Hindi and English media has the narrow eye of picking only at politicians active in Delhi.

About languages and how Tamils are protective of their own language, I can say don't generalise an entire state based on individuals. In 90s, I lived in a few states on my job. Once on my way to office, I got up and offered my seat to an elderly man who was standing. He had all white hair and looked above 70 but healthy and dressed good. I just felt like offering a seat to an elderly person. My sentence was in English and like 'I can stand. Please take this seat and this may help you more than me'. That person took my offer and sat down. But after sitting down he said something like 'Don't you know xxxxxxx?'. Readers of this message can replace this 'xxxxxx' with the local language name. I was shocked to hear that. So are my friends and other passengers nearby. There I was, at least 40 or 50 years younger than this man, offering him a seat respectfully and all he can do was stare at me and ask can't I speak in his language. Though I learned that local language to understand a few words and speak a few words, my intention was not to speak in English, but help an elderly man. There were too many staring that man back, started advising him in local language and shut him off from speaking further. I was fortunate to have those passengers around.

India has some values passed along generations like respect for elders and more vibrant to learn from mistakes and make corrections. My suggestion is be strong, retain your identity if you want and try to highlight how bihar is still good in those values and steps being taken to improve. - T ShivRaj - Jan. 13, 2006

I agree with Kumod in totality. Broadening of outlook erases all misconceptions and prejudices. In moments of weakness we fret about things such as alienation due to language and culture but on the contrary making the first move by learning a few words in someone else's language can crash down most of the barriers we have created around ourselves. What Kumod has expressed, I have undergone the same in Taiwan where I have been for the last 6 years. Primarily the islanders speak Mandarin and while pursuing a PhD in Biotechnology I found my data and journal presentations were more heeded and listened with more attention whenever I would start by greeting in Mandarin. It always brought smiles to everyone's face. Its not that that people wanted the entire presentation to go on in Mandarin, it was just a token gesture of sending the sign that I am trying to forge a relationship. Many of the things would smoothen out after that. In fact among the Indian crowd abroad there is a starkly visible divide based on languages but there are people who rise above that and try to intermingle.

We cannot blame the non-Biharis for spoiling the image of Bihar. I have met so many Biharis during the 1990's in Delhi and elsewhere who would very hesitantly introduce there native state and even if they would do so, they would bend twice over to prove how they had become a pure non-Bihari. Thankfully, with more awareness and confidence the younger generation is coming out of this hypocrisy and with so many bright Biharis proclaiming there origin with pride, the image is bound to change. - Jaya Vatsyayan, Taiwan - Jan. 13, 2006

Sorry brothers, I have not called anybody ‘Nautankiwala’ here. If you don’t believe it read my comment again. With ‘Nautankiwala’, famous Bihari Actor Shekhar Suman Ji was on my mind. Today rest of India does not know Bihar for Renu’s Hindi or Dinkar’s Hindi but Bihari-Hindi: Shekhar Suman style, the way he mimics a Bihari. Good for Shekhar Suman Ji but there is nothing in this for a common Bihari.

I think Ravi Pandey Ji was taking up the case of Biharis in general and there was clear case of diluting his points by talking about individual achievements.

I don’t need to work for Railways that does not mean that my Hindi speaking Bihari brothers were not beaten by Marathi Manoos in Kalyan again not all Marathis are interested in beating Biharis.

I doubt if those Biharis who were beaten and humiliated in name of Marathi Manoos, had any disrespect of Marathi as language or Marathi as culture.

I am sure Biharis still respect Marathi as language and Marathi as Culture.

When a person of high stature like Atal Ji starts dropping his middle name to make Indians happy, when Bihari students are clubbed with Africans and warned to behave in India by a highly patriotic leader of a nationalist party, we are provoked to think, do we Bhaiyas have an identity as Bihari like Marathi, Tamil or Bengali or we are better as having cheap Bhaiya identity because this style of writing about some genuine achievements of Biharis as a community may not be preferred after this mentality of treating Biharis as inferior colony slaves.

Who is worried about Biharis regaining their pride under the leadership of Nitish Ji and Sushil Ji- they will tell you Laloo Yadav but no, feel it in air, there are many other worried souls too who are still trying to understand the transcript of Laxaman. - Vipin Singh - Jan. 13, 2006

Dear Friends, Chill!!! and may peace prevail...

Image of a particular state in the eyes of people of other state just does not develop by merely interacting with a few people from that state but having to do with lot many.

For instance it is true of South Indian states because many Bihari students study there and northern states where there are many Bihari labourers.

It does not mean that few of the visitors of this website and writers on it can decide what is wrong and what is right when it comes to understanding the psyche of the masses of a particular state.

So why I am writing all this ? this may be a question from few of you I am writing this because whatever opinion regarding the Biharis is formed in the mind of people of other states has not happened overnight but because of the following:

1) In Bangalore the Bihari students had created such a bad name that they moved with pistols in their hands and threatened all who came in their way , the atrocities continued for many years but finally the local made up their minds and then went on a repairing spree by even taking law in their hands and beat up many innocent Bihari students but then to teach the black sheep some lesson.

2) In Delhi majority of the Biharis are Rickshaw Pullers who come very meekly but slowly form groups and make unions and then pressurise local people for many things and lead a very rustic life style and it is from where the local draw inference for the whole of Bihar.

3) In Maharashtra in many engineering colleges the students from Bihar even if they get just 50% marks pay a lot of money as capitation fee and get admitted in engineering and medical colleges , tell me do you think that these guys who have penetrated because of money will make anything good out of whhat they would study in 4/5 years? this is also a bone of contention for the local people who then start calling us names and issue verbal insults.

4) I have personally seen in many colleges in Delhi and many readers would also agree that 50% of the students who do not get admission in better colleges would always lie back home that they are in the top colleges and when they lie back home it is not that the locals do not understand, they do very well for instance many guys study through Correspondence and befriend other Biharis and then would say lies that they are in that college - correct me if I am wrong.

The above instances are just a few do you think that the Tamils and Keralites who hate Hindi are treated very well in the North Indian states? absolutely not, they are so ill treated that you must see them when you meet them and then you will realise that when they go back home definitely they will not have good reasons to say that north Indian states are good.

Please also understand that South Indians do not differentiate between North Indians for them all are from the same zone.

A regards Bihari bashing because of LALOO PRASAD , we must accept iit at the outset about his speeches and foolish one liners , are people fools to see that a clown has been made the Chief of a state and if it is so then its people are to be blamed.

Therefore sirs, Please get to the bottom of the matter before touching on such a sensitive issue because if people start a propaganda it has its counter effect also.

Once again I wish to say that we must not shy from accepting the condition of our state and try to win confidence of other people by having a positive attitude and a nice human being and then see for yourselves. - Sanjay - Jan. 13, 2006

Mr Sanjay unfortunately there will be no chill simply because you are saying so. Now there is no Laloo Yadav and you should be happy that this time Nitish Kumar controlled his temper and just kept himself restricted by calling Maharashtra CM, Vilasrao Deshmukh to protect Biharis in Maharashtra. Every time he will not ignore the issue so please come out of inertia and habit of humiliating Biharis. This is very sad and unfortunate that one CM has to call other CM to protect the lives of its people as if securities provided by constitution is nothing? By the way rather than giving sermons here if you are so scared of poor Bihari Rickshaw pullers then you better get that part of Indian constitution changed which will give you freedom to work in any part of India but restrict Bihari Rickshaw pullers from going to Delhi!

If you are also from Jharkhand then I can understand your point of view because when Bihar will be gifted to Pakistan then you will remain in India!!

These four instances are not just the few but all you had in your artillery but remember all of them are your creation and only you are responsible for them because I know that you have no evidence for any of them. You are just trying to justify some of the crimes, which are being perpetrated by anti national forces against innocent Biharis on fabricated grounds. Do you have any idea that when 50 Biharis were butchered in Assam what all international laws were violated? Your four filthy reasons will never justify the loss of those 50 valuable lives. Those lives were not less important than yours.

Ravi Pandey Ji was absolutely right with positive points he raised about the achievements of Biharis as a community even though he called it propaganda but you are indeed involved in a dirty propaganda against Biharis with your four fabricated allegations without any proof.

People can understand your hate towards Laloo Yadav but in this life you will never be able to justify the extension of the same hate against 10 Crores of Biharis.

We Biharis are Indian and we love all Indians better you explain why you hate we Biharis so much that you find all Biharis fit for humiliation or you also have some Jharkhand angle like Kumud Jha Ji or is it that old pain “Hum nahin to koi nahin”?

This is my last comment on this topic. - Vipin Singh - Jan. 13, 2005

The last I heard was that Hindi is our national language and Tamil Nadu is a part of India. What Mr. Kumud was doing is called appeasement. Tomorrow you will appease a goonda and then say he is a nice person since he stopped hurting you. It does not matter if the goonda continues to hurt other innocent people. I think Mr. Kaushal Das has made an excellent comment on this. - Rajendra Kumar - Jan. 13, 2005

Vipinji continues to harp on the 'Atal not Vajpayee' syndrome. Meanwhile, he takes the liberty to call anyone 'nautankiwala' (a term he borrowed from none other than Lalu Prasad Yadav who always called Shekhar Suman a 'nautankiwala') and then tries to cover up his goof-up, just like Vajpayee did, to lessen the effect of the damage already caused by it.

Even if we believe that Vipinji's 'nautankiwala' comment was intended for Shekhar Suman, can you imagine what would have happened if Vajpayee or Advani had used the same term against Shekhar Suman, or any other Bihari for that matter? Mr. Singh and people like him would be jumping up and down in frenzy taking side of Shekhar Suman in the name of 'insult to all Biharis' while demanding the head of Advani or Vajpayee. - Anil Kumar - Jan. 13, 2005

Discussion on this topic is now closed.