They number in crores—the exodus from UP-Bihar. It's the classic migrant situation.  ...

* From 2005-07, almost three lakh Purvanchalis (migrants from eastern UP and Bihar) flee Assam because of sporadic attacks by locals. It climaxes in terror killings by the ULFA in January 2007.
* In October 2007, militants bomb a Ludhiana cinema hall screening a Bhojpuri film. Seven migrant labourers die.
* In January 2008, Karnataka Raksh-ana Vedike (KRV) activists storm railway recruitment centres in Bangalore, Mysore and Hubli, protesting that Purvanchali candidates are jeopardising the prospects of locals.
* Earlier this month, Raj Thackeray's MNS unleashes a campaign of hatred against Purvanchali migrants across Maharashtra.

Lutyens' Delhi is not their Delhi. But this is where many UP-ites and Biharis, living in modest colonies and shantytowns on the periphery of the capital, assembled last Sunday, at RJD MP Devendra Prasad Yadav's large bungalow on a quiet, tree-lined street. The reason was an "emergent meeting" of the Purvanchal Navnirman Morcha (PNM) to discuss assaults on 'north Indians' in Maharashtra and parts of Assam. The name sounds suspiciously like Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), but the resemblance ends there. The five-year-old PNM is not a political outfit, even if, as the jokes would have it, a Bihar MP leads it. It is a common platform uniting 36 organisations of Purvanchalis in the metropolis, not around incendiary sub-nationalist slogans but gritty survival issues. It was launched at a well-attended rally in the capital in '02, with the slogan "Bihar mein baadh-sukhar, Dilli mein jhopdi ujjar (We flee Bihar because of flood and famine, only to have our huts destroyed in Delhi)". It has now made inroads into other cities like Ludhiana and Bangalore. It's even sending a team to Maharashtra to assess the situation there.

The PNM provides a vivid sense of where Purvanchalis stand today in relation to this metropolis (see infographic). Six out of every 10 migrants here are said to be UP-ites and Biharis, most of them poor. At the PNM meetings, Brahmins, Muslims, Thakurs, Yadavs and Kumhars chorus each others' arguments, demonstrating that caste and religious identities, so sharp back home, have been blurred in a common struggle for survival. Despite a law and order machinery, an urban planning process and a middle class intolerant, if not of Purvanchalis in particular, of the poor and dispossessed in general, they exude a certain confidence. They might resent the fact that "Bihari" continues to be a casual insult tossed at anyone on Delhi's streets who looks poor and rustic, but this is far outweighed by their satisfaction that personages like CM Sheila Dikshit and Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna had to retract their controversial remarks about the influx of people from UP and Bihar.

This is because Purvanchalis matter, politically and electorally, and are becoming assertive. "Nobody gives them seats but they have become a pressure group that every political party wants. Today, no political leader will miss a chance to tell them, 'I am your saviour'," says Dr Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. With Purvanchalis able to influence the vote in 20-25 of Delhi's 70 assembly seats, the BJP (the current opposition party in Delhi's two-party politics), the bsp and regional parties from Bihar and UP have been quick to defend them against perceived slights.

Apart from their electoral weight, Purvanchalis say two other factors explain why they are relatively at ease in Delhi, despite their bijli, sadak and pani travails. One, the absence of a strong regional identity in a city that has attracted successive waves of migrants since Partition—as ex-BJP MP Lal Bihari Tiwari puts it, "There are no real Dilliwalas here.

" Two, their own struggles for self-respect are built around survival issues, rather than a political agenda. Had they tried to organise themselves politically, it wouldn't have worked, PNM members tell you frankly, because so many Purvanchalis are poor and insecure, and therefore dependent on the patronage politics of mainstream political parties to get their needs addressed.

However, the atmosphere in Delhi is quite unlike many other areas with a high concentration of migrants. Elsewhere, recurring images of terrified Purvanchalis—often derisively descri-bed as "bhaiyyas" and "harrys"—fleeing from the fury of locals have begun to draw attention to this beleaguered community, making its members seem almost omnipresent. But that may not be far from the truth, for these two states—UP and Bihar—register the highest outflow of people to other parts of the country. The 2001 Census said that in the preceding decade 90 lakh migrated from UP, while 55 lakh left Bihar. Clearly, the Purvanchali question is increasingly becoming a factor in several parts of the country. Of course, recent events in Maharashtra, Assam and even Karnataka—all states with a strong regional identity unlike Delhi—demonstrate that it is playing out rather differently in different places.

From superstar Amitabh Bachchan and poet Kaifi Azmi to owners of milk businesses, taxi drivers, carpenters and itinerant farm labourers, the Purvanchalis have enriched the economy of the cities and villages they made their new homes. But as their numbers multiplied, they grew more visible and began to cut into the political, social and economic space of those who consider themselves the "original settlers". And then the problems began. They were welcomed as long as they were seen as dispensers of much-needed services, occasionally even as providers of jobs as they grew prosperous, or became handy "votebanks". But once they graduated to become competitors for government jobs and inadequate civic amenities, "encroachers" in the cultural arena and, finally, as elected political representatives in their new homes, they became easy targets.

Over the years, especially in Maharashtra and Assam, many of them realised that having achieved a critical mass in their new homes, they could promote the interests of their community better by becoming elected political representatives rather than remain as members of captive "votebanks". For local political parties, two options, therefore, opened up: to either coopt these political aspirants by absorbing them in their own parties (so that they don't become rival centres of power) or consolidate their "local constituents" by making the Purvanchalis objects of hate.

In Maharashtra, for instance, from the early 1960s, a succession of Purvanchalis became Congress corporators, mlas and ministers: Krupa Shankar Singh (MoS for home from 1999-2004 in the state) gives the credit to "enlightened" Congress leaders—from Vasantdada Patil and Y.B. Chavan to Sharad Pawar (now in the NCP). Currently, the Congress has three mlas—Krupa Shankar, Sayyed Ahmed and Naseem Khan. Even the current 227-strong Mumbai Mahanagar Palika has 35 Purvanchalis. If the Congress realised how important it was to create a political space for this increasingly powerful group, in the late 1990s, the Shiv Sena, the progenitor of hate politics in Maharashtra, too began to woo the Purvanchalis. This shift in Sena policy is what enabled Raj Thackeray to now move in for the kill, to try and separate the Marathi vote from the Sena by attacking the Purvanchalis.

Assam, which has seen half its migrant population from Purvanchal depleted in the last few years because of attacks by ULFA and other militant groups, interestingly has seven mlas from the demographic, the Congress' Ajit Singh, Jibon Tara Ghatowar, Raju Sahu, Rajendra Prasad Singh and Rameshwar Dhanowar, and the BJP's Shambhu Singh Mallah and Rameshwar Teli Of these, five belong to Upper Assam where a large number of Purvanchali migrants have settled down. But despite the significant Purvanchali representation in the Assam assembly, only one was made a minister—ex-Tin- sukia mla S.S. Ojha (Congress), who was the powerful transport and tourism minister under Hiteswar Saikia.

West Bengal presents a contrast to these two states. Here, all political parties have absorbed the migrants. The state assembly currently has three Purvanchali mlas, the Congress's Ram Pyare Ram, the CPI(M)'s Lagan Singh Deo and Javed Khan of the Trinamool Congress. This even-handedness has perhaps ensured that there is no palpable animosity towards Purvanchalis, who form Calcutta's unskilled and semi-skilled labour force, numbering half of the state's roughly 16 lakh migrants. Sociologist Ramanand Basu says, "Bengalis are not competing with them for such jobs, so they don't become objects of envy." It is the Marwaris, controlling the state's financial lifeline, who are the objects of derision.

So as Purvanchalis in different parts of the country learn to cope with varied situations, myth-making becomes a useful tool. Referring to the waves of indentured labour who left India's eastern shores in the 19th century and the recent unveiling of a larger-than-life bronze statue of that proud son of Bihar's Bhojpur district, Mauritius' first premier, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, in Patna recently, Krupa Shankar says with pride, "We have created nations outside India, Surinam, Mauritius. We are no longer kirayedaars (tenants), now we are hissedaars (stakeholders). We're a hardworking people, enriching the places we travel to and settle in."

The Outsider Factor

The migration of people from UP and Bihar to other parts of the country has become controversial in recent years ...

Maharashtra
UP-Bihar Migrants: 50 Lakh
State Population: 9.69 crore

* In Mumbai, 40 lakh of the city's 1.4 crore population are from UP and Bihar
* Raj Thackeray's recent campaign saw violence against outsiders

Delhi
UP-Bihar Migrants: 38 lakh
Population (NCR): 1.3 crore

* So far there has been no violence. But Purvanchali leaders feel that there is growing resentment against outsiders. In universities, colleges and schools, students from the Purvanchal area often complain of discrimination.

Punjab
UP-Bihar Migrants: 40 lakh
State Population: 2.4 crore

* In October, there was an attack on a Sringaar cinema in Ludhiana which was screening a Bhojpuri film. Eight migrants were killed. Sikh extremist groups have been leading a campaign against outsiders.

Assam
UP-Bihar Migrants: 3 lakh
State Population: 2.6 crore

* Purvanchali labourers killed in ’07 allegedly by the ULFA.

Karnataka
UP-Bihar Migrants: below 1 lakh
State Population: 5.2 crore

* In Bangalore, only 34 per cent of the city's 60 lakh population are Kannadigas.
* Though Purvanchalis form a very small segment of migrants, there were protests last month over recruitment of railway employees in Karnataka. There were allegations of there being more Bihari candidates than Kannadigas.




http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080303&fname=Bihari+%28F%29&sid=1

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