The State has
everything. All it needs is some initiative and enterprise, and a
little help from the government
From Assam to Punjab and from Nepal to Maharashtra, “Biharis,”
i.e. migrants from Bihar, Jharkhand and Eastern U.P., are under attack.
They are despised for the same reasons as are Indians abroad — they
respect law, they give more than they get, they help their compatriots,
and, thus, succeed more than a second rate immigrant group is expected
to. They turn out to be serious competition for the local contenders.
They work as unskilled labour at Howrah and Sealdah at half the amount
charged by their brethren in Chennai or other metros. For Rs. 40 daily,
they work as security guards in Chennai. Without them there would be
few taxis, buses and autorickshaws, hand drawn or paddle-driven
rickshaws in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Pune and
Surat.
They sell betel leaves in Thiruvananthapuram, used clothes in Shimla,
water in Mumbai, tea in Pune, carry bricks at construction sites
everywhere. They supply cheap, unskilled and semi-skilled labour to
small and big businesses all over the north and now also in major
cities in the south. In spite of now and then losing limbs and life,
they run farm machinery in Punjab, and industrial machinery elsewhere.
A talent bank
They account for over one fourth of the finance of the “self-financed”
professional colleges of south and western India, and in spite of being
branded “Bimaru,” sick, a major talent bank for schools, colleges and
universities of Delhi. And now that the local guys have left for
greener pastures, they fill the narrow cubicles in the call centres and
BPOs of Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon and Noida.
They are nearly everywhere, in spite of frowns and whines.
Biharis do not know what being master is like, but they make model
servants. They are loyal and hardworking. No work is too mean or big
for them. They stay clear of the police, prostitute, press and
politicians. Liquor and tobacco, except of the grinding kind, are still
taboos to them.
Why do Biharis then not stay home and use these attributes to change
their own fortune? At home these qualities would not be enough, they
would also need initiative and enterprise, and, as Nehru
(Autobiography, p.489) said, few Biharis have these.
Left-handed compliment
Business, or enterprise of any kind, is yet to rank high on the list of
things Biharis admire. Any other region would go out of the way to
felicitate some one like Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh
International, for the way he has eliminated manual scavenging from
much of India, and has, in the same stroke, created over 50,000 jobs in
more than 40 countries. Yet, in private, an average Bihari pays him
only a left handed compliment, calling him a “cleaner of toilets.”
A typical Bihari’s dream is limited to how much money he can send home
to families waiting for it who would with pride tell the village of the
“success” their boys have been. Saran and Darbhanga districts of Bihar
are the highest non-metro money order districts of India.
Next to sending money home comes their eagerness to own the roof under
which they live. After that they do not mind if Sheila Dikshit holds
them responsible for the problems of Delhi, or Assamese slaughter them,
or Raj Thackeray boots them out.
I am not saying that Raj Thackeray and the likes of him claiming
privileges for the natives are right. No one subscribing to the concept
of a nation would do so. But dignity and prosperity never come in
charity. They must be earned. People from south India did so when they
were attacked by Bal Thackeray in the 1970s. South Indians returned
home and changed their towns and cities. They created their own
educational institutions, hospitals, industry and job opportunities.
Bihar has everything. All it needs is some initiative and enterprise,
and a little help from the government. With roads, power and phone, and
flood control, the fertile soil of Bihar can give jobs to all its
people and can make it rich in a decade.
Bank loans must be easily available. Lending rules have changed, but
bank officials’ mindset has not. Bihar has the lowest bank advance
against deposit ratio. Let this change. Rather than lose energy
complaining, as the mother of a Black American journalist said
vis-À-vis Whites, help Biharis do for themselves what they have
been doing for the others. Then they would be envied, not despised.
(The writer, Professor, IIT Madras, is a native of and frequent visitor
to Bihar)
http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/03/23/stories/2008032350031400.htm
Copyright © 2008, The Hindu
