SUMMARY

The Bihari is an ethnolinguistic group of approximately 80 million people that inhabit primarily the Indian state Bihar and to some extent Bihar’s neighboring states, as well as Nepal and Bangladesh. The Bihari consist of three major ethno-lingual subgroups, the Bhojpuri, Maithil, and Magahi; in total, there are 12 Bihari languages. Some of the Bihari languages are related to Hindi and Urdu, which are the official languages of Bihar state; as a result, many Bihari also speak Hindi.

The Bihari descend from the Indo-Aryan peoples, who settled in presented-day Bihar several thousand years ago. During Medieval times, the Bihar region was subjugated by the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal dynasty. When the British colonized the region, Bihar was placed under the presidency of Bengal. Present-day Bihari suffers an almost 50 percent poverty rate, and some of the lowest literacy rates in India. The Bihari display significant cultural differences depending on their place of residence, caste, and religion; however, the primary cultural divide is that of rural vis-á-vis urban dwellers. Rural Bihari are primarily agriculturalists, while urban Bihari engage in a wide range of occupational activities.

In Assam, the Bihari constitute an “immigrant” group who has arrived in the state in several different rounds; they are now estimated to number some 5-600 000 in the state. A large proportion of the Bihari population in Assam has lived there for many generations, as their ancestors arrived for example during the British colonial rule to work at the tea plantations. The present-day Bihari migrated to Assam in search of employment opportunities, carrying out various forms of low-skill labor as permanent or seasonal workers. In Assamese discourse, the “Bihari” are defined as Hindi-speakers, and thus not solely people from the Bihar region, but also places like Uttar Pradesh. They are subjected to severe prejudice and discrimination from the broader population in Assam.