The
change is quick and abrupt. Mountains and ubiquitous valleys
covered in lush green trees and cool breeze gives way
to nearly denuded hills and scattered bushes as one crosses
Koderma - the border town in Jharkhand - to enter Rajauli
in Bihar. A few minutes more and one's suddenly surrounded
by water and mud-filled paddy fields, cows and bullocks
- you know you are in Bihar.
One
misses the breeze, the forests and the enchanting hills
housing elephants, deer, cats and other wild denizens
lurking all along the 200 km Ranchi-Koderma stretch. The
woods and rocks sharply pave way to flat paddy and hay
fields and tubs on mounted platforms to feed cattle and
cows, ox and buffalos before houses, from Nawada, to Nalanda
to Bakhtiarpur.
It's
not only the landscape that changes when one leaves Koderma
to enter the dusty and sultry Nawada district in Bihar.
One does feel the vast difference in the culture of the
two states, too.
For instance, the women selling hadia in earthen pots,
beneath trees and behind bushes, are unique sights from
Ranchi to Hazaribagh to Jhumari Tilaiya. There are a few
scattered patches for harvest between the hills. There
one does find peasants ploughing the fields with their
buffalos or preparing the field. But, farming activity
is very rare from Ranchi to Koderma. Men and women carrying
bundle of logs on their heads are the usual sights in
the hills.
From
Nawada onwards there is the presence of intensive farming
activity on both sides of the highway. One finds only
oxen ploughing the fields, while cows and buffalos graze
all along. I could smell the smoke of cowdung-fire coming
from almost every household as the sun went down warranting
Bihar villagers to prepare dinner.
Cow
dung is still the main source of fuel to keep the home-fire
burning in the planes of Bihar unlike coal and wood in
the Jharkhand villages. And, one doesn't find even a trace
of hadia as one crosses Koderma to enter the Bihar.
It
does not mean that Bihar does not have its share of drinkers.
But hadia, which is part and parcel of tribal life is
simply nowhere to be seen. The size and shape of the people
and the cattle, too, appear to have changed as one enters
Bihar from Jharkhand. Cows, buffalos, oxen and even men
look relatively taller and robust in Nalanda and Bakhtiyapur
unlike the dwarf cattle and relatively shorter humans
in the tribal villages along Ranchi-Ramgarh-Hazaribagh
Road.
The
culture of town and citylife in the two states is also
dissimilar. Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Ranchi and Dhanbad feel
more cosmopolitan, in the sense, that these Jharkhand
cities have people from Bengal, Bihar, Oriya and other
parts of India. If you speak Bangla in Dhanbad, Jamshedpur
and even in Ranchi, you will not be looked upon with surprise.
But
in no way can you speak any language other than Hindi,
Bhojpuri and Magahi in Nalanda, Bakhtiyarpur, Chapra,
Siwan and even in Patna. Chapra, Siwan and Muzaffarur
in north Bihar and Barh, Bakhtiyarpur and Nalanda in central
Bihar are primarily inhabited by the Hindi-speaking locals.
There is hardly any cultural mix.
Again,
one hardly experiences any change when one enters Deoria
district in Uttar Pradesh from Siwan and Gopalganj districts
in Bihar. One comes across the same landscape, the same
type of people and even the same language in the districts
and villages on both the sides of the UP-Bihar border.
It's
a "cow-belt" culture in the Hindi heartland
that spreads all around. In fact, the difference in culture
has also thrown different political set up in the two
states.
Though it is a small 81-member House, the Jharkhand Assembly
has the presence of representatives from Bengal, Bihar
and even a Sikh in the form of Inder Singh Namdhari. But
it is hard to find a single non-Bihar representative in
the huge 243-member Bihar Assembly. You have to be a blue-blooded
Bihar born, with a solid caste "background",
if you ever wish to enter the House.
Some
people debate the relevance of creation of Jharkhand even
after six years of the state's bifurcation. But I personally
feel that Jharkhand and Bihar, representing two distinct
social and cultural life, should have been separated long
ago.
