The Hindu Business Line : Laboratories of sad politics

Election after election has shown that the model of politics that thrives Bihar is firmly connected to dividing people along regional, communal and caste lines. Gujarat, Bihar and UP have emerged as the most successful laboratories of such politics.

DESPITE STEREOTYPES about Bihari labourers being lazy, many of them are hard workers.

Millions of Indians would have had their conscience jolted on Wednesday morning by the photographs capturing the hopeless expression in the eyes of the unnamed Bihari `migrant' on the Guwahati railway station headed home from a violence-torn Assam, where over 70 Bihari labourers were massacred by ULFA activists.

Whether it is the Shiv-Sena-inspired Marathi sentiment against `outsiders', the communal frenzy that swept Gujarat, or the anger against "Hindi-speaking outsiders" in Assam, it is most often the Biharis who face the brunt of the crazy sons-of-the soil sentiment.

Of course, those who foster such hatred in the name of region, language or religion, deserve to be flayed, but also deserving of punishment are the ruling classes of Bihar, who allowed the State to deteriorate to such abysmal depths vis-à-vis development that the biggest group of migrant labour you are bound to see anywhere in India comprises Biharis.

Even the whitest of white-collar workers would not like to leave their homes and go out in search of livelihood, but for more challenging jobs and fatter pay cheques. While on the one hand the shining bits of India are proving to be a big draw for the return of those who had left for the US and other greener pastures in search of mega greenbacks, to exciting careers and attractive pay packets home, migration of the poor, illiterate and the downtrodden in search of physical labour continues.

That these people often do not even get the stipulated minimum wages goes unnoticed and unchallenged and they continue to toil for a mere two meals a day and meagre savings they can send back home to keep the rest of the family from starvation. Engrossed as we are in the humdrum of our lives, nobody gives the struggling classes a thought till they tug at our heartstrings as do the stark images of Biharis headed home with their meagre belongings.

But why do Biharis top the charts in the migrant labour category? Long decades of misrule, the deeply entrenched zamindari system, lack of land reforms and the much deeper class and caste divides have only further marginalised the poor and illiterate people of the State.

While the chattering classes have managed to keep their heads above water as the law and order situation deteriorated in the State, sending their children to other States for education and white-collar jobs, the landless poor and the unskilled classes had no choice but to migrate to far and inhospitable regions in search of a paltry income.

Biharis in Chennai

Despite stereotypes about Bihari labourers being lazy and untrustworthy, many of them work really hard, but that does not prevent them from being exploited. A friend's son, who started a sari retail outlet in Chennai, promptly got 10 workers from Bihar, put them in a rented room, organised their meals and paid them Rs 3,000 per month. As his business picked up, he could not stop praising the "hardworking and disciplined Biharis who work till late hours without complaining." He is a Gujarati, his son has done an MBA from an American university and quickly zeroed in on a profitable business model.

As real-estate prices zoom, the home loan segment buzzes and construction activity booms in Chennai, one finds Bihari labourers all over the place; while the men and the women work, the infants rest in their make-shift homes at these sites. Similarly, in the steel re-rolling mills, thousands of Biharis provide labour. "You just have to tell one of them I need so many workers and in a few days he'll get them from Bihar. Food is very important to them; they eat only rotis and among the workers one man is designated the job of making rotis and sabji for them. It is a full-time job; he will not come to the factory, but we have to pay his wage.

Another important factor — when they get homesick or have an emergency and ask for leave to go home, it has to be granted. Else, he will simply pack his belongings and leave," says a mill owner.

This, then, is the story of the Bihari labourer seen at close quarters by this correspondent in Chennai. But in States such as Tamil Nadu where there is a perennial shortage of manual labour, as more and more people graduate to better paying jobs, the Biharis are welcomed. But in a State such as Assam that has seen unrest and insurgency for various reasons, and has remained under-developed and sans employment opportunities, it becomes so easy for an outfit like the ULFA to target the weakest and the poorest. The tragedy is all the more because many of these so-called migrants in the State have lived there for generations.

Historic reasons

So what does it do to a Bihari intellectual to see his tribe being targeted, attacked and brutally murdered? To this question Dr Shaibal Gupta, Member Secretary of the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute says that several macro and micro factors have contributed to the lack of employment opportunities forcing Bihari labourers to migrate in search of employment.

"Historically in Bihar, public investment has been limited both prior to and after Independence. Unfortunately, after the 1980s, in the wake of liberalisation and globalisation, public investment further declined as investment was decided by market forces."

He explains that in this backdrop, investment followed stronger markets such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, so Bihar lost out further. Also, unlike West Bengal, "where labour absorption is rather high in agriculture and so migration is limited, in Bihar, because of the absence of land reforms, agriculture has not taken a development trajectory and cannot absorb much labour, so the surplus labour has no choice but to go out in search of work."

While this has hit the unskilled, illiterate sections of Bihar, in contrast the middle and lower middle classes of Bihar, over the years, "have become very examination-driven. It is not only in the IAS and IPS examinations, but also in subordinate jobs that the Biharis participate and do well.

Since Bihar is exporting labour in both the upper and lower categories, there is resentment against Bihari labour. A couple of years ago, the Rajasthan Government decided not to recognise Bihar degrees as Biharis were flooding their subordinate posts," says Dr Gupta. On the resentment in Assam, he says that lack of employment opportunities there, coupled with the influx of illegal migration from Bangladesh, had only aggravated the situation and Bihari families, which had lived there for over a century, were targeted.

Dr Gupta says the only solution for such attacks against "outsiders" is that sub-national identity should increase and politics of sub-national hatred should not be encouraged.

But, therein, lies the problem. Unfortunately, election after election has shown that the model of politics that thrives in this country is firmly connected to dividing people along regional, communal and caste lines. Gujarat, Bihar and UP have emerged as the most successful laboratories of such politics.

But, sadly, the dejected Bihari does not understand such high sounding phrases as `sub-national identity' or `sub-religious divide' and knows nothing about market forces. He and his companions have fled from Assam, not knowing what the future holds for them. Most probably, it will be another destination, another State, another job with similarly sub-sustenance wages.

In a conflict and violence-torn society and world, he too will fade from our consciousness and the daily briefings of political parties as more horrid images occupy media space. But, in this context, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's overtures on friendship with Pakistan and his hope that a time will come soon when "one can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul is a fine sentiment indeed, but before that, his government should endeavour to ensure that Indians live in peace and friendship on Indian territory.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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