The Hindu : Strangers in their own land

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 27, 2003

National

National

Strangers in their own land

By K. Balchand

PATNA Nov. 26. Until about a fortnight ago, the realisation had not dawned upon them that they were Biharis, living, as they did, for generations in Assam, mixing with the `sons of the soil' and speaking the language of the north-eastern region.

If, all of a sudden, they have been treated as aliens and driven out, the flock landing on the soil of which they are supposed to be the sons feel no better. They are, for all practical purposes, strangers, knowing little about their roots, which they had snapped quite long ago, and now struggle to communicate in the language, otherwise their mother tongue, Hindi or the other dialects Bjhojpuri, Magahi or Maithili.

Karamsheel Sao landed at the Patna junction with little knowledge about how to go to his village in Vaishali district. His intonations betray his long absence from the State. He is not sure where precisely the relatives, who had visited him, could be located. He and his family members face the daunting task of grafting a new existence.

There is an exodus from the north-eastern States. But it does not amount to an influx into Bihar, because it is the return of the `sons of the soil, though in desperate circumstances. There are no relief camps here and these hapless people are expected to fend for themselves and find a place which they could call their own. Most of them are not sure whether they would be welcome guests at their relative's place. If there is an identity crisis, Sao and the likes of him lack an address too.

The heavily escorted trains that arrive from the northeast bring in a multitude of agony. Some disembark at Kishanganj, Katihar, Bhagalpur or stations from where they had migrated to Assam, once considering it closer to their native place. For their kith and kin, these places appear quite out of touch, distanced by time and withering relations.

A large number of people had gone in search of labour in the tea gardens or the silk trade or the plywood mills even from districts like Siwan, Saran and Muzaffarpur, though people of this region prefer migrating to Punjab and Haryana for agricultural jobs.

Arriving with head loads of bundles, they have very little with them to pick up the pieces for a new living.

What they have of Assam are bitter memories — their houses burnt to ashes, and, in some cases, the loss of their dear ones, and the fear for their own lives.

Ramesh Yadav and his family swear not to return to Assam, driven as they were by a sense of insecurity.

"We had to run for cover and took shelter in the forests. Our children had to go without food for a couple of days. We somehow managed to board the train," he wailed.

The problem is the same, be it Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Tinsukiya or Nalbadi, despite the presence of the para-military forces and the Army. Factory owners themselves asked the Hindi-speaking labourers to return to their villages either after an attack or fearing one by the militia groups desperate to regain their lost ground. The problem is not that complex for those who had migrated recently.

But here the families are worried about their dear ones.Usha Devi of Hajipur was perturbed that she had not received her monthly money order from her two sons and was on her way to Assam to search for them and bring them back home.

The return of this large chunk of population would add to the socio-economic problems of the State.

But their absence would also tell on the economy of the north-eastern States. Particularly, the decision of the floating population of truck drivers who have stopped carrying essential commodities till normality was restored and security guaranteed.

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