bihar

one of India's poorest states and the most densely populated. In the north, the flat plains of the Ganges (Ganga) River are an agricultural area. The Chota Nagpur Plateau in the south has rich mineral resources. Coal and iron ore are mined in this region.

People and government
People. Bihar has one of the largest populations of all the Indian states. Nearly half of the population is below the poverty line. Bihar has one of the lowest literacy rates in India, with just over a quarter of the population able to read and write. It also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in India. In towns, 60 out of every 1,000 children die before reaching the age of one year. In rural areas, the rate is nearly twice as high.

Hindi is the main language. It is spoken by more than 90 per cent of the people. Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, and Urdu are also spoken on the plains. Bihar has many tribal groups, particularly in the Chota Nagpur region. Kurukh, Mundari, and Santali are among the more important tribal languages. About 83 per cent of the population are Hindu, 14 per cent Muslim, 1 per cent Christian, and 0.1 per cent Sikh. Christianity is important among three tribes, the Kharia, Munda, and Oraons. Only the Ho tribe follows animist beliefs (see ANIMISM).
Government. Bihar has 54 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 22 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national parliament. Bihar has a legislative assembly with 380 members elected from 54 constituencies. It also has a Legislative Council with 96 members. The state is divided into 39 administrative districts.
Economy
Agriculture and fishing. Bihar is mainly an agricultural state. Bihar's agriculture reflects its location between the wet east and the drier west of the Indian plains. Rice is the major crop everywhere and is grown as the main wet-season crop. Barley, maize, pulses (the seeds of various pod vegetables, such as beans, chickpeas, and pigeon peas), and wheat are also important. The main cash crops are chillis, jute, oil seeds, potatoes, sugar cane, and tobacco. Jute is grown in the far east of the state, where conditions are not very favourable, and the quality of the crop is poor (see JUTE).
Many farmers grow fruit and vegetables. Mangoes are a particular speciality. Forest covers about 19 per cent of the area of the state. Important forest products are kendu leaves, lac (the insect resin used to make shellac), and sal seeds and timber. The sal is an important local tree. Lac insects feed on the sap of the sal and secrete lac on its twigs. People harvest the lac by gathering the sal twigs. Sal wood is used for building and construction. Its bark yields a black dye and resin used in making typewriter ribbons and carbon paper.
North Bihar is India's biggest producer of freshwater fish. More than half of the catch is sold in Calcutta.
Manufacturing. Chota Nagpur is the main centre of industry. The Indian government used foreign aid to develop the Damodar Valley in Chota Nagpur under the River Valley Development Authority. Bokaro steel mill in the Damodar Valley project area and Bharat Heavy Engineering at Ranchi are two such developments. Other industrial sites include an oil refinery at Barauni, an aluminium plant at Muri, a nylon factory in Bhojpur, and a watch factory at Ranchi.
There are several craft industries. Madhubani painting is done by women from the Mithila region. Traditional vegetable dyes are obtained from leaves, mixed with goat's milk. The "paint" is then used on handmade paper. Women from the same district also weave a special grass, called sikki. They make brightly coloured boxes and baskets. Bihar is also known for its wooden toys, metal figures, and leather goods.
Mining. Bihar contains 40 per cent of India's mineral wealth, including coal, copper, and iron. It also has major deposits of bauxite (the ore from which aluminium is made). These deposits lie on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the south and have caused rapid industrial expansion in Jamshedpur, Ranchi, and Dhanbad.
Bauxite production more than doubled in the 1970's and 1980's. It is mined at Lohardaga, 50 kilometres west of Ranchi. Narrow-gauge trains transport it to Luri, south of the Damodar River, for processing.
Bihar produces more than half of India's total mica production. But the decline in world demand for mica has hit the industry badly. Bihar's production dropped from 15,000 metric tons in 1971 to under 3,500 metric tons in the early 1990's. Hazaribagh, about 70 kilometre north of Ranchi, is the main centre of production. Women and children split the mica into sheets, which are no more than 0.04 millimetre thick. See MICA.
Transportation and communication. Bihar has about 26,000 kilometres of surfaced road. The Grand Trunk Road crosses it from east to west linking Calcutta and Delhi. Until the 1980's, the difficulty of crossing the Ganges at Patna limited travel to and from north Bihar. A new bridge, the longest river bridge in the world, has now opened up road traffic on the main road routes to the border with Nepal. There are many good roads in the Chota Nagpur region.
Patna has the main airport in the state. The airports at Jamshedpur and Ranchi have services to Patna.
There are more railways in south Bihar than in the north, and major routes from Calcutta to Delhi and Bombay pass through the state. There have been major rail improvements in the Damodar Valley, as well as an ambitious electrification programme.
More than 96 per cent of the area is within reach of radio, and 75 per cent can receive television. National newspapers are available in all the major centres, and regional Hindi newspapers are published in Patna and Ranchi. But the newspaper circulation of only 5 newspapers for each 1,000 people is among the lowest in India.
Land
Location and description. Bihar is a landlocked state. Bihar shares an international border to the north with Nepal. To the east is West Bengal and to the south, Orissa. Bihar has a short border with Madhya Pradesh to the southwest, and its western border is with Uttar Pradesh.
From the Siwalik foothills of the Himalaya, the boundary stretches 600 kilometres south to the forested borders of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, while its maximum east-to-west width is about 480 kilometres.
Land features. The Ganges River runs from west to east through the heart of the plains which comprise the state's central region. The plains are almost flat and lie about 75 metres above sea level.
The Chota Nagpur Plateau is not one plateau, but a series of plateaus and valleys. The highest, Hazaribagh Plateau, has an average height of about 1,100 metres. Its highest point is the granite peak of Parasnath (1,365 metres). The next lower plateau, Ranchi Plateau, is composed of granite with undulating topography and averages 600 metres above sea level. The highest of the remaining plateaus has an average elevation of 300 metres. The valleys and plains of the Chota Nagpur region lie between 200 and 300 metres. The most important of the valleys is the Damodar Valley. In the late 1960's, one-fifth of the land in Chota Nagpur was still forested. This area has since decreased dramatically. The Chota Nagpur Plateau, despite being an area of industry, is still extensively cultivated. However, some large areas of sal forest remain.
Rivers. By the time the Ganges reaches Bihar from the northwest, it is one of the world's major rivers. During the monsoon season, it receives heavy rains and water released by melting snow from the Himalaya (see MONSOON). At Patna, in central Bihar, the Ganges may be over 15 kilometres wide during July and August.
The Ganges is joined by its northern tributaries from the Nepal Himalaya, such as the Ghaghara, Gandak, and Kosi. The Son River joins the Ganges from the southwest. To the north of the Ganges are old river beds, which fill up with water to form chains of lakes during the monsoon. These lakes are a vital source of fish.
Torrential rain in the Himalayan foothills leads to major floods in some of the rivers, such as the Kosi. Because of the flatness of the Ganges Valley, such flooding is disastrous. The Kosi has shifted course frequently and, over a period of 130 years, has moved more than 110 kilometres westward. It also deposits vast quantities of alluvium (deposits of sand and coarse silt), which destroy previously fertile land.
The state authorities built a major protective embankment in 1960 to limit the flooding and westward movement of the Kosi, protecting 265,000 hectares of agricultural land. Attempts to control the Kosi by building dams are still under consideration. However, the project is hard to bring into effect because of the very large amounts of silt. Other problems are that the Himalayan foothills are an earthquake zone and that the dams would have to be built outside India, in Nepal.
To the south of the Ganges is another stretch of alluvium. It is much shallower than that to the north of the river and about 150 kilometres wide. When the Ganges is in full flow, this southern alluvial strip is subject to severe floods between July and October. The alluvium barely covers the ancient rocks which form the Chota Nagpur Plateau and emerge in broken hills to the south. There is open parkland in Chota Nagpur, where much of the original forest has been cleared.
The plains of the Ganges are widely cultivated. As a result, little natural vegetation remains. Along the foothills of the Himalaya, sal forest was once widespread but is now much less extensive. Grasses and bamboo are common in the marshy areas. Forest clearance has taken place rapidly in both north and south Bihar. The process has largely removed the once extensive forests of teak and sal on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Another important tree was the asan. Its sweet, edible leaves were used to make alcoholic drinks, or fed to silkworms. Although much of the forested land has been cleared, the remote upland areas still have attractive parkland scenery. The remaining forests continue to supply lac. Bamboo is used for making paper, and banyan, pipal, and palmyra palm are common.
Animals. As the forests have been cleared, the habitat of Bihar's wildlife has been reduced. Elephants, leopards, and tigers are still found, mainly in reserves, along with bears, deer, and a range of small mammals.
Climate. The average minimum temperature on the plains of the north is 11 °C, rising to 27 °C from June to August. Average maximum temperatures range from 24 °C in January to 39 °C in May. Temperatures then fall slightly after the start of the rainy season. On the Chota Nagpur Plateau, it is several degrees cooler in both winter and summer.
Most of Bihar receives more than 1,100 millimetres of rain a year. The east receives more than the west. About 95 per cent of the rain falls between June and September. Only 8 millimetres falls in November and December, and a further 15 millimetres in March and April.
History
Archaeologists have found agricultural settlements in Bihar from before 2000 B.C. Cities emerged in the area around the 500's B.C. The ancient Indian state of Magadha dominated the region during this period. It became the centre of a succession of powerful kingdoms. Some of the kings were outstanding administrators. Bimbisara (reigned 544-493 B.C.) unified and strengthened his kingdom and maintained good relations with neighbouring states and contacts as far afield as Taxila in the northwest. His successor Ajatasatru (reigned 493-462 B.C.) was another outstanding ruler. These and other Magadha kings expanded the territories they ruled to form a major Indian empire.
During the period of Magadha rule, the region of Bihar experienced changes in social and economic life. As towns grew in number and size, trade and commerce developed. There were also changes in religion. The Magadha rulers supported the emerging religions of Buddhism and Jainism. There are many places in Bihar that are associated with Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and Vardamana Mahavira, the founder of the Jain faith.
Toward the end of the 300's B.C., a new empire emerged in the Bihar region, as Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the last of the Magadha rulers. Chandragupta Maurya reigned from about 321 B.C. to about 298 B.C. and laid the foundations of the Maurya Empire. This was the first empire to unite most of India under one ruler.
The early Magadha kings had their capital at Rajagriha, 100 kilometres west of the modern city of Patna. Stone walls with a perimeter of about 40 kilometres surrounded Rajagriha. When Chandragupta Maurya came to power, he moved the capital to Pataliputra, the site where Patna now stands. Pataliputra had the shape that Patna has today--a long, narrow city stretching along the bank of the Ganges River.
Chandragupta's grandson was the great emperor Asoka, who became ruler of all India except the south. A pillar bearing one of Asoka's edicts (messages to his people) has a capital with lions facing the four directions of the compass (see ASHOKA).
For 600 years after the death of Asoka in 232 B.C., the Bihar region was ruled by fairly insignificant clans (families). Then the Guptas came to power. These kings encouraged a flowering of Hindu culture, known as the classical period, in the A.D. 300's and 400's. The poet and dramatist Kalidasa and the astronomer Aryabhata were great intellectuals of this period. The Guptas expanded their territory despite defeat by the Huns.
Turks and Afghans arrived and defeated the Hindu rulers in 1197. From that time the influence of Muslim political power in Bihar was very strong. The Delhi sultans and a succession of local Muslim rulers, independent of Delhi, controlled the region until the 1500's. Sher Shah Suri, Bihar's ruler, won fame for his defeat of the Mughal emperor Humayun in 1539. Sher Shah became emperor of northern India. Bihar became Mughal territory during the reign of Akbar (1556-1605). Muslim place names, such as Aliganj and Hajipur, are evidence of 500 years of Muslim political dominance.
The Mughals retained Bihar until the British won the Battle of Buxar in 1764 (see BUXAR, BATTLE OF). At that time, Bihar was still part of Bengal, but later the two regions were separated. Bihar became a province under British rule and declined into poverty. The British (United Kingdom) government's policy of granting land ownership to local zamindars (tax collectors) meant hardship for Bihar's peasants. The region became a breeding ground for resistance to the British and for nationalist movements and rebellions.
Bihar took its present form at India's independence in 1947. It lost two districts, Purnea and Manbhum, to West Bengal during the 1956 reorganization of India's states.
During the 1900's, Bihar continued to be one of India's poorest and most badly administered states. Throughout the 1980's, there were outbreaks of violence between castes in the countryside (see CASTE). There continues to be a shortage of land, and settlers have brought more and more land under cultivation. This has reduced the forest cover essential to the traditional way of life of tribal peoples. At the same time, few of Bihar's tribal people have the opportunity to work in new industries. Jobs tend to go to the more educated Hindi-speaking Biharis. For over 100 years, emigration from the state has exceeded immigration. The poor have moved to cities such as Calcutta and Bombay or to work on tea plantations. Hundreds of thousands of Biharis travel to regions such as Punjab and Haryana to work during harvests.
The Congress Party of India has dominated the political life of Bihar since 1947. But it has not been completely unopposed. Communists and socialists had considerable influence in Bihar's political affairs at one time. The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gained strength in Bihar in the mid-1990's, but the Janata Dal Party retained power in the state in the 1996 general election.
In recent times, a radical group known as the Indian People's Front has gained considerable political influence in Bihar. There is also a powerful movement for the formation of a separate state in the tribal region, Jharkhand.