Political awakening, identity formation and the other's survival: Bihar's internal re-organization

Abstract

Since Independence in 1947, India has been internally reorganized several times, and new states have been carved out of old ones for various reasons. The latest stage of reorganization occurred in 2000 when the states of Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand), Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh came into being from the remodelling of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh respectively. The three new states have their under-development in common as well as their sense of injustice about regional exploitation. This research focuses on the case study of Bihar and Jharkhand, situated in the Eastern part of India's Northern Hindi-speaking belt. Two distinct threads are followed: a top-down approach which asks why the central government decided to split Bihar; and a bottom-up approach wondering how the local population -- specifically the tribal one -- managed, throughout the years, to gain political power and to obtain their long-wanted -- yet truncated -- autonomous state within the Indian federation.