India: In Bihar

Feringhee: The Indian Diaries writes on going to Bihar. “Every week, the paper has an account of a prominent person's child, or even just successful middle-class person's, kidnapped and held for ransom. The headlines of the “Bihar Digest” section sometimes defy belief (“Child's fingers chopped off for stealing spinach”; “Son hacks mother to death”).”

3 comments

  • The decency of the average people in Bihar, and its spiritual history, are a real marked contrast with its lawless (and perhaps deserved) reputation. The down side is you shouldn’t travel after dark…the up side is, a lot of local good people will actively be concerned for a traveller’s welfare.

    The same week, Patna was host to the “Global Resurgent Bihar” conference inaugurated by none other than Pres. Abdul Kalam. Talk about a tale of 2 cities!

  • The unfortunate but the bitter truth is that even bloggers are now following the footstep of popular media and highlighting the not so real truth based on some jaundiced and preposterous urban mindset which does no good but flagellate the state of Bihar without exploring the reality.

    It seems nothing good from Bihar can catch the fancy of Bihar critic’s .People who write about Bihar are similar to Angreez journalist who pass insensititive comments on India and Indians without having an iota of appreciation and knowledge about people and social structure.

  • Traditional media reports from Bihar tend to follow the “bad news is good for us” route. It is similar to what the media in west does with India – “poverty, snake charmers, ladder sadhus…”

    Focus on stories about people trying to make a difference in Bihar will do more good, don’t you think?

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