The languages which are native to Bihar such as Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi are considered inferior and "gawar" languages in comparison to Hindi. With the exception of one i.e. Maithili all these languages are still considered "dialects" of Hindi, this is quite funny since these languages predate Hindi (the Hindi as we know it) by centuries.
It’s not just non-Biharis who consider our languages to be inferior and to be of the uncivilized people, it’s the people from Bihar themselves who believe this and I myself have seen parents discourage their children to speak in Bhojpuri. This is a matter of concern because the majority of the folk songs (lok geet)/stories (lok katha) and other literature remains in the oral traditions only and they are disappearing since the new generation does not want to carry the baggage.
Since, the majority of people consider Hindi to be the superior language they don't want their children to learn the regional language i.e. Bhojpuri, Magahi etc. I have seen parents shouting at their children just because they were speaking Bhojpuri, like they have committed some sort of crime, this level of hate towards one's own culture is beyond my understanding. If someone who speaks only Hindi comes to Bihar they are treated as though they are more civilized than us and culturally superior to us in some sense. As a result of this, it is not surprising that every new generation knows less and is less connected to their cultural roots.
The role of English Medium Schools and the colonialized mind
To add more gas to the fire there are these "English" medium schools, these institutions do everything in their power to stop the students from speaking in the native languages in the school campus.
I myself faced this issue growing up and one could always feel the disgust, the teachers had in their eyes when they heard someone speaking Bhojpuri, as though they are committing some sort of horrible sin. This is one of the biggest reasons why the language is slowly fading away, there's little to no academic value of Bhojpuri left and compare this to other regional languages like Bengali and Marathi which are flourishing.
The Parents often insist on their children to not speak in Bhojpuri because they want their children to be modern and fear that learning Bhojpuri will somehow create hinderance in that they are not wrong. For instance, if you have a Bhojpuri accent in English, you are looked down upon, but this isn’t true when you have a Spanish or German or Russian accent, this just goes to show that how everyone in India is still colonialized mentally including the people from Bihar. As long we don’t break this narrative that the white man is superior to us, we won’t be able to save our cultural heritage, since we are the ones who are murdering it in one way or another.
The literature of a language contributes to the popularity of a language, just like the name of Shakespeare has become synonymous to English and Goethe with German. Bhojpuri has become a matter of joke and not taken seriously because of this lack of written literature. We previously discussed how the younger generation is being discouraged to even speak in Bhojpuri let alone, make a career out of it. As long as this Inferiority complex exists few would dare to do anything about the upliftment of the language and as long as nothing is being done for the upliftment of the languages the inferiority complex will stand. As a result, both of these are stuck in a self-reinforcing loop.
Effect on other forms and “The Bhojpuri Industry”
The lack of good literature also sends rippling effect to all forms of art, drama and this scarcity of literature is one of the reasons behind the shallowness of the Bhojpuri film Industry. The first movie in Bhojpuri, i.e. Ganga Mayi Tohke Piyari Chadhayibo was on par with the contemporary Bollywood. But with time the industry slowly deteriorated so much so that the majority of the movies that come out today in the Bhojpuri film industry are only based around vulgarity and cheap humor.
One might argue that such films are only being produced because there is an audience for it. That is true, but there has been little to no experimentation with any other genre, more than 90 percent of all the movies that are being released more or less fall under the same genre and have a similar plot. In other words, since there has been little to no experimentation hence the audience doesn't have a lot of choice when it comes to Bhojpuri movies. Hence, it falls upon the industry to clear its tainted image since they are the reason where the industry stands as of right now.
These movies are not just bad cinema but add more insult to the Bhojpuri language and the state of Bihar. The kind of movies which are being produced are proxy for the mentality of the people who are from that state or speak that language. For instance, what's the picture that comes to your mind when you think of someone who watches Bhojpuri movies and juxtapose that picture to someone who watches Marathi Cinema. The image often associated with Bhojpuri cinema viewers is that of a morally depraved individual. This stereotype persists regardless of whether one actually consumes such content, contributing to the negative perception and mistreatment of Biharis in other parts of India.
The crisis in the Bhojpuri Film industry needs to be dealt with and if its trajectory is not changed it will continue to further taint the image of Bihar.
In the next part, I will try to examine the roots of this linguistic and cultural inferiority.
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