Proud to be East Indian

13/09/2025

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Bhojpuri women traditional attire The Cutlass Magazine

23/06/2025

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22/06/2025

The **Bhojpuri-speaking region**—a culturally and linguistically unified area spanning parts of present-day **eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar (India), and southern Nepal (Terai region)**—was historically **undivided** and closely knit through trade, pilgrimage, kinship, and shared festivals.
However, the **British colonizers (in India) and the Shah monarchy of Nepal (aided at times by the British)** **divided this region** through **political, administrative, and colonial strategies** in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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# # 📜 How the British (and Nepalese monarchy) Divided the Bhojpuri Region
# # # ⚔️ 1. **Sugauli Treaty (1815–1816): Start of Formal Division**
* After the **Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816)**, the **British East India Company** forced Nepal to sign the **Treaty of Sugauli (1815)**.
* **Major Outcome:** Nepal ceded large parts of the Terai region (which included Bhojpuri-speaking areas like Champaran, Gorakhpur belt).
* **New Boundary**: The **Rapti-Gandak river system** became the **de facto border**, artificially separating **Bhojpuri speakers in India and Nepal**.
> 📍 Areas such as **Kapilvastu, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat** remained in Nepal, while **Champaran, Deoria, Gorakhpur, and Ballia** became British-controlled.
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# # # 🗺️ 2. **Permanent Settlement and Zamindari Fragmentation (1793–1860s)**
* British introduced the **Permanent Settlement** and **Zamindari system** in Bengal Presidency (including Bihar and eastern UP).
* This created **fragmented revenue units**, weakening **traditional Bhojpuri socio-political continuity**.
* The **economic exploitation** discouraged cross-border Bhojpuri unity.
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# # # 🧾 3. **Colonial Linguistic and Administrative Boundaries**
* British officials (like in the **1881–1931 Censuses**) began separating Bhojpuri speakers into **Hindi**, **Bihari**, or **Maithili** categories.
* Bhojpuri was **never given official status**—treated as a dialect rather than a language.
* **Administrative divisions** like **Gorakhpur Division**, **Saran Division**, and **Champaran District** were carved to suit colonial control—**not linguistic unity**.
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# # # 🧭 4. **Post-1857 Reorganization & Surveillance**
* After the **1857 revolt** (heavily supported by Bhojpuri peasantry and landlords), British authorities **intensified border surveillance**.
* Bhojpuri landlords in India were brought under **CID watch**.
* Cross-border communication with Nepal was viewed as a **threat to Raj stability**, further encouraging division.
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# # # 🇳🇵 5. **Nepalese Centralization in the Terai (1860s–1900s)**
* After regaining some Terai lands in 1860 (thanks to support for the British in 1857), Nepal's Rana rulers imposed **centralized administration** over Bhojpuri-speaking Nepali districts.
* The **Khas-Nepali language** was imposed, and Bhojpuri was discouraged in schools and governance.
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# # # 🧱 6. **Modern Political Division (Post-Independence)**
* In **India**:
* Bhojpuri region divided between **Uttar Pradesh** and **Bihar**.
* Internal state borders (like Deoria-Ghazipur or Buxar-Ballia) ignored cultural-linguistic unity.
* In **Nepal**:
* The 2015 Constitution maintained centralization.
* Although **Province No. 2** (now **Madhesh Pradesh**) is Bhojpuri-majority, political recognition of Bhojpuri remains limited.
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# # 📌 Summary of Strategies Used by the British and Nepali Monarchy
| Method | Effect |
| ------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| **Treaty of Sugauli** | Created Indo-Nepal political boundary |
| **Zamindari system** | Fragmented Bhojpuri economic base |
| **Linguistic reclassification** | Undermined Bhojpuri as a language |
| **Colonial borders** | Ignored cultural-linguistic geography |
| **Census & education** | Classified Bhojpuri under Hindi |
| **Surveillance post-1857** | Weakened cross-border Bhojpuri solidarity |
| **Nepali centralization** | Imposed non-Bhojpuri identity in Terai

21/06/2025

** *Chains of the Soil: A Bhojpuri Tale from the British Raj***

In the sweltering summer of **1898**, in a small Bhojpuri village called **Pakri Basant**, the land cracked under the sun—and so did the spirits of its peasants. The British Raj had brought not just railways and rifles, but a system that turned tillers into tenants, and farmers into bonded slaves.

**Babulal**, a middle-aged peasant with calloused hands and hollow eyes, was born into debt. His father had once borrowed ten rupees from the local **zamindar**, a British-backed landlord named **Rai Bahadur Singh**, to pay for a funeral. That ten had turned into a hundred over the years—interest calculated with cruelty, not logic. And now, Babulal worked from dawn till dusk in the zamindar’s indigo fields, not for wages, but to repay a loan he had never taken.

His wife, **Phoolmati**, often boiled leftover rice starch for dinner, pretending it was curry, just to keep their children quiet. Their eldest son, **Golu**, was barely ten, but already carried baskets heavier than his dreams. The British demand for **indigo** and **cash crops** had forced many like Babulal to abandon growing their own food. Hunger had become a way of life.

Every Monday, the British officer **Mr. Thomson**, clad in a white pith helmet and riding a tall horse, would visit Rai Bahadur Singh's mansion. The two would sip tea while discussing quotas and punishments. "The natives are lazy," Thomson would sneer. Singh, laughing, would nod—even as thousands toiled in his fields, chained not by iron, but by hopelessness.

One day, Babulal collapsed in the fields. The **munshi** (clerk) whipped him back to consciousness. "Your debt won’t repay itself, swine!" he barked.

That night, under the pale moon, Golu sat by his father’s side, wiping sweat from his brow. “Baba,” he asked, “will we always be slaves?”

Babulal looked up at the stars. He remembered his grandfather speaking of times when the land was theirs, when no white man told them what to plant or when to bleed.

“I don’t know, beta,” he whispered. “But one day, this land will answer us—not them.”

The next season, whispers of **Champaran** began to reach Pakri Basant. **Gandhi** had arrived there, and the indigo planters were afraid. Change, though distant, had found a voice. And in the hearts of men like Babulal and boys like Golu, that voice began to echo louder than fear.

Though their hands were still tied to the soil, something had shifted—**a belief that no bo***ge, however old, lasts forever**.

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