BIHAR- A Lost Cause

Gandak and the eastern bank of the BIHAR Mahananda?
A Lost Cause? We will not discuss here once again the oft-repeated issue of overdue land reforms, Arvind N Das taking the arguments in that regard to have IN March 1987, the modern state of Bihar turned seventy-five years old. The scale of celebration of the event was nowhere near the elaborate programme on the occasion of the Maharashtra rajyotsava or the silver jubilees of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh or even the golden jubilee of humble Orissa. In fact, the government of Bihar seemed to have let the occasion go by unnoticed and not more than a handful of people were affected by the momentous historical event. A group of concerned citizens of Bihar did observe the occasion by honouring 'eminent Biharis' ranging from the madhubani folk artist Sita Devi to the sarkari economic pundit L K Jha, from the ageing radical poet Nagarjuna to the film star Shatughna Sinha, by presenting them mementoes recalling the historical glory and aesthetic traditions of Bihar, Ironically, the souvenir was a replica of the famous Didarganj Yakshi, perhaps the oldest life-size sculpture of the human form found in India to date, the same priceless sculpture which was damaged during the Festival of India, the government of India's cavalier attempt to win friends and influence people in lands afar. After the damage to the original statue, it was decided to keep it in the National Museum in New Delhi rather than return it to the Patna Museum where it had been housed for decades. India's ephemeral gain during the festivals abroad became Bihar's permanent loss.