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Bhojpuri is deeply rooted in the soil of districts such as Bhojpur, Rohtas, Kaimur, Buxar, Saran, East and West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Jehanabad. The Shahabad region comprises Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur districts.
“We are demanding that the Center include Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and confer Bharat Ratna on Bhikhari Thakur, who is widely considered the ‘Shakespeare of Bhojpuri,'” Sudama Prasad, CPI(ML) Liberation’s Lok Sabha MP from Arrah (Bhojpur district headquarters), told PTI.
He said, “We have been raising demands in Parliament for a long time. I have also written letters to the competent authorities on both the issues. But the NDA government at the Center and the state have turned a deaf ear to these demands. NDA leaders will have to face the consequences of ignoring the demands of the people in the upcoming assembly elections.”
Thakur (1887–1971) was a famous playwright, actor, folk singer and social reformer from Bihar. He is considered as one of the greatest writers of Bhojpuri and the most popular folk writer of Bihar. He was born on 18 December 1887 in a barber family in Qutubpur (Diara) village of Saran district.
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Prasad said, “He was one of India’s greatest folk artists. Thakur lived the life of a warrior, fighting against the archaic social order. He embraced folk art and addressed social problems in the language and idiom of the masses (in Bhojpuri).”
His plays such as Ganga-Snan, Bidesiya, Gabarghichor, Beti-Bechwa, Bhai-Virodh, Piya Nisail, Nai-Bahar, etc. are relevant even today and they all give a message to the society, he added.
Expressing a similar opinion, Ajit Kumar Singh, CPI(ML) Liberation MLA from Dumraon assembly seat in Buxar district, told PTI, “Why is the BJP-led central government maintaining silence on the demand to include Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution? The language is widely popular. And why was the great beggar not given the Bharat Ratna (posthumously)?” Thakur? He is the most suitable person for this.” “Apart from other important issues, these two demands will be equally important in the upcoming assembly elections in the entire Shahabad region,” he said.
The Left leader accused the NDA government of Bihar and the Center of giving step-motherly treatment to the Bhojpuri speaking people.
The Dumraon MLA claimed, “Neither the top leaders of BJP nor the top leaders of JDU, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, are saying a word on giving official language status to Bhojpuri and giving Bharat Ratna to Bhikari Thakur. This is sheer injustice to Bhojpuri-speaking voters.”
Commenting on the popularity of Bihar’s folk songs, especially Thakur’s Bidesiya, outside India, Jainendra Dost, director of the film ‘Nach Bhikhari Naach’ based on Thakur’s works, told PTI, “Bhikhari Thakur was a great folk artist. He presented his works in the Bhojpuri dialect in a way that was appealing to the masses.” Bhojpuri actor and singer-turned-BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, resident of Atarvaliya village in Kaimur district, had written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in July this year, demanding Bharat Ratna for Thakur.
Tiwari, one of the leading actors of the Bhojpuri film industry, is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from North East Delhi. He was not available for his comment on the issue.