A TIMELY BOOK ON THE POLITICAL PAST AND PRESENT OF BIHAR.
The region that is now Bihar was once at the heart of glorious empires—Shishunaga, Nanda, Maurya, Gupta, Pala—that advanced art practice, science and education. Of the capital of these empires, Pataliputra, the Greek traveller and diplomat Megasthenes said that it was an early and highly evolved model of local governance. Two great religions, Buddhism and Jainism, were born here.
How did a land as rich as this devolve into one of the most backward states in independent India—one plagued by caste-based inequality, organised crime syndicates and a series of governments tainted by corruption and short-sightedness?
In Broken Promises, Mrityunjay Sharma traces the political history of post-Independence Bihar: the long-standing Congress governments, Karpoori Thakur’s caste formula, the JP movement that put the spotlight on young leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, Lalu’s emergence and the unleashing of ‘Jungle Raj’ in Bihar, the state’s division, the rise of private caste armies and gangster-politicians, and the subsequent chief ministership of Nitish Kumar. Bihar’s slide into a hopeless state of chaos is a tumultuous tale—at once unbelievable and entirely predictable. Seen from a slightly differing viewpoint, it might seem like the tale of a glorious legacy’s systematic erosion but also of a somewhat partial healing.
Deeply researched and eminently readable, Broken Promises is not just a book about Bihar for the Biharis. It is an eye-opening account of a large and socially complex participant in India’s parliamentary politics, any shift within which sends ripples across national politics.