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In the civil war-hit Myanmar there is a ‘little India’, 2 lakh hindus from bihar share a special bond with Myanmar, let’s explore this deepest narrative here in
Naypyidaw: Myanmar is struggling with an armed conflict for a long time. The clashes between the rebel groups and the junta forces have turned big parts of the country into war zones. This is, in turn, sucking a considerable proportion of the country’s population into the conflict.
Myanmar has about two lakhs Hindu population in Jeyawadi area who are also suffering from the fallout of this war. On the New Year Eve, temple was one of the casualities and a celebratory shooting turned to be a gun fight between army and insurgents in that region. It has made the town of Myanmar Hindus with Indian ancestry more popular.
The Jeyawadi region, about 215 kilometers from the capital of Myanmar, witnessed the migration of people from Bihar in the late 1880s. According to the report, they emigrated only because of the promise of land. This area has had a constant stream of Bihar residents since the 1880s. And now, even after 140 years, the settlers have managed to build a ‘little India’ in this region.
How did a certain part of India reach out to our neighboring country?
The tale of their migration is quite fascinating, says Yeshi Seli on yeshiseli.substack.com. He goes on to say that Bahadur Harihar Singh, a son of a Diwan of Dumraon State of Bihar, was the one who started the process of migration with a group of Bihari men. The area they inhabited was surrounded by thick forest, and the British government had assigned them so much of land to clear and cultivate.
In such an arrangement, one of the sacraments with Indian migrants so as to clear the forested land grew sugarcane and paddy was erected here. In this region, a sugar mill was established which later evolved into the largest sugar mill in the whole of Myanmar. This opened up to opportunities and Indians got a considerable population here. Presently, the number of Hindus inhabiting the Jeyawadi region is close to 200000. They form about 1.7 percent of the total Hindu population in the whole of Myanmar which makes them the fourth biggest religion in the country.
Phiu region consists of more than a hundred villages which has a significant population of Hindus. These people have shown a keen interest to their customs and beliefs. Hindi is included in the curriculum amending the schools’ syllabus. In addition to Burmese, these areas speak Hindi and Bhojpuri as well. All rituals such as Holi, Diwali, Dussehra, and Navratri are also honored by these people. However, the situation today is such that people of Hindu faith residing in Jeyawadi are apprehensive regarding their security.