Pakistan is a paradigm example of a failed state that has undergone an extremely dangerous form of radical Islamisation.
Bihar
In the Early Vedic Period (beginning about 1500 BC) several kingdoms existed
in the Bihar plain. North of the Ganges was Videha, the land belonged to the
father of Princess Sita, the wife of Lord Rama and the heroine of the Ramayana.
Maharishi Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana, lived in ancient Bihar. During the same
period, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Magadha was Rajagrha. A new
kingdom later arose in southern Videha, with its capital at Vaisali. By about
700 BC, the kingdoms of Vaisali and Videha were replaced by a confederacy of the
Vrjjis—said to be the first republican state known in history.
Some of the most important early interpretations of the Vedas was done in Bihar.
It was here that Prince Gautam attained enlightenment, became the Buddha- at the
present Bodh Gaya- a town in central Bihar; and the great religion of Buddhism
was born. It is here also that Lord Mahavira, the founder of another great
religion, Jainism, was born and attained nirvana . That site is located at the
present town of Pawapuri, some miles to the south east of Patna, the Capital of
Bihar., it is here that the tenth and last Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh
was born and attained the sainthood of Sikhism, that is became a Guru. A lovely
and majestic Gurudwara built to commemorate his memory - the Harmandir- is
located in eastern Patna. Known reverentially as the Patna Sahib, it is one of
the five holiest places of worship (Takhat) for Sikhs.
Megasthenes, an emissary of Alexander's General, Seleucus Necator, lived in
Pataliputra (ancient name of Patna, the Mauryan capital) around 302 B.C. He left
behind a chronicle of life in and around Patliputra. This is the first recorded
account by a foreign traveler in India. The Magadha remained under the control
of Asoka, the great emperor of India and he inscribed stone pillars and spread
Buddhism. At Nalanda, the world's first seat of higher learning, an university,
was established during the Gupta period. This great Gupta dynasty fell a victim
to the onslaught of the Huns in the middle and late 5th century. During the
ensuing Muslim period (about 1200 to 1765), Bihar had little independent
history, remaining a provincial unit until 1765, when it came under British rule
and—together with Chota Nagpur—was merged with the state of Bengal.
Originally, Chota Nagpur was mostly forest-clad and was ruled by chiefs of
various aboriginal tribes. Though British authority was only gradually
established in the plains to the north during the second half of the 18th and
the beginning of the 19th century, occasional revolts against them took place in
Chota Nagpur, the most important being the Ho revolt of 1820 to 1827 and the
Munda uprising of 1831 to 1832. Later, Bihar was an important centre of the
Indian mutiny and revolt of 1857 to 1859 against British political authority.
Bihar formed a part of the Bengal Presidency until 1912, when the province of
Bihar and Orissa was formed; in 1936 the two became separate provinces.
Bihar played an active role in the successive phases of Indian nationalism.
Mahatma Gandhi, the national leader who advocated nonviolent resistance, first
launched the satyagraha (“devotion to truth”) movement against the tyranny of
the European indigo planters in the Champaran region of northern Bihar. Rajendra
Prasad, who played a leading part in the freedom movement and was elected the
first president of independent India, was born in the Saran district, northwest
of Patna.
Upon India's independence in 1947, Bihar became a constituent part (becoming a
state in 1950), and in 1948 the small states of Saraikela and Kharsawan were
merged with it. In 1956, when the Indian states were reorganized on a linguistic
basis, a territory of some 3,140 square miles was transferred from Bihar to West
Bengal. More recently, the state of Jharkhand was created from the southern part
of Bihar.
