Sarnami
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Bhojpuri
भोजपुरी bhōjapurī
Spoken in: India, Nepal, Mauritius, Netherlands, Fiji, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, Réunion, Suriname 
Region: Nepal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal
Total speakers: 170 million (1997)Global
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   Eastern Group
    Bihari
     Bhojpuri 
Writing system: Devanagari, Kaithi
Language codes
ISO 639-1: bh
ISO 639-2: bho
ISO 639-3: bho
Indic script
 This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Bhojpuri (pronunciation (help·info)) is a regional language spoken in parts of north-central and eastern India. It is spoken in the western part of state of Bihar, the northwestern part of Jharkhand, and the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, as well as an adjoining area of southern plains of Nepal. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius. The language of the Surinamese Hindus, however, is seldom referred to as Bhojpuri but usually as Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami.

Others, including the government of India while taking census, disagree, and consider Bhojpuri to be a dialect of Hindi. But now the government of India is preparing to grant it statutory status as a national scheduled language.

Bhojpuri shares vocabulary with Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu and other Indo-Aryan languages of northern India. Bhojpuri and several closely related languages, including Maithili and Magadhi, are together known as the Bihari languages. They are part of the Eastern Zone group of Indo-Aryan languages which includes Bengali and Oriya.

There are numerous dialects of Bhojpuri, including three or four in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone.

The eminent scholar and polyglot, Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan had written some works in Bhojpuri. There have been other writers who have written in Bhojpuri but the number is abysmal compared to the number of speakers. The eminent nationalist, writer, scholar, dandi sanyasi Swami Sahajanand Saraswati belonged to the Bhojpur region of Uttar Pradesh. Some other notable Bhojpuri personalities are the first president of India Rajendra Prasad, Manoj Bajpai, and former Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chandra Shekhar. Padma Shri (Smt) Sharda Sinha& Mrs. Vijaya Bharti is a famous Bhojpuri singer.

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Number of speakers

According to an article published in Times of India, an estimated 70 million people of Uttar Pradesh and a further 80 million people in Bihar speak Bhojpuri as their first or second language. There are 6 million Bhojpuri speaking people are living outside the Bhojpuri heartlands of Bihar and Purvanchal. These areas include Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Uganda, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Great Britain, BIrgunj and United States. This makes the total Bhojpuri speaking population in the world close to 150 million.

However, the official figures as per the Census of India 2001 are much lower. The census counts 33 million people in India to be speakers of the Bhojpuri dialect under the Hindi language sub-family.1

Bhojpuri dialects, varieties, and creoles are also spoken in various parts of the world, including Brazil, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, South Africa, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many colonizers had faced labor shortages and were unable to obtain slaves from Africa due to the abolition of slavery; thus, they imported many Indians as indentured servants to labor on plantations. Today, many Indians in the West Indies, Oceania, and South America still speak Bhojpuri as a native or second language.

The Bhojpuri language has been heavily influenced by other languages in many parts of the world. Mauritian Bhojpuri includes many Creole and English words, while the one spoken in Trinidad & Tobago has picked up some Caribbean words along with English.

Bhojpuri literature

The Bhojpuri-speaking region, due to its rich tradition of creating leaders for building post-independence India such as first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad followed by many eminent politicians and humanitarians like Dr. Krishna Dev Upadhyaya, was never devoid of intellectual prominence which is evident in its literature.

Bhojpuri became one of the bases of the development of the official language of independent India, Hindi, in the past century. Bhartendu Harishchandra, who is considered the father of literary Hindi, was greatly influenced by the tone and style of Bhojpuri in his native region. Further development of Hindi was taken by prominent laureates such as Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi and Munshi Premchand from the Bhojpuri-speaking region. Bhikhari Thakur, known as the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri, has also given theater plays including the classics of Bidesiya. Pioneer Dr. Krishna Dev Upadhyaya from Ballia district devoted 60 years to researching and cataloging Bhojpuri folklore. Dr. H. S. Upadhyaya wrote the book Relationships of Hindu family as depicted in Bhojpuri folksongs (1996). Together they have cataloged thousands of Bhojpuri folksongs, riddles and proverbs from the Purvanchal U.P, Bihar, Jharkand and Chotta Nagpuri districts near Bengal.

The Bhojpuri literature has always remained contemporary. It was more of a body of folklore with folk music and poems prevailing. Literature in the written form started in the early twentieth century. During the British era, then known as the "Northern Frontier Province language", Bhojpuri adopted a patriotic tone and after independence it turned to community. In later periods, following the low economic development of the Bhojpuri-speaking region, the literary work is more skewed towards the human sentiments and struggles of life.

In the present era, the Bhojpuri literature is marked by the presence of writers and poets like Anand Sandhidoot, Pandeya Kapil, Ashok Dwivedi, Editor of the popular Bhojpuri magazine Paati (Ballia) and others. In Maurititus, Dr. Sarita Boodhoo from the Mauritius Bhojpuri Institute has done volumes of work in following the Bhojpuri culture and language and documenting the indentured labourers' arrival on the island. Manoj Bhawuk came into limelight for his literary work in Bhojpuri Tasveer Zindagi ke and for his contributions in development of Bhojpuri Literature. Further an avid Bhojpuri evangelist Mr. Avinash Tripathi founded Bhojpuri Association of India (BHAI) to represent the will/voice of Bhojpuri all over World. In the United States, Sailesh Mishra, another contemporary Bhojpuri activist, poet and writer has been credited as the founder of Bhojpuri Association of North America (BANA) and for his contributions in promoting Bhojpuri language and culture aross the globe. Newly associated and prominent part of this Bhojpuri literature, is Bhojpuri Sahitya Sammelan magazine with Arunesh Niran as editor and Dr. Uday Prakash Pandey as co-editor, these people met a glory of reinvoking the links of Bhojpuri of Mauritius and India. There are many more efforts to avail the deserved value for Bhojpuri.

Bhojpuri Media, Cinema and TV World

This year is being considered as the Opening of Golden Era for Bhojpuri language. The reason is, Bhojpuri has got world's first regular weekly news magazine which is being published by Planman Media group based at Delhi. The Group is owned by Prof. Arinadam Chaudhuray, Economist and Noted Managment Guru and the Editor in Chief of THE SUNDAY INDIAN. This magazine is being published in 14 Indian Languages including Bhojpuri. Mr. Onkareshwar Pandey, Noted TV & Print Journalist and former Resident Editor of Rashtriya Sahara, Hindi Daily (Delhi & Patna) has been given additional Charge of Bhojpuri weekly with Hindi as Executive Editor. He is the first editor of a National Bhojpuri Weekly Magazine. This weekly has made a Golden Mark in the world Horizon of Bhojpuri Journalism. It may be a turning point for Bhojpuri language and beginning of formal Bhojpuri journalism in India. The fact is there are about 20 registered Bhojpuri Magazines and periodicals in India, but most of them are based on literature and merely few of them are being published on regular basis. The begining of hardcore Bhojpuri Print Journalism in the world will be credited to The Sunday Indian, Bhojpuri Edition.

Bhojpuri speaking people have got at least two TV Channels in their language. One is Mahua TV owned by Mr. PK Tiwary. Another Bhojpuri Channel is Sangeet Bhojpuri, a Music Channel. Some other Bhojpuri Channels are in the pipeline and are expected to launched this year only. Names are Hamar TV, Ganga TV & Purva TV. Meanwhile All India radio has started its Bhojpuri News Bulletin from Gorakhpur & Varanasi last month (Oct. 2008). The issue of recognition of Bhojpuri Language is pending with Indian Govt. However Bhojpuri language is all set to capture the market.


Bhojpuri cinema has become the largest film industry inside India after Hindi language cinema. In 2005, the BBC reported that the industry caters for up to 200 million people in large parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Bhojpuri fims have had huge commercial success at the box office. For example, a film made on a budget of $65,000, Sasura Bada Paisawela took in over $3m at the box office. Daroga Babu took almost $900,000 on a similar budget. As of 2008, BBC reports that Bhojpuri songs have also become very popular. MeriNews adds that in some districts of Bihar, theatre owners prefer to screen Bhojpuri films rather than Hindi films as they get more spectators for those films.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, himself a Bhojpuri native from Purvanchal administrative zone of Uttar Pradesh, has been a big supporter of the cinema and has acted in the acclaimed film Ganga. Ajay Devgan is another major Bollywood cinema figure who is closley associated with the people of this region. Saroj Khan, Tinnu Verma, Udit Narayan are all growing their involvement in the film industry. Actors like Ravi Kishan, Manoj Tiwari are superstars of Bhojpuri film industry and are as popular as Shahrukh Khan. While actresses Nagma and Rambha, who earlier failed to create an impact in Bollywood are doing very well in Bhojpuri cinema.

The BBC reported that Ukrainian model Tanya has already played a Russian girl in love with a Bihari boy in Firangi Dulhania (Foreign Bride) and 24-year-old Cambridge-educated British actress Jessica Bath has signed for two Bhojpuri films.

In 2008 there are expected to be 70 new Bhojpuri releases, up from 2007’s one a week. The Bhojpuri Film Awards have become a major cinematic event in India. In addition, Tehelka reports that Bhojpuri films have revived up to 50 single-screen cinema halls in Mumbai and Delhi from financial ruin. Cinema owners have removed B-grade Hindi films fetching Rs. 80,000 a week, and replced them with Bhojpuri films that average Rs 3 lakh a week says the magazine.

Furthermore, stars earn upwards of Rs 15 lakh per film, and Ravi Kisan is deemed to be the highest paid Bhojpuri cinema star claiming 30 to 40 Lakhs Rupee's per movie. manoj tiwari has given maximum no of hits in he bhojpuri cinema and a new singer turned actor dinesh lal yadav has given three silver jubilee hits in a short span of three years. This trend of turning of a singer into actors has rejuvenated the bhojpuri cinema which was on the verge of extinguishing. Apart from Bhojpuri Cinema recently a Bhojpuri 24hours satellite channel "Mahua" was launched on 9 Aug 2008. It was widely accepted by Bhojpuri-speaking viewers around the world. Mr. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, has announced to set up Film Studio in Bihar to promote Bhojpuri Cinema. This will give major Boost to Bhojpuri Cinema and the language as a whole.


Literature

The 2008 Booker Prize listed novel Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of the emigration of Bhojpuri speakers to Mauritius in the nineteenth century, and is copiously laced with Bhojpuri terms, dialogues, songs and poems.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Census of India 2001"

External links

Wikipedia
Bhojpuri language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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