The collective memory of modern Bihar is richly layered, shaped by the heroism of the freedom struggle, the defiance of the JP movement, and the dignity-assertions of the Mandal era. Memory, however, is never static. For the older, it is a ledger of struggle and scarcity. For the youth, it carries the weight of aspiration. The upcoming Bihar elections emerge as a crucible where memories contend with one another, suspended between the gravity of the past and the horizon of uncharted aspiration.

At the core of this paradox is migration — Bihar’s most enduring story. No other Indian state has woven migration so deeply into the warp and weft of its economy, identity, and politics as Bihar. Yet the state curiously remains indifferent to the condition of its migrants. This is remarkable given the scale.

Nearly one in three Biharis is a migrant worker. The state records the highest out-migration rate in India in successive censuses. The 2011 census found that over 8.3 million people from Bihar lived outside the state, a figure that has only grown in the last decade-and-a-half. NSSO surveys estimate that close to 10% of Bihar’s population resides elsewhere for work. In electoral discourse, however, migration is normalised as inevitable, even romanticised as proof of the hard-working........

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