Bihar has long functioned as a paradox, a transparent enigma. Its ideas market never loses its sheen, and its caste codes refuse to retire. This duality is not incidental. It is woven into Bihar’s political evolution. The state’s public sphere has historically allowed sharp ideological contestation, yet its political structures return, almost faithfully, to familiar anchors of caste arithmetic, welfarist governance, and a deep suspicion of unregulated economic mobility. The 2025 election recommits Bihar to this older vocabulary, even as its demographic realities press urgently for a new one.

This paradox has deep historical roots. The Congress governed Bihar almost continuously until the 1970s, but its governance left structural vulnerabilities unaddressed. Floods, affecting nearly 68% of the state’s geographical area and displacing millions each year, elicited a negligible systemic response. Poverty remained entrenched. As late as 1973–74, Bihar accounted for nearly 14% of India’s poor while representing less than 8% of its population. Writers such as Phanishwarnath Renu and Nagarjuna chronicled this stagnation with anthropological precision. They described a political order that was inert, fatigued and unable to imagine developmental transformation. Their critique mirrored a growing public disillusionment, one that set the stage for the Janata movement.

The Janata Party’s sweeping victory in the 1977 assembly elections (214 seats out of 324) was more than a rejection of the Congress-era managerialism. It signalled a reorientation of Bihar’s political imagination. Jayaprakash Narayan’s call for........

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