Ghumakkadi - Bihar
An experiment in slow travel - walking through rural Bihar!
मेरी समझ में दुनिया की सर्वश्रेष्ठ वस्तु है घुमक्कड़ी। घुमक्कड़ से बढ़कर व्यक्ति और समाज का कोई हितकारी नहीं हो सकता।
‘In my understanding, traveling is the greatest objective in the world. There is nothing more beneficial to the individual and to society than to travel.’
Sankrityayan, Rahul. घुमक्कड़शास्त्र: Ghumakkad Shastra (p. 4)
For two weeks this October, Leo and I walked through rural Bihar - particularly through the districts of West Champaran, East Champaran, and a short distance through Gopalganj. We walked around 130 km over a span of 13 days, in which we walked for 9 days and rested for 2. It took us a complete day to travel from Patna to Mainatand on the border of Bihar and Nepal, where we started.
This walk came out of a need to understand my birthplace better, as well as to explore an alternate medium of traveling, as expounded by Rahul Sanskrityayan in his book Ghumakkadshastra. I was born in Patna and identify as a Bihari. However, at a very young age I migrated out for education and now 19 years later, I come ‘home’ frequently to where my mother lives and to the address I have in all my official documents. Being a migrant I have a semi-detached, semi-conscious understanding of what being Bihari is about, and at the same time what it isn't - at the intersection of which my identity stands, bewildered.
Coming from Bihar in a country like India comes with some weight. In modern times it is where much of the country gets its class of manual labourers from, yet historically and religiously it is of great relevance for the plurality that the whole of India contains within. Bihar was the seat of power for multiple kingdoms and dynasties - Mauryas, Shunga, Kushana, Gupta and Pala. This land has also been the birthplace of three major religions of the world - The Buddha gained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, Mahavira attained Nirvana in Pawapuri and Guru Gobind Singh was born in Patna Sahib. Yet, interestingly, there is no strong Bihari nationalistic sentiment, or at least not one that I was born and raised in.
Going back to the epigraph, a couple of years ago while contemplating the idea of travel and the meaning it holds for someone like me who knows little about a ‘settled life’, I came across one of India’s greatest travel writers- Rahul Sankritayan. The epigraph is from his book Ghumakkad Shastra. In the book, he explores the importance of travel, both for individual progress and that of society as a whole. He gives examples of great minds who were avid travelers (Buddha, Mahavira, Darwin) as well as gives practical advice on how to travel, and how to let go of the societal shackles which inhibit travel (he even details how to ignore your parents’ emotional laments and advises not to get married.) I have been fascinated by the book and the author ever since.
In 2016, I met Siddharth Agrawal, who at that time was walking along the Ganga as part of the Moving Upstream project by his NGO Veditum. When he reached Patna, we met through a mutual friend, and he stayed at my place for a few days. We hit it off great, and a few months later in Feb 2017, I joined him on the walk from Bijnor, U.P. up to Gangotri - a 500 km stretch of the 3000 km he walked. The film that came out of the effort - Moving Upstream: Ganga - is my first feature-length documentary. The experience was exhilarating and in many ways life-changing for me. After that, I joined him on his next river walk, along the Ken river in M.P./U.P., where I walked for 250 km of the total 600 km.
For me, slow travel was an eye-opener into the effect that travel can have on a person. I was finally able to understand what Rahul was trying to explain in his book. I wanted more, but for the next few years work, and eventually, the pandemic, did not allow any kind of travel. Finally this year I decided to keep aside whatever time I could, and we planned this walk.
A basic intention of the project is to carry forward a legacy of a certain kind of traveling - keeping in mind that our country has a long history of slow travel - or what is ironically called ‘alternative/experimental travel’. Some part of it is fuelled by the need to meet people, have conversations, document, explore, and learn stories, art and music. The other is to communicate our experience - with all its haphazardness and limitations of understanding - to give a glimpse of what Bihar was like - to us.
This exercise is as much a reflection on my own life and the Bihari identity as it is a documentation of stories of the people we came across, and to communicate the dichotomies and moments of connection that we encountered. There was no detailed pre-planning or itinerary for the walk. October being the festival season - Dussehra, Diwali, and Chatth - is the time when people who migrated out for work or education return to their homes. This gave us an opportunity to witness the celebrations, meet artists and performers (in melas and events), and most importantly, meet more people than we would at any other time of the year.
We walked every day from early morning till sunset, in a direction that we arbitrarily chose (it could be the name of the village or just a nearby river). During the day we came across various kinds of people, we spoke to them and got to share a tiny part of their lives in those conversations. By the time the sun set, we requested the people of the village we were in to give us food and shelter for the night, with a promise to leave the next morning. Most people happily took us in, and many even insisted that we stay for longer!
Importantly, I recognize that I come from an urban space and received urban (English) education, mostly outside Bihar. Therefore I am very mindful of the prominent urban gaze that is ever present in the way we document and narrate our experiences. We made a conscious decision to keep that gaze, and in fact make it more visible, in our work. This is because there is an element of power and privilege that was palpable in the interactions that we had, on which we’ll dwell longer in another blog soon.
We will be bringing you the stories we documented and our experiences through three different media - videos on YouTube, posts and stories on Instagram, and articles on this blog. If you think our ideas are interesting and would like to know more about the walk, please try and subscribe. We promise we won't spam!
I hope that we are able to do justice to the hundreds of people we met and spoke to, and are able to communicate even a glimpse of what we experienced. Hope to see you soon in the next blog!
The writer Shridhar Sudhir is an independent filmmaker, academic, artist, and founder of Buddhijeev Studios. You can check out his website here.
Very well understood and analyzed. Waiting for the videos and more work on bihar from you. Your work is valuable for the nation. It would help everyone to understand bihar, different than what is potrayed in movies and perceived in other parts of the nation.
Keep doing good work, all the best.