Should we change the name of the State of Bihar ?

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Jun 11, 2009, 2:29:54 AM6/11/09

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Recently the Nobel Prize winner and eminent economist Dr. Amartya Sen, while speaking at a seminar on ‘Bihar: Past, Present, and Future’ at the Patna Planetarium on Saturday talked about the glorious history of Bihar and the causes that led to its eventual economic downfall.

“Bihar led the country in many areas including spreading the idea of democracy during the Ashoka period when the concept of democracy was not known in other parts of the world. It was also the first polity to float the idea of free health care and medical services to its subjects as widely chronicled by Chinese traveler Fa Hsiyan. Furthermore, it was Sher Shah in Bihar and Bengal that first embarked on the massive project of building roads and bridges to connect large cities,” Further Dr. Sen said while warning people not to continue dwelling in the past but to use it to learn lessons from it. Reasons Bihar went from being the best managed state to the most backward state which could be attributed to decline in law and order, failure to build infrastructure in the state, and ignoring to raise quality of education.

While Dr Sen and many other thinkers have suggested action plans to bring Bihar on the right track , I wonder, why not we change the name of the state itself. If Calcutta can become Kolkotta, Madras can become Chennai and Bombay turns Mumbai for better representation, why can’t we change the name of the state itself ?

Recently the Head of Spice Group, one of the potential strategic investor in Satyam Computers commented that they would consider changing the name of the company to start with a new brand and many others subscribe to that idea. Similarly I feel , the name of the state Bihar can also be changed to mark a fresh beginning. Then no one will be called Bihari ! After all Jharkhandis are more known by MS Dhoni and the industries (like TISCO) they have. From image point of view they have gained having separated from Bihar. There are many who could be apt brand ambassadors of Bihar.