Demands for the grant of official language status to Bhojpuri, arguably the most widely spoken dialect in Bihar, and Bharat Ratna (posthumously) to legendary folk artiste Bhikhari Thakur appear to dominate the public discourse in Shahabad region of the state ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

Bhojpuri is deeply rooted in the soil of districts such as Bhojpur, Rohtas, Kaimur, Buxar, Saran, East and West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Jehanabad. The Shahabad region comprises Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur districts.

"We have been demanding that the Centre includes Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and confers Bharat Ratna on Bhikhari Thakur, who is widely regarded as the 'Shakespeare of Bhojpuri'," Sudama Prasad, CPI(ML) Liberation's Lok Sabha MP from Arrah (Bhojpur district's headquarters), told PTI.

"We have been raising the demands in Parliament for a long time. I have also written letters to the competent authorities on both issues. But the NDA government at the Centre and the state have turned a deaf ear to these demands. The NDA leaders will have to face the consequences of ignoring the people's demands in the upcoming assembly polls," he added.

Thakur (1887-1971) was a celebrated playwright, actor, folk singer and a social reformer from Bihar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in Bhojpuri and most popular folk writer of Bihar.

He was born on December 18, 1887 in a barber family in Kutubpur (Diyara) village of Saran district.

"He was one of the greatest folk artistes of India. Thakur lived the life of a crusader, fighting against the archaic social order. He took to folk art and addressed social problems in the language and idiom (in Bhojpuri) of the masses," Prasad said.

His plays such as Ganga-Snan, Bidesiya, Gabarghichor, Beti-Bechwa, Bhai-Virodh, Piya Nisail, Nai-Bahar, etc. are relevant even today and they all give a message to the society, he added.

Bhikhari Thakur's works were mostly based on the problems of society like the plight of migrants and women, and poverty. In Thakur's work there was a hidden protest against the oppressive, feudal, casteist and patriarchal system. The main issue that he raised were migration, poverty, mismatch marriages.

In the tumultuous era of India's freedom struggle, he championed the cause of marginalized rural women, marking the beginning of his prolific writing journey. For Thakur, India's liberation mirrored the emancipation of rural women from their hardships.

His most famous play ‘Bidesiya’ was about the plight of a village woman Pyari Sundari, whose husband migrated to Calcutta and married another woman. Due to its immense popularity, Bidesiya became a style of folk-theatre presentation

‘Gabarghichor’ is another cult play about a woman, whose husband was a migrant and she had an illegitimate child named Gabarghichor. The story revolved around a disputed claim on the child and the plight of the mother

Echoing a similar view, CPI(ML) Liberation MLA from Dumraon assembly seat in Buxar district, Ajeet Kumar Singh, told PTI, "Why is the BJP-led central government maintaining a stoic silence on the demand for inclusion of Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution? The language is widely popular. And why not Bharat Ratna (posthumously) to the legendary Bhikhari Thakur? He is the most suitable person for this." "Apart from other important issues, these two demands will remain equally important in the upcoming assembly polls in entire Shahabad region," he added.

The Left leader further accused the NDA governments in Bihar and the Centre of meting out step-motherly treatment to Bhojpuri-speaking people.

"Neither top leaders of the BJP, nor of the JD(U), including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, are uttering even a single word on granting official language status to Bhojpuri and Bharat Ratna to Bhikhari Thakur. This is sheer injustice to the Bhojpuri-speaking voters," the Dumraon MLA claimed.

Commenting on the popularity of Bihar's folk songs, especially Thakur's Bidesiya, outside India, Jainendra Dost, director of 'Naach Bhikari Naach', a movie based on Thakur's works, told PTI, "Bhikari Thakur was a great folk artiste. He presented his works in the Bhojpuri dialect in a manner that was appealing to the masses." Bhojpuri actor and singer-turned-BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, who hails from Atarwalia village in Kaimur district, had written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in July this year, seeking Bharat Ratna for Thakur.

Tiwary, one of the leading actors of the Bhojpuri film industry, is the BJP's Lok Sabha MP from North East Delhi. He was not available for his comments over the issue.