Lalu Prasad Yadav is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parliament (MP) of the Lok Sabha.
The Indian People's Front (IPF) was a mass front organisation founded in Delhi between 24–26 April 1982. It was conceptualised by Vinod Mishra and it was operated as the open mass front of the CPIML Liberation between 1982–1994. The front primarily worked for the social and economic upliftment of Adivasis, Dalits and impoverished sections of society and mobilised them through the means of unions, rallies and conventions.
Arwal district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India, and Arwal town is the administrative headquarters of this district. It was earlier part of Jehanabad district.
The Ranvir Sena is a militia functioning as a landlord group, mainly based in the state of Bihar, India. The group was formed by Bhumihar landlords in 1994, with the aim to counter the influence of various left-wing militants, Naxalite groups and the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML) in central Bihar. The Ranvir Sena has been connected to a number of massacres including the massacre at Laxmanpur Bathe. It has, on several occasions, been accused of human rights abuses. The Bihar state government banned the Ranvir Sena in July 1995, but the group continue to remain active. The group has frequently publicly claimed responsibility for its crimes with impunity.
Caste-related violence in India has occurred and continues to occur in various forms.
Bhumihars, also locally called Bhuinhar and Babhan, are a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar, the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal.
The politics of Bihar, an eastern state of India, is dominated by regional political parties. As of 2021, the main political parties are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United) (JDU), and Indian National Congress (INC). There are also some smaller regional parties, including Samata Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, Jan Adhikar Party and Vikassheel Insaan Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, which play a vital role in politics of state. As of 2022, Bihar is currently ruled by Mahagatbandhan (Grandalliance) coalition.
The Laxmanpur Bathe massacre was a massacre conducted in the Laxmanpur Bathe village in Arwal district of Bihar, where 58 scheduled caste people were allegedly killed by members of the Ranvir Sena in retaliation for the Bara massacre in which 37 upper castes were killed. Laxmanpur Bathe is a village in Arwal district in Bihar, on the Son river about 90–km from Patna.
Vinod Mishra was an Indian communist politician. Mishra served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation between 1975 and 1998.
Bara massacre was a caste based carnage that took place in 1992 in Bihar. At midnight on 12–13 February 1992, the Maoist Communist Centre of India killed 40 Bhumihars at Bara Village in Gaya district of Bihar, India. The MCC's armed group brought the 35 men of Bara village to the bank of a nearby canal, tied their hands and slit their throats. As many as 36 people were accused of the crime, but charges were framed against only 13. The police failed to arrest the others, who had defied their summons.
Brahmeshwar Singh also known as Brahmeshwar Mukhiya or Mukhiyaji, was head of the upper-caste militia Ranvir Sena in Bihar, India. On 1 June 2012, he was killed by unidentified gunmen.
Lal Sena was an organised armed militia of CPIML Liberation in northeastern India, across the terrains of central Bihar, north-west of today's Jharkhand, and a few districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It was formed mainly by lower caste peasantry and landless labourers.
Bhumi Sena was a private army which operated in the Patna, Nalanda, Jehanabad, and Gaya regions of Bihar, India in the 1980s, made up of members of the Kurmi caste.
The criminal Ashok Mahto gang, which was active in the Indian state Bihar, was led by Ashok Mahto and included Pintu Mahto. Ashok Mahto and his gang were responsible for the 2005 killing of Rajo Singh, a sitting Member of Parliament. Ashok Mahto was imprisoned but escaped from Nawada jail in 2002. Pintu Mahto killed three police officers during the prison breakout. The gang's leaders are said to belong to either the Kurmi or Koeri caste, and was supported by the backward castes in the Nawada and Sheikhpura regions. The Mahto gang was waging a war of retribution against the exploitative upper-caste Bhumihars. Mahto and his gang were responsible for the killings of a large number of Forward Caste people in late 1990s.
The Afsar massacre was a mass shooting that killed 12 people in the Indian village of Afsar, in 2000. The massacre was the result of caste wars of Bihar, which originate from clashes between upper-caste, who were supporters of the existing status quo, and the lower castes, who wanted to change the current system. According to the data by the "South Asia terrorism portal", the victims of these caste wars were most often Dalits, followed by Forward Castes, while Upper Backwards were victims less frequently than any other group.
Sunlight Sena was a caste army formed by Rajputs and Upper-Caste Muslims in Bihar to take on the ultra-Left wing groups of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation and the Maoist Communist Centre and their Dalit supporters. Its primary aim was to protect the vast stretches of land owned by feudal elements from these two social groups. The founder leaders of the Sena were two Rajput feudal lords – Ranjit Singh of Raniganj and Vinod Singh of Bisrampur, but later on, they handed over the leadership to the Muslim feudal lords, the Pathans or Khans. According to police records, however, the Sunlight Sena was brought into existence by the Muslim landlords in Dumharia village of the Gaya district of Bihar. Shaney Ali is said to be the founder leader in these records. It is also claimed that the activities of Sena later expanded to Palamu region of Jharkhand too. The date of its launch is said to be 1987.
Bhojpur uprising refers to the class conflict manifested in armed uprising of the 1970s, that took place in the various villages of the Bhojpur district of Bihar. These clashes were part of the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in the state, which mobilised the agricultural labourers and the poor peasants against the landlords, primarily belonging to upper-castes. A distinguished feature of these insurgencies were their confinement to the villages, and the nine towns of the Bhojpur district remained unaffected from the periodic skirmishes between the armed groups. One of the reason sought for this peculiar feature is the absence of modern industries in the district. The economy of the district was primarily agrarian, and the industrial proletariat class was absent.
Dalits in Bihar are a social group composed of many Scheduled Castes, placed at the bottom of the "caste-based social order". The Dalits also include some of the erstwhile untouchable castes, who suffered various forms of oppression in the feudal-agrarian society of Bihar. Some of the Dalit castes have specific cultural practices, which differ from those of orthodox Hinduism. In the post-independence period, the failure of land reform led to a lack of socio-economic mobility among them, in contrast to the agricultural castes. This led to an increase in caste-based strife between the Dalit supported Naxalite groups and the state authorities backed by the dominant social groups. In the meantime, many caste-based private armies were formed by the landlord class to quell the Dalit assertion under the banner of Maoism. Ranvir Sena was the most dreaded caste-based militia of the landlords, and perpetrated a number of massacres against the Dalits. Some of the backward castes also emerged as landlords, due to the partial success of the Green Revolution and land reform, and Dalits came into conflict with them as well. In the later years, a socio-political assertion was witnessed in the Dalits of Bihar. After the 1990s, many welfare drives were undertaken by the Government of Bihar to improve the condition of Dalits.
Jahanabad prison attack also known as 2005 Jahanabad jail break incident was a Naxalite operation, conducted by the members of Communist Party of India (Maoist) against the state of Bihar, on 13 November 2005. In the backdrop of legislative assembly elections being conducted in the state and lack of elected government in power, the state machinery was involved in conducting the elections in free and fair manner. The President's rule was being implemented in the state, and the Naxalites found it a good opportunity to conduct this massive operation. As per various reports, around 12 people, all belonging to Ranvir Sena were killed by the Naxalites in this incident. This event was not centred around the prison only, which was the centre of operation, but around 1000 Naxalites were inside the city of Jahanabad, who virtually controlled the city for a short span of time. A total of 389 prisoners were freed by the Naxalites in this operation codenamed 'Operation jailbreak'. Those who were freed, also included Ajay Kanu, a top level Naxal commander and many of the Maoists. The operation was conducted by People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (India), a militant underground unit of CPI (Maoist).
