Anti-Bihari Sentiment

Anti-Bihari sentiment refers to discrimination against the people of the Indian state of Bihar, which is a region in the north-eastern Gangetic plains (as well as people of the Bihari ethnic group that originated there). Bihar has had slower economic growth than the rest of India in the 1990s, and as a consequence many Biharis have migrated to other parts of India in search of work. Bihari migrant workers have been subject to a growing degree of xenophobia, racial discrimination, prejudice and violence. Biharis are often looked down upon and their accent ridiculed. In 2000 and 2003, anti-Bihari violence led to the deaths of up to 200 people and created 10,000 internal refugees.