Bhikhari thakur biography of martin

He could have spent his life doing what his father had done, cutting hair and shaving beards with his ustra. Over the years, Qutubpur is ravaged by drought, flood, disease. Sometimes there is just enough food for one meal, sometimes not even that. People have no choice but to flee the village in droves. By , Thakur is 27, married and a father of two.

There is a terrible famine that year. He too must leave his village in search of work. He goes to Kharagpur in Bengal, because an uncle once migrated there.

– 10 July )

From Kharagpur, he goes on to Puri. Then Calcutta! Here, he sees people crammed into tiny rooms — Biharis, Bengalis, Odias. They are rickshawwallahs, coolies, cooks and labourers. Bhikhari Thakur gets by following his traditional occupation of cutting hair. At night, the Bihari contingent reads religious texts out loud. Others discuss goings-on in the city.

This is the first time Thakur realises that the country he lives in is called Hindustan, and is ruled by the Angrez, who are white like milk.