About Arampur: within India
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Many, if not most, Arampur residents have a pronounced sense of national identity. Most of those who can afford the luxuries of formal education, daily newspapers, radio and television closely follow events throughout India and India's concerns in the world. Arampur homes and shops often are decorated with Indian flags, portraits of national heroes, and calenders depicting Indian scenery. Many residents join in the annual Independence Day (15 August) and Republic Day (26 January) celebrations. Hindu and Muslim pilgrimages promote a physical connection between Arampur residents and India. In families or among friends, residents visit individual sites or a set of places. Or, they may join one of the pilgrimage tours arranged by one resident which depart from the nexus twice a year. These combine religious with national historical sites. Thus, the Hindu pilgrimage buses travel for three weeks from Mathura to Mt. Abu to the Taj Mahal while the Muslim pilgrimage tour centers on the urs of Chishti in Ajmer yet also includes monuments in Delhi. Hindus and Muslims both participate in the latter. An extensive system of communications and transportation offers Arampur residents opportunities, if they can afford them, to connect with individuals, communities, places, and work throughout India. From sunrise to after dusk, a steady stream of brawny buses in various states of repair roar up and down the east-west road between the nexus and Uttar Pradesh. Merchants squeeze into the usually packed passenger cabin, protecting their hidden roll of cash which they carry for purchasing merchandise in the city of their ultimate destination. Since long before the era of Mughal rule, western Bihar's road and riverway systems have played an important role in north India's commercial activities. Although the expansion of railroads during the end of the nineteenth century ushered in a vast increase in the transport of passengers and goods in the area immediately to the north, the Kaimur area remained fairly remote. The mid-century rise of truck transportation offered far quicker access of people to more distant places and markets from Arampur. Nexus merchants now roam the length of the Ganges river plain ordering merchandise for sale in Arampur: cloth from Allahabad, shoes from Delhi. Meanwhile, carpet loom owners bring carpets ready to be finished to Badoi, a major carpet-making center near Banaras, and return with the raw materials for more carpets. Bihar has long been known as a source of migrant labor both within South Asia and beyond. Migrant workers from the area, having visited their wives and families on the short break they get but once or twice a year, may abandon efforts to get inside the bus, climbing the ladder to the roof, pushing their luggage up ahead of them. Furloughed soldiers and paramilitary police are more likely to successfully obtain a seat inside and head for the bus door. Both groups go to Banaras to connect with further transportation back to their duties in Dhanbad, Calcutta, Bombay, or Kashmir. They travel to one of Banaras' three train stations or many bus stands, or, perhaps, to the large rail hub at Mughal Sarai. The presence of residents of the Arampur region throughout India has led historically to some unfortunate stereotypes by Indians and non-Indians alike. As early as the 1790s, certain Britishers exclaimed the useful qualities they imagined of the Arampur region's residents from whom they drew some of their top sepoys. Demonstrating the stereotypes that Biharis in general have long suffered under, Thomas Twining at that time wrote that they were, "eminently martial people, easily inflamed, and impatient of control, but with management and firmness, their subordination is easily secured" (Archer, p. 128). P.C. Chaudhury, author of the 1966 district gazetteer for the government of Bihar, shared a similarly hackneyed and grandiose image of the area population when he wrote: "The people of this district are very hardy, brave, adventurous and military-minded. As they are not satisfied with the quiet life of the farmer and take delight in courting dangers, they generally prefer military or psuedo-military life. Hence they generally form the bulk of the constabulatory not only in the districts of Bihar but also in the neighboring State of Bengal. They generally get themselves [sic] recruited in the army. This is the main reason for emigration from this district." Additional considerations for contemporary emigration likely also include the high population density and growth of the region and the accompanying economic difficulties.
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