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Bihar is a state in North-Eastern India. It is bordered by the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh and the country Nepal. Its surface area covers approximately 99,200 square kilometres. The state’s capital is the city of Patna which earlier was Patliputra.
The name Bihar comes from the antique name VIHARA which means monasteries. Undoubtedly the name stands true for the land of monasteries. Amongst all the states of India. The cultural heritage, the regional dialects and the rich history of the state make it extremely unique and beautiful.
The procedure of calculating systematically, recording and acquiring the details of members of the population in a given geographical boundary is known as the census.
Population of Bihar
Based on the reports of Census 2011, the population of Bihar was 10.41 crores, which was higher than the census of 2001 of 8.31 crores.
The male population of Bihar was 54, 278,157 and the female population was 49, 821,295. This lead the sex ratio to 918 and the population growth as compared to the census of 2001 to be 25.42%. The child sex ratio as per the census of 2011 was 935 which decreased as compared to the census of 2001 which reported the child sex ratio to be 942.
The density per kilometre square also increased from 881 in 2001 to 1,106.
The literacy rates increased significantly as compared to the census of 2001, as they increased from 47.00% in 2001 to 61.80% in 2011. Here, the rate of male literacy remained at 71.20% and the rate of female literacy was at 51.50%.
Religion in Bihar
Even though Hinduism and Islam are the two most followed religions in Bihar,
Bihar is the one that gave rise to two main religions namely Buddhism and Jainism.
Bihar is very intimately linked with the life of Buddha. This has resulted in a trail of the Buddhist Circuit which is also known as a trail of pilgrimages. Patna, the capital of the state is where the trail starts and where a museum stores Hindu and Buddhism sculptures and is also said to contain the ashes of Lord Buddha.
Pataliputra, Champapuri and Vaishali have significant roles in the religion of Jainism. Bihar is also home to a number of pilgrimage sites for Jainism. Not just for Jainism but the state of Bihar contains ancient shrines of the religions of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhist and Muslim religion.
With respect to the religion in Bihar, the census 2011 data showed that Hindus in the state covered 82.69% as they accounted for 86, 078, 686 people. Islam covered a percentage of 16.87% in the state as it accounted for 17,557,809 people of the population. Then came Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and other religions all covering significantly fewer proportions.
Conclusion
Bihar is a state extremely rich in cultural heritage and religions with varied diversity. It holds an important position in the country’s geographical location. The river Ganges naturally divides the plains from North Bihar to South Bihar.
About half the state of Bihar is under the Agricultural works, however, the state still produces the country’s second most IAS Officers. Bihar’s natural mineral deposits were depleted significantly when the state divided to give birth to the state of Jharkhand.
Even though the literacy rate of Bihar has tripled in the last decade the state has a lot of progress to make in terms of the development of transport facilities, power outages, manufacturing and infrastructural development.
