Once, There Were Mills

Bihar's manufacturing deficit is as much a political phenomenon as an economic one

- Umesh Kumar Ray IS A BIHAR-BASED INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST

FROM a distance, the abandoned Marhowrah sugar mill in south Bihar's Saran district looks like an installation of abstract art. It wears the theme of desolation on its rust-covered pipes and long-defunct boilers left exposed to the elements by the wide cracks in the old walls that have collapsed at many places, letting the wilderness outside seep in and spread all over.

Chatting with customers at his paan and cigarette stall half a kilometre away, 75-year-old Awadesh Thakur seems quite disappointed with Amit Shah, who recently blamed "scarcity of land in Bihar" for the lack of big industries in the state. "As there is difficulty in acquiring land for big factories, we should bring those industries here that need less land," the Union Home Minister had told a news channel on October 18 in Patna. "How can he say this? If Bihar has no land, then how did the Britishers establish so many industries here? It is not about whether Bihar has enough land or not. It's about the intention," says Thakur.

Pointing towards the old mill's tall tower that still stands at its place, 36-year-old Ram Babu Ram, a customer at Thakur's stall, remembers the days when this space was teeming with activity. "When the siren wailed, it could be heard from six or seven kilometres away. We could tell the time by the sound," recalls Ram, who is now a migrant worker in Andhra Pradesh. "If there were factories in my home district, then I would not have needed to move to another state in search of livelihood. Even if no factory here employed me, I could have still opened a small eatery near one and earned a decent living."