For a house built in Kerala, another brought down in Bihar

On January 31, at about 7 a.m., more than 300 people of the brahmin community allegedly attacked Kailash Paswan’s house in the Paswan tola (locality) of Harinagar village, in Bihar’s Darbhanga district. The Paswans are a community of Scheduled Castes, and constitute about 16% of the village population, as per the panchayat head. In Harinagar, a dirt track divides the upper caste habitations from the Paswan tola houses.

That morning, the police at the Kusheshwar Asthan station filed an FIR against 70 brahmin and 150 unidentified people under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Hemkant Jha, who the residents of Paswan tola claim led the attack, was arrested with 11 others from his community. Another 11, all from the Paswan tola, were taken to the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) with serious injuries. Almost a month later, they are still there. One of them is Kailash’s younger brother, who has 12 stitches on his head.

The brahmins claim that the previous day, when Hemkant was about to leave for Darbhanga for a trip, Kailash and two of his brothers pulled him out of the car and beat him up with sticks. The FIR filed on January 30 also states that they tried to extort money and snatched a gold chain and ring from Hemkant, along with a purse containing ₹6,000.

A senior police officer says, “We have lodged FIRs from both sides. From Paswan’s family Asharfi (Paswan, Kailash’s father) has filed the complaint.”

House of Kailash Paswan at Harinagar village in Darbhanga which was allegedly demolished in the attack by the people of Brahmin Community.
| Photo Credit:
Amit Bhelari

The dispute centred around Hemkant’s sister’s home built in Kerala between 2015 and 2017. Kailash says he was never paid in full for it, and though he had raised it in the Panchayat, the remaining payment was never made. So when he saw Hemkant’s sister and husband in the village, he simply asked for his long-pending dues. The next day, his home, and several others in Paswan tola were attacked by the brahmins, he alleges.

Vimal Chandra Khan, the Mukhiya (panchayat head) of the village says, “The people of the brahmin community should not have attacked Paswan’s family. The matter could have been resolved in a Panchayat meeting. Paswan tola has seen a lot of damage.” A panchayat meeting was held in December 2025 to sort out the matter, but the brahmins did not show up. At the second meeting, held 10 days before the incident, no conclusion was reached.

In the area around Kailash’s home, one room of brick-and-cement slapped together and painted blue, and another of mud and thatch, 15 constables are posted day and night. The police say this is the first time the village has seen caste problems at this scale. Rajesh Kumar, a constable of Bihar Special Armed Police (BSAP) deputy in the village, says, “We are patrolling across the village to maintain peace and at present there is no fresh violence. Sometimes, senior police officials also visit the village to check.”

With the fear of arrest, hundreds of male members of the brahmin community have left the village. The women guard information around their whereabouts. The Mukhiya says there are about 3,500 brahmins and 700 Paswans in Harinagar.

In Bihar, caste and migration are equally a part of life. According to the Bihar Caste Survey report for 2022-23, up to 53 lakh families and 2.65 crore people live outside Bihar as migrants.

From 2021 to 2023, Bihar ranked fourth among States in the number of cases filed under the SC/ST Act. However, in 2023, as per National Crime Records Bureau data, the conviction rate for Scheduled Castes was at 30.1%, compared to Uttar Pradesh’s 70%. Uttar Pradesh has consistently seen the highest number of caste atrocities across three years.

Houses and homes

Kailash, 42, who works as a mason, is the second brother among five, and one of 10 children, with the youngest being 27. He says the men forced entry into his house “shouting slogans of Jai Bajrang Bali and Jai Shri Ram”, hurling casteist abuses. “They were carrying wooden sticks, iron rods, axes, hammers, bricks, stones, and started attacking us. They chased my elder brother (Vikram Paswan, 45), threw him down, and attacked him with sticks and iron rods. They hit him so hard on his head that he started bleeding and fainted on the spot.”

In 2015, Hemkant’s sister Mina Devi and her husband had wanted to construct a house in Kerala’s Kozhikode. “They asked for labour. My younger brother (Raj Gir Paswan) and four others travelled there and completed the construction by October 2017. There were local labourers as well who helped us,” Kailash says. He adds that Mina and her husband, Suryakant Jha, gave them a room to live.

“Out of a total payment of ₹3.47 lakh, they paid us ₹1.13 lakh. They said Hemkant Jha would pay the rest later. It’s been almost 10 years, and the family has not paid us,” Kailash alleges, adding that he had paid the other villagers, with only his and his brother’s payment pending.

One of his younger brothers, Ram Vilas Paswan, runs a dhaba on the outskirts of the village. “They attacked and demolished this too,” says Kailash, adding that his daily income was now compromised. Houses and cowsheds made from clay and straw lie damaged, utensils strewn around in the tola.

Asharfi, 75, says, “Hemkant Jha was leading the mob and they came with the intention of killing us. My wife Ram Tara Devi (70) and granddaughter Komal Kumari (14) were crying and shouting for help.” He alleges they beat up his wife and stripped her, broke his granddaughter’s spine, and beat him up too.

Ram Tara adds that the mob broke the doors and windows of the house. She alleges that they looted three gold ornaments, silver anklets, and cash of ₹2 lakh kept for her granddaughter’s wedding. “We took a loan for the money,” she says.

Kailash’s wife Sanju Devi says, “The whole episode lasted 3 hours. They looted the television, fridge, and mobile phones and smashed a motorcycle. They threatened to kill us.”

Neetu Paswan, 30, a neighbour points to her house, which she says the brahmin men attacked and damaged. Other neighbours say the same.

In the brahmin camp

Satya Narayan Mishra, 60, who lives in the Brahmin part of the village, says it was the fault of Paswans, who started the hostility.

Neelam Devi, 50, Hemkant’s chachi (aunt) gives her version, saying that the Paswan brothers pulled a man called Shrinath Jha, 44, off a bike he had just mounted to visit Hemkant. “They hit him with an axe and iron rod. They asked why he had saved Hemkant, and threatened to kill him,” she adds. Shrinath had allegedly intervened on the day that Kailash asked for his money, and had informed the police. Neelam asserts that the Paswans repeatedly threatened her family about the SC/ST Act.

Meanwhile Parmila Devi, Hemkant’s mother, who lives with her daughter and son-in-law in Kerala demands, “Whatever you want to know, ask me. Do not drag the names of my daughter and son-in-law into this matter. They are already tense and they have no role in it.”

She claims that three generations of Paswans had worked for their family. “We treated them like family, but they have deceived us. There are no dues; all the money has been paid. After this incident, no brahmin family will ever allow the Paswans to work in their house as labour.” She chokes up, saying their lives have been “shattered” and that “because we belong to the upper caste, everyone is blaming us, even the police”.

Migrating to greener lands

A neighbour of Hemkant’s says Suryakant and Mina are the only family in the village who shifted to Kerala 20 years ago. They have four children studying, all there. While Hemkant’s mother does not want to talk about why the family moved more than 2,500 kilometres away to set up home, the panchayat head says Suryakant moved with his family after he got a job there. Their two-bedroom home is built on the outskirts of Kozhikode, in a rural, hilly part, says Kailash.

Former Chairperson of the Centre for Development Practice and Research, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Patna, Pushpendra Kumar, explains that traditionally, people from Bihar migrated to other Hindi-speaking places in north and central India. “Over the past decade, people go to Kerala because it is the State which pays the highest daily wages to workers and has eradicated abject poverty. It is also one of the most migrant-friendly States,” he says.

Kumar says there is no conflict with the local labour either. “Work is also going on for language support,” he says, citing the example of a migrant labourer, Romiya Kathur from Bihar, who had got 100% in the Malayalam literacy exam in 2020, after being in the State for just six years.

According to Kerala’s Economic Review of 2025, released in January 2026, there are 4.3 lakh registered migrant workers in Kerala. Of these, those from Bihar are at 57,244, the third largest in Kerala, after West Bengal (1,46,136) and Assam (75,437). The largest number of migrant workers are in the construction sector (17.5 lakh).

Political outing

After the incident, Bihar Rural Works Department Minister and senior JD(U) leader Ashok Choudhary cautioned against misusing the SC/ST Act. Choudhary, himself from an SC community, said Dalits would lose sympathy if it was misused.

Bihar’s SC/ST Welfare Department Minister Lakhendra Kumar Roshan told the media that those responsible for the attack on the Paswans should not be spared. “Only the weak are attacked, not the strong. The weak have got rights under the constitution and accordingly FIRs have been lodged by the police,” Roshan said.

Two weeks after the episode, Union Minister and President of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Chirag Paswan went to meet the injured in hospital. He assured them that the Central Government and his party would assist those hurt.

Kailash is unsure now about getting the money Hemkant allegedly owes him. “Maybe the government can help me,” he says.

amit.bhelari@thehindu.co.in