Bihar : A Museum of Lawlessness and Casteism/Dinesh Kumar. New Delhi, Reliance Pub., 2007, viii, 116 p., ISBN 81-7510-129-6.

    Contents: Acknowledgements. 1. Barbarians at the gate. 2. The caste chemistry. 3. Lawlessness: the law of the land. 4. Education: an odious fair. 5. Patna: fire, water, dissension and more. 6. The judicial machine. 7. The great misconception. 8. The answer.

    "A result of nearly five years of keen and critical observation, Bihar : A Museum of Lawlessness is a work of empirical writing on one of India's most talked (and least cared) about states. In a brutally frank narrative, the writer tries to depict the ills affecting each and every organ of the state. Casteism, criminalisation and corruption of every imaginable and unimaginable kind, that the writer has personally witnessed and/or felt, are dealt at length in this book.

    An impotent and badly demoralized constabulary, a caste-conscious judiciary, a completely criminalized political class, a bureaucracy bent upon breaking the norms and a citizenry blinded by caste-all make up a state, which the author describes as 'a chariot that has suffered a complete breakdown, a rot beyond repair, an illness beyond cure'.

    And in the end, after telling his tale of his home state, the author warns that the spread of 'Bihar' to India and then to the rest of the world, is a distinct possibility."  

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