On January 31, at around 7 am, more than 300 people from the Brahmin community allegedly attacked Kailash Paswan’s house. weighed (Mohalla) of Harinagar village in Darbhanga district of Bihar. According to the panchayat chief, Paswan is a Scheduled Caste community and constitutes about 16% of the village population. In Harinagar, a dirt road divides the upper caste settlements from Paswan. weighed House.
That morning, the Kusheshwar Asthan police station registered an FIR under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 against 70 Brahmins and 150 unidentified people.
Hemkant Jha, whom residents of Paswan Tola claim led the attack, was arrested along with 11 others from his community. The other 11, all from Paswan Tola, were taken to 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 go to Darbhanga for a visit, Kailash and his two brothers pulled him out of the car and beat him with sticks. The FIR, filed on January 30, also said that they tried to withdraw money and snatched a gold chain and ring from Hemkant, as well as a purse containing Rs 6,000.
A senior police officer says, “We have filed an FIR on behalf of both the parties. Ashrafi (Paswan, Kailash’s father) has filed a complaint from Paswan’s family.”
Kailash Paswan’s house in Harinagar village of Darbhanga which was allegedly demolished in an attack by people of Brahmin community. | Photo courtesy: Amit Bhelari
The controversy centered on a house built in Kerala for Hemkant’s sister between 2015 and 2017. Kailash says he was never paid in full for it, and though he raised it in the panchayat, the remaining payment was never made. So when he saw Hemkant’s sister and husband in the village, they simply asked for their long-pending dues. The next day, his house, and many other people from Paswan weighed He alleges that he was attacked by Brahmins.
Village head (panchayat chief) Vimal Chandra Khan says, “People from the Brahmin community should not have attacked Paswan’s family. The matter could have been resolved in the panchayat meeting. Paswan weighed Have seen a lot of damage.” A panchayat meeting was held in December 2025 to resolve the matter, but the Brahmin did not attend. No conclusion was reached in the second meeting held 10 days before the incident.
In the area around Kailash’s house, one room made of brick and cement and painted blue, and the other made of mud and thatch, 15 constables are deployed day and night. Police say that this is the first time that caste problems have been seen on this scale in the village. Rajesh Kumar, deputy constable of Bihar Special Armed Police (BSAP) in the village, says, “We are patrolling the entire village to maintain peace and there is no fresh violence at the moment. Sometimes, senior police officers also visit the village to investigate.”
Hundreds of male members of the Brahmin community have left the village due to fear of arrest. The women guard information about their whereabouts. The chief says that there are about 3,500 Brahmins and 700 Paswans in Harinagar.
Caste and migration are equally a part of life in Bihar. According to the Bihar Caste Survey report for 2022-23, 53 lakh families and 2.65 crore people live outside Bihar as migrants.
From 2021 to 2023, Bihar ranks fourth among states in the number of cases registered under the SC/ST Act. However, in 2023, according to National Crime Records Bureau data, the conviction rate for Scheduled Castes was 30.1%, while in Uttar Pradesh it was 70%. Uttar Pradesh has seen the highest number of caste atrocities continuously in the last three years.
house and house
Kailash, 42, who works as a mason, is the second brother of five, and one of 10 children, the youngest being 27. He says people forced their way into his house “chanting slogans of Jai Bajrang Bali and Jai Shri Ram” and using 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 on the head so hard that he started bleeding and became unconscious on the spot.”
In 2015, Hemkanth’s sister Meena Devi and her husband wanted to build a house in Kozhikode, Kerala. Kailash says, “They asked for labour. My younger brother (Raj Gir Paswan) and four others went there and completed the construction by October 2017. There were also local laborers who helped us.” She told that Meena and her husband Suryakant Jha had given her a room to stay.
Kailash alleges, “Out of the total ₹3.47 lakh, they paid us ₹1.13 lakh. They said Hemkant Jha would pay the rest later. It has been almost 10 years, and the family has not paid us.” He further said that he has paid the other villagers, only his and his brother’s payment is pending.
One of his younger brothers, Ram Vilas Paswan, runs a dhaba on the outskirts of the village. “They attacked and demolished that too,” says Kailash, adding that his daily income is now gone. Houses and cowsheds made of mud and straw are damaged, utensils are scattered here and there. weighed.
Ashrafi, 75, says, “Hemkant Jha was leading the mob and they had come with the intention of killing us. My wife Ram Tara Devi (70) and granddaughter Komal Kumari (14) were crying and screaming for help.” He alleges that they beat his wife and stripped her, broke his granddaughter’s spine and also beat him up.
Ram Tara says that the mob broke the doors and windows of the house. He alleges that they looted three gold ornaments, silver anklets and Rs 2 lakh in cash kept for his granddaughter’s wedding. “We took a loan for the money,” she says.
Kailash’s wife Sanju Devi says, “The whole incident lasted for 3 hours. They looted television, fridge and mobile phones and broke a motorcycle. They threatened to kill us.”
Neighbor Neetu Paswan, 30, points to her house, which she says was attacked and damaged by Brahmin men. Other neighbors also say the same.
in brahmin camp
Satya Narayan Mishra, 60, who lives in the Brahmin part of the village, says it was the Paswans’ fault who started the enmity.
Neelam Devi, 50, of Hemkant Aunt (Aunty) while presenting her side says that Paswan brothers pulled a person named Srinath Jha, 44, from the bike on which he had gone to meet Hemkant. “They attacked him with an ax and iron rods. They asked why he saved Hemkant, and threatened to kill him,” she adds. On the day Kailash asked for his money, Srinath had allegedly intervened and informed the police. Neelam claims that the Paswan family repeatedly threatened her family regarding the SC/ST Act.
Meanwhile, Hemkanth’s mother Parmila Devi, who lives with her daughter and son-in-law in Kerala, demands, “Whatever you want to know, ask me. Don’t drag my daughter and son-in-law’s name into this matter. They are already under stress and they have no role in this.”
He claims that three generations of Paswan have worked for his family. “We treated them like family, but they have betrayed us. There are no dues; all the money has been paid. After this incident, no Brahmin family will ever allow Paswans to work as laborers in their house.” She cries, saying that her life has been “ruined” and that “because we are from the upper caste, everyone is blaming us, even the police”.
migration to green land
A neighbor of Hemkant says that Suryakant and Meena are the only family in the village who migrated to Kerala 20 years ago. His four children are studying there. While Hemkant’s mother doesn’t want to talk about why the family moved more than 2,500 kilometers away to settle down, the panchayat chief says Suryakant moved in with his family after he got a job there. Kailash says his two-bedroom house is built in a rural, hilly part, on the outskirts of Kozhikode.
Pushpendra Kumar, former chairman of the Center for Development Practice and Research at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Patna, points out that traditionally, people from Bihar migrated to other Hindi-speaking places in north and central India. He says, “In the last decade, people move to Kerala because it is the state that pays the highest daily wages to workers and has eliminated extreme poverty. It is one of the most migrant-friendly states.”
Kumar says there is no conflict with local workers either. “Work is also underway for language support,” he says, citing the example of Romiya Kathur, a migrant laborer from Bihar who, after living in the state for just six years, scored 100% in the Malayalam literacy test in 2020.
According to the Economic Review of Kerala 2025 released in January 2026, there are 4.3 lakh registered migrant workers in Kerala. Of these, the number of people from Bihar is 57,244, which is the third highest number in Kerala after West Bengal (1,46,136) and Assam (75,437). The largest number of migrant workers is in the construction sector (17.5 lakh).
political walk
After the incident, Bihar Rural Affairs Department Minister and senior JDU leader Ashok Chaudhary cautioned against misuse of the SC/ST Act. Chaudhary, who himself belongs to the SC community, said Dalits would lose sympathy if it was misused.
Bihar SC/ST Welfare Department Minister Lakhendra Kumar Roshan told the media that those responsible for the attack on Paswan should not be spared. “Only the weak are attacked, not the powerful. The weak have got rights under the Constitution and the FIR has been lodged by the police accordingly,” Roshan said.
Two weeks after the incident, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) President Chirag Paswan reached the hospital to meet the injured. He assured them that the central government and his party would help the injured people.
Kailash is now unsure about getting the money that Hemkant allegedly borrowed from him. “Maybe the government can help me,” he says.
amit.bhelari@thehindu.co.in
