Dharmraj Khatait Tharu Tribe of West Champaran : My Friend My Inspiration

Dharmraj Khatait  Tharu Tribe  of West Champaran : 

My Friend My Inspiration

We  do interact with several people from the very childhood days of our life but some interactions become immemorable, become heart touching. Such interactions do not fade out easily from our memories. Actually they leave an indelible imprint in one's mind. I can also recall one such interaction when I was a student of K.R.High School, Bettiah, supposed to be one of the best schools in whole of North Bihar.

Dharmraj Khatait (Tharu)  with Dr Ajay Kumar (Ojha) in Bhikhna Thori of West Champaran Bihar
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

I had a batchmate named Dharmraj Khatait . Dharmraj was a very simple man, very innocent and ignorant of worldly manipulations and manoeuvres. He was having flat nose and squint eyes, and belonged to Tarai  region of Indo-Nepal border. This area is better known as Tharuhat in West Champaran Bihar. I could observe some students of my class throwing nasty comments or remarks upon him such as "Bagad", "Fool", "Uncultured". But this boy used to attend classes without getting disturbed.

Dr Ajay Kumar (Ojha) in Bhikhna Thori  of West Champaran Bihar
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

This so called "Bagad" boy became a very good friend of mine just because he possessed a transparent personality, just because he was always wearing a pleasant smile on his face - very cool, calm and composed. So much impressed was I with his personality and behaviour that once I visited his village in Tharuhat. I have no hitch or hesitation in stating that I used to find myself much comfortable in his benign company. He appeared to be God-incarnate for me because of his crystal clear personality. Later I also came to know that he belonged to Tharu Community - a deprived, exploited and most backward group of people of West Champaran Bihar. 

Dharmraj Khatait (Tharu) with Dr Ajay Kumar (Ojha) in Bhikhna Thori of West Champaran Bihar
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

Interaction with the Tharu people started with the friendship with Dharmraj, continued with the passage of time. My curiosity to know more and more about them grew. I have seen and observed the nature and personality of many Tharu boys , who used to frequent my house in Bettiah, headquarter of West Champaran district. They were all students of my father Bihar Vibhuti Prof(Dr) Rabindra Nath Ojha who was Professor and Head Department of English, M.J.K. College Bettiah. Their simplicity and innocence always attracted me towards them.

My father was also very much impressed with their simplicity. He even wrote a very beautiful and heart-touching short essay on one of his students Ramnarayan a Tharu and thus immortalized him. This essay later became part of his book "Shivam Sundaram" published in the year 2000.

Those indelible imprints and impressions of the Tharus I carried alongwith me when I landed in Delhi in 1980 and joined Jawaharlal Nehru University for higher academic pursuits. It took almost no time for me to decide the topic of my research when I enrolled myself for Ph.D in 1985 after completing my MA and M.Phil. I would have taken any topic that too in Delhi itself like other batchmates but for me it was undoubtedly to be on the Tharus of West Champaran district of Bihar - the most deprived, the most neglected, the most exploited lot subjected to inhuman conditions even in this age.

So seed of my Ph.D thesis was sown during my growing friendship with Dharmraj Khatait a Tharu Tribe. Dharmraj Khatait has been my friend my inspiration.