The Bhojpuri people or Bhojpuriyas are a group from the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

who speak the

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

-language and inhabit the

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

Purvanchal Purvanchal () is a subregion of the Bhojpuri region of India which comprises eastern Uttar Pradesh. Purvanchal region gained independence from the Avadh and Mughal rule under Zamindar Balwant Singh, a Bhumihar zamindar from Benaras State. I ...

region. This area is now divided between the western part of the Indian state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, the eastern part of the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, northwestern Jharkhand, along with some neighbouring districts in the

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

and

Madhesh Madhesh Province ( Nepali/ mai, मधेश प्रदेश) is a province of Nepal that was formed after the adoption of the Constitution of Nepal. It is Nepal's most populous province, and smallest province by area. It borders Province N ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. A significant diaspora population of Bhojpuris can be found in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, other parts of the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

Culture

Language and literature

Bhojpuri is spoken by around 50 million people. It is native to

Bhojpuri region The Bhojpuri region or Bhojpur is an area encompassing parts of the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, and the Madhesh, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces of Nepal, where the Bhojpuri language is spoken as a mother tongue. His ...

and

. Bhojpuri is sociolinguistically considered one of the " Hindi dialects" although it linguistically belongs to the geographic Bihari branch of

Eastern Indo-Aryan languages The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Māgadhan languages, are spoken throughout the eastern Indian subcontinent (East India and Assam, Bangladesh), including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bengal, Tripura, Assam, and Odisha; alongs ...

. The first Bhojpuri novel ''Bindiã'' was written by Ram Nath Pandey in 1955. It was published by Bhojpuri Sansad, Jagatganj,

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

Bhikhari Thakur Bhikari Thakur (18 December 1887 – 10 July 1971) was an Indian Bhojpuri language poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, folk dancer, folk singer and social activist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writer in Bhojpuri language and ...

's was famous writer of Bhojpuri language. His famous book is ''Bidesiya''.भोजपुरी साहित्य के संत-रामनाथ पांडेय
Webduniya.

Cuisine

Bhojpuri cuisine is part of

North Indian cuisine North Indian cuisine is collectively the cuisine of Northern India, which includes the cuisines of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and adjoining western Bihar. Sub-types of No ...

. It is mild and spice is less used. It has majorly influenced the cuisine of the

, and

Influence and reputation

According to

G.A. Grierson Sir George Abraham Grierson (7 January 1851 – 9 March 1941) was an Irish administrator and linguist in British India. He worked in the Indian Civil Service but an interest in philology and linguistics led him to pursue studies in the languag ...

, Bhojpuriya people have influenced all over India and called them people from energetic race and has called them the ''Civilizer of Hindostan''. In order to compare Bhojpuriyas with

Maithils Maithils (Tirhuta: মৈথিল, Devanagari: मैथिल), also known as Maithili people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group from the Indian subcontinent, who speak the Maithili language as their native language. They inhabit the M ...

and Magahiya he writes: He further writes that Bhojpuri people form the fighting nation of Hindostan, and has praised for grab any opportunity. He writes:

Notable people

Mangal Pandey Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier who played a key part in the events immediately preceding the outbreak of the Indian rebellion of 1857. He was a sepoy (infantryman) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment of the British East I ...

, Freedom Fighter from Ballia *

Ravindra Kishore Sinha Ravindra Kishore Sinha, also known as RK Sinha (22 September 1951) is an Indian billionaire businessman, politician and journalist. He is the founder of Security and Intelligence Services, a private security provider in India and Australia. Si ...

, Billionaire businessman and Politician *

Siddhant Chaturvedi Siddhant Chaturvedi (born 29 April 1993) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He starred as a teenage cricketer in the Amazon Prime Video web series '' Inside Edge'' from 2017 to 2019 and ventured into films with the supporting role ...

, Bollywood actor *

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' ( Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for l ...

, Indian independence activist and politician (Bharat Ratna) * Dr. Rajendra Prasad, First

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...

, Second Prime Minister of India *

Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar ( 17 April 1927 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with ...

, Former Prime Minister of India *

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parlia ...

, Politician and Former Chief Minister of Bihar *

, Author * Heera Dom, Poet *

Raj Mohan Raj Mohan (born 28 August 1964), is a Dutch singer and songwriter, who sings in Bhojpuri. In 2011 he released his first pop album with Sarnami-Bhojpuri lyrics together with Hindi songs and poems which he all wrote and composed himself. It is the fi ...

, Singer *

Dinesh Bhramar Dinesh Bhramar is a Hindi and Bhojpuri poet from Bihar, India. He has been credited to introduce the Ghazal and Ruba'i in Bhojpuri literature. Early life and education Bhramar was born in 1939 in British India at Bagaha, a small townshi ...

, Poet *

Bindeshwari Dubey Bindeshwari Dubey (14 January 1921 – 20 January 1993) was a freedom fighter, trade unionist and politician who served as Chief Minister of Bihar between 12 March 1985 and 13 February 1988. Dubey was involved in the nationalisation of India ...

, freedom fighter and politician *

Ravi Kishan Ravi Kishan Shukla (; born 17 July 1969), popularly known as Ravi Kishan, is an Indian actor, politician, film producer and television personality. He currently serves as Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur. His film works are predo ...

, Actor and Politician *

Manoj Bajpayee Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...

, Actor *

Vinay Pathak Vinay Pathak (born 12 July 1968) is an Indian theater and film actor. He has starred in many films including '' Khosla Ka Ghosla,'' '' Bheja Fry,'' ''Island City'' and ''Johnny Gaddaar'' and had a supporting role in movies like ''Jism'', ''Ra ...

, Actor *

Om Prakash Rajbhar Om Prakash Rajbhar (born 15 September 1962) is an Indian politician and president of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP). He is a member of 18th Legislative Assembly from Zahoorabad constituency of Uttar Pradesh. Early life Rajbhar was b ...

, Politician *

Saryu Rai Saryu Roy (born 16 July 1951) is an Indian politician, who was formerly a BJP leader in Bihar and Jharkhand. He left BJP before 2019 assembly elections in Jharkhand, and won as an independent from Jamshedpur East, defeating the incumbent C ...

, Politician *

Medini Ray Medini Rai Madini Rai or Madini Rao ruled from 1658 to 1674 in the Palamu region of Bihar, now in Jharkhand. Reign After consolidating his position, he started to expand his chieftaincy. He extended his sway over South Gaya and setup post i ...

, king of Palamu in 17th century * Babu Veer Kunwar Singh,

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

of Jagdishpur estate *

Parichay Das Parichay Das (born ''Ravindra Nath Srivastava''), is an Indian writer, essayist, poet and editor of contemporary Bhojpuri poetry. He is Professor and Head, Department of Hindi, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara Deemed University. He writes in Bhojpuri and ...

Manoj Bhawuk Manoj Bhawuk (born 2 January 1976) is an Indian poet writing in Bhojpuri language, Bhojpuri, actor, television presenter and screenwriter, active in Bhojpuri cinema. He has written books. He promotes Bhojpuri language and literature. Bhawuk has ...

, Bhojpuri Poet *

Anjana Om Kashyap Anjana Om Kashyap is an Indian news anchor working with Hindi news channel Aaj Tak as a Senior Executive Editor. Kashyap started her journalistic career by joining the public broadcaster Doordarshan before moving to Zee News. She then went to ...

, Journalist *

Chandan Tiwari Chandan Tiwari is an Indian folk singer from Bihar. She is known as folk singer and sings in Bhojpuri, Nagpuri, Awadhi and Hindi. She was awarded Sangeet Natak Academy-Bismillah Khan Samman. She was honoured by Bhojpuri Kokila in Kolkata. BAG ...

, Folk singer * Manoj Tiwari, Actor, singer and politician *

Pankaj Tripathi Pankaj Tripathi (né Tiwari; born 5 September 1976) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema and has also appeared in Telugu and Tamil language films. Tripathi has established himself as one of the notable actors of Hindi cinema. He is the ...

, Actor *

Tejashwi Yadav Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (born 9 November 1989) is an Indian politician, former cricketer, and the current Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, in office since August 2022. He also serves as the Minister of Health, Minister of Road Construction and P ...

, Politician

References

{{reflist Indo-Aryan peoples Ethnic groups in India Ethnic groups divided by international borders Ethnic groups in Nepal

Culture

Language and literature

Cuisine

Influence and reputation

Notable people

See also

References