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Bajjika is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in parts of Bihar, India and in Nepal.[1]
Bajjika language is spoken in the north-western part of Bihar, in a region popularly known as Tirhut.[2] It is mainly spoken in the Sitamarhi, Sheohar Muzaffarpur and Vaishali districts of Bihar.[3] A 2013 estimate based on 2001 census data suggests that there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar.[4]
Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in Nepal, where it has 1,133,764 speakers according to the country's 2021 census. It is the most spoken language in Rautahat, Sarlahi and Mahottari district of Madhesh Province.[5] [6]
Bajjika has been classified as a dialect of Maithili.[7][8][9] Whether Bajjika is classified as a dialect of Maithili depends on whether 'Maithili' is understood as the term for the specific standard Maithili dialect spoken in northern Bihar, or as the name for the whole language as the group of all related dialects together. When the proponents of the Maithili language in Bihar demanded the use of Maithili-medium primary education in the early 20th century, the Angika and Bajjika-speaking people did not support them, and instead favoured Hindi-medium education.[10] The discussions around Bajjika's status as a minority language emerged in the 1950s.[3] In the 1960s and the 1970s, when the Maithili speakers demanded a separate Mithila state, the Angika and Bajjika speakers made counter-demands for recognition of their languages.[11]
Maithili proponents believe that the Government of Bihar and the pro-Hindi Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad promoted Angika and Bajjika as distinct languages to weaken the Maithili language movement. [10] People from mainly Maithil Brahmins and Karan Kayasthas castes supported the Maithili movement in the days when it was to be subsumed as a dialect of Hindi, hence anti-Maithili factions branded the Maithili Language as a Brahminical language while inciting various other castes in the Mithila region to project Angika and Bajjika as their mother tongues, attempting to break away from the Maithili-based regional identity.[12] According to linguist Pandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Bajjika and Maithili are two different dialects.[13][14]
In a move aimed at protecting indigenous language and culture, the Bihar government has decided to set up two new academies to promote local dialects; Surjapuri and Bajjika, spoken in politically influential Seemanchal and Bajjikanchal regions of the state.[15]
Lakshmi Elthin Hammar Angna (2009) was the first formal feature film in Bajjika. Sajan Aiha Doli le ke came after that.[16]
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