The Bhumihar Brahmins are predominantly farmers. Some are owners of vast quantities of land but many are small farmers too. Currently, most Bhumihars have been reduced to the status of small-scale farmers with the fall of the zamindari system. While most zamindars were Bhumihars, there was widespread discontent among the raiyyats (farmers who were lent land on lease and from whom tax was collected), regardless of their castes. Then, it was a class struggle rather than a caste struggle. And this struggle was led by none other than Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, a Bhumihar, who formed the first Kisan Sabha in India. Many other nationalists like Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Pandit Yadunandan Sharma and Pandit Jamuna Karjee joined Swamiji in the upliftment of the peasantry which included people of all castes and communities and for the freedom of India from colonial yoke. Marriage of people in this community, like most of other social groups of India, is restricted to their own subcaste. English education was adopted very late by Bhumihar Brahmins because they have been very orthodox Brahmins along with being well off from the rest. There had been some exceptions to this but nowadays they are doing very well in all walks of life. Bhumihar Brahmins were just 2.9% of Bihar population (before partition of Jharkhand) but had a control over 45% of agricultural land in bihar and wielded a great political strength in Pre-Mandal politics of Bihar as Brahmins all over the country. At one time this caste contributed 19 MPs out of total 54 Lok sabha seats in Bihar. It is a fact that Bhumihar Brahmin's contribution to the freedom struggle of India and the upliftment of downtrodden in Bihar is unmatched by any other community in Bihar. Many think that Bihar was the best administered state in India under the tenure of Dr.Sri Krishna Sinha, who was a Bhumihar Brahmin and the state saw most of its development under his tenure only. This caste is vilified even though the first peasant struggle in India against zamindari was started by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati and the communities to benefit most from it were Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri (backward castes) who got the land ownership at the cost of Bhumihar Brahmin zamindars. He is still one of the most revered leaders of peasants. In 1990s the politics in Bihar was done with the sole basis of targeting the upper castes, more particularly the Bhumihar Brahmins. The per cent population of the Bhumihars in Bihar has also increased from a lowly 2.9% to 4.6% after Jharkhand was separated from it, making them politically significant.
