THE landlords today comprise two sections. On the one hand, there are the feudal landlords who resort to old methods of cultivation through tenants and on the other hand, there are the junker-type capitalist landlords who generally divide their land into two parts with one part being leased out or cultivated by domestic farm servants and the other part being cultivated by hired labourers using modern means. The Mahants in Bihar are usually big land­lords of the feudal-type, commanding armed private gangs of their own and often leading landlords of their respective areas in attacks on poor peasants. In place of the old administrative machinery of earliear zamindars, today’s landlords have at their disposal the well-knit administrative machinery of the modern state manned by thoroughly corrupt and bureaucratic government officials.

In the existing socio-economic conditions of Bihar, the new landlords and kulaks enjoy consolidated economic, social and political power at Panchayat and block levels, openly in league with corrupt government officials and darogas, and caste-based mobilisations have become their new watchword in their war against the rural poor as well as in their factional infightings. Under universal suffrage and parliamentary democracy the whole complexion of politics and political parties in Bihar has undergone a thorough change and assumed the worst casteist form. It is these classes which provide leadership to the recently emerging private gangs of landlords which operate as politico-military formations. Ironically, the very sections of the better-off backward caste tenants which once provided the backbone of the erstwhile Kisan Sabha movement, have now trans­formed themselves into kulaks and are often found to be more aggressive than others against agricultural labourers demanding increased wages. The two Senas, viz., the Bhoomi Sena and the Lorik Sena, which have shot into the limelight in Bihar in recent years are led by backward caste elements from the Kurmis and Yadavas respectively.