Mir Sahab lives in the Irani area of Forbesganj. A small town in Bihar on the border of Nepal and Bangladesh, Forbesganj has both an Irani and Iraqi area.
Mir Sahab’s ancestors had a zamindari. A victim of the Land Ceiling Act, the property of his family was seized and now belongs to the aviation authority of India. He lives inside a small bamboo fence enclosure in a home made of mud, bamboo and bricks, near his fields.
He lives off the agricultural yield of his farms.
This area is in the Kosi belt, prone to constant floods. There is the additional isolation of being one of the few Muslims in a Hindu majority town and a Shia in a Sunni majority district – Araria.[Read full article]