The call for a separate Mithila state is more than a century old — raised when Bihar was carved from Bengal in 1912, revived after independence, and carried since by organisations from the Mithila Student Union to assorted cultural bodies. Their case rests on linguistic identity, cultural distinctiveness, and a sense that the Maithili-speaking districts have been left behind.
The demand resurfaced prominently in 2024, when senior politicians publicly backed it and pressed in parallel for classical-language status for Maithili. No bill has been introduced, and governments have favoured cultural recognition over redrawing the map — but the movement endures as an expression of Mithila’s enduring sense of itself as a distinct land.