Dalits in Bihar are a social group composed of many Scheduled Castes, placed at the bottom of the "caste-based social order". The Dalits also include some of the erstwhile untouchable castes, who suffered various forms of oppression in the feudal-agrarian society of Bihar. Some of the Dalit castes have specific cultural practices, which differ from those of orthodox Hinduism. In the post-independence period, the failure of land reform led to lack of socio-economic mobility among them, in contrast to the agricultural castes. This led to increase in caste based strife between the Dalit supported Naxalite groups and the state authorities backed by the dominant social groups. In the meantime, many caste-based private armies were formed in state, by the landlord class, in order to quell the Dal