[6] They have traditionally been a land-owning group of eastern India, and controlled some small princely states and zamindari estates in the region in the early 20th century.
One legend states that they are the offspring of a union between Rajput men and Brahmin women, while according to another, they derive from Brahman-Buddhists who lost their high position in Hindu society.
[17] Other princely states and fiefdoms ruled by Bhumihars included Bettia, Tekari, Hathwa, Tamukhi, Sheohar, Mahishadal, Pakur and Maheshpur.
[20] In post independence India, according to author Rumela Sen, the majority of upper caste households, including those of Bhumihars, had landholdings of sufficient size to qualify them as "middle peasants".
Though there existed few large landholders amongst them, the vast majority had economic status similar to middle peasants of Koeri, Kurmi and the Yadav caste.
[21] The general categorisation of all the Bhumihars being landlords is thus not a factually correct idea, as in urban areas latter were found to be engaged in variety of occupation.
The upper crust among Bhumihars in urban areas were professionals and bureaucrats but many of them also worked as factory workers, coal miners and even load carriers (Mazdoors or the labourers).
[22] Among various narratives regarding their origin, composition and varna status, one states that there is an element of a low caste tribe called "Bhuyans" who gained land and assimilated with the Bhumihars.
The Bhumihar zamindars and princely state rulers established caste-based associations (sabhas) to form a community network and to advance their claims to Brahmin status.
[29] Persistent pressure from the Mahasabha, who glorified the history of the community, led to official recognition of the Bhumihars as Brahmins in the later Raj censuses.
"[9] Besides campaigning for the Brahmin status, the caste associations also played an important role in ensuring the general welfare of the community.
This was accredited to award degrees in the following year and it was a significant development because education in the area was improving rapidly but students desirous of furthering it had to travel to Bhagalpur, Calcutta or Patna.
[30] In the first half of the 20th century, the Bhumihars suffered increasing economic hardships due to the steady fragmentation of land rights amongst heirs and the decline in agricultural prices during the Great Depression.
[32] The Bhumihars were influential in the politics of Bihar since the British days upto earlier decades of post independence India.
By 1990s, there emerged two political blocs in the state, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar respectively, which represented these three castes.
[35] When Mahatma Gandhi launched a satyagraha against indigo cultivation in Motihari in 1917, a number of Bhumihar intellectuals joined the protest.
When the rich Bhumihar landlords stopped supporting Sahajanand's activities, he declared that caste associations were a means to continue their supremacy.
A small number of Bhumihar leaders continued to play a significant role in the state unit of the Indian National Congress.
[38] The Congress parliamentarians Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha) and Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra also belonged to the Bhumihar community.
[38] The group has carried out armed attacks against the Naxals in the region, and has been involved in committing atrocities against the lower castes, such as the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre.
For example, in Chandipur village of Murshidabad district (West Bengal), a section of Bhumihars became the landlords after death of the British indigo plantation owners.
[49] Other common traditional Brahmin surnames used by the Bhumihars include Mishra, Chaudhary, Dikshit, Tivan, Pathak, Pande and Upadhyaya.