New statute triggers local divide

The promulgation of the new Constitution in Nepal has catapulted the long-simmering differences between the Nepalis (or pahadis) and the Madhesis (residing in the Terai region or plains) towards a tumultuous climax which began with the recent blockade of goods coming from India via Raxaul into the Himalayan kingdom.

The violent end to the blockade which led to the killing of an Indian youth has not only further widened the divide between the ethnic Nepalis and Madhesis, but has also led to a possible worsening of India-Nepal bilateral relations.

The Madhesi conflict has for long been grabbing news headlines, but it has only now seemed to have managed to garner greater public interest, especially after the 40-day blockade at Raxaul. Though officially the Madhesis are being blamed for the impasse, unofficially it is being claimed by several observers that the blockade had New Delhi’s tacit support. Amid this sharp focus on Madhesis, the curiosity regarding who they are actually naturally arises.

Madhes, the term roughly translates into “Madhya-desh”, or a region falling between the hills and the plains and the people inhabiting this region are known as “Madhesis”.

Out of Nepal’s 75 districts, Madhes consists of 22 districts, and all of them share their borders with India. Madhesis therefore have strong Indian origin, especially from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

They consist of both people who were born in Madhes region of Nepal and also those who migrated gradually from the aforementioned regions of India to that country.

Also, since generations, there have been inter-cultural marriages between Madhesis and Indians living in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As a result of this, there are lakhs of families which have blood relatives living on both sides of the border.

Madhes or terai region is a fertile piece of land and even has a large concentration of industries and government institutions, yet there has been a long simmering sense of discrimination between Madhesis and Pahadis. However, it is surprising to note that even till the 1980s there was never a violent conflict between the two communities. It was only after Nepal moved towards democracy after 1990 that the struggle became complex and acquired ominous overtones.

Among the principal reasons behind the escalation of the conflict between Madhesis and Pahadis, experts point out, is the efforts by successive governments in Nepal to implement the recommendations made by a task force led by Harka Bahadur Gurung in 1983 on how to stabilise the country’s demographic profile.

Mr Gurung was a noted anthropologist and geologist, who later became the vice-chairman of Nepal’s Planning Commission.

He headed a task force which was mandated with preparing a report on how to counter the growing influence of migrant population from across India on the country’s demographic profile.

The influx of people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during the 1980s, it noted, had increased a lot and this was having a major influence in the demography of Nepal, especially in Madhes region.

To counter this, the task force suggested (it made around 70 recommendations related to society, trade, culture, commerce and economy) that people from the hills should be brought down to the Terai region and settled there. Also the Pahadis should have greater concentration in government jobs and other influential posts.

In addition to this, the task force suggested that Madhesis of Indian origin need to apply for work permit in order to work in Nepal.

Though New Delhi’s intervention in Nepal ensured that several of these recommendations are not implemented, yet the Madhesis feel discriminated against and during the 1990s. While there has been an inherent feeling of suspicion among the Pahadis against the Madhesis since the 1950s which also led to the formation of two major Madhesi parties, namely Nepal Terai Congress and Madhesi Mukti Andolan, during that time, the feeling of isolation among Madhesis grew all the more stronger after the recommendations of the Gurung task force came out and efforts by various governments to implement them, started in the 1990s.

Subsequently, not only several Madhesi political groups spawned in the region, but fanned by support from New Delhi to the Madhesi cause, the Himalayan kingdom was persuaded into framing a new Constitution which would give a greater voice to the concerns of the inhabitants of the Terai region.

Thus the new Constitution, which was promulgated by Nepal in September this year, was the manifestation of the process which had started in 2006. However, the Madhesis’ grouse is that this Constitution does not have hold much for them, and this led to the current flashpoint in Nepal, resulting in the blockade at the Indo-Nepal border, a development which threatens to mar its relations with India.

The worsening of relations was evident as for the first time in the history of the bilateral relations between the two nations, New Delhi on November 5 told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that it was “concerned” over “lack of political progress” and incidents of “violence, extra-judicial killings and ethnic discrimination” in the Himalayan country.