Why Madhesis of Nepal are agitating?

India being a democratic country should extend to us moral support and have a positive approach towards the problems the Madhesis are facing in their country.

Report by Arabinda Ghose

Because of inadequate coverage about the activities of the "Madhesis" of Nepal at least in the Indian print medium, there are widespread confusion about not only the origins of the Madhesis but what precisely their demands are from the central government of Nepal at Kathmandu. Some of the widespread misunderstandings about them is that the Madhesis are immigrants from India. Secondly, they want separation from Nepal. Thirdly, the RSS and the Hindutva forces in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, bordering the Madheshi -dominated territories of Nepal are fuelling disaffection among the Madhesis against the Maoist dominated government based in Kathmandu.

Probably, the biggest confusion in the minds of Indians in general is about who these "Madhesis" are.

At an intimate and frank interaction at a venue in New Delhi where only two media persons were present among others-one being this reporter- Upendra Yadava, Chairman of the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum clarified that the Madhesis (meaning people living in Madhyadesh, between the mountains of Nepal and the plains of India) were fighting "against those who had occupied our territory 238 years ago".

This was an allusion to the historic fact that when the Mughal Empire was crumbling during the latter half of the eighteenth century, powerful feudal lords would occupy some territory in the Bihar- Bengal- Avadh areas where the English too were making forays. Prithvi Narayan Shah, chief of a hill principality called Gorkha (name of a place, not of a community) occupied certain areas on the northern fringes of Bihar and Avadh, under the British and under the Nawabs of Oudh respectively. The Gorkha Durbar had engaged itself in two wars with the British in order to retain the territories on the northern fringes of today's Bihar.

After the two Anglo-Gorkha wars, the Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1815 after which the southern, eastern and western boundaries of Nepal were drawn, which today form Nepal with an area of 141,181 square kms. Within this boundary came people living in the northern fringes of today's Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They, therefore, became citizens of Nepal that is Nepalis. Yadava emphasized that his forefathers were already living in the area now called Madhesh since much before the forays by Prithvinarayan Shah and his descendants. (Prithvi Narayan Shah had first occupied Kathmandu Valley from the Newars in 1769, which was 238 years ago). The Madhesis are not immigrants from India, he emphasized.

Replying to questions, Yadava denied allegations that the Forum had sought secession from Nepal." We want to remain in Nepal and we do not want separation .We, however, would like to have our separate State within the federal structure of Nepal " he said. Yadava, however, added that "India being a democratic country should extend to us moral support and have a positive approach towards the problems the Madhesis are facing in their country. "Moral support is a big factor", he said.

Referring to certain tricky conditions set for granting of citizenship certificates to Madheshis - you must own some land in order to qualify for citizenship and on the other hand you can own land if only you are a citizen - Mr.Yadava said the Madhesi state within the federal structure would be an autonomous entity which will determine the criteria for grant of citizenship.

On the wider level, he said that proportional representation in the Constituent Assembly first and then the national parliament after the two general elections must be ensured for Madheshis.

Recalling the discrimination the central authorities practiced against the Madhesis, Mr Yadava said that of the 205 seats in the recently-dissolved House of Representatives Madhesis accounted for just 38 seats from various parties although the strength of the Madheshi areas -geographically speaking - was 84 Members. This despite the fact that the Madheshi share in the population of the country about 2.70 crores, totaled 1.30 crores, almost half the country's population. He agreed with the view that there had been systematic shift in the population from the hills to the Terai in order to reduce the majority status of the Madhesis in the Terai areas. For example, he said that in the Terai district of Jhapa (bordering north Bihar and West Bengal), the Pahadi (hill people) people accounted for as much as 85 per cent. In Chitwan in central Terai region, the percentage of Pahadis was 90. He recalled that in the first census in 1950-51, the Pahadi population in Madhesh was only three per cent. It was about 40 per cent now.

Lastly, on the question of monarchy if they would support monarchy in any future set up in Nepal. Mr. Yadava shot back: "Why should we support the monarchy?. What has the monarchy done for us? They had occupied our territory in the first place 238 years ago, he stressed again in order to emphasize that the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum was not in favour of any form of monarchy in the future set up for Nepal.

NPA

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20070517/1705303.htm

BC, my friend (if I may call you that) - So what exactly do you propose we do about India? I am sure Nepal's leaders - regardless of who they are - King, parties, Maoists - will listen to you if you come up with a better alternative that is workable.

Nepe - Thanks for sharing that information. This is another dead horse we seem to be beating - something we are so good at doing on Sajha. I sometimes wish content on Sajha was organized such that people didn't have to re-invent the wheel every time a topical issue came up.

Monin' Capn'
One way would be to investigate how deep the Indian Govt's involvement in the madhesi movement. Cause you need $$ to mobilize such campaign. Then you need to circumvent India and approach the Madhesis directly and let them realize how India is using them. Show them the similarities between them and the Tamils. How if they keep up with seperate Madhes how this would TURN EVEN THE SYMPATHETIC NEPALI FOLKS AGAINST THEM.
At the same time maybe establish something like afirmative action type of a plan and assure them that they will have equal rights on all aspects of Nepal life. And its has to be a transparent system so THEY THEMSELVES can see the results. No half assed Politicians promise.
At the same time educate and coerce the rest of the Nepali population to see them as Nepali and not Indian(which I doubt will ever happen judging from the monkeys who post here in Sajha).

For whatever its worth thats my 2cent not fitty.

यो आवरण तस्बिर निस्किदा सायद कसैले मात्रै सोचेको होला यस्ले यती ठुलो आकार लिन्छ होला भनेर


http://www.kantipuronline.com/Nepal/Archive/105th%20issue/index.html

Madhesh andolan is a delicate process and a complicated one like the madhesi society itself.

Currently, the Yadavs and other landlords are sort of "leading" the movement. Their main agenda is to strike the Maoists, and not solve the issues of Madhesh. And, the landlords of Bihar are supporting them, as they are also afraid of Maoists.

Those who believe that they are leading this movement, might be embarrassed in near future, as Madhesh will probably be an unguided missile, and will not be a means to fulfill the class itnerests of the landlords.

Yes, hulaki.

If you look at the Madhesi leaders, they are all high caste: Jha, Tripathi,Mishra, Yadav, Thakur, even all the ministers from parties are them. It is easy to believe that soon, in Nepal too, they will bring the Bihari culture of low caste killing high caste en masse, and high caste retaliating (Like Ranabir Sena, Phoolan Devi etc did in the past). They should be careful.

We need to cut off the voices of the likes of Yadavs and their personal agendas. By doing so might also be ablle to limit Bihar's influence in the movement. We need to approach the Madhesis THE PEOPLE not their crony leaders.

I am sharing here a posting of mine from 'Nepal Democracy Forum'. In it, I have talked about the flaws of Madhesi movement and it's future.

Nepe

____________________________________________________

From: "Deepak Khadka"
To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 11:05 PM
Subject: [ND] Re: Hridayesh Tripathi speaks his mind


What follows are first some highlights from my reply to X-jee's
message and then the reply in full.


Highlights:

● Madhesi movement might have to come the direction of embracing the
achievements of April Revolution and supporting ongoing democratic
transition as early as next 110 days.

● Madhesi movement is visionless at the moment. If one is talking
about embryonic stage movement of some unknown Madhesi movement of
future, here is the problem (rather the solution): a new state of
Nepal is already born and kicking.

● Some Madhesi friends are in a mysterious denial about April
Revolution. They talk as if Madhesi movement is a situation of a
Suppressive State of Nepal vs Freedom Seeking Madhesh when the REALITY
is that it is the Transforming State of Nepal vs Credit Seeking
Madhesi Elites.

● [skip]

● [skip]

● Madhesi movement at the grass root level and in an uncorrupted form
is indeed for Madhesi identity, dignity and right. However, at the
political level, it is corrupted and off the mark. (A point of
difference with Angaraj-jee)

● Madhesi movement is off the mark due to the vested interest of
Madhesi elites and their apathy to the internally oppressed people of
Madhesh

● The center lacks a good spokespersonship for communicating
effectively to the mass about the transformation of the state and for
exposing unreasonable aspects of ongoing agitations.

● [skip]




Now in full.

Dear X,

[skip]

As for the visionlessness of the current political/academic leadership/
support to MJF led agitation, I have nothing to refute [skip]

I will only add that I might agree if you were saying that what we are
seeing is an embryonic/infant stage movement for some unknown kind of
Madhesi movement of future.

However, the problem, rather the solution, is that a new state of
Nepal is already born [skip] and is more mature and more ahead
of the embryonic stage movement we are talking about.

At this historical juncture, the situation is not like an oppressive
state of Nepal vs freedom seeking Madhesh. The situation is rather a
transforming state of Nepal vs credit seeking elites of Madhesh.

[skip]

There is certainly more than that going on in Madhesh. [skip]

[skip].. [BASICALLY] identity, dignity and right of Madhesh is
what Madheshi movement is all about.

[The] operative word is "basically" and it implies to what there is at the
grass root level in their uncorrupted form and I do see a huge gap (of
content and intention) between this basic thing and the political
demands of MJF..

[skip]I am producing a posting of mine (which I have
already recycled multiple times in various forums) to prove that I am
the first Pahade in this forum to "discover" that Madhesh revolt was
about it's dignity and fair share but, at the same time, also to note
that the political demands and the mode of agitation by MJF were what
would be a corrupted articulation of that.

Subject: My view on Madhesi movement
Date: Feb 3, 2007
- http://groups.google.com/group/nepaldemocracy/msg/3a90d4d3bae0e3e2

Now the big question is why MJF (and I do not want to separate whom I
have termed "academic support to MJF") is off the mark as I claimed ?

Is it due to unfortunate individual incompetence of the people
associated with it or is there other mystery ?

I am not competent enough to talk about other people's incompetence.
So, I leave it at that. However here are some facts, I would call
enigmas, about Madhesh, that might explain the corrupted movement of
MJF.

One that comes right away and forcefully is the internal oppression in
Madhesh by it's elites.

Clearly and obviously, Madhesi elites neither have willingness nor
have luxury to offer the same dignity and right to the internally
oppressed people of Madhesh that they are asking from the ruling
Pahadi elites. (I am saying "luxury" because the issue of Dalits if
becomes prominent will dilute the cause Madhesi elites are fighting
for). So they got to fight with the demands distanced from these
enigmas. This might partly explain demands like resignation of Sitaula
or fully proportional election system with Madhesis not further
divided and in fact just about any demand MJF has put so far. This
much on this.

Now an enigmatic question to myself. How do reconcile with two
seemingly contradicting observations I made. They are, first, I
claimed that a new state of Nepal (determined to deliver justice and
right to all) is already born. Then, I talked about Madhesh rising up
for it's fare share. Why would Madhesh rise up if the state of Nepal
is already on the road to deliver justice to Madhesh, no ?

This is where I blame the center-- for it's failure to communicate
effectively and convincingly to the mass about it's commitment and
roadmap to deliver justice to Madhesis and every other oppressed and
marginalized groups.

It's true that the center is not a single and homogeneous entity, as
we can clearly see, due to the presence of diverse protagonists with
their multi-lateral conflicts at this not yet fully resolved
transitional moment. So some imperfection in their function is
expected. However, what is disappointing is that they have not been
able to effectively communicate to the mass even the things that have
been resolved or have been resolved to resolve later.

The center has failed to bring the message of how the old oppressive
state do not exist any more and how the new state is working towards
bringing justice to Madhesi and all marginalized people.

I have shared in a discussion in NANDRON forum my thought on what I
have called center's "lack of spokespersonship":

- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NANDRON/message/102


In the posting above, I have talked about center's failure to do two
complementary jobs regarding the good spokespersonship on the ongoing
agitations, (i) to communicate effectively of the center's resolve
and work to transform the state and, (ii) to "expose" the
unreasonable aspects of the agitations.

Now that I am asking government to do what one might call propaganda
war against the agitating groups, I don't know what might come to me.
I hope it won't be a "fatwa", [skip]

Finally, I would like to summarize my take on Madhesi movement with
the following words: Madhesi movement, if somehow got salvaged, might
be helpful but not really essential at this point of clarity and
decisiveness of the transformation of the state of Nepal.


DK

___________________________________________________

View/Share this post only

oops.. my html

let me try again..


I am sharing here a posting of mine from 'Nepal Democracy Forum'. In it, I have talked about the flaws of Madhesi movement and it's future.

Nepe

____________________________________________________

From: "Deepak Khadka"
To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 11:05 PM
Subject: [ND] Re: Hridayesh Tripathi speaks his mind


What follows are first some highlights from my reply to X-jee's
message and then the reply in full.


Highlights:

● Madhesi movement might have to come the direction of embracing the
achievements of April Revolution and supporting ongoing democratic
transition as early as next 110 days.

● Madhesi movement is visionless at the moment. If one is talking
about embryonic stage movement of some unknown Madhesi movement of
future, here is the problem (rather the solution): a new state of
Nepal is already born and kicking.

● Some Madhesi friends are in a mysterious denial about April
Revolution. They talk as if Madhesi movement is a situation of a
Suppressive State of Nepal vs Freedom Seeking Madhesh when the REALITY
is that it is the Transforming State of Nepal vs Credit Seeking
Madhesi Elites.

● [skip]

● [skip]

● Madhesi movement at the grass root level and in an uncorrupted form
is indeed for Madhesi identity, dignity and right. However, at the
political level, it is corrupted and off the mark. (A point of
difference with Angaraj-jee)

● Madhesi movement is off the mark due to the vested interest of
Madhesi elites and their apathy to the internally oppressed people of
Madhesh

● The center lacks a good spokespersonship for communicating
effectively to the mass about the transformation of the state and for
exposing unreasonable aspects of ongoing agitations.

● [skip]




Now in full.

Dear X,

[skip]

As for the visionlessness of the current political/academic leadership/
support to MJF led agitation, I have nothing to refute [skip]

I will only add that I might agree if you were saying that what we are
seeing is an embryonic/infant stage movement for some unknown kind of
Madhesi movement of future.

However, the problem, rather the solution, is that a new state of
Nepal is already born [skip] and is more mature and more ahead
of the embryonic stage movement we are talking about.

At this historical juncture, the situation is not like an oppressive
state of Nepal vs freedom seeking Madhesh. The situation is rather a
transforming state of Nepal vs credit seeking elites of Madhesh.

[skip]

There is certainly more than that going on in Madhesh. [skip]

[skip].. [BASICALLY] identity, dignity and right of Madhesh is
what Madheshi movement is all about.

[The] operative word is "basically" and it implies to what there is at the
grass root level in their uncorrupted form and I do see a huge gap (of
content and intention) between this basic thing and the political
demands of MJF..

[skip]I am producing a posting of mine (which I have
already recycled multiple times in various forums) to prove that I am
the first Pahade in this forum to "discover" that Madhesh revolt was
about it's dignity and fair share but, at the same time, also to note
that the political demands and the mode of agitation by MJF were what
would be a corrupted articulation of that.

Subject: My view on Madhesi movement
Date: Feb 3, 2007
- http://groups.google.com/group/nepaldemocracy/msg/3a90d4d3bae0e3e2

Now the big question is why MJF (and I do not want to separate whom I
have termed "academic support to MJF") is off the mark as I claimed ?

Is it due to unfortunate individual incompetence of the people
associated with it or is there other mystery ?

I am not competent enough to talk about other people's incompetence.
So, I leave it at that. However here are some facts, I would call
enigmas, about Madhesh, that might explain the corrupted movement of
MJF.

One that comes right away and forcefully is the internal oppression in
Madhesh by it's elites.

Clearly and obviously, Madhesi elites neither have willingness nor
have luxury to offer the same dignity and right to the internally
oppressed people of Madhesh that they are asking from the ruling
Pahadi elites. (I am saying "luxury" because the issue of Dalits if
becomes prominent will dilute the cause Madhesi elites are fighting
for). So they got to fight with the demands distanced from these
enigmas. This might partly explain demands like resignation of Sitaula
or fully proportional election system with Madhesis not further
divided and in fact just about any demand MJF has put so far. This
much on this.

Now an enigmatic question to myself. How do reconcile with two
seemingly contradicting observations I made. They are, first, I
claimed that a new state of Nepal (determined to deliver justice and
right to all) is already born. Then, I talked about Madhesh rising up
for it's fare share. Why would Madhesh rise up if the state of Nepal
is already on the road to deliver justice to Madhesh, no ?

This is where I blame the center-- for it's failure to communicate
effectively and convincingly to the mass about it's commitment and
roadmap to deliver justice to Madhesis and every other oppressed and
marginalized groups.

It's true that the center is not a single and homogeneous entity, as
we can clearly see, due to the presence of diverse protagonists with
their multi-lateral conflicts at this not yet fully resolved
transitional moment. So some imperfection in their function is
expected. However, what is disappointing is that they have not been
able to effectively communicate to the mass even the things that have
been resolved or have been resolved to resolve later.

The center has failed to bring the message of how the old oppressive
state do not exist any more and how the new state is working towards
bringing justice to Madhesi and all marginalized people.

I have shared in a discussion in NANDRON forum my thought on what I
have called center's "lack of spokespersonship":

- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NANDRON/message/102


In the posting above, I have talked about center's failure to do two
complementary jobs regarding the good spokespersonship on the ongoing
agitations, (i) to communicate effectively of the center's resolve
and work to transform the state and, (ii) to "expose" the
unreasonable aspects of the agitations.

Now that I am asking government to do what one might call propaganda
war against the agitating groups, I don't know what might come to me.
I hope it won't be a "fatwa", [skip]

Finally, I would like to summarize my take on Madhesi movement with
the following words: Madhesi movement, if somehow got salvaged, might
be helpful but not really essential at this point of clarity and
decisiveness of the transformation of the state of Nepal.


DK

___________________________________________________