It is too early to argue that the Maoists’ conflict has raised social awareness of the marginalized community. Let’s wait for a few years to see the damages the Maoists’ have made to Madhes by radicalizing and ethnicizing the entire society. The youths have been lured into carrying guns. The movement initiated by Ram Narayan Mishra, Beda Nand and Gagendra Narayan with the slogan ‘Jago Madhesi, Lelo Madhes’ has now sadly transformed into ‘Jago Madhesi, Looto Madhes’. Is it a social transformation? All the energetic youths who could have filled the leadership vacuum have been killed once they started following the Maoists’ path. Just imagine the political height that the Madhes movement could have gained if the Maoists conflict had not taken place. Strikes, road blockades and closures have become tools to maximize personal interests in the veil of pushing forward political demands.
Due to violence and criminalization of the society, all the intellectuals and the business community have migrated to other places. Political and ethnic polarization of the society has weakened traditional communal ties. The Maoists’ abused ethnicity as a means to mobilize large scale mass in their favor to secure political power and maintain patrimonies over resources. Jai Krishna Goit and Matrika Prasad Yadav were used as stairs to get to Baluwatar. Without these political fighters, Maoists’ seeds of violence might not have grown so quickly in the civilized land of Mithila and Buddha’s land of peace. The long-established political movement made way for a flood of killings, bombings, kidnappings and extortions. By creating a state of lawlessness and political vacuum, people with criminal backgrounds enjoyed safe heaven under a political nameplate. The mafia got chance to make a huge amount of money using the slogan of ‘Jay Madhes’.
The Maoists’ slogan for liberation from internal colonization has reinforced the conviction that radical change is possible only by destroying business and economic activities, which are the main sources of livelihoods for the classless people in Madhes. They used to tag those who differed from the Maoists as Pahadi brokers, feudals and exploiters. Goit’s falling out with the Maoists and formation of the Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha accusing anti-Madhesi discrimination within the Maoist hierarchy formally opened the doors for the surge of armed groups in the Tarai. Ajay Yadav, Raju Mishra and Suraj lost their lives for nothing.
People are tired of violence and criminalization. Please do not further Maoists’ legacy anymore in the Tarai. Stop politicizing identity to maximize individual economic benefits and political interests.
‘The creation of new is possible only with the destruction of the old’. If this principle of the Maoists is true, what about the traditional leadership within the Maoists? If they are against caste hegemony, why is Giriraj Mani Pokharel the head of the Madhes bureau? This is a clear example of hypocrisy, which shows that ethnic politics has been abused by the Maoists to sharpen conflicts in Tarai. Although this does not put a question mark on the Madhes demand of autonomy, it does highlight how the genuine agendas of democratization and decentralization of power have been sidelined strategically. A conflict scholar of South Asia Kumar Rupesinghe argues that ‘majority nationalist assertions, be they religious or ethnic, captured the instruments of the state and gained hegemony over the state apparatus’.
The area and life of the locals have totally been devastated since the Maoists entered the land. Adopting guerrilla strategy to deal with structural discrimination has stimulated an increased presence of criminal behavior with a vicious cycle of violence leading towards the mercenarization of the entire society. The civilian population have become victims of the spread of violence amongst youths. Violence has reached such a climax that it might take the energy of two or three generations to come out from the Maoists’ orientation of violence, which has transformed Tarai into a battlefield. Madhesi community got nothing out of the so-called ‘people’s war’. Betraying Madhesis, the Maoists left the agenda of federalism while signing the Interim Constitution, which was reinforced by the Madhes movement. In the politics of compromise to reach power, they left the agenda of federalism behind. So, they cannot be true federalists. It is just their strategy to cash in on ethnic sentiments. Even if the federal structure is developed, the way they have criminalized and polarized the entire society, Madhes will not be any better than Bihar.
People are tired of violence and criminalization. Please do not further Maoists’ legacy anymore in the Tarai. Stop politicizing identity to maximize individual economic benefits and political interests. Increasing trend of identity politics does not address people’s genuine concerns in a sustainable manner. To change the society and to bring about significant positive differences in the lives of the poor and marginalized people needs a more long-term approach to politics, which is missing in present day Nepal. What Madhes needs is better roads, teachers in schools, medicines and doctors in hospitals, income-generating businesses, introduction of modern farming and agriculture techniques, development and a peaceful society.
There is no alternative to non-violent peaceful movement for social change. There are several examples in the 21st century, which demonstrate that violent resistance against unjust power systems, internal colonization or external occupation is likely to generate further violence. We need to learn from Mahatma Gandhi’s struggles in India and South Africa and Martin Luther King Jr’s civil rights campaign in the US. Their non-violent ways to bring in major social changes should be an example to all of us. It’s now time to internalize Arendt’s saying, “The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world.”
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