It was the village, where he had relished the joy of having his babies. The very village turned out to be a tormented place, where he felt a little unsafe among his own friends and colleagues. [break]
All neighbors, who thronged the courtyard of Indra´s already sold off house to pacify their departing fellow, also wept for hours. However, no one dared ask Indra to withdraw his decision of leaving Ambedin for settling in Birtamod of Jhapa.
After all, Indra was not the first to desert Ambedin, nor was he the last to sell ancestral properties to settle somewhere else. Many more villagers are on the verge of treading the same path.
"It is only a matter of time," Pushpa Raj Budhathoki, 54, who observed Indra´s departure with tearful yet silent eyes, said. "We are all destined to leave our wonderful village in future. We fear being chased away by our own fellow villagers. We have not offended any one. However, the fact that we were born with prominent noses has been bane for our existence. An ominous feeling has adversely seized us like never before."
In the aftermath of a sudden surge of ethnic politics post April uprising, the phenomenon of permanent migration, which was virtually non-existent during the decade-long Maoist war, has reappeared in the eastern hills.
During the height of the Maoist war, hundreds of villagers were displaced. However, their displacement was not permanent since there was no one in village to buy their lands and houses. They just abandoned their properties and fled to relatively safer places. The transactions on land had plummeted to almost nil but after the end of the war transactions again rose up.
Unlike in the past when buyers of lands and properties here would be Brahmin and Chhetris, nowadays, the Limbus, whose some ethnicity-based political organizations have been fighting for an autonomous state of Limbuwan comprising nine districts east of Arun River, have been purchasing lands from the non-Limbus.
Migration has often been related with the pursuit of better life. But here it is the pursuit of peace and security that has been driving people out of villages. People belonging to Chhetri and Brahmin communities have been heading for Jhapa and Morang districts.
According to Indra, who sold his 20 ropanis of land for Rs 700,000, almost all people belonging to Chhetri and Brahmin communities in his village are ready to sell their properties if any one offers decent price.
"They are still in villages because no one has offered a good price for their properties," Indra told myrepublica.com. "I sold my land for a very low price. It would have fetched me not less than Rs 1.2 million until a few years ago."
In the last one year alone, according to Indra, over 10 Chhetri and Brahmin families have left Ambedin village. Strikingly, not a single Limbu family has left the village during the same period. Most buyers of lands sold by Chhetri and Brahmin families are Limbus.
Elderly members of Chhetri and Brahmin families, who long to breathe their last in the village they spent their childhood and youthful days, understandably do not want to shift to strange places in their twilight years. However, they are being forced by their offspring to opt for such a harsh decision.
Despite a deep sense of unease, the social fabric, considered a great asset of Nepalese, has not been torn.
In Ambedin, when Indra left his village out of fear of being chased away in future, Limbus, too, were among those neighbors who shed tears at his departure.
"Why can you not be accommodated in our village where so many people have been living for years?" some Limbu neighbors asked Indra. As Indra appeared adamant to not change his mind, they said, "Keep visiting us; never forget us wherever you go."
Some Limbu neighbors even gave Indra travel expenses.
"They also gave me shawls as tokens of love. I will never miss them," Indra said. "We were like one heart. We ate from a same plate. We had never known enmity. It is sinful to say that they ever threatened us to leave village. However, all were not alike. A few people bullied us. They kept on swearing to force us out of villages once their Limbuwan state materializes."
Ambedin village is just the tip of the iceberg. In all villages dominated by the Limbus, other castes and ethnic groups feel uneasy.
"None of us has been thrashed, nor has any one threatened us to flee the village," said Pushpa Raj, who accompanied Indra on his way to Jhapa, adding, "But, we feel frightened. We see our future uncertain. A sense of fear that we may be compelled to flee in future has ruled in our hearts."
In Nagi, a Limbu-dominated village about 30 km to the northeast of Panchthar district headquarters Phidim, situation is similar. In memory of Krishna Kafle, a primary teacher at Ganesh Higher Secondary School in Nagi who was recently killed, over 15 Chhetri and Brahmin families have fled the village in recent months.
"A Dhakal family left the village just last week," Kafle said. "A family´s departure leaves others shaken; and more families get ready for migration. Most of my relatives have migrated. I am alone."
According to District Land Revenue Office of Panchthar, the number of people selling their lands has consistently increased in the last five years after the end of the Maoist war and the rise of ethnic outfits.
In 2061/62 BS, the number of people selling lands in Panchthar was just 1,294, which shot up to 1,549 in 2062/63 BS, 2,253 in 2063/64 BS, 2,306 in 064/65 BS and 2,933 in 2065/66 BS.
"The ongoing ethnic strife has been reflected in land transactions," said Radha Dhungana, acting chief of the office. "The number of people coming to us for selling their lands was not as high in the past as it is now."
Lok Nath Bhandari, whose law firm assists people in preparing documents for selling or buying lands, says that some 90 per cent of people approaching Land Revenue Office in Panchthar are Chhetri and Brahmin.
"Earlier, Chhetri and Brahmin used to refrain from selling lands even though they shifted to cities for better life," Bhandari said. "The whole scenario has changed in recent times. More people are selling their lands. It is more prevalent in villages than Phidim."
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