“In the first two years of people’s war, we just took up the issue of class-based oppression, which led us to nowhere,” Dahal told the Janjati leaders. “But, after we championed the cause of the ethnic people, our war against the state reached an unprecedented height.” Dahal left no stone unturned to convince the Janajati leaders that the Maoists would always stand by the ethnic people’s aspirations for autonomous states and right to self determination. [break]
However, as the Maoists became active in open politics, Dahal’s support for ethnic identity-based federalism faltered. He started defining identity in many ways; and his own ideas contradicted with each other. Later, in the face of a series of shutdowns by Chherti, Thakuri and Dasnami communities, Dahal branded them as “indigenous nationalities”, drawing the ire of the ethnic people.
“When Dahal recognized Chhetri, Thakuri and Dasnami as indigenous nationalities, I realized that his support for identity-based federalism was just an empty rhetoric,” says Krishna Bahadur Bahttachan, who also met Dahal along with other Janjati leaders at the Gongabu hotel. “Later, by allowing or contributing to the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (CA), Dahal proved that he was never in favor of identity-based federalism.”
Bhattachan, like many other indigenous leaders, activists and academics, now believes that the CA would have definitely sorted out the issue of identity-based federalism on the night of May 27, 2012 if the Maoists had just stood by its rhetoric. “Almost all CA members belonging to Madhesi, Dalit and ethnic communities were for identity-based federalism,” says Bhattachan. “When the Maoist leaders sensed the possibility of a majority of lawmakers supporting identity-based federalism, they dissolved the CA.”
Nearly one year after the demise of the CA, the issue of ethnic identity based federalism has refused to die down. Instead, it is perceptibly influencing, if not reshaping, national politics. Former CPN (UML) leaders like Ashok Rai, Bijaya Subba and Ajambar Rai Kambang, along with Janjati leaders from other parties, have formed their own Federal Socialist Party (FSP), vowing to champion the cause of single ethnic identity-based federalism.
One month after the FSP was announced, other Janajati leaders like Chaitanya Subba, Pasang Sherpa and Kumar Rai formed another ethnic party, Social Democratic Party (SDP), with the almost same political goal. Recently, Ram Chandra Jha, one of the prominent Madheshi leaders, quit CPN (UML) to join UCPN (Maoist), expressing dissatisfaction with his former party’s policy vis-à-vis federal provinces. Jha’s defection eventually forced the CPN (UML) to appeal to all the party deserters to “return home”.
Of late, there is a growing discontent within the Nepali Congress over its Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel’s proposal to recognize all those castes and communities who were in Nepal during the period of unification of the country by Prithvi Narayan Shah as indigenous peoples. The Janajati leaders of the NC have urged the party to acknowledge universal definition of indigenous nationalities.
Although the genesis of the struggle for ethnic emancipation in Nepal dates back to as early as the unification of the country, it was only after the restoration of democracy in 1990 that aspirations for ethnic autonomy really entered into national politics. Later, when the Maoists propped up the call for ethnic autonomy, albeit for their own personal gains, identity became an inevitable issue. Today, irrespective of how they interpret identity, none of the major political parties dare to brush it aside.
Changing colors
Although Prithvi Narayan Shah, revered by the ruling class of the society as the father of the modern nation and loathed by ethnic groups as an emperor who destroyed their culture and identity, termed Nepal as “a common garden of four varnas and 36 castes”, the ethnic people never felt like living in their own country for years.
“Until a few years ago, people used to look down upon us when we introduced ourselves as Tharus,” Raj Kumar Lekhi, Chairman of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), says, “People belonging to many other ethnic groups experienced similar prejudices. We were treated like third-class citizens.”
After the Maoist insurgency, followed by a series of struggles for identity like the Madhesh movement, the way the ruling class once viewed the oppressed ethnic communities has perceptibly changed. “I no longer fear humiliation for being a Tharu,” says Lekhi. Over the three decades of Panchayat era, a party-less political system imposed by then king Mahendra, slogans like “one language, one dress” were designed to create a sense of uniformity, which further destroyed distinct identities of the ethnic people.
“The slogan of one language for the whole country was a way of doing away with myriads of other ethnic languages,” says Dr Lal Rapcha, Chief Research Officer at National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN. According to him, in 1951, Gorkha Bhasha Prakashan Samiti, now known as Sajha Prakashan, had decided to promote only Nepali language. “That was a blatant attack on other ethnic languages,” says he.
Repercussions of the state’s policy to promote just Nepali language are far-fetching. “Ethnic children are expected to read or write Nepali language as excellently as Brahmin children do,” explains Dr Rapcha. “I vividly remember how my Tamang friends were bullied for not properly uttering complex Nepali sentences. According to him, such linguistic discrimination continues to affect performance of children belonging to ethnic groups. “The state has not done much to promote other languages,” says he.
When Prithvi Narayan Shah failed to conquer Limbuwan, which includes eastern hilly districts like Ilam, Taplejung and Panchthar, by force, he reached an agreement with the then rulers of Limbuwan. As per the agreement, people of Limubwan, which implies the land of Limbus, were allowed to use their lands. But, in 1964, by introducing Land Reform Act, then king Mahendra deprived the Limbus of their exclusive rights over their lands.
Bhattachan, a professor of sociology at Tribhuvan University (TU), gives another example of how another ethnic group, the Tharus, was deprived of their lands. “Who else but the Tharus could have inhabited the Tarai before eradication of Malaria?” Bhattachan says. “But, they had no tradition of registering their lands at land revenue offices. After eradication of Malaria, when other people settled in the Tarai, they registered lands in their names, eventually rendering the indigenous Tharus landless.”
Such historical injustices to about one third of the country’s population were swept under the carpet for years. But, thanks to the Maoist war, which inspired other ethnic movements, identity has become a key issue of national politics; and drafting the new constitution without addressing it appears next to impossible. Dr Rapcha rightly says, “This storm will not fizzle out just like that.”
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