Santa enquired further, only to find out that even the tiny bit of land on which their house was build was not in his father´s name either. His father was equally shell-shocked to realize that he had indeed nothing to hand down to his offspring. With his dream of going into business shattered, Santa ended up a manual worker in the local labor market. "I have no property at all now," he says, adding, "I cannot feed my family unless I work every day". What is even more worrisome for him is that the ´new´ landowner may some day chase his family away from their property. "It can happen any day as I do not possess any land ownership certificate."
At Tangaun of Khadka-Bhadrakali VDC, hardly three kilometers north of the Kathmandu Ring Road, Santa´s family is not alone in fearing eviction from their land. Actually, with a few exceptions, none of them possesses any official document that ensures their exclusive right to their land. "We are a landless lot in terms of legal documents," says Som Nagarkoti, who represents the Maoist party in the village development committee. Of the 58 Nagarkoti households in Tangaun, only five have lands registered in their own names.
The Nagarkotis are believed to have settled in this village centuries ago. According to Prem Nagarkoti, 54, a former VDC ward chairman who is still active in community affairs, their forefathers came to Tangaun in 1300 AD from Ichangu. Also known as Putwars and Rajbahaks, the Nagarkotis owned of hundreds of acres in the past. In 1964, the government introduced a land ceiling followed by a historic mapping of private lands in the course of which the Nagarkotis lost most of their lands.
Something went terribly wrong in the course of the land-mapping. According to Prem Nagarkoti, they had been paying taxes on their lands till then through their naike(leader), Birbal Putwar. Taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of administrative procedures, Birbal got the government officials to register all their land under his own name. "Birbal must have bribed the officials to grab our property", says Prem. Birbal ended up owning 84 ropanis of land, rendering many Nagarkotis landless.
After Birbal passed away, his sons Aaitnarayan and Sukbir could not hold on to the lands their father had managed to grab from the Nagarkotis. By now, the Nagarkotis´ lands have been registered under the names of scores of others. "We even moved the district court to regain our lands but in vein", says Som Singh Nagarkoti. "Our efforts yielded nothing but frustration," he said. After failing to win the legal battle, Som Singh bought his lands from Lal Bahadur Khadka and Radha Thakuri.
A sub-caste within the Newar community, the Nagarkotis´ financial condition is deteriorating fast and most of them work as manual laborers. Despite constituting a population of over 20,000, they do not have anyone to represent them in the constituent assembly. At a time when all caste groups and communities are taking to the streets demanding that their rights be ensured in the constitution, the Nagarkotis seem to be missing the boat.
Nagarkotis played a crucial role in the unification of Nepal. According to some historians, they saved the life of Prithvi Narayan Shah when he fell into the jaws of death during the battle for Kirtipur some 240 years ago. Prithvi Narayan was also rescued by the Nagarkotis when he was surrounded by Malla soldiers at Balkot, Bhaktapur. Despite having staked their lives to help the Shah kings, the Nagarkotis remained neglected, their plight overlooked by the state.
Related story
Living with fear
