The plight of the Kamiyas after liberation

Narendra Kumar Chaudhary, Chairman, Tharu Welfare Society, Nepal

The Tharu community is the largest group by population in the Terai plains of Nepal. They are well spread over east to west in the foothills of the Churia hills and in the plains. The Kamaiya system-bonded labor system-is existing only in the Tharu community in the mid-western and far-western region of Nepal. And some traces are also found in the western region too. This tradition is in vogue since centuries. In this tradition, landlords pay some money to the tenants (read Kamaiya’s family) and the whole family members turn into Kamaiyas from the date he holds the money. The whole family has to work whole year. There is no age bar. All in the family have to work necessarily. There is contract of one year between the landlord and the Kamaiya. The Kamaiya can neither drop in the middle nor they can break the contract agreed upon between the two. This contract is made only during the month of Magh-December-January every year.

After His Majesty’s Government’s fresh decision abolishing the bonded labor system, the landlords expelled the poor Kamaiyas from their houses. Because the house shelter facilities were provided by the landlords. The decision was made in a hurry without doing any needed homework and without any preparation, though we have already welcomed the decision.

Unfortunately, the decision arrived at by the government in a hurry have created so many problems thereafter. Instead of becoming the Kamaiyas future bright, it is just the other way round. Had the HMG/N would have the done the homework looking deep into the matter, there wouldn’t have arose the problems relating to the Kamaiyas.

As the government abolished the bonded labor system, the landlords of those districts immediately reacted. They formed a group and issued a statement against the government. They have decided to go to the courts and took certain drastic steps against the Kamaiyas. The action includes expelling them from their houses, offering no works and discarded the entire lot socially. In addition to these, the landlords decided not to cooperate them in any of their future activities.

The relationships between the landlords and the Kamaiyas have become so bitter and cold that none of the landlords would wish to help them. Since the harvesting season was over at time of the government’s decision, the Kamaiyas had already served their former landlords. Sinnce then they have no work in the farms nor they possess any other skills other than the agricultural jobs. Because of this, the Kamaiyas are under tremendous stress and loss both. Today they have been forced to hand-to-mouth problem. The first ever worse situation the Kamaiyas are facing at the moment. There is no food, no house, no shelter and above all no job. They have been forcedly converted from former labor to the slums. The Durga puja and the Tihar festivals are at hand and they have nothing to celebrate these top Nepali festivities. The government decision has thrown them in to the hell.

There are so many NGOs and INGOs working in that sector for a decade or so for the welfare of the Kamaiya families and to make them aware of their rights as Nepali citizens and providing skill-trainings for diversification of jobs. These schemes include the upliftment of the Kamaiyas economically and giive education to them and their dependents. They have the data update of the Kamaiyas. The NGOs have done some good works at some places. The men associated with the NGOs have rehabilitated few families of the Kamaiyas. But in this case, the NGOs did not handle the matter in a manner as it should have been. Either they have not the idea on how to proceed, or they have not imagined that it could go beyond their reach. The situation is such that due to the improper handling of the Kamaiya case at the moment by the NGOs, the Kamaiyas have instead been feeling provoked and as a result the NGOs have agitated the surfs and brought them to the streets and even forced them to march to Kathmandu to pressurize the government. The NGOs should know that the Kamaiyas problem, is not a political issue. It is rather an socio-economic issue, which Kamaiyas are facing since years and years. Knowing all these things, the way the NGOs played the roles for the freedom of the Kamaiyas should not have been like that. Instead they should have taken other ways for example, rehabilitation programs and the likes.

The government did it in such a hurry that neither the government herself nor the NGOs working in this sector could analyze the pros and cons of the decision. Because of that the situation instead of going in favor of the Kamaiyas have gone otherwise. Instead of getting relief, the Kamaiyas now find themselves in more trouble than what they had been facing when they were in the jurisdiction of their former landlords. Not only that, if their case is not handled properly even today, they may migrate from one place to another inside the Nepalese territory and finally sneaking into neighboring India which would understandably be the worst result of the government’s immature decision.

To recall, during the time of the erstwhile regime when the system effected the land reform program in the Dang district, for example, thousands of people-Tharus- were forced to migrate to India in search of food, work and shelter. The history should not repeat. Wisdom must prevail upon the Nepalese leaders currently manning the system at the moment.

After the restoration of multi-party system, the Tharu Welfare Society-TWS- had been requesting the successive governments with great sorrow and grief that the bonded labor system be abolished and the issue related with the Kamaiyas be resolved through high-level Kamaiya rehabilitation commission.

The Tharu Welfare Society welcomes the government’s decision for legally abolishing the practice of bonded labor. Though this decision, rough estimates have it that some sixty plus thousand Kamaiya families have been made free. However, the question arises as to how these families will be settled down and lives a normal life befitting a human being. The government of course has declared a policy of resettling the freed Kamaiyas by providing land and skill training. But how effectively the government will bring into action its avowals remains to be watched.

At this stage the Kamaiyas are facing lot of problems. The TWS appeals all the NGOs, INGOs and the likes working in this sector to bring the normalcy and harmony between the former landlords and the newly freed Kamaiyas. They should also concentrate their efforts at time of the rehabilitation of the Kamaiyas.

The TWS also appeals the government in Kathmandu to immediately form the high level commission to resolve the present crisis being faced by the Kamaiyas.

Perspectives of political parties in Nepal

-Dr. Sushil R. Pandey,T.U

Introduction: The information provided here are based on personal interviews with prominent party leaders. It describes the current situation of political parties in Nepal as perceived by party leaders. The focus on the origin of political parties in Nepal and the current status of selected political parties in terms of party philosophy, challenges and contradictions-Pandey.

The origin of political parties across the world, from western industrialized countries to agrarian Third world countries, defies a general theory of parties. For several reasons of historical and sociological variations, there is a calculated risk in theory building, and any attempt for generalization of definition of political parties can be misleading. There can only be a general meaning defined in terms of political organizations that are oriented to competitive elections with the aim of enjoying legitimate power to hold public office. They fulfill a number of functions which provide a basis for us to examine, such as :; goal identification, interest articulation and aggregation, mobilization and socialization of the general public, and national policy formulation. Simply put, the political parties are today seen as important organizations of modern political systems, which satisfy the role of interest aggregation. In earlier time, this function was largely fulfilled by varied social collectives such as classes, or even by bureaucracy in some cases. In modern representative democracy political parties are seen as indispensable instrument of state functioning, beyond meeting the traditional role of bureaucracy as clientele-oriented and functioning as primary factors in decision-making and policy formulation. Where this has not been possible, the political parties have secondary functions next to the old order of bureaucracy dominated largely by traditional classes.

In Nepal, the history of political parties, unlike in the West, is based less on evolutionary theory of emergence than the by-product of political struggle against autocracy and demand for parliamentary system. The function of interest articulation of interest groups has not developed to the extent of formation of political organizations as found in Western democracies. Political parties here have come to the fore not as developed institutions representing social and economic interests of cross-sectional society, either locally or nationally based, but largely due to the collapse of constitutional systems that operated under different political regimes. The external factor of inducement, mainly from India, has been elemental in this regard. The earlier modernization theory that social and economic factors carried greater weight than political factors, especially during three decades of party-less political system with the absolute rule of the King-1960-1990- was replaced by multi-party political system in 1990. The Westminster model of representative democracy has prevailed for over a decade but increasingly it faces innumerable challenges, some of which originate in the very formation and management of political parties and the prevalence of traditional non-democratic culture in a largely illiterate and agrarian society.

Status of political parties: Articles 112-114 of the new constitution, given by King Birendra in 1990, define the participation of political parties in elections and that the political parties should be "democratic". Let us briefly look into the ways major political parties in Nepal are organized.

A-Rastriya Prajatantra Party-RPP: The RPP is fully committed to pluralistic democracy, supporting constitutional monarchy, nationalism and economic liberalization. It is struggling between two poles: whether to discard past values altogether or to continue some traits that it sees valid, especially the features of nationalism.

The RPP leadership factor is uniquely personalistic as many of its top members had played influential role during the Panchayat era. When the RPP was formed in 1990, the need to switch over to democratic behavior was quite taxing to those in leadership. Learning democratic practices in the management of Party were hard lessons for them in the new environment of multi-party culture as past hangovers had to be discarded. The command structure of the party is overwhelmingly influenced by personalities more than party ideology and people based programs. Often, there are compromises at work when problems of enforcing discipline in the party arise. The bottom up approach to leadership formation has not developed though some new strategies have been formulated to streamline the party on a more rational basis.

B. Nepal Sadbhavana Party: Given the predominance of the rural sector in the national economy, with 80% of the people rural based, Nepal Sadhbhavana party stresses on the need to empower rural people by making aware of their rights under the new constitution. The party strives to put every active member to work in the rural sector for at least two weeks in a month. The justification for such a step is that there has been erosion of the culture of sacrifice. Partly this has been due to the rise of individualism during the thirty years of autocratic Panchayat rule when anyone addressing national issues had to face suppression and even imprisonment. Under the present democratic set up, the scope for reform exists though there are constitutional obstacles to issues raised by the party. Fundamentally, these issues can not be resolved through simple enactment of present laws. Several reasons are cited for the lacuna. First, there are legal disputes on citizenship even for those who have been citizens for over twenty years. Second, the redundant Panchayat laws still continue to operate. Third, the unitary structure of government can not represent the interest and aspirations of the common people, including those living in the Terai. Fourth, there is rampant social and economic exploitation of the Terai where existing land reform laws and electoral system are inadequate as it can not fully represent the actual population size. Finally, there is poor recruitment of the Terai people especially in the army. The NSP demands a federal structure of government so that there is a greater national cohesion, unity and sense of well being among the people of Nepal. An amendment to the constitution is essential in order to guarantee the right of equality of citizens without any discrimination. The legitimate citizens of the Terai can not be deprived of citizenship right.

C. Nepal Communist Party, Marxist-Leninist-CPN-ML: The ideological foundation of CPN-ML is based on Marxism-Leninism with the avowed goal of establishing a communist society. The party believes in "supremacy of communist movement"’ in Nepal in order to tackle various problems facing the country. It is committed to "creative Marxism" for social change and advocates radical means. The new form of political system the party envisages is People’s Multiparty Dictatorship, which would be basd on anti-feudalism and anti-imperialism. It is called Naulo Janbad- New People’s Democracy.

Clearly, there are a number of ideological positions taken by the party. Certain limitations are perceived. First, due to the lack of genuine native capitalism, it does not consider suitable to adopt globalization and liberalization of the economy. Second, the prerequisite of strengthening the process of democratization and nationalism in the country is of utmost importance. Third, the import of foreign capital and technology is justifiable only when it can support the national economy. Fourth, it is imperative to "replace" capitalism through large-scale reforms or even revolution when time is right. (The current Chinese model of development is rationalized which is seen as a point of reference to justify CPN-ML’s argument that the good points of capitalism are adopted by keeping the socialistic principles intact). Fifth, the means of production is in the hands of the working class, which has the "predominant sway" in the national economy. Finally, industrialization is based on import substitution and export promotion where comparative advantage in manufacturing and trading is possible.

D. Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist-CPN-UML: The CPN-UML is a cadre-based party. It is the second largest party in the country with 68 seats in the House of Representatives. It advocates a unique brand of left ideology, known as People’s Multiparty Democracy-, which was propounded by the late charismatic leader Madan Bhandari. The party is committed to competitive multi-party system but firmly believes that power can be attained through elections by winning over rival bourgeois parties. Often there are accusations made against the party for taking revisionist line or that its party workers are behaving like "democrats" or "deviationists". The party overlooks these charges as it claims to maintain its image by striving peacefully to attain the ultimate goal of communism.

Presently, there are some reservations shown by the party on the constitution of the country but it believes it can still co-exist with the monarchy without any confrontation. It is prepared to compromise with the King in order to safeguard nationalism and promote development. Unlike in China where political parties are marginalized and are subservient to the Communist party, the CPN-UML will allow political parties to operate freely in Nepal when it comes to power.

E. Nepali Congress: Between 1955 and 1991, there has been a major departure in the way of looking at socialism by NC. Due to changes in the international environment and worldwide change in values, the stress has been on individual initiatives rather than doctrinaire socialism. There is a gap between theoretical training given to party workers and socio-economic policies adopted during party conventions. Neither the central committee nor the cabinet has endorsed these policies.

Currently there is a contradictory perception on the style of party functioning. There are some that claim that a gradual shift from leader-oriented practices to organizational practices in the conduct of party affairs has taken root, and the party is operating according to its constitution and organizational set up. There are others who still believe that the highest-ranking leaders have total sway on the party and that the democratization process is subservient to the leaders’ decisions. At any rate, the party undoubtedly faces two major challenges that have persisted for a long time, namely evaluation of members and enforcement of discipline among party members from top to bottom.

Impressions: The road to democracy is strewn with innumerable challenges and there is no guarantee that the drive to democratization will be a smooth ride for any nation. Every country has its own tradition, socio-economic conditions, culture and agents for transformation that lead to a restricted democracy or a non-restricted one, depending on who actually influences the transition. There are two types of contrasting situations: either policy reforms are formulated by mass-based leaders from below or elite-based reform from the top. How the outcome will be influenced depends upon who make up the power configuration. It is in this context that one has to evaluate the status of political parties in contemporary Nepal.

The discussion above highlights the dimension of ideological and structural differences in the style of operation of political parties. Some parties show conflicting purposes which are potentially capable of complicating smooth constitutional transition of democracy. Within political parties there are emerging contradictions as ideology and behavior do not harmonize. As political parties play a key role in democratization process, it is important to know how they function specially during various phases of democratization. If this can be done, then the background information on political parties can be useful in drawing new research propositions.

-Paper presented at a seminar on "democratization and civic culture in Nepal", organized by Central department of Political Science, T.U, in cooperation with the FES held last month in Bhairahawa, Nepal-Chief editor.

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