A pahade family from the eastern hill migrated to plain ground around latter sixties. At beginning he purchased one or two bighas of land from a Rajbanshi jimidar and settled cultivating this. His hill background with fairly good literacy status and his connection with local government offices specifically with thanas (police station) provided him opportunities to expand his influence among the rajbanshis, adhibasis and madhises of plain ground. He then started money-lending business and invested some amount among these people with very high interest rate. Since rajbanshi, adhibasi have some social and cultural occasions, which need a lot of money, he easily succeeded to multiply his business within a few years.
It is reported that he had cheated many people of plain area giving less amount at the time of loan negotiation and writing more amount in the tamasuk (contract document) so that rajbanshis, adhibasis and illiterate peoples had to payback more money than they actually had borrowed. Most of them were illiterate and did lapche (finger print) without properly knowing the content of the tamasuk. After few years, with the high interest rate the amount became large enough to payback for debtors, then without any other choice they had to sell their land and pay back the loan.
Many rajbanshis & adhibasis report that they have lost their lands in this ways. In addition, he succeeded to accumulate lands by trapping the local people into several fraud cases with the help of police and other corrupt government officials. Now, he owns several bighas of land and is counted as one of the richest persons in the village. When inquired how the people could led this happen and why they did not fight back, they says ‘‘we were a sidha- sada (straight and honest) people and mostly believed on peace rather on confrontation. In addition, they says ‘‘we could not complain against him to local authorities or police because he had a ‘good connection’ in all offices’’. The good connection is nothing more than what has called the culture of affno manche.
This story, however, does not represent all pahade people and it does not mean that pahade people always cheat and exploit their plain neighbours. It is true that some pahade have benefited from the rajbanshi's& adhibasi’s illiteracy, naive and weakness, or we may say that it is their ‘ignorance’ which has led them to a state of material and socio-economic deprivation despite their affluent past. Pahade are not always rich and dominant, and many have become poor upon arrival in plain area too. Nor all pahade are clever enough than their plains neighbours specifically to the caste Hindus. This popular saying among the pahade clears the relation, which is mare ko auta madhise le saat jana jiudo pahade lai sajilai thagna sakchha (one dead madhise can easily deceive seven alive pahades).
In fact, ‘‘many rajbanshi & adhibasi are exploited and cheated in greater extent by the rich and clever rajbanshi & adhibasi and other plain people rather than by pahade people’’ some of the people sharing their experiences. He further adds that ‘‘we rajbanshis & adhibasis ourselves are not less responsible for our situations. We never thought our future and never tried to current ourselves rather blindly followed and continued some customs, rituals, traditions and socio-cultural obligations of high economic and social cost’’.
Responding on such and other similar situations of hill domination, some Terai leaders, particularly those representing the Hindu caste groups in the NSP, have started a pahadiya hataao campaign to physically remove the hill people from the plains . Though indirectly and in obscure language, plain people especially rajbanshis & adhibasis and upper caste Hindus have also similar views towards pahadiyas. They expressed that this land (they mean Terai) is for them and pahadiya should not come down from the hill. ‘‘Hills above the Madhumalla, a bazaar in churiya range, are the land for pahadiya people, why should they come here’’ acting on the domination of hill people in land acquisition. Nonetheless, they expressed such view only in back stage not in front stage or openly. Thus, the resentment of the hill-dominated administration and the culture that it inherits is an important aspect of the pahade- adhibasi-madhise dichotomy within plain areas.
The pahade- adhibaasi-madhise dichotomy within this area also seems linked to the flow of Indian migrants crossing the border to settle in Nepal. Due to the similar and to some extant identical cultural landscape on either side of the border made it difficult to differentiate the Nepali terrain from the Indian settlers. Daily familial, cultural, and business interaction which takes place between these groups, as if the border does not exist, further complicates the matters. This situation naturally raised the question of national identity among the people of the plains. For example, dhotis, meaning loincloth, commonly wearing garment among the male people of plains of Nepal and India is a word frequently used to abuse the plain people by their hill neighbours. The word dothis is equally used in abusing the Indian dwellers all over Nepal. The garment dhotis is an part of national dress of India and gives some sense in abusing Indians, but I don’t see any reason to abuse Nepalese citizen calling by dhoti. The only possible reason of using similar abusive term for both the Nepalese and Indian is the problems of differentiation between the plain people of Nepal and their neighbours across the border in the eyes of the hill dwellers. It means, the problems of their own, separate, distinct identity of the plains people and their unwillingness to assimilate with the dominant hill culture have directly or indirectly contributed to divide people in the line of pahade and adhibasi/deshi groups.
Another occasion in which the divides between pahade adhibaasi & deshi become prominent is the local and national level election. The divides become more visible in local level election. Let us take the example of VDC election. For example A Brahmin of hill caste and VDC chairman of that time and a Rajbanshi a former school teacher leads NC and NSP respectively. It is reported that majorities of the voters of plain backgrounds are NC supporters but the NSP bagg the chairmanship.
When question arised (who once was active in NSP and now affiliated with Communist groups) how was that possible? ‘political ideology remained secondary and doesn’t assure some one to win specially in the local election, if the election is between pahade adhibaasi and deshi candidate. Adhibaasi or deshi people tends to vote deshi candidate and a similar trend is developing among the pahade people too’’. Further clarification is that ‘‘many known Congress supporters of rajbanshi or deshi community (including the headmaster and his alliance, see introductory case) not only casted vote to NSP candidate, but actively involved in his election campaigns, though indirectly’’. The only cause of supporting NSP candidate despite their own party’s candidate was the feeling of cultural difference between the phade and adibashi or deshi community.
This does not, however, mean that the divides between pahade and adhibaasi or deshi will be more intense in future elections. Nonetheless, people seem to be interested to elect affno jaat ko manchhe (‘own people’) in local election because they frequently needed his help on daily matters of administration and local disputes. The following case provides some hints about the recent trends of parliamentary election in the area.
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