Tharus

1. Identity, or: Castes, Ethnic groups, and Relevant Geography

1.1. Plural: Tharus

1.1.1. Traditionally, much like the Hindu caste system prevalent in India, the Tharus were hierarchically ordered based on notions of purity and pollution,.

1.1.2. 5 of the 12 clans (kurie or gotra) in which the Rana Tharu population in India took to calling themselves as Rana Thakur. Some consider this to be derogatory.

1.1.2.1. Buxa

1.1.2.2. Census of 1981

1.2. Single-language thesis?

1.3. Schedule tribe

1.3.1. Man Kamar

1.3.2. Limbu

1.3.2.1. Four distinct dialects

1.3.2.2. 129,324

1.3.3. Census of 1939

1.3.4. Census of 1991

1.3.4.1. According to this census, 1,194,224 people claimed to be Tharu living in Nepal. Though some think that this official number is a "gross underestimate".

1.3.5. Artifact of the Reservation System?

1.3.5.1. Reservation is a type of quota-based affirmative action

1.3.5.1.1. Term: positive discrimination.

1.3.5.1.2. Term: compensatory Discrimination"

1.3.5.2. Reservation System

1.3.5.2.1. Entitles them to special treatment from the governments. Although, it is not a perfect analog, this special treatment is not unlike affirmative action in North America and England.

1.4. Tarai

1.4.1. Elephant catchers

1.4.2. Often used as revenue collectors.

1.4.3. landowners in this region allowed to retain 25 bigha of agricultural land in addition to a homestead.

1.4.3.1. Bigha is a punjab measurement equal to 1/4 of an acre. Phrased another way: four bigha equals one-acre. Therefore, landowners in the Tarai were allowed approximately 6.25 acres of land (in addition to their homestead). Overall, thhs is not a productive system.

1.4.4. As of August 2001, they established their own Finance Corporation.

1.4.5. Bahariyas

1.4.5.1. Many people in the village of "Merauli" belong to this caste or are descendants of people who were in this caste.

1.5. Maithili

1.5.1. Despite a number of attempts to make Tharu the official language, Maithili remains ones of the dominant languages in the region.

1.5.1.1. Tharu is one of many languages and dialects spoken in the region of Tarai. It does not have the distinction of being the most widely spoken either.

1.5.1.2. Radio Nepal in this region broadcasts in Maithili not Tharu.

1.6. Term: Jat

1.6.1. "kind"/"species"/"type" often used as an analog for "caste", "ethnic group", "nation", or "tribe".

1.6.2. Quote: "From the River Mechi to the Mahakali," they asserted [speakers at the opening session of some meeting], "we are all one jat."

1.6.2.1. Are the Tharus a quote-unquote "Jat"?

1.7. Flaw in ethnic group theory: the assumption that ethnic groups are closed systems not influenced by other factors, such as the prevalence of a competing, more dominant society, the world as a whole. The mistaken notion that ethnic groups are an island on to themselves.

1.8. Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha had only three things in common: their citizenship in Nepal, their common ethnonym, and the association of that ethnonym with a particular territory,the northernmost strip of the Indo-Gangetic plain called the Tarai.

1.8.1. Malaria

1.8.1.1. For some reason, the Thura people are remarkably resilient against Malaria. In some areas, they have are 600% more resistant than the Hill people.

1.8.1.2. malaria eradication projects of the 1950s

1.8.1.2.1. This helped to redefine the relationship between Tharus and the hill people. However, this change in the status quo as it were typically favored the hill people and was a detriment to the Tharus.

1.9. Demonym: Gorkhalis, Nepalese, Nepali,

1.9.1. Shah lineage?

1.9.2. No Shared language?

1.9.3. No shared ethnic identity. No ethnic group has a clear majority in Nepal, although 81.3 % of the population are Hindu. However, what type of Hindu they are varies.

1.10. Four Varnas [of the Caste System]

1.10.1. Brahmin

1.10.2. Kshatriya

1.10.3. Vaishya

1.10.4. Sudra

1.11. Chitwan

1.11.1. Located in southwestern Nepal.

1.11.1.1. Province No. 3

1.11.1.1.1. Chitwan National Park

1.12. Sabha

1.12.1. Full name: Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha

1.12.1.1. Many felt that the Sabha were too preoccupied with issues such as elopement (a marriage conducted in sudden and secretive fashion, almost always against the wishes of parents) and not to issues considered much more important, such as education. In other words, many Tharu believed that the Sabha's had the wrong priorities.

1.12.1.2. Many, especially from their fellow Tharu, have had negative opinions of the Sabha.

1.12.1.3. Name of powerful position among the Sabha and Tarai: committee chairman.

1.12.1.3.1. People who occupy this position, and are part of the larger bureaucracy the committee chairman position is a part of, are often accused of doing something individuals only if they are rich and would presumably do nothing for those same people if they had been poor instead. Usually, where this type of behavior is observed, nepotism is not far behind. In other words, typical accusations, probably true, of cronyism and nepotism are high among Sabha committee chairman.

1.12.2. National Sabha conventions held biannually since 1991.

1.12.3. Many poor Tharus don’t feel Sabha looks after their interests, especially if they're not wealthy.

1.12.3.1. The Sabha also appear to be overly obsessed with preventing elopements, especially between those from incompatible castes, as opposed to more worthwhile and socially beneficial causes such as education.

1.12.3.2. Cronyism?

1.13. Term: pap

1.13.1. Roughly equivalent to the word "Sin". Though it has connotations more like the Polynesian term often employed by Sigmund Freud: Taboo. As in, a transgression of societal codes of conduct.

1.13.1.1. Notions of purity and impurity are highly important within Pap. It can be difficult to understand the Sabha's aversion to elopement without this concept. Through Pap a better, though still incomplete, understanding of Nepalese aversion to

1.13.1.2. Pap seems to have a relationship to the term karma.

1.13.1.3. The subject of "Taboo" was thoroughly studied by Freud in his book "Totem and Taboo" (1913). On page 29, in the chapter "The ambivalence of emotions", he writes that the original punishment "for the violation of a taboo was probably left to an inner, automatic arrangement. The violated taboo avenged itself. Wherever the taboo was related to ideas of gods and demons an automatic punishment was expected the power of the god-head. In other cases, probably as a result of a further development of the idea, society took over the punishment of the offender, whose action has endangered his companions. Thus man's first systems of punishment are also connected with taboo." Pap appears to the Nepali equivalent to taboo.

1.14. Bhalara

1.14.1. Bakhanj District of the Seti Zone

1.14.1.1. far-western Nepal

1.15. Tharus identity appears to be a nebulous concept.

1.16. Shanti Devi Choudhary

1.16.1. Instrumental in motivating Tharu women beyond traditional, often restrictive roles.

1.16.2. Feminist?

1.17. Tharu Samskrti (Tharu Culture) published in Kathmandu by central committee

2. Nepal

2.1. 1742 to 1809.

2.1.1. Unification of approximately 50 small Nepali kingdoms by Gorkha King Pritivi Narayan Shah into a single political entity.

2.1.1.1. Prithvi Narayan Shah

2.1.1.1.1. r. 1743 – 1775

2.1.1.1.2. First king of a unified Nepal

2.2. 1768 - kingdom declared.

2.2.1. The Mulaki Ain

2.3. 1814-1816 - Anglo-Nepalese War

2.3.1. Treaty of Sugauli in 1816.

2.3.1.1. Nepal lost all Sikkim (including Darjeeling), the territories of Kumaon and Garhwal and western terai .

2.3.1.2. The British East India Company would pay 200,000 rupees annually to compensate for the loss of income from the Terai region

2.3.2. Belligerents:

2.3.2.1. Nepal

2.3.3. The British East India Company/Garhwal Kingdom/Patiala State

2.3.4. Also known as, the Anglo-Gorkha War, or the Gorkha War

2.4. 1847

2.4.1. The United Kingdom starts to take direct control over its South Asian colonies. In other words, soft diplomacy begins to harden.

2.4.2. Nepal is not one of the colonies. In fact, it is one of the few counties to have not been a colony during the 1800s.

2.5. 1846-1951 - this is when Nepal was ruled by the Rana family.

2.5.1. jimidar system

2.5.1.1. Introduced by this [the Rama] regime in 1861.

2.5.1.1.1. basically tax collectors

2.5.1.1.2. required to deliever a certain, fixed amount of tax to the revenue office.

2.5.1.1.3. eventually, considered to be a great obstacle in the way of modernization of agriculture and necessary improvement in production.

2.6. 1854 - Muluki Ain - places Tharu into the category of "the enslaveable Matwali caste".

2.6.1. Ranked third in a five-fold hierarchy.

2.6.2. Matwali

2.6.2.1. "Namasinya Matwali" (Non-enslavable Alcohol Drinkers)

2.6.2.2. "Masinya Matwali" (Enslavable Alcohol Drinkers)

2.6.2.3. "Pani Na Chalne" (Impure but touchable)

2.6.2.4. "Impure and untouchable"

2.7. 1923 - Britain recongizes the independence of Nepal

2.8. 1939

2.8.1. September 4, 1939

2.8.1.1. Nepal declares war on Germany following the latter's invasion of Poland.

2.9. 1948 - Limbu Uprising

2.9.1. Many Brahmins killed.

2.10. 1951 - Rana dictatorship

2.11. 1979 -  found mainly in the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nepal, following the results of a referendum originally commissioned by his predecessor King Mahendra, reaffirms the panchayat system.

2.11.1. Panchayat system

2.11.1.1. Basically, a decentralised form of government where each village would be responsible for its own affairs. M. Gandhi advocated for this type of government.

2.11.1.2. Also known as, Panchayat raj

2.11.1.2.1. Raj = Rule.

2.11.1.2.2. Panchayat

2.11.1.3. Primarily found in the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nepal.

2.11.2. Birendra of Nepal (1945-2001)

2.11.2.1. Assassinated

2.11.2.1.1. Along with much of the royal family.

2.12. 1991

2.13. Nepalese Civil War (1996-2006)

2.13.1. It was launched by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

2.14. 2001

2.15. February 1, 2005

2.15.1. Gyanendra of Nepal, who took power back in June 2001 after the assassination of his predecessor,

2.16. 2007

2.16.1. December 2007 - May 2008: Monarchy abolished.

2.17. 2008 - Nepal officially become a constitutional republic. Until May 28th of this year Nepal was considered a constitutional monarchy.

2.17.1. The Prime Minister, and not the king, is now the head of state. There is no longer a king. The position was abolished.