Dambar Chemjong and Janak Rai: The nine districts of eastern Nepal at present may be considered as one the major political centers in the wake of the country drafting the constitution of the federal republic of Nepal. The Federal Limbuwan State Council (FLSC) ? founded in 2005- has been continuously staging political protests,? demonstrations, long marches, general strikes, political schooling/instructions for the cadres and also recruiting the LVs (Limbuwan volunteers) in the last 7 years. FLSC?s has demanded that the territories within those 9 districts, namely Taplejung, Pachthar, Ilam, Jhapa, Terathum, Dhankuta, Sankhuwasabha, Sunsari and? Morang be declared as Limbuwan Autonomous Province on the basis of the ?Limbus? historically specific political relations with the Nepalese state? and ?territorial identity of the indigenous nationalities? of Limbuwan.? The territory that falls under these nine districts now was known as Limbuwan before Nepal was divided into 75 districts and 14 zones in 1960s for politico-administrative reasons. Although Limbuwan was annexed under the Hindu Kingdom of Gorkha/Nepal in 1774 through a conciliatory ?treaty?, the royal order then had also guaranteed the autonomy of Limbuwan in terms of the Limbus? land and territorial ownership. However, the political movement for ?Limbuwan? is not exclusively for Limbus and by Limbus only. Other groups, for example, Dhimals are actively involved in the Libuwan movement.
In Nepal, the resurgence of a strong national indigenous movement after the 1990s has been successful in forcing the Nepali state to ratify the two most important international instruments of human rights governing indigenous rights- the ILO convention 169 and the UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Peoples? Movement of April 2006 overthrew the two century long monarchical rule, ending 15 years of the Maoist insurgency, and led to the declaration of Nepal as a secular federal republic. This was a landmark political transformation, particularly for the historically marginalized groups like Limbus and Dhimals.
Political statement written by LV (Limbuwan Volunteers) on a house wall in rural village in Limbuwan. The statement reads: Can't Even be Imagined, Nepal without Limbuwan and Limbuwan without Nepal. Photo: Dambar Chemjong
Ritu Khanduri: Are Dhimals and Limbus among several groups?of??indigenous? people in Nepal?
Dambar Chemjong: Yes, they are among many other indigenous peoples in Nepal. Limbus with a population about 4, 50,000 are one of the indigenous groups of the easternmost lands of Nepal. The Limbus are borderland people inhabiting the geographically contiguous hills that belong not only to Nepal but also to Darjeeling and Sikkim of India. Limbu territory (called Limbuwan) was annexed into the then Gorkha Hindu Kingdom, which would become Kingdom of Nepal in 1774. Ever since, Limbus have laid claim to a relatively autonomous political and territorial identity.
Janak Rai: Dhimals with a population about 25,000 have been living in the easternmost lowlands or the tarai region long before the rise of the ?modern? Nepali state. Until the early 1950s, Dhimals? ancestral territories were thickly forested and thinly populated. Though Nepali state and its rulers had long pushed the colonization of the tarai region for natural resources (particularly land), labor and political control, the endemic of malaria had discouraged people from the hills to settle into the tarai. This radically altered after the malaria eradication in the early 1950s and the land reform of 1964. The construction of the East-West highway (early 1970s), and other state led modernization processes brought more people into the plain areas. ??This ?frontier settlement? progressively dispossessed and alienated Dhimals from their ancestral territories.
For Dhimals and other tarai adivasi, their experiences of this opening up of the tarai have been about ?losing ground?: the loss of land, the loss of their culture and their traditional hold on local political and administrative power. Their experiences of alienation from ancestral territories and political-economic marginalization have shaped Dhimals? understanding of their past, and their sense of ethic identity vis-?-vis the dominant social groups (the hill ?high caste? Hindus). The contemporary indigenous activism is one of many organized ways by which Dhimals are subverting their political and economic marginality in Nepal.
Janak Rai, participating the World Indigenous Peoples' Day Rally, Aug 8, 2008. Photo: Courtesy Janak Rai.
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Dhimals and other adivasi groups have been demanding that Nepal?s federal restructuring be based on ethnicity, geography and history. The defining aspect of the political category of ?indigenous peoples? (?adivasi janajati? in Nepal) is the idea of ?people with inalienable relationship with their land?. Ensuring collective control over their territories thus constitutes one of the fundamental aspects of the indigenous peoples? right to self-determination.
Dambar Chemjong: In Limbuwan?s case, territorial consciousness seems to? matter more than the economic class/relation in formation of political as well as social relations. I am undertaking research for my Ph.D. dissertation?to understand how territorial collective consciousness binds the Limbus together and how the same collective consciousness sublimates into political movement for autonomy and ?right to self-determination.?
Limbu youth in their customary dress and jewelry, and with traditional drums participating in a rally in a town in Limbuwan. January 2012. Photo: Dambar Chemjong.
Ritu Khanduri: Which political movements illustrate this process?
Dambar Chemjong: Mainly taking on the Limbuwan?s?? politico-historical relationships with? the Hindu Kindom of Gorkha and also taking on the memories of their ancestors struggle to protect their territory,? the Limbus have been organizing political movements for the Limbuwan territorial autonomy. So as to stage political movements collectively for territorial autonomy, the meetings held in June-July 2008 culminated in founding a new political solidarity front called United Limbuwan Front, comprising representatives from different political parties. The United Limbuwan Front was announced on July 27, 2008.
Raised hands of solidarity. Limbu politicians representing different political parties during the press conference to announce the foundation of the United Limbuwan Front (ULF). Photo: Dambar Chemjong
The Limbus at present seem to be politically organized in three different political fronts: They are organized under civic political parties, such as? Nepali Congress, Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist Leninist), Nepal Communist Party (United Maoist) and so forth; Next, they are organized under what I would call Limbu-oriented political parties, such as Federal Limbuwan State Council and other local/regional political fronts within? Limbuwan; Finally, although not explicitly politically, Limbus are also organized under? Kirat Yakthung Chumlung (KYC), which may be rightly considered as representative social, cultural, ?non-political? organization of the Limbus. Kirat Yakthung Chumlung?Yakthung means Limbu as the Limbus do not call themselves Limbu but Yakthung in their own language and Chumlung means assembly in Limbu language?has its organizational extension in most of the villages across the Limbuwan region. In short, history and identity seem to be the imageries motivating the Limbus towards? political solidarity and? territorial autonomy.
Janak Rai: For my?doctoral dissertation, I worked in the tarai or the lowland of Nepal. This region, in comparison to the mountain and the hill regions, has remained marginal to the anthropology of Nepal; relatively few western scholars have studied the region and her people. I plan to expand my current research project to encompass more regional and historical ethnography focusing on the tarai adivasi.
Janak Rai's Field site- Karikosi Village, Morang Nepal. Photo: Janak Rai
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Recently, the viability of ethnic federalism for Nepal has become one of the most contested political issues in Nepal. My research is not about ?assessing? the possibility or perils of ethnic federalism for Nepal?s future. I was more interested in understanding how people, located in specific historical contexts and locales, make sense of such federal imaginings. My ethnographic analysis of Dhimal indigenous activism illustrates the centrality of?cultural politics in order to understand how Dhimals transform the global-national discourses of indigenous politics into locally meaningful and relevant political practices.
Ritu Khanduri: You mentioned the discovery of? clay idols and the emergence of new collective ritual practice at Raja Rani as part of this cultural politics.
Janak Rai: There is a small village called Raja Rani, meaning King and Queen in Nepali, located on a hilltop nearby Letang bazar in Morang district. Until a few years ago, Raja Rani, did not carry any sense of place for the current Dhimal indigenous activists. In the?late 1990s, the place, where no Dhimals currently live, was ?rediscovered? by Dhimals to be their ?ancestral places?. They found two major evidences that which Dhimals claimed impeccably support their historical relationship to the place. Dhimals discovered many unearthed clay idols of elephants and horses scattered here and there in the village forest.? Dhimals offer these clay idols to their village shrines (Gramthan). Since no groups other than Dhimal (their claim) use such type of idols as ritual offerings, these discoveries prove that Dhimals used lived and performed their rituals in these areas till the recent past. They believe that their ancestors used to live there as late as 1930s.
Clay idols of elephant and horse found in the forest. The Raja Rani Gramthan (Dhimal Shrine). Photo: Janak Rai
Dhimals also discovered that places in and around Raja Rani are named in Dhimal language. For example, in Dhimal language, leta means down below. Hence Dhimals claim that the settlement down below the Raja Rani hill was named Letang (the ng sound is an emphasis added). Place names such as guwabari (banana fields) and Lokrajhar (bushes where tigers hide) are named by Dhimal ancestors to emphasize certain events and activity. For Dhimals, these place names further provide evidence of their historical emplacement and belonging in these areas.The local Magars (a hill ethnic group) who predominately comprises the village population still recount the stories their great grandparents had told them about Dhimals who resided there when they came to the village (probably in the early 19th century).
Except for a few senior Dhimals, the significance of Raja Rani had almost been erased from Dhimals? collective memory. After its rediscovery in the early 90s, Dhimal indigenous leaders, under the banner of Dhimals? national level indigenous organization, Dhimal Jati Bikas Kendra (hereafter the Kendra,) initiated new practices to reclaim their historical relationship with Raja Rani. They built their village shrine Gramthan near Raja Rani. Gramthan is a village shrine where Dhimal annually perform their most important collective ritual Shrejat to worship their deities, ancestors, rivers, forests and other forces affecting the well being villagers and their crops, animals, and the entire village. The shrine also demarcates village territorial boundaries.?The Kendra has promoted the Raja Rani Gramthan the collective national shrine of all Dhimals. Since 2001, the Kendra began a new practice of inaugurating of the celebration of Shrejat at Raja Rani on the first and second day of Nepali month of Baisakh (April-May), and ending the ritual at the premise of Kendra itself on the first week of Asaar (June-July).
Dhimals offering ritual prayers in the Raja Rani Gramthan. Photo: Janak Rai
Dhimals? new practice of collective ritual performance at Raja Rani should not be seen simply as a ?local response? to the recent political transformations in Nepal. Dhimals? reclaiming of historical relationships with Raja Rani for the their political project of federal autonomy shows?that people understand the seemingly abstract notions of ?autonomy? and ?indigenous rights? by relating them to their concrete everyday practices and experiences. We need to focus on the creative agency of Dhimal indigenous leaders in weaving their ritual practices into their political project of indigenous rights as well in mediating the locally embedded cultural politics of reforms ( regarding their marriage practices and lowering ritual expenses). These cultural politics are important in transforming the global discourses of indigeneity into locally meaningful practices.
Ritu Khanduri:?What are your connections with Nepal?s Tribhuvan University(TU) and the U.S. institutions, University of Michigan (U-M)?and Cornell University (CU)?
Janak Rai:?Before coming to the University of Michigan (U-M), I was teaching anthropology in Tri-Chandra College?(TU) where I am currently tenured. Then I had an MA degree in anthropology, and I was teaching MA level courses in anthropology (an MA degree holder is eligible for a teaching position in Tribhuvan University). It was a challenging experience. I realized the need to pursue for a PhD study in order to become a better-trained teacher and scholar. In 2002, I applied for the Fulbright Fellowship and I got it for a Master?s Degree in the U.S. for 2003-2005. Prior to this, I had almost no knowledge about anthropology graduate programs in the U.S. After being awarded the Fulbright Fellowship, I consulted with my senior professors who got their PhDs from the U.S. regarding the possible U.S. universities for my study. The Fulbright fellowship was only for the Master?s degree, U-M offered and ensured funding for my PhD study.
I have been involved in the indigenous rights movement in Nepal. I believe in combining teaching, research and activism both for deepening my learning and making my knowledge and skill relevant, in someway, for peoples? collective efforts for positive change in society. I will continue to work with indigenous, and other marginalized communities in their causes (engaged anthropology).
Dambar Chemjong: My involvement with the Cornell Nepal Study Program (CNSP) is as a junior faculty member of the Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tribhuvan University (TU).? A majority of the teaching personnel at CNSP are from TU, both campuses are located in the same town, Kirtipur, in Kathmandu.? My current Teaching Fellow job is part-time at CNSP.? My work hours at CNSP are mostly in the morning and I teach at TU in the afternoon.
At TU, where I am a lecturer, I teach three classes a week. On an average, I divide my time teaching for these two campuses and my own Ph.D. study. I joined Cornell in the Fall? 2007 and?completed coursework for 3 years, returning to Nepal during the summers for exploring my research topics. I took my ?A? exam (Ph.D. candidacy exam) in Spring 2010 and left for Nepal for field research. So now I am in the field research stage towards my Ph.D.
Ritu Khanduri:?How is research, teaching and publication in anthropology organized?in Nepal?
Janak Rai: The institutional settings, and the academic system/ culture under TU are very different from what I have experienced in the U.S. There are many things and factors that constraint our efforts of enhancing the teaching and research in anthropology in Nepal. This needs a different set of discussion, so I will not open it here. Despite such limitations, one thing that I really feel good about being a teacher at the TU is its true nature of a ?peoples? university?. Students from all strata of society can have access and afford to study anthropology?at TU. I do feel that I am not teaching students only from more privileged sections of society. This feeling is important- it adds deep meaning to my joy of teaching anthropology in TU. So what we teach and how we teach in the TU will make an impact for the practice of anthropological study and research in Nepal. I strongly believe that as a teacher my first goal should always be about motivating students to take anthropology and ethnography seriously beyond the prospects of finding a job after their graduation. I am positive that now I am more prepared, informed and skilled to take this challenge.
Dambar Chemjong: We have a joint department called Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology at TU. The Sociological Anthropological Society of Nepal (SASON), which reflects the department?s dual identity, is an organization in which many of the sociologists and anthropologists are affiliated. So there is no AAA like organization yet in Nepal. Some anthropology ? related publications and journals are Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology published by the Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology at TU. About a dozen volumes have been published so far of this journal. The Center for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS), one of the research wings of TU., also publishes Contributions to Nepalese Studies. This journal is not specific to anthropology but covers anthropological issues and anthropologists? contributions too. Himalayan Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, published by the Pokhara Campus is also a new addition in such publications.? Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology is? also published by Dhaulagiri Campus, Baglung, Western Nepal. In addition, the SASON has published at least 4 volumes of the proceedings and collection of papers from the conferences it organized.
Ritu Gairola Khanduri is an assistant professor of? cultural anthropology in the University of Texas-Arlington. She read history in the Jawaharlal Nehru University and anthropology in the University of Texas- Austin. Her research foci include media, globalization, history, and science in colonial and contemporary India. She also writes and researches on Gandhi and Hindu images in the diaspora. Her research has received support from the Wenner ? Gren Foundation?s Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Science Research Council , Fulbright-Hays, and the Institute for Historical Research- University of London/Mellon Foundation. Ritu?s recently completed book manuscript is an ethnography of newspaper cartooning in India.
The Peoples? Movement of April 2006 overthrew the two century long monarchical rule, ending 15 years of the Maoist insurgency, and led to the declaration of Nepal as a secular federal republic. This was a landmark political transformation, particularly for the historically marginalized groups like Limbus and Dhimals.
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