NEPAL : Bicentennial of a black day

The British government has a responsibility to the Madhes and Madhesis

- C K RAUT

UK Minister for International Development, Alan Duncan, was recently in Nepal for a four-day visit to discuss the bicentennial celebrations of diplomatic relations between the UK and Nepal, among other things. Last month, a celebration graced by top officials from both countries took place at the Embassy of Nepal in London to mark the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, though hardly any formal diplomatic relations existed until the 1920s. 

Somehow the Treaty of Sugauli, ratified in March 1816, is something that Nepalis need to bring to the spotlight time and again. But amidst the noise generated by high officials and heirs of the Greater Nepal dream, the memorandum exchanged between the King of Nepal and the British Government on December 8, 1816 is often forgotten. That memorandum certainly marks the year 2016 as the proper time for bicentennial celebrations of a ‘black day’ for Madhesis.

Handover of the Madhes

In the late 18th century, following Gorkhali attacks on the Sen Kingdoms of the Tarai, it was the East India Company that granted tenure of the Tarai lands to the Gorkhali rulers. Nepal lost its rights over the Tarai areas following a defeat in the Anglo-Nepal war of 1814-1816, leading to the ratification of the Sugauli Treaty in March 1816. Thereafter, the lands of the Tarai came fully under British rule. And British officials used to govern the territory and collect land tax from the Tarai. However, through the memorandum of December 8, 1816, the British handed over to Nepal the eastern part of the Tarai, between the Koshi and the Rapti rivers, instead of paying Rs 200,000 per year as agreed to previously on Nepal’s request to support the living cost of its employees. The British handed over the western part of the Tarai, between the Rapti and the Mahakali rivers, through the treaty of 1860, as a reward to Nepal for its support for the British in suppressing the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857-59 in India. Thus the fate of the Madhes was sealed.

But other than keeping a provision for the safety of Madhesis in the treaty of 1816, stating “the Rajah of Nipal agrees to refrain from prosecuting any inhabitants of the Terai, after its revertance to his rule, on account of having favoured the cause of the British Government during the war,” the British hardly ever looked back at those they had handed over to Nepal. On the contrary, to please the Nepali rulers on the eve of the Second World War, to be able to use the Nepali Army and to isolate Nepalis from taking part in the freedom movement ongoing in India, the British granted Nepal sovereign status through the treaty of 1923 and became the first nation of the world to do so. Even when they left India, they let Nepal maintain the status quo.

In this way, the British Government played a defining role in determining the destiny of Madhesis and for whatever they have become today. But regardless of the fact that Madhesis sacrificed a lot for the British, who reaped heavily from the resources of the Tarai during their colonial rule, Madhesis are spared Commonwealth rights, not to speak of the British Government’s failure to open a Madhes cultural centre in the UK or having a Madhes caucus in its Parliament or providing separate scholarships and development aid to the Madhesis.

Madhesi presence

The UK government’s Department for International Development (DfID), the largest bilateral donor to Nepal, should make public the data on what percentage of its aids and grants, totalling more than hundred million pounds a year, has gone to the benefit of Madhesis. Among the tens of thousands of participants in English Language Test exams administered by the British Council, how many were Madhesis? In which of the Madhesi languages, does the BBC broadcast? How many British tourists visit the Tarai every year (other than Lumbini and Chitwan)? And what is the percentage of Madhesis in DfID-funded projects? According to UNDP data published in 2001, about the human resource involved in 30 major multilateral agencies and 61 projects, only 5.2 percent were Madhesis; 80 percent were Pahadis.

This bicentennial celebration could be a great time for the UK government to reflect on what it did to monitor the condition of not punishing the Madhesis, imposed on Nepal while handing over the Tarai lands through the 1816 agreement. What shall its status be if Pahadi-dominated Nepal is found to be discriminating against and punishing Madhesis, subjugating them as second-class citizens of the country?

Raut holds a PhD from Cambridge University and is the author of A History of Madhes (Madhes Kaa Itihaas)

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2014-02-07/bicentennial-of-a-black-day.html