All meetings in almost every situation in Nepal start with mass introductions. Every person present says their name and occupation. It is a time consuming practice, but it is always helpful to know who everyone present is. In Indrapur we had mechanics, an Imam, a local politician, a former communist activist, shopkeepers, schoolteachers, farmers and a rickshaw driver. It was a very representative mixture of occupations (not gender though, once again there was not a single woman present.) While the village elite always were first to respond most of the men present were willing to speak up and even dissent from the opinions of the leaders.

I began my steady stream of questions with inquiries about village governance and community decision making. After visiting a Tharu community and finding a well organized council of village elders (aguwas) I expected to find a similar arrangement among the Madheshi peoples. What I actually found was that there was a striking lack of organization and coordination within the community. There were not regular community gatherings and rarely cooperative actions taken by the villagers. I inquired about the role of the Imam, and was told by him and others that he would offer advice from tiem to time but generally limited his role to issues directly related to religion. With no information from my broader questions, I tried to gain some sort of understanding of village politics by asking specifically about different situations that required mediation or communal decision making. Each time I was told that people just worked things out between each other or that there was no system or normative course of action in place. My final attempt to uncover some semblance of community organization was a question regarding the division of water among the farmers, always a huge issue for any village. A man who spoke some English smiled, placed his hand on my knee and responded with a question “How can you divide rain?” This cryptic response led into a long explanation that Indrapur has no irrigation and no prospects of benefiting from an irrigation project for years.

The struggles of farmers precluded a more general discussion of difficulties facing the community in Indrapur. Many of the community’s difficulties could be traced back to the root cause of unemployment. Unemployment is a significant problem for all of Nepal, but among the Madheshi people the situation is far worse than average. Unemployment contributes to a high drop out rate in school as families cannot afford books and uniforms and even when students do graduate they still fail to find work. Unemployment leads to frustration, increased crime a tendency towards violence and easy recruiting for extremist militias. All of these negative social trends within Madheshi communities then reinforce the stereotypes that fuel the discrimination that helps cause the massive unemployment in the first place.

Crime was an important cue for me to delve into one of the topics I am most focused on, police-community relationships. I have blogged before about the extreme detachment of the police from society throughout much of the country. The negative perception of the police among most of Nepal pales in comparison to the distrust and dislike of the police among the Madheshis. When I asked about relations with the police the one politician present answered “Tik cha” and refused to say more. “Tik cha” might be translated as “so-so.” His answer was soon lost in an immediate uproar among those around him. One man produced a letter to the police he had written regarding stolen property. The police had turned him away at the door and refused to even hear his complaint. One man explained that if the police did arrest someone for a crime they were always Madheshi. No one in the village ever involved the police in anything unless the crime was murder or rape. Wanting more on the topic I asked if any Madheshi people tried to join the police force. As it turned out many had tried from the village, but none had been selected. A young man told me that even a skinny, short Nepali would be chosen over the strongest, most intelligent Madheshi person.

The final word was left to the local Imam, the same one who does not involve himself in politics. He waited for an appropriate silence and looked me directly in the eyes. He then said clearly and in English “That is why we need an independent Madheshi state.” Many of the men nodded in approval.