THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

pradhan pa-c to attend meetings in Chainpur and Khandbari, as he
frequently had to do. Yet, in the case of Tamaphok, power did not
appear to have been so resolutely held by any one family or ethnic
group. The first pradhan 96-c had been a Yakha, followed by a Chetri,
then Gurung, before the present pradhgn p8-c was elected. There were
undoubtedly caste and ethnic rivalries in leadership aspirations. At
the previous election, a Brahmin from Tellok and a Chetri from Sansare
Mude respectively had stood against the current Yakha pradh6n p6-c. He
had been pradhan p6-c for seventeen years, but he told us he was
planning to retire at the next election as the Brahmins and Chetris were
becoming 'too powerful',
As well as lack of a hegemonic power bloc in Tamaphok, the po!itical
situation there undoubtedly a!so reflected the personality of the
incumbent pradhan p6-c, The predh6n p6-c impressed people, such as
those we met outside the pancavat, as a humble man, seeking to do the
best he could for his community (Plate 32). We discovered some fear of
him, such as when the family from whom we hoped to rent our house in the
second year of fie!dwork expressed concern about falling out with the
pradhan DG-c by being seen as taking away his friends. There were also
some 'enemies', represented by a group of influential caste-Hindu men
who trumped up a murder charge against him after his uncle had fa! len
out of a tree. However, the majority in Tamaphok regardless of caste or
ethnic affiliation appeared to respect him and the work he did. The
pancayat was certainly not run in a uniquely enlightened way: no women
attended pancavat meetings, for example, and most of the real business
of government seemed to take place on his front porch in the mornings
rather than in the pancflyat office. Yet the pradhgn pd-c dispiayed a