“Like We Are Not Nepali”

“prohibited zones” declared by the government, have had a crippling effect on normal life
and caused intense economic hardship. Since late September the passage of goods
across the border with India has been significantly curtailed, leading to severe shortages
of fuel and other essentials across the country. The Nepali government has blamed India
for the shortages, claiming that India is imposing an unofficial blockade in order to force
the government to amend the constitution in line with the Madhesi demands. India has
denied this charge, claiming that the shortages are due to protester blockades and a
general lack of security for the trucks ferrying the goods.
A Controversial Constitution
The protests began in the final weeks of Nepal’s protracted constitution drafting process.
Drafting a constitution through an elected Constituent Assembly was a central plank of the
peace agreement signed in 2006 to end a decade-long Maoist insurgency and civil war.
The first Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008, but it failed to complete the new
charter, in large part due to differences over the delineation of federal provinces. A second
Constituent Assembly elected in 2013 was also deadlocked for over a year. However, in the
aftermath of the devastating earthquake which struck Nepal in April 2015, four major
political parties reached an agreement to complete the charter by a “fast track” process.
However, marginalized groups in the Terai—the lowland region that stretches across
southern Nepal between the Indian border and the foothills of the Himalayas—objected to
this “fast track” process and the constitution which emerged from it. Once again, the
delineation of federal provinces was the most contentious issue. In particular, protests
against the new constitution involved two relatively large ethnic or social groups:
Madhesis, concentrated in the eastern and central Terai; and Tharus, concentrated in the
far western Terai. They objected to the new federal boundaries and to other aspects of the
new constitution which they claim abrogate previous commitments made to their
communities and create “second-class” citizens. Objections include the unequal
distribution of parliamentary constituencies and restrictions on the right of women to pass
citizenship to their children.
Underlying these grievances is a long-standing history of discrimination by successive
governments, which remains dominated by traditional social elites from Nepal’s hilly
regions, against marginalized groups including Madhesis and Tharus. Members of these
3 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | OCTOBER 2015