Nationalist strains have emerged along Nepal’s southern border with India as Madhesis who make up the majority of inhabitants in the region seek improved conditions.
Many Madhesis say they are victims of discrimination and rights abuses, and protests seeking repairs to crumbling infrastructure have been met with a forceful response by Nepali police and paramilitaries, reports al-Jazeera.
Jailed intellectual Chandra Kant Raut, or CK Raut, has emerged as a figurehead rallying Madhesis with growing grievances against the government in the capital Kathmandu. Although Raut’s agenda has yet to gain widesread support, he is increasingly being seen as a bargaining chip in the political struggles now unfolding in the region.
“Intellectuals see Raut’s agenda as a means to ensure the state gives attention to marginalised Madhesis,” says Vijay Karna, a former Nepalese ambassador to Denmark.
Despite constituting one-third of Nepal’s population, many Madhesis remain stateless and are also under-represented in the bureaucracy, judiciary, and police. Official statistics show Madhesis comprise a mere 1.5% of Nepal’s army, and even the British and Indian armies recruiting for their Gurkha brigades do not consider Madhesis warrior material.
The Postal Road traverses the length of the country from east to west as it runs through the villages of the area known as Madhes, but also called Terai, inhabited by Madhesis as well as other indigenous groups and the Pahadis, Nepali-speakers from the hills.
But travellers using this road - Nepal’s oldest highway - cannot fail to spot its neglected condition and the closer one gets to the Indian border, the more decrepit the infrastructure becomes.
To the north, however, another road built in the 1960s and also stretching from east to west along the foothills where the great Indo-Gangetic plain ends and the mountain range bordering China begins, offers a stark contrast.
In October, students in the Madhesi town of Simraungadh near the border with the Indian state of Bihar signalled that they had had enough of the poor condition of the roads.
