http://nepalitimes.
Rural upheaval
Urbanisation is changing relations between and within Nepali communities
SUVAYU DEV PANT in PALPA
FROM ISSUE #486 (22 JAN 2010 - 28 JAN 2010)
KIRAN PANDAY
Caste relations are being transformed as urbanisation gathers pace in
the Palpa village of Hungi, a village on the banks of the Kali Gandaki
which is a microcosm of the country.
Hungi is remote, but it is no backwater. Proximity to a river ensures
that farmland is fertile and well-irrigated, so most people have
enough to eat. A few even have televisions.
"Nobody is starving here, there are only a couple of households
struggling. There's more than enough food to go around," asserts
Baikuntha Pant, a young returnee.
For generations, this relative prosperity sustained a division of
labour between the Brahmins, who occupied the fertile lowlands, and
the Magars, who lived high up in the adjoining hills. A few Brahmin
households owned most of the land and commissioned the Magars to work
the fields for a share of the harvest.
But much has changed with people leaving for the cities. The key
landowning Brahmin families have sold their property piecemeal to
finance investments in the city. Many of the buyers are Magars.
"Before, all my parents' neighbours were Bahuns, but the demographics
have definitely changed now," says Janak Raj Pandey, who works and
lives in Kathmandu.
With city jobs and farmland of their own, the Magars now have more
lucrative alternatives to working on Brahmin-held land. This has
closed income disparities between ethnic communities, and given rise
to a new, more diverse village elite. Inevitably, some people have
come to resent these changes.
"Look, there's the new rich," scowls my companion, gesturing to a
richly adorned Magar woman during a walk through the village.
For the most part, however, these changes have been received
peaceably. The bigger danger to social harmony comes from a different
angle. While income disparities between communities have narrowed,
those within them have widened. Many Magars buy property in the
lowlands with remittances from relatives working abroad. Those less
fortunate continue to toil high up in the hills.
"Life is still tough for me. I have two children and sometimes I
struggle to feed them. Before I would get some help from my
neighbours, but most have left for the lowlands," says Sujata (name
changed), whose husband works odd jobs in Kathmandu.
Among Brahmins, too, income gaps have widened between families with
children doing well in the cities, and those that rely solely on farm
income. The impact of these changing sources of income has been keenly
felt in the local school. As the value of education, in preparing
students for city jobs, has grown, enrolment figures have soared.
Urbanisation has benefited those communities with the means to take
advantage of it, leaving the marginalised out in the cold. Hungi's
experience is mirrored by the Nepali Living Standard Survey, which
shows that while the income poverty rate has dropped, income
disparities between communities have widened across the country.
Anthropologist Mukta Singh Tamang explains, "The poverty rate among
the mostly high-caste groups who live in or near urban centres and are
educated has declined more rapidly than the poverty rate among
communities in rural centres." Tamang attributes this in part to
rising remittances and low agricultural productivity.
With the 2011 census expected to reflect these changes, it's time the
government figured out how to make urbanisation work for everyone.
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