Faceless in History

Written by Tej Narayan Panjiar

Republished from the July/Aug 1993 issue of Himal magazine. Used with permission.

A charter at Chapagaon. Photo by Bikas Rauniar. Used with permission.

The Tharus could not have hid out in the jungle for aeons waiting to be discovered during the malaria eradication campaign of the 1950s. They must have a history of their own.

Henry Ambrose Oldfield, in his book Sketches from Nepal, describes the Tharu of the Nepal Tarai as “a puny, badly developed and miserable-looking race, and probably belonging to the same original stock as the natives of the adjacent Plains of India”.

Apart from the extreme cultural bias of this description, the belittling terminology was not borne out even in Old field's day, when the robust forest-dwelling Tharus were described by another contemporary book as being “chiefly employed in the difficult and dangerous task of catching wild elephants". And a population group that had defied mighty malaria itself could hardly have been "badly developed".

As for Tharu origins, rather than his perfunctory hypothesis, Oldfield might have delved into the possibility that the Tharu have Mongolian blood, but he probably was not interested.

Unfortunately, things have hardly changed since Oldfield's days, and successive British writers and historians, as well as the subsequent South Asian scholars have, by and large, shown similar weaknesses with regard to the Tharu society and its history. As one of the most disenfranchised groups of the Ganga basin, it is perhaps natural that this should happen to the Tharus.

Sympathetic Mention
What were the Tharus doing in the malarial jungles and how did they get there? No social scientist has yet felt a need to study history of the Tharus in depth. They make up an invisible community which makes an appearance only when it suits the interests of the mainstream historians. In the case of Nepal, such a time arrived when malaria eradication finally cleared the jungles and it was imperative to say something about the resilient population of this region.

Even so, the interest of modern historians of Nepal and India seems limited to brief sympathetic mention of Tharus as an exploited population group, and how they have resilience against malaria. Some bizarre theories are also propounded as to the Tharu's origin. When they finally find the time to delve into the Tharus' past, researchers will find that they have not been faceless in history, and have in fact been active participants in the happenings of the Himalayan region and adjacent plains.

For example, there exist many lalmohars (land grant documents) awarded by the kings of Palpa, Makwanpur and Nepal Valley to Tharus for their bravery, "extraordinary sense of duty", or other reasons. Such documents can be found from Morang district all the way west to Kanchanpur. There are lalmohars from the kings of Kathmandu and Palpa which grant full enjoyment of Tharus to Tarai lands (except the tithe) if they are able to control the wild animals and the spirits of the jungles.

Mahesh Chandra Regmi, the economic historian, in his book Landownership in Nepal during the Nineteenth Century seeks to prove that the Tarai lands belonged to the Thakuris, Ranas and Bahuns. While this is doubtless partly true, it must be remembered that, at best, the hill people came down for three months in mid-winter, and were gone by the end of February. They did not know what the Tharus produced in their lands, and were content to let the Tharus be the defacto landowners.

Thus, the Tharus were the masters of much of the Tarai lands, but there are numerous lalmohars to prove that they also had de jure title over vast tracts. For instance, one such lalmohar sanctions land in today’s Parsa district south of Kathmandu in favour of the family of Darpnarayan Garwar Tharu, for "gallantry" shown in a war between Makwanpur and southern marauders. There are many such lalmohars available for other parts of the Tarai as well.

The very fact of the linear habitation of Nepal through the length of Nepal's Tarai tends to prove that they spread out and inhabited this expanse over a long historical period. Unfortunately, we know little about this period. The priests and nobles of India and Nepal have always worked well together when the question at issue does not touch upon their rival claims upon one another. When it comes to the Tharus, therefore, these groups have found it mutually convenient to relegate the Tharus to a historical corner, the implication being that these are barbarians with no history.

Rajasthan, Rajasthan
An attempt to write the social history of the Tharus is problematic, and credit goes to anthropologist Dor Bahadur Bista for at least having made a start in People of Nepal (HMG Nepal, 1967). But other historians are satisfied with fanciful notions about Tharu origins that do injustice to the community.

With no evidence to support the contention, some have claimed that the Tharus are descended from those that fled from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan during the attack of Allauddin Khilji in the 12th century and Emperor Akbar in the 16th century. Baburam Acharya, a Nepali historian of stature, has accepted this thesis and stated that many Rajput soldiers were killed by Akbar's forces and that the women of those soldiers fled to the jungles of Nepal with their servants. The Tharus are supposed to be the progeny of these mistresses and their servants.

Some innocent/ crafty modern-day Tharus have taken satisfaction in this explanation, possibly because it links the community to the glorious Rajputs of Rajasthan. The reason the Tharus lost the sacred thread, it is reasoned, is because they gave up warfare and adopted agriculture. (That perhaps they were not originally Hindus is indicated from an order that was issued to enforce the Muluki Ain (1854) among Tharus who lived between Morang and Dang-Deokhuri. Among other things, the order decrees that Tharus are not to eat pork or drink liquor, and that males are not to marry maternal cousin sisters).

Rajasthan lies to the south and west of Delhi, which was the seat of the Muslim kings and emperors. Why would the bevy of doubtlessly brave Rajput ladies insist on travelling through Mughal territory to end up in the jungles of the lower Himalaya when they could have fled easily southwards to the hills of the Satpura and Vindhya ranges?

A theory propounded by Iswor Baral, presently the Vice Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy, seems more plausible than the 'flight from Rajasthan' myth. Baral, who grew up among the Tharus and knows the community well, is of the view that the Tharus are descended from a community that was persecuted and banished northwards during the expansion of the Vajjii Republic. According to the Buddhist scholar Ashwagosa, this was a flourishing state during the Sakyamuni’s time. From geographical history, we know that the Vajjii territory incorporated Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts in present-day Bihar.

This would explain why, as Baral theorises, the Tharus call all non-Tharu population to the south by the name "Vajiya". This term has now even entered the Nepali language, "bajiya" meaning "uncouth". This theory must, of course, stand the rigours of academic reasoning, which will probably happen when more scholars take an interest in Tharu history.

Sakya of Lumbini

Octoradii from Lumbini. 

 
The Tharus certainly were not a community that hid out in the forest for eons waiting to be discovered during the malaria eradication campaign of the 1960s. Serious work on their antiquity would probably reveal interesting linkages with the main stream of South Asian history. Could it be, for example, that the Sakyamuni Buddha was a Tharu?

The first and foremost principle laid down by the Buddha has been named Theravada. But according to its Pali rendition, it is Theragatha, that is, the story of the Tharu. It is though t by some that the Sakyamuni modelled the organisation of his sangha on a community such as his own. It is significant that the Sakya seem not to have the Varna system, and they were isolated to the extent that they were self-governing and their polity was of a form not envisaged in Brahminical theory.

The fact that the Sakyamuni's birthplace in Lumbini is still in the midst of a Tharu settled area might be one indication that they are the original inhabitants of this area. A. Fuhrer, who discovered the Lumbini site, was himself of the view that Tharus are the descendants of the Sakyas, though he was unable to prove his case.

Excavations done at Tilaurakot, the site of the palace of the Sakyamuni's father King Suddhodhana, have brought up some 3rd century artifacts (contemporary to the Vajjii) that deserve further study. Some of the bricks are stamped with the octoradii circle, which is the mark of the "turning of the wheel of the law" throughout the Buddhist world of Southeast Asia, Japan, China, and also in the Ashokan inscriptions. Another stamp bears the mark of the trisul. On the walls of the thatched huts of the Tharus today, one finds frescos that carry identical marks of the octoradii circle and trisul.

As followers of the Buddha, were the Tharus persecuted by the Brahminical forces, and is this why they were forced into the forests, where the 20th century finally found them? As one scholar wrote in 1896, “The clan and the disciples of Buddha were so ruthlessly persecuted that all were either slain, exiled or made to change their faith. There is scarcely a case on record where a religious persecution was so successfully carried out as that by which Buddhism was driven out of its place of birth.”

Taking this line of thought a step further, it is probable that as the Tharus fled persecution, they not only entered the Tarai jungle but that some also fled further north to the Valley of Kathmandu. There are several unanswered questions in the history of the Valley that could perhaps be explained if the Tharu element were to be introduced.

Fish Lovers
Of Manadeva, said to be the founder of the Licchhavi dynasty (464 AD), there is no suggestion that he was a Licchhavi. It was only 126 years later that his descendant Sivadeva I laid claim to Licchhavi lineage. And it is Sivadeva who had a charter inscribed in stone to the people of Tharu Drang (Tharu Village), which is the present-day village of Chapagaon in Lalitpur District. The inscription, which is to be found in Chapagaon today, reduces the tax to the people of Tharu Drang on different kinds of fish. Tharus, it need hardly be stated, are fish lovers to this day.

Historians Dilli Raman Regmi and Dhana Bajra Bajracharya went to great lengths to try and identify the different kinds of fish that are named in the inscription, such as Kastika, Mukta, Bhukundika and Rajagraba, Despite complicated semantic analysis, they failed to identify these alien names. A Tharu would have told them that Kastika is a fish that can be bought even today in the Indra Chowk market. The standard name of this fish is Gainchi, but in colloquial usage it is sometimes known as Kastika, a term which indicates that the fish does not spoil as easily as other fish.

They were unable to identify a fish named Bhukundika, because, again a Tharu would have told them, Bhukundika is not a fish. It is instead a clam-type slug which is found abundantly in Kathmandu Valley but shunned by the local population. Today, the Tharus who live in Kathmandu savour the slugs as a delicacy, although today they know it as Doka.

And what does the similarities of the Jyapu caste of Kathmandu Valley and the Tharu say of the origins of either group? The Jyapus use the kharpan, balancing two loads on a bamboo pole, as do the Tharu, who call their implement the baihinga. No other Valley community uses it but the Jyapu. Both Tharus and Jyapus relish beaten rice (chiura lo the Valley dwellers, also to Tharus). Jyapu and Tharu women use the okhal and musalo to beat rice, but this is not the case with the neighbouring communities of the Valley or Tarai. Jyapu women tattoo their upper heels, exactly as the Tharu women do.

Who are the Tharus, where do they come from, and what light can their history shed on the past of the Himalaya and South Asia as a whole? Some historical interest in the Tharus by scholars of today will shed some light on numerous nooks and crannies of the past. We will then gain better understanding about so many issues, from the days of the Sakyamuni, to the spread of populations along the Ganga and Tarai belt of today's India and Nepal, the populating of the Kathmandu Valley, and the reasons behind the backwardness of Tharus today. And with such understanding, hopefully, there will develop a greater appreciation of Tharu culture, which in turn will finally work to eliminate the social and political discrimination that this community faces in Nepal today.   

T.N. Panjiar worked in the National Planning Commission of Nepal.

Read the original article here.

How to cook elephant foot yam aka oal

Republished from ECS

As the month of Shrawan begins, you’ll see the cycle-wallah and other vegetable vendors selling a round object along with other regular vegetables. I’ve come across many people asking about this strange vegetable while buying the elephant foot yam, known as oal in the southern plains of Nepal. Oal is a very popular tuber in the terai, especially among vegetarians, because if cooked well, it tastes better than fish and meat delicacies. Also, its curry is a must-eat delicacy during the Jitiya festival celebrated widely in the terai.

What’s so special about this ugly-looking tuber? It can’t be eaten raw, and needs either lemon juice or curd paste, even when cooked, due to the oxalates present in it. However, it is a natural medicine for piles and many other illnesses like dysentery, vomiting, stomach ache, and asthma. It grows well in fallow land, as well, and doesn't need much water to grow.

So, how do you cook oal? It’s simple, but you’ll need to take care while cleaning and chopping it into pieces. You can either wear plastic gloves or apply a layer of oil to your palms to avoid the itching that can come while cleaning the tuber. Wash the tuber properly and scrape the outer layer with a knife. Then, either cut it into small cubes or slices as per your choice.

If you want to go for cubes, fry the chopped onions in ghee till they are brown, and then add the cubes and fry them together. Then, as you cook, add salt, turmeric powder, cumin, coriander, and chili powder and garlic paste. Add a bit of curd and water and cook on low heat. Once it is cooked, garnish it with coriander leaves.

However, if you want to go for slices, boil them and then drain the water from the slices. Then, fry the slices on both sides in ghee. As in the earlier case, fry chopped onions, and once they brown, add salt, turmeric powder, cumin, coriander, and chili powder and garlic paste to it. Now, add a bit of curd and water and make a thin gravy. As it starts boiling, dip the fried slices in it and let them soak the gravy. Once it gets cooked, garnish it with coriander leaves.

The oal curry can be served with rice or chapatis, but it tastes best when served with puffed rice. And if you want to avoid adding curd, add lemon juice to the oal curry at the end, before garnishing with coriander leaves.

So, next time you see a vegetable vendor selling this strange tuber, buy it and try cooking it for yourself. I’m sure you’ll love it!

A ray of hope for sickle cell patients

Pills (for representation purpose only). Image by Flickr user Me.  (CC BY 2.0)

The World Sickle Cell Awareness Awareness Day just passed by on 19 June. Since 2008, World Sickle Cell Awareness Day has been held annually, in order to help increase public knowledge and raise awareness of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and the struggles sufferers and their families go through.

In Nepal, Tharus, the fourth largest group in terms of population in Nepal, have a seven-fold lower prevalence of malaria than non-Tharus. Tharus have been living in the plains, which were infested with malaria for thousands of years.

Sickle cell has been found to be more prevalent in the malaria-affected areas, especially among Tharus, and the people with sickle-cell trait have been found to be more resistant to malaria.

Read: Sickle-Cell Disease Has Hit Nepal’s Tharu Indigenous Community Particularly Hard

Sickle-cell disease receives its name from the abnormally shaped red blood cells, like a sickle in appearance, that get stuck in the blood vessels. The disorder, which is inherited from parents, makes it difficult for the blood vessels to deliver oxygen to the body, causing intense pain and leading to complications like organ damage and stroke at times.

As the diagnosis and treatment of the disease is very expensive and not available at local health facilities in Nepal, many families have sold their land and properties to get treatment in neighboring India.

However, a new drug is supposed to provide a ray of hope to sickle cell patients. The new drug, called SelG1, has performed well in very early trials. Scientists claim that it has reduced episodes of sickle cell discomfort dilemmas by 45%. They additionally state that it seems safe and was well tolerated.

Read more.

Look for traditional knowledge if you’re not sure about something

There’s something special about traditional knowledge. Through countless trial and error our ancestors were able to find out the best way to maximise the good properties and minimise the bad properties of plants found in our surrounding.

Since it’s the season of growing grass peas in the terai, I’ll tell you about its wise use – how people cook it into a delicious dish and store it for future use.

Also the mango trees have started flowering in the terai. Within a month or two there will be plenty of green mangoes around and the parents will be asking their children not to consume too much green mangoes fearing the sore eyes. I’ll be talking about a home remedy to get rid of the sore eyes caused by eating green mangoes.

Khesari
Called khesari locally, grass peas are considered largely inedible due to a toxic component in it which may cause paralysis if consumed in excessive amount.

However, it has been a staple diet for the people of southern plains in eastern Nepal. They are easy to grow and can be eaten as green leafy vegetables or can be wrapped as biriya and stored for future use or used as lentils or besan (lentil flour) to cook pakoda (fritter or tempura).

The farmers broadcast-seed the grass peas together with linseed in standing rice crops one or two weeks before the rice harvest. The grass peas and linseed then grow on their own. They neither need irrigation nor further weeding due to their tolerance to drought and capability to withstand extreme temperatures.

Khesari has a special place in the Tharu cuisine either as leaf curry or dried biriya. They cook it together with brinjal and it tastes amazing. Here’s how to cook it.

Grass peas on sale at a local market in the southern plains of Nepal. Though the Lathyrus sativus is grown as a forage in Europe, it's considered a poor man's pigeon pea (rahar ko dal) in the terai and there's a belief that its prolonged use can cause paralysis. Called #khesari, the green vegetable is delicious! Here's the recipe: Cut khesari leaves into fine pieces, cut cuboid pieces of brinjal, get your spices to start with. Heat few spoonfuls of mustard oil, fry finely cut garlic, onion, ginger and chilly pieces. As the onion turns brown, add the brinjal pieces and fry them for a while. Then slowly add the green peas and cook for a while. As you cook the curry, add the spices (turmeric, chilly, coriander and cumin powder) and water and cook in slow heat. Eat the curry with rice but I prefer eating it with puffed rice. It tastes amazing! -------- #grasspeas #lathyrussativus #legumes #lentil #terai #Nepal #foodgasm #food #picoftheday #photooftheday #recipeoftheday #instalike

A post shared by Sanjib Chaudhary (@sankuchy) on Feb 15, 2017 at 5:22pm PST

Chhakarneri

While the whole world, Ayurveda in particular, consider Eclipta prostrata as a hair growth supporter, the Tharus in the Eastern Nepal use it for a totally different purpose.

(c) Shankar Chaudhary

Shankar Chaudhary from Sunsari writes, “When we were children and ate too many green mangoes during the months of Chaitra-Baishakh (March - April), it resulted into sore eyes just like conjunctivitis.”

“The old and learned men used to suggest us eating chhakarneri (Tharu name for Eclipta prostrata),” he adds. “In fact eating this herb cured the red eyes. A thick paste of this herb, applied to hair, thickens it, say the elders.”

Biriya – the delicious dry greens from Nepal’s southern plains

Have you heard about “biriya”? In southern plains of Nepal, this dry green vegetable, eaten during the rainy season, is quite popular. During the winter, women gather the green vegetables, wither them a bit, wrap them in black gram paste and let them dry. The dried biriya is stored in a dry place and used as an alternative vegetable during the rainy season when the green vegetables are scarce.

In the West they say "make hay when there is sunshine" and here in the southern plains of Nepal, the locals say "wrap and dry vegetables when they are found in abundance". They collect mustard leaves, broad leaf mustard and grass peas, let them wither a bit and wrap them with black gram flour paste. Drying them on sun makes "biriya", as they call locally, that is stored to be cooked during the rainy season when the green vegetables are scarce. The black gram paste gives a tangy taste to biriya and also works as a preservative. Plus it's a source of high protein. If you ask me personally, I like the mustard leaves biriya the most! Want a "biriya" recipe? DM me for details. ------- #biriya #wrappedgreens #grasspeas #broadleafmustard #mustard #terai #Nepal #Tharus #storing #savingforfuture #resilience #travelgram #traveldiary #instalike #instapic #picoftheday #photooftheday #instatravel #localtaste #curry #traditionalknowledge

A post shared by Sanjib Chaudhary (@sankuchy) on Feb 16, 2017 at 5:22pm PST

Looking at how it got the name ‘biriya’, I came across an interesting response from my friend Shubhashish Panigrahi from Odisha. Responding to my above Instagram post, he said, “Black gram is Biri in Odia. I know we are related.” 

And yes, when I see the Eastern Tharu and Odia languages, there are lot many similarities between the both. At least I have found many words with same roots. There’s some relationship between natives of Odisha and the Tharus of Nepal. Watch this space for more posts on the similarities!

Compiling typical and original Tharu words before they disappear

Tharu Welfare Society of Deukhuri, Dang is in the final stages of publishing a dictionary of western Tharu language.

Sanjib Chaudhary from the Voice of Tharus spoke with the team about the dictionary, its importance and how the team is working to complete the tedious task of collecting the peculiar Tharu words which are on the verge of vanishing.

Here are the excerpts of interviews with Uday Raj Aaley, the editor and resource person; Goma Kalathoki, the phonetic editor and Bal Govind Chaudhary, the coordinator of this task of compiling the dictionary.

Uday Raj Aaley

Voice of Tharus (VOT): Tell our readers about the Tharu dictionary and how you are collecting and compiling the Tharu words.

Uday Raj Aaley (URA): Language is the key symbol of identity and to preserve and develop a language, a dictionary is a must.

First of all, I would like to thank Tharu Welfare Society of Deukhuri, Dang and its board members for giving me the responsibility of an editor and resource person to compile this dictionary.

I am working in a team – Tharu scholars Sher Bahadur Chaudhari, Rajendra Prasad Chaudhari and Lilagambhir Tharu have been employed to collect Tharu words. Some words have been compiled from secondary sources such as books, epics, folk tales, magazines, newspapers, etc.

We have decided to include Tharu words of different genres in the dictionary. It comprises Deukhuriya and Dangoriya Tharu words which are spoken in different districts of western Nepal. The Tharus are rich in culture and they have many typical words for cultural and ritual activities.

It’s a great challenge because many typical and original Tharu words are disappearing day by day. The dictionary has archaic as well as new words which are popular and used in day to day life.


VOT: What is the scope of the dictionary? How many people do you want to reach with the publication of the dictionary?

URA: The trilingual dictionary – Tharu- English-Nepali – will help Tharu, Nepali and English speaking readers. There are dialects and some variations in the Tharu language spoken in different parts of Terai region in Nepal.

I think the dictionary will be helpful and valuable for Tharu people, scholars, researchers, teachers, students, trainers, textbook writers, journalists, language activists, social workers and those who want to study about Tharus and Tharu language.

At the same time, the dictionary will contribute to preserve Tharu language. The Tharu Welfare Society has networks with Tharu people and concerned departments. It will manage the distribution of the dictionary.

VOT: How do you think it will help the target audience that you have in mind?

URA: I have been doing research on Tharus of western Nepal. The loss of language harms the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country and the world as well.

Many of the languages spoken in Nepal are confined to their oral traditions. There is need to develop a policy to impart basic education in mother tongue. It is through his/her mother tongue that every human being first learns to formulate and express his/her ideas about himself/herself and the world.

The ‘one nation- one language’ policy was adopted during Rana and Panchayat periods in Nepal. After the reestablishment of democracy, ethnic organisations have been playing an active role in creating awareness about promoting and preserving their mother tongues including their cultural identities. There should be special provisions to indigenous peoples to retain their languages and cultures.

Different languages enhance different ways of expressing experiences, thoughts, feelings, and aesthetics. To impart knowledge through the medium of his/her own language first, where the dictionary is available, his/her own mother tongue can then be used creatively.

I think the state and the ethnic groups have obligation and are equally responsible to enable and retain their languages and cultures.

Goma Kalathoki

VOT: What are the difficulties did you face while transcribing the Tharu words into International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)?

Goma Kalathoki (GK): The Tharu dictionary which is going to be published is a great work for the Tharu community as well as other readers. I was employed as a phonetic editor by Uday Raj Aaley, the editor and resource person for the dictionary and Tharu Welfare Society to transcribe the compiled Tharu words. I am very much happy because I have tried to complete the task sincerely.

There are many difficulties and challenges in any work you do and I have faced difficulties doing this. I am a student of English and this opportunity has taught me the importance of language and its micro elements.

Tharu language does not have its own script. Devnagari script has been used throughout as written script for Tharu words. It should also be noted that Tharu language does not have all the sounds of the Nepali language. Therefore, some vowels and consonants of the Nepali language are omitted. This is followed by the phonetic transcription, transcribed Tharu word as it is pronounced. However, writing through the Devnagari script, we found that Devnagari lacks graphemes.

VOT: Did you find any peculiarity in the Tharu words? Can the Tharu words be compared with words from other languages?

GK: Tharu language is spoken by the Tharu people of Terai region in Nepal. The Tharus have their native words to speak. There are some variations in the Tharu language, but the root words are similar.

In Dang district, Deukhuriya and Dangoriya dialects are spoken. Tharu language of mid-western region, especially Deukhuri where I was born, has a different dialect which is influenced by Awadhi and Nepali because a few words are borrowed from them. A couple of years ago Tharu people used to speak their mother tongue naturally. Of course every language has some peculiarities and exceptions from the normal patterns. For instance, Deukhuriya Tharu say ‘neimaza’ and Dangoriya Tharu say ‘nimaza’ for ‘not good’.

New generations are using Nepali and English words in their conversation. Typical Tharu words are disappearing gradually. I think their native words should be preserved for future. The dictionary will preserve these words, but at the same we have to encourage new generation to speak their language in their daily life.

Bal Govind Chaudhary

VOT: Why and how did the idea of preparing a Tharu language dictionary come up?

Bal Govind Chaudhary (BGC):  Thank you for your question and giving an opportunity to share our work. First of all, I'm a responsible member of Tharu society and now secretary of Tharu Kalayankarini Sabha (Tharu Welfare Society) Deukhuri, Dang. As a secretary I would like to talk about some activities of Tharu Welfare Society. The Tharu Welfare Society has been working to promote language and culture. It has been publishing a quarterly journal named ‘Hamar Sanghariya’ (Our friend). To preserve and promote Tharu culture, it has been organising cultural programmes such as seminars and interaction programmes related to Tharu culture. It has also been organising cultural handicraft training to preserve age-old tradition.

From east to west, Tharus are divided into many groups according to their spoken language. eastern Tharu language is influenced by Maithaili, western Tharu language is influenced by Bhojpuri and Awadhi, and mid-western and far-western Tharu language is believed to be the original Tharu language but there are variations.

Nowadays, most of the Tharu words are disappearing. Because they use other language for communication to be civilised in the community (this is what they think!) so they are forgetting their own language. Terai is like a ‘melting pot’ and heterogeneous owing to the settlement of people migrating from hills and southern parts. Different kinds of people belonging to different caste and ethnic groups live in the Teari. Due to the diversity in settlement, Tharu language is at risk. Thus, it is necessary to preserve and promote it. And we ourselves are responsible for this.

At the same time, people want to know Tharu language for trade, politics, social works, communication and so on. They want to study about Tharu culture, their rites and rituals. Without a Tharu dictionary it seems to be difficult. There are not sufficient linguistic documents and supporting materials to study about Tharu culture. Because of lack of study materials, many languages are disappearing from the world. Tharu language is also at risk. So the idea of publishing a Tharu language dictionary came up.

VOT: Who are your target audience?

BGC: In my opinion, our target audiences are researchers, politicians, businessmen, teachers, social workers, personnel and students.

VOT: What is your next step after publishing the dictionary?

Team: After publishing the dictionary we have planned programmes to publish Tharu grammar, cultural documentary, newspaper, and research publications.

VOT: How do you plan to disseminate and share the learning of preparing the dictionary?

Team: We have planned to disseminate this dictionary through our networks, book sellers, and team members. And we have planned a ‘door to door dictionary campaign’.

‘Tharu’ identity is part of a political agenda which does not necessarily correspond to the local reality – Gisele Krauskopff

Gisele Krauskopff. Image from her Facebook page.

Gisele Krauskopff, one of the first few researchers to conduct fieldwork in the Tharu dominant Dang Valley, is not a new name among the researchers working in the Himalayan region.

Though most of her works have been published in French, ‘A Marshland Culture : Fishing and Trapping among a Farming People of the Tarai’ gives an overview of different fishing techniques used by the Tharus in the Dang Valley.

Sanjib Chaudhary from Voice of Tharus spoke with Gisele about her research work and publications. Here’s an excerpt of the interview.

Voice of Tharus (VOT): Welcome to Voice of Tharus. Your pioneering research on Tharus has helped the Tharus to be recognised internationally. Can you tell our readers about your research and the publications you have published till date?

Gisele Krauskopff (GK): I am surprised to discover that my researches ‘helped the Tharu to be recognised internationally’. I think they managed themselves to be recognised. I doubt that books published in French could have such an influence.

Moreover, I should like to emphasise the following point (see also next question): I did not work on ‘The Tharu’ but did a study in a predominantly inhabited Tharu village in Dang valley in Western Nepal. At that time, the 1980s, (except for very few educated one) they had no contact with other groups called ‘Tharu’. The outsiders called them ‘Dangaurya Tharu’. The farmers in my residential village did not travel much outside of the valley and even to the neighbouring Deokhuri Valley. They did not like to go to the bazaar.

However, at the beginning of the 1960, after the land reform, whole villages had migrated to ‘Buran’, that is the Far Western district of Terai, mainly in Bardiya district. My most recent publication (to appear in English very soon) is about the so called migratory practices of the Tharu farmers that I trace in historical documents (Nepalese archives but also British colonial archives of the 19th century during the border conflicts between Nepal and British India from 1802 onward) and with the help of my ethnographic work. I considered this the most valuable part of my work (with my PhD).

My PhD research had a different perspective. My field work was done in 1981-1985, and according to the dominant ethnological approach at this period, was based on a monograph of a village of Western Dang where I spent two years and revisited often: a monograph of the rituals as I observed then, in this village, in the company of my best friend and informant, a gurwa, who was called in many houses or villages to treat illnesses and other disorders.

I taped all the events (I plan to deposit these tapes in protected archives or hopefully an open database) and was helped for their translation by Ashok Chaudhary, from Hekuli village. I used these documents to deepen my knowledge of the rituals and of the language with my gurwa friend. I also worked a lot with the women. Being myself a woman, it was easier and the deep and affectionate relationship I built with women was very very important for my day to day life and the progress in the local language and understanding of the culture.

But already then I was much interested by history and the processes by which the Tharu social organisation in Dang was moulded through an agrarian system in which the political and agrarian authority was delegated by a ‘Hindu’ king (living in the hills) to Tharu local headmen who had a pivotal and very important role in the centralisation of the system at the local level.  Hence, I framed my ‘village’ study taking into account the larger territorial organisation of the Dang Valley, which was divided into several ‘rajya’ or parganna.

The main goal of my thesis and first book (Maitres et Possédés that I plan to translate and publish in English) was to demonstrate how the division between priestly clans and ‘client’ clans was rooted in this historical development and the history of subjection of the Tharu to hill kingdoms. This bipolar structure, extremely important in Dang, was not found in other area of Terai among other Tharu groups. It shows how the social and religious order that bounded the Dangaurya Tharu society at this time was locally rooted and inscribed in the agrarian and political history of the area. This local order is of course now part of history: the change brought by the transformation of Nepal in the last 25 years has changed the situation and local is no more local.

VOT: What is opinion about the Tharus? Did you find any clues on the origin of Tharus during your research?
 
GK: I have opinion on the human beings I met during my fieldwork, and very different ones, but none on ‘The Tharu’.

Even in the ‘Tharu’ village where I did my field researches, I met different kinds of ‘Tharu’, I mean: landless farmers, rich jimindar, educated fellows, illiterate people, women, men, kids and some villagers from other ethnic background.

In all my researches I have tried to deconstruct this category ‘the Tharu’ used as an ethnic, caste oriented, or racial category: many groups called Tharu have different social organisation, and some other groups differently called have very similar culture (as far as the lowlands of Assam). And inside any local communities, there are class distinctions (landless labourers, wealthy jimindar).

In the present political context of Nepal, ethnic groups have redefined themselves and ‘Tharu’ identity is part of a political agenda which does not necessarily correspond to the local reality I encountered in the past.

Concerning the ‘origin’ of the Tharu I suggest to read some of my English papers where I discussed this question which is political rhetoric. Since I do not know my own origin (I am French, have a German name, and was born in North Africa) but only the context (economic and social) in which I was educated, I do not know how I could propose a theory on the Tharu origin!

More seriously, considering my historical approach, origin has no meaning and looking for it postulates that a group could have existed from time immemorial without transformation. Each classificatory order, class or term is historically rooted and takes meaning in the context of its use. This is why when I wrote on this topic, I consider it as an historical narration to support a political agenda, in the past as in the present.

VOT: Can you cite any anecdote during your stay with the Tharus in Dang?
 
GK: I remember the beginning of my fieldwork in Dang during the rainy season. From January to June, I had travelled all over Western Tarai to find the right place to study. But finally I choose Dang Valley and started to settle there at the beginning of the rainy season.

Two images remain in my memory. Once I was crossing the Patu Khola River but could not fight against the current. Boulders were hurting my Western too soft feet and I could not walk in the water. Happily, a Tharu villager wearing his loin cloth and bare feet rushed to me, took my hand, and forced me to run to reach the bank of the river. You can easily imagine how even trained local people could die drowning in the rivers. 

The other image is of myself trying to reach the village: The paths were so muddy that I sank to the thighs in the mud. It was the only rainy season I spent in the Terai but it was worthwhile since most of the very interesting village rituals were done during this season. And in September, suddenly the sky opened and I discovered the beauty of this magnificent and rich valley covered with green rice fields. A fascinating and meaningful contrast!

VOT: You were again back in Dang for your research on Tharu masks? Can you tell our readers about it?
 
GK: I have never done researches on Tharu masks since I never saw any masks in Dang. But it seems that jokers intervening in some dances like the cokra dance could wear masks made by Tharu or sometimes by Magar people who settled in Dang.

VOT: During your research, you worked with many international and Nepali researchers. Can you share your experiences with us?
 
GK: Most of my research colleagues do not work on the Tharu but other topics in the Himalaya (see for instance the CEH web site, ‘Centre for Himalayan studies’ on my own laboratory in Paris Nanterre University, LESC.

VOT: Can you share with us link to your writings and publications?
 
GK: I have not yet posted my publications on Academia or other websites. More important for me is to translate my publications into English. Nevertheless, you can find some of the French ones published in journals on the internet (for instance Persee or revue.org, for French journals). You can also trace them through my name. For those published in collective books.  I plan to post them on Academia in close future.

VOT: What are your personal views about the Tharu? Do you have any advice for the young generation?
 
GK: I already answered this question: I have no personal view on ‘The Tharus’. Concerning the ‘young generation’ in Nepal in the global context, I am afraid by the consumering trend and think that emigration, particularly to the Gulf countries, will bring a big change.

Some Tharu do PhD some others are working in the Gulf countries, some remain farmers in the villages with less and less land to till, so their conditions and aspirations are different.

VOT: Are you continuing with your research and writing? Can you share with us your future plans?
 
GK: I am interested by other topics. Concerning my research on the Tharu, I am planning to publish my first book in English, and to translate some of my French papers (not all). It is possible also that I write a more personal account of my experience in a non-academic format.