NepalCaste and Ethnicity
Ethnic Groups
Figure 7. Nepal: Distribution of Principal Ethnic Groups, 1990
Nepalese society was ethnically diverse and complex in
the
early 1990s, ranging in phenotype (physical
characteristics) and
culture from the Indian to the Tibetan. Except for the
sizable
population of those of Indian birth or ancestry
concentrated in the
Tarai bordering India, the varied ethnic groups had
evolved into
distinct patterns over time.
Political scientists Joshi and Rose broadly classify
the
Nepalese population into three major ethnic groups in
terms of
their origin: Indo-Nepalese, Tibeto-Nepalese, and
indigenous
Nepalese. In the case of the first two groups, the
direction if
their migration and Nepal's landscapes appeared to have
led to
their vertical distribution; most ethnic groups were found
at
particular altitudes. The first group, comprising those of
Indo-
Nepalese origin, inhabited the more fertile lower hills,
river
valleys, and Tarai plains. The second major group
consisted of
communities of Tibeto-Mongol origin occupying the higher
hills from
the west to the east. The third and much smaller group
comprised a
number of tribal communities, such as the Tharus and the
Dhimals of
the Tarai; they may be remnants of indigenous communities
whose
habitation predates the advent of Indo-Nepalese and
Tibeto-Mongol
elements.
Even though Indo-Nepalese migrants were latecomers to
Nepal
relative to the migrants from the north, they have come to
dominate
the country not only numerically, but also socially,
politically,
and economically. They managed to achieve early dominance
over the
native and northern migrant populations, largely because
of the
superior formal educational and technological systems they
brought
with them. Consequently, their overall domination has had
tremendous significance in terms of ethnic power
structure.
Within the Indo-Nepalese group, at least two distinct
categories can be discerned. The first category includes
those who
fled India and moved to the safe sanctuaries of the Nepal
hills
several hundred years ago, in the wake of the Muslim
invasions of
northern India. The hill group of Indian origin primarily
was
composed of descendants of high-caste Hindu families.
According to
Joshi and Rose, "These families, mostly of Brahman and
Kshatriya
status, have spread through the whole of Nepal with the
exception
of the areas immediately adjacent to the northern border.
They
usually constitute a significant portion of the local
elites and
are frequently the largest landowners in an area." This
segment of
the Indo-Nepalese population, at the apex of which stands
the
nation's royal family, has played the most dominant role
in the
country. Other ethnic groups, including those of Indian
origin that
settled in the Tarai, have been peripheral to the
political power
structure.
The second group of Indo-Nepalese migrants includes the
inhabitants of the Tarai. Many of them are relatively
recent
migrants, who were encouraged by the government of Nepal
or its
agents to move into the Tarai for settlement during the
nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. In the early 1990s, this
group
mostly consisted of landless tenants and peasants from
northern
India's border states of Bihar and Bengal. Some of these
Indian
migrants later became large landowners.
The north Indian antecedents of a number of caste
groups in the
hills (that is, the first group of Indo-Nepalese
migrants), which,
in the early 1990s, made up more than 50 percent of the
total
population, are evident in their language, religion,
social
organization, and physical appearance. All of these
features,
however, have been modified in the Nepalese environment.
These
groups--several castes of Brahmans, the high-ranking
Thakuri and
Chhetri (the Nepalese derivative of the Kshatriya) castes,
and an
untouchable category--generally are classified as Pahari,
or
Parbate. However, in most parts of Nepal (except in the
Tarai), the
term pahari has only a limited use in that the
Paharis
generally are known by their individual caste names
(see Caste and Ethnicity
, this ch.).
Nepali, the native tongue of the Paharis and the
national
language of Nepal, is closely related to, but by no means
identical
with, Hindi. Both are rooted in Sanskrit. The Hinduism of
the
Pahari has been influenced by Buddhism and indigenous folk
belief.
The Paharis' caste system was neither as elaborately
graded nor as
all embracing in its sanctions as that of the Indians;
physically,
many of the Paharis showed the results of racial
intermixture with
the various Mongoloid groups of the region. Similarly, the
Bhote or
Bhotia groups inhabiting the foothills of the
Himalayas--among whom
the Sherpas have attracted the most attention in the
mountaineering
world--have developed regional distinctions among
themselves,
although clearly related physically as well as culturally
to the
Tibetans. The term Bhote literally means inhabitant
of Bhot,
a Sanskrit term for the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal,
or the
Tibetan region. However, Bhote is also a generic
term, often
applied to people of Tibetan culture or Mongoloid
phenotype. As
used by the Paharis and the Newars, it often had a
pejorative
connotation and could be applied to any non-Hindu of
Mongoloid
appearance.
An extraordinarily complex terrain also affected the
geographic
distribution and interaction among various ethnic groups
(see
fig. 7). Within the general latitudinal sorting of
Indo-Nepalese (lower
hills) and Tibeto-Nepalese (higher hills and mountains)
groups,
there was a lateral (longitudinal) pattern, in which
various ethnic
populations were concentrated in specific geographic
pockets. The
deeply cut valleys and high ridges tended to divide ethnic
groups
into many small, relatively isolated, and more or less
self-
contained communities. This pattern was especially
prominent among
the Tibeto-Nepalese population. For example, the Bhote
group was
found in the far north, trans-Himalayan section of the
Mountain
Region, close to the Tibetan border. The Sherpas, a
subgroup within
the Bhote, were concentrated in the northeast, around the
Mount
Everest area. To the south of their areas were other
Tibeto-
Nepalese ethnic groups--the Gurung in the west-central
hills and
the Tamang and Rai in the east-central hills--particularly
close to
and east of the Kathmandu Valley. The Magar group, found
largely in
the central hills, was much more widely distributed than
the
Gurung, Tamang, and Rai. In the areas occupied by the
Limbu and Rai
peoples, the Limbu domain was located farther east in the
hills,
just beyond the Rai zone. The Tharu group was found in the
Tarai,
and the Paharis were scattered throughout Nepal. Newars
largely
were concentrated in the Kathmandu Valley. However,
because of
their past migration as traders and merchants, they also
were found
in virtually all the market centers, especially in the
hills, and
as far away as Lhasa in Tibet.
This geographically concentrated ethnic distribution
pattern
generally remained in effect in the early 1990s, despite a
trend
toward increasing spatial mobility and relocating ethnic
populations. For example, a large number of Bhotes (also
called
Mananges from the Manang District) in the central section
of the
Mountain Region, Tamangs, and Sherpas have moved to the
Kathmandu
Valley. Similarly, Thakalis from the Mustang District
adjacent to
Manang have moved to Pokhara, a major urban center in the
hills
about 160 kilometers west of Kathmandu, and to Butawal and
Siddhartha Nagar, two important urban areas in the central
part of
the Tarai, directly south of Pokhara. Gurungs, Magars, and
Rais
also have become increasingly dispersed.
Most of the Indo-Nepalese peoples--both Paharis and
Tarai
dwellers (commonly known among the Paharis as
madhesis,
meaning midlanders)--were primarily agriculturalists,
although a
majority of them also relied on other activities to
produce
supplementary income. They generally raised some farm
animals,
particularly water buffalo, cows, goats, and sheep, for
domestic
purposes. The Paharis traditionally have occupied the vast
majority
of civil service positions. As a result, they have managed
to
dominate and to control Nepal's bureaucracy to their
advantage. It
was not until the 1980s that a prime minister came from
the non-
Pahari segment of the population. Despite some loosening
of the
total Pahari domination of the bureaucracy in recent
years, a 1991
newspaper report, summarized in the Nepal Press
Digest,
revealed that 80 percent of the posts in the civil
service, the
army, and the police still were held by the Brahmans and
Chhetris
of the hills, who comprised less than 50 percent of the
population;
13 percent were held by Kathmandu Valley Newars, whose
share of the
total population was merely 3 percent. The report added
that even
in 1991, the eleven-member Council of Ministers in 1991
had six
Brahmans and three Newars. Furthermore, six of the
nine-member
Constitution Recommendation Commission, which drafted the
new
constitution in 1990, were hill Brahmans
(see The Constitution of 1990
, ch. 4). In spite of the increasing number of Newars
holding
government jobs, they traditionally were recognized as a
commercial
merchant and handicraft class. It was no exaggeration that
they
historically have been the prime agents of Nepalese
culture and
art. A significant number of them also were engaged in
farming. In
that sense, they can be described as agro-commercialists.
Most of the Tibeto-Nepalese groups traditionally could
be
considered agro-pastoralists. Because their physical
environment
offered only limited land and agricultural possibilities,
the
Tibeto-Nepalese groups who occupied the high mountainous
areas,
such as the Bhote and particularly the Sherpa, were almost
forced
to rely more on herding and pastoral activities than on
crop
farming. They also participated in seasonal trading
activity to
supplement their income and food supply. However, those
peoples
inhabiting the medium and low hills south of the high
mountains--
particularly the Gurung, Magar, Tamang, Rai, and Limbu
groups--
depended on farming and herding in relatively equal
amounts because
their environment was relatively more suitable for
agriculture.
Among these groups, the Gurung, Magar, and Rai
historically have
supplied the bulk of the famous
Gurkha (see Glossary)
contingents
to the British and Indian armies, although their ranks
have been
augmented from the Thakuri and Chhetri castes of the
Indo-Nepalese
Paharis
(see Origins of the Legendary Gurkha
, ch. 5). The
term
Gurkha was derived from the name of the former
principality
of Gorkha, about seventy kilometers west of Kathmandu, and
was not
an ethnic designation.
Data as of September 1991
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