The turmoil in the tarai in the past month has been led, among others, by militant parties that used to be part of the larger Maoist fraternity whose demands included ethnically defined sub-national federal governance.
While the operational contours of ethnically-based federalism have never been accurately laid out by its political or academic protagonists, particularly in Nepal's context of a multitude of caste and ethnic groups living mostly in mixed settlements, it is nonetheless flaunted as a political tool to emotively persuade those who would be persuaded by it. The political parties, which had free rein over the country after 1990, did next to nothing to address the known grievances of various ethnic groups. But now they have suddenly found it opportune to raise the issue of discrimination against the madhes.
Like other ethnic groups the madhesis are far from being a homogenous group and are probably the most stratified in the country. There is unequal land distribution, pronounced landlessness, caste segregation, inter-caste exploitation and uneven distribution of political power based on caste and economic status. In fact, madhesi jamindars have more in common with pahadi jamindars than between, say, the madhesi elite and the Paswans or Musahars. The dalit struggle for rights in the tarai in many ways supercedes the madhesi struggle for automony.
Despite claims to the contrary, representation of madhesi people in the bureaucracy is at an all-time high and is higher than those enjoyed by other ethnic and geographical groups such as the Tharus, Tamangs, Karnali people and not to mention Chepang, Danuwar, Thami, Hayu, and so on.