Borders do not just divide countries, they also join them. And few international borders are like the one between Nepal and India. Although the line on the map demarcates two sovereign nations, there is a shared history, culture and tradition that transcend the modern boundary. Culture has its own history and geography. While the state is busy managing and defending its frontier, people on both sides live in a borderless reality. Actually, all international borders should be like the one between Nepal and India. The boundaries among most European nations were erased with the Schengen agreement, but Europe itself has a hard border with those who are not members of this treaty kept out by Fortress Europe. Even the US-Canada border is not as open as the one between Nepal and India.&nbsp; The border pillars in the Nepal Tarai pass through rivers, farmlands and even cut across households. This frontier cannot erase the geography, religion, culture and lifestyle of the communities that live on either side that share surnames and family ties.&nbsp; It is to celebrate this trans-boundary bond that an annual मिथिला परिक्रमा circumambulation of the Mithila region is held. Pilgrims on this circuit travelled 107km in Nepal and 23km in India on the full-moon day of Phagu on 7 March. They start at the birthplace of Sita in Janakpur to the sites associated with Ram in Bihar state. Rajwati Devi, 78, has been doing the holy circuit every year for the past 18 years. It is an honour to accompany Sita’s डोली on foot with song and dance by day, and taking designated night stops, she says. For thousands of pilgrims like Rajwati Devi, the border does not exist. There are many festivals and traditions that bind Nepal and India, but the Mithila Circuit is perhaps the most meaningful in bringing together the peoples of the two countries on either side. The Purnagiri Mela in India’s Uttarakhand state is similarly significant. It is only after pilgrims from India pay their respects at the Sidhha Baba temple in the border town of Mahendranagar in Nepal’s western Tarai that their religious observance is said to be complete. For centuries, this pilgrimage has happened in March-April between two auspicious full-moon days. The most important cross border festival is, of course, Shivaratri, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from India join those from various parts of Nepal to congregate at Pashupati temple in Kathmandu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230327120340_0bf3a83e49528d26440e837756f4ab8f3d727e1cdedf688fc40f173440ecb756.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20230327120340_0bf3a83e49528d26440e837756f4ab8f3d727e1cdedf688fc40f173440ecb756" data-rendition-name="original" width="2250" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal-india transboundary bonds 1"> <figcaption>A border pillar divides the village of Sirsiya of Parsa district in this view from India and Nepal. (Photo: Photo: Jiyalal Shah)</figcaption> </figure>  To be sure, every citizen has an attachment to their country. The importance of that sense of territorial belonging is not diminished by nationals of another country also sharing a link. Borders are geography, festivals like Mithila and Purnagiri are culture that has evolved organically over centuries before either of our nation states existed in their modern form.&nbsp; The Karatapur Gurudwara of the Sikhs fell on the Pakistan side of the border after partition in 1947. For the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak four years ago, India and Pakistan overcame bilateral tensions to form a pilgrimage corridor for India's Sikhs to visit the shrine.&nbsp; If even India and Pakistan could agree on a transboundary matter, there is a lot Kathmandu and New Delhi can do to better facilitate cultural and religious exchanges between the people of our borderlands.&nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/people-to-people-at-india-nepal-border">People-to-people at India-Nepal border</a> Despite the open border between India and Nepal, travel, trade and communication can be streamlined even more for the people living on both sides. But their voices are rarely heard in bilateral meetings between Indian and Nepali officials when they discuss more ‘serious’ matters like hydropower, air routes or energy trade. There is still lot to be done to improve crossborder ties.&nbsp; One of the areas that needs urgent attention is the preservation of archaeological sites on both sides of the border. Ruins of ancients towns and monuments need to be excavated, relics like coins, religious objects that hold significance to both countries have to be preserved. These artefacts provide proof of the cross-cultural ties that existed before an international border divided us. Archaeologist Ashok Kumar Sinha from Bihar says the Indo-Gangetic plains that Nepal and India share has been settled since early human history, and has as yet undocumented sites showing the origin and evolution of pre-Buddhist cultures. There is a lot more India and Nepal can do to cooperate in archaeology. So far, most archaeological excavations have been done separately and in a largely ad hoc manner. This is a pity since the sites being explored are from a period when the civilization spread across the current territory of the two countries.&nbsp; The Simraungad kingdom spanned present day Bihar-Nepal, as did Kapilvastu. Mounds and buried ruins from ancient times lie waiting to be discovered so that we can trace back the origin of the Indo-Gangetic civilisation and the religions that evolved here. These site are common to India and Nepal, there is no point arguing about ‘our’ and ‘their’ here. Ram Sharan Agrawal, 78, is an archaeologist in Bihar and a strong proponent of joint excavations of significant sites along the border. But given the wave of ultra-nationalism on both sides, this may not be immediately possible. But it is precisely to dismantle populist nationalism that we need to dig into our past to find the common culture that unites us. Perhaps Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s forthcoming visit to India could be a start.&nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/police-track-india-nepal-elephant-trafficking">Police track India-Nepal elephant trafficking</a>

Chandra Kishore

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Borderlines

Nepal-India trans-boundary bonds

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe11d19c7e80680e0da4f9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1366"/><figcaption>Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption></figure>No one in the Tarai remembers the winter fog being this dense and lasting so long. They are used to summer heat and sultry monsoons, but not a ground-hugging fog so thick that the sun does not shine for days, sometimes weeks.There is no specific meteorological English term for the Indo-Gangetic शीतलहर, a phenomenon in which cold winter air saturates moisture at ground level. In the old days, the sun used to burn off the mist by mid-morning. But the spread of winter irrigation increased water vapour, allowing droplets to condense on tiny suspended particles in the soot and smog.People burning straw and buffalo patties in smoky fires to stay warm increase air pollution, thickening the fog further. The sun does not get a chance to heat the ground and the fog lingers for days on end. The people of the lowlands are just not equipped to deal with these intense cold waves.This murky miasma of winter is emblematic of Nepal’s current purposeless politics, with the 7-party coalition struggling to survive domestic and external efforts to dismantle it. The NC-UML rivalry over who gets to be the next president on 9 March is holding governance hostage.The coalition calculus has implications for the plains: CK Raut’s Janamat and the Tharu-based Unmukti Party in the western Tarai are also in the 7-party coalition, but neither is happy with portfolios.The media reports on the fog as a one-off event, not as a worsening trend. People are dying of exposure, but it is blamed on old age. It is not the cold that kills them, but poverty. Like all calamities in this disaster-prone country, it is the poorest who die first, neglected by society and state.This year’s शीतलहर fog has not been as severe as 2022's, but it has lingered longer. And now that the winter is nearly over, the government and the media will again forget about this annual disaster till next year.The fog closes schools, it affects crops, disrupts transport, and increases the incidence of respiratory infections and road accidents. People need to turn on lights in the daytime.“Commerce grinds to a halt, factory production drops, workers report sick,” Madhesh Province chair of FNCCI Ganesh Lath told me one foggy afternoon when Birganj was colder than Kathmandu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe11d59c7e80680e0da4fajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="395" height="550"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The people of the Tarai have been on a two-month hibernation. With the mercury now rising, they are stirring awake, but as usual the hardships will be forgotten until next winter.There is not much we can do in the short-term, but precautions and relief measures that can be put in place.With weather extremes induced by the climate crisis, the fog is likely going to be thicker and last longer in coming winters. More than 52% of Nepal’s population lives in the Tarai, and many parts of the plains have a lower per capita income than corresponding regions to the north.An entrenched caste system and gender ostracisation means that the ‘lower’ castes and women bear the brunt of cold waves. Those affected by monsoon floods in Kailali were still in makeshift camps when the fog persisted this winter, many of their children have pneumonia.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe11d89c7e80680e0da4fbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Almost every household in Madhes Province has someone working in India, the Gulf or Malaysia. Many villages have only women, children and the elderly, and they are the ones most at risk from the cold. The men are usually seen huddled around smokey fires, while the women work outdoors or in smoky kitchens.The provincial and federal governments need to prepare a hazard map of the Tarai for next year’s winter, and declare certain areas disaster zones. This is a calamity affecting more people than landslides and floods in the mountains.The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology must have localised forecasts, and there must be cross border cooperation. The fog knows no boundary, and some weeks this winter, it stretched from Peshawar in Pakistan to Chittagong in Bangladesh right across the Indo-Gangetic plains.Waiting till next December will be too late to save lives. Urgent action needs political will, which is in short supply in the present government dysfunction.

Fogbound Tarai

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230208140216/63e3a0b79c7e80680e0d704djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="807"/>Nepal’s 2015 Constitution took two elections and more than a decade to write. Even then, it did not address a groundswell of identity consciousness and demands for autonomy.Some of these were overlapping claims for ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural and geographical belonging. During this sometimes-volatile process, the one factor that moderated the discord was the move towards inclusivity.There is a Maithili saying in Nepal’s plains “चले थे हरि भजन को, ओटन लागे कपास”. It means ‘No matter how lofty your goals, keep yourself busy with the small details.’Eight years after the Constitution was promulgated, and after the second elections under the federal system, we are still trying to make federalism work. It is a work-in-progress.It is not enough for Nepal to be declared a ‘federal’ republic. The essence of federalism is to include Nepalis who have historically been excluded in the political process. The people want devolution that grants their province autonomy to make their own decisions.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Analysis/how-decentralised-is-federalism,776">How decentralised is federalism?</a> Kiran NepalYet, even after the November 2022 elections in which a sizeable section of the electorate cast protest votes against established parties — and despite affirmative action provisions in the Constitution — provincial governments are anything but inclusive. All seven provinces recently nominated Chief Ministers, but where are the women? Where are the Dalits and the Indigenous people?The movers and shakers in the provinces already have access to the corridors of power at party headquarters in Kathmandu. It is the people at ground level, those kept out, and those without connections who want grassroots government.The process of putting together provincial governments directly reflects the wheeling dealing and patronage at the centre. This means governance will once more be a challenge, and without it there is no hope for the neglected and left-behind.It is not just the Madhes that needs federalism. Having an autonomous local government brings representatives closer to the people — no matter which province. Party cadre also get to practice the exercise of power and show accountability.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/feudal-federalism/">Feudal federalism</a>, EditorialBut by far the most important function of federalism is that it is effective in delivering appropriate and locally relevant development with accountability.But November’s election threw up people’s representatives who do not like federalism, and some who want to abolish it. One cannot just turn federalism on or off with the flick of a switch. It does not work like that.The exclusionists reject principles and ideas of devolving decision-making to local governments, and want a shortcut to political power for themselves and their cabal by trying to make a self-fulfilling prophecy that federalism is an expensive white elephant.Rejecting devolution is rejecting democracy. After all, democracy is not just a state governing mechanism, it is a social ideology, even a philosophy of national life.The Constitution has tried to put the country on track to true devolution to provinces, but dog-eat-dog politics has been derailing this exercise.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13361#.Y8yt4-xByrc">Ethnicity-based federalism?</a> Keshab Suryabansi MagarThis week is the anniversary of the Madhes Movement that allowed Nepal to move towards federalism. The second Movement was mediated by India, and in the third, it started showing who is boss.Indeed, India’s role in Nepal’s political evolution is hardly hidden. But lately, one sees a drop in interest in Madhesi sentiments not just in New Delhi but even in Patna or Lucknow.Recent political undercurrents are eroding the gains of the Madhes Movement. The relationship between Madhesi leaders and their electorate is being eroded fast, and unless there is new commitment to the cause, it could see a complete reversal.That is because there is now no relation between what is promised at election time and what is accomplished. An anti-incumbent wave is also sweeping the plains. Those who espoused extremist views, took up arms, or were separatists have decided that a middle political path is a better alternative.Those who used to be moderates have therefore had the rug pulled from under them. There is now only one kind of politics in the Tarai: one that reflects the interests and aspirations of citizens.Read  also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/safety-valve-politics/">Safety valve politics</a>, Chandra KishoreConservative forces are trying their best to roll back the gains of the Movement, and within the Madhes the big national parties are also elbowing their way into the fray. Both will ultimately undermine the Madhes agenda.What the Madhes wants is respect for its language and culture, genuine inclusiveness, sustainable development, streamlined access to state services. But the comforts of power have made Madhesi politicians status quo-ists, they are wallowing in the political muck of their own creation.In the coming decade, Madhesi politics is set to change. A new post-1990 generation is coming of age which has seen both struggle, and its futility. The new generation is aware of the factors keeping the region back, it has understood the geography of Nepal and the place of the plains in it.This new generation has a very clear idea about the political-economy of the borderlands. Their slogans are different, and so is the way they look at politics.The Nepali nation state is now at the crossroads. It cannot look back, it must forge a more progressive path ahead. For that, friends of federalism must work to make the provincial political structure deliver. And the pre-requisites are inclusiveness and good governance.Chandra Kishore is a Birganj-based political commentator. This is his second monthly column BORDERLINES in Nepali Times.  @kishore_chandra

Un-centralising the federal structure

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100132/63bfd47a9c7e80680e0d30aajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"/><figcaption>Photo: GOPEN RAI</figcaption></figure>Just as outmigration of Nepali youth is a safety valve that lets the government off the hook to find jobs for them at home and the money they send home is the country’s economic lifeline, this year’s elections served as a political safety valve.Economic frustration can easily turn into political unrest, and the election of various independent, excluded and previously outlawed individuals has helped release some socio-political tension.There were many ups and downs with implementation of the 2015 Constitution, but it did channel accumulated grievances through political representation for those left out in the past.To be sure, the established parties still hold sway. Proof of this was the election of Sher Bahadur Deuba as leader of the Nepali Congress (NC) parliamentary party, which paves the way for his sixth term as prime minister.But the elections in 2022 also allowed Nepali voters to vent their fury, and bring in the likes of Balen Shah in Kathmandu and Rabi Lamichhane in Chitwan.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/government-of-the-leaders-for-the-leaders-by-the-leaders/">Government of the leaders, for the leaders, by the leaders</a>, Shristi KarkiThe polls have even provided new political space for former Madhes separatist C K Raut, and for the indigenous Tharu community of the Tarai to carve a separate political identity for their Janamat Party.Just the presence of these personalities and parties will not be enough to bring meaningful change, but their representation is the first step in righting past wrongs.The Constitution may be flawed and incomplete, but it has recognised Nepal’s ethno-cultural diversity to a limited extent. There is a difference between diversity and division. Nepal’s ethnic, linguistic, and religious mosaic is in fact our nation’s social capital, our cultural wealth.The role of elected representatives now is not to try to meld, but manage this medley. Nepalis are now politically astute, and cannot be pushed around. The goal of the new Parliament must be to broaden this awareness so it translates into inclusive and equitable progress.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/caste-vote/">Caste vote</a>, Chandra KishoreDeuba defeated Gagan Thapa to lead the NC party by the vote count, but he lost at the moral level. Gagan has rightly gauged the national mood for generational change not just within the NC but in the other old parties. He has shown that internal party democracy is necessary to safeguard Nepal’s democracy.Unlike Deuba, there were no rivals for Pushpa Kamal Dahal and K P Oli from within their parties because they sidelined all potential adversaries long ago. But the Maoist and UML parties are already feeling the aftershocks of Gagan Thapa’s challenge to Deuba. Many young turks are thinking: if he can do it, so can we.The rise of the RSP and RPP in November elections also show that there is a socio-political churning afoot in Nepal. There is disenchantment in a section of the electorate with federalism, republicanism, and secularism — the three pillars of the 2015 Constitution.  The rout of Madhes-based parties which were at the forefront of the federalism struggle was a rude awakening.Nepal now needs a stable government that can deliver. But the NC needs support from smaller parties, which means more backroom deals. A NC-UML coalition, on the other hand, would make them too dominant and drown out new voices.The Nepali people in their wisdom have sent a strong message to the established parties: you may continue to be in power, but your days are numbered. Voters also reaffirmed their trust in the democratic system to give voice to those historically deprived of it, and the main parties will disregard this at their own peril.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-with-the-new-out-with-some-of-the-old/">In with the new, out with (some of) the old</a>, Anita BhetwalChandra Kishore is a Birganj-based political commentator. This is his second monthly column BORDERLINES in Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Safety valve politics

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710128/639058939c7e80680e0ce1adjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1947"/><figcaption>TIME FOR CHANGE: A rickshaw drives past Birganj's iconic clock tower on Thursday morning, as the plains districts bordering India prepare for a lacklustre elections. PHOTO: JIYA LAL</figcaption></figure>An election is a political process that allows citizens to select the most honest and efficient candidates to manage the country for a given period. It is also a public process that affects a nation’s social psychology.With days to go before the 20 November elections, party strategists, media pundits, and even strangers in buses are obsessed with the arithmetic of elections. This win-lose analysis distracts us from the social polarisation, communal friction and competition for natural resources that underlie the polls.Elections alone do not ensure democracy. Social media now provides unprecedented immediacy and amplification to manipulate public opinion.This election is a battle of two coalitions at the federal and provincial levels. Amidst the cacophony, young independents are trying to find a voice. The slogans have added a new vocabulary to the Nepali language and the country’s social ecosystem in an election devoid of ideology or agenda.Voter apathy is high because unholy alliances have turned yesterday’s foes into friends, and few candidates talk about their everyday concerns like jobs, inflation, education and health. Unlike previous elections, very few Nepalis working in India have returned home to vote.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dejected-voters-reject-polls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dejected voters reject polls</a>, Anita BhetwalMore than half of Nepal’s population now lives in the Tarai. And across the plains, there is little mention of the Madhes Movement for autonomy. The past five years have given the people of Madhes Province little to celebrate, as their leaders sway with the political wind to switch allegiances to Made-in-Kathmandu coalitions.The JSP and the LSP cannot rely on block votes from traditional loyalists in the plains anymore. So, the ballots could go to those who dole out cash, spread lavish feasts, or appeal to caste allegiance.Even though candidates are not directly using caste as a basis for votes, it is an unspoken strategy at the hustings. Even more than in previous elections, and just like in Bihar across the border, political parties are falling back on caste vote banks because of the absence of party ideology. Political analysts have to factor in caste in poll forecasts.Because the coalitions are not fighting about principles and livelihoods, the real competition is more about caste and cash than in previous elections in the Tarai. Raising the caste issue allows candidates to mask their incompetence and duplicity.Even though traditional politicians are relying on caste, feasts of rice and raksi, or handouts for votes, there is an undercurrent of deep disillusionment – especially among younger voters here.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/voters-cynical-about-electoral-alliances/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Voters cynical about electoral alliances</a>, Namrata SharmaI ran into 80-year-old Digambar Chaudhari in Rautahat who has seen many elections in his time. He told me: “The caste vote banks are not as solid as before, not everyone can be bought with cash.”At a tea shop in Siraha, I heard a catchy election slogan: “जातपर न भातपर ,मोहर लगाऊ विकासके बातपर” (Vote for development, not for caste or rice curry). In another roadside stall, we heard “पैसा, सेकुआ आउर दारू, इसबके मारी झाड” (Let’s sweep away all cash, roast meat, and booze).Manju Bhattarai, 36, sees the election as an opportunity to reject candidates who are buying votes: “We can change things by being responsible voters.”We do not know if these four vignettes represent the larger Tarai picture, but conscious voters are determined to make their ballots count. Politics usually impacts the social structure of a society, but we may be seeing a changed social milieu affecting politics this time.Watching door-to-door campaigning in these borderland towns, I noticed voters were not as passive as before. They engaged directly with candidates, cross-questioning them. Some were Dalits who earlier would have assured a party middleman of their community’s votes in return for cash or food.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/depending-on-independents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Depending on independents</a>, Shristi KarkiMany voters, especially from poor and marginalised communities, are not just listening anymore. They are asking candidates how they plan to fulfill their promises to improve their lives in the coming five years.Chandra Kishore is a Birganj-based political commentator. This is the first of his monthly column BODERLINES in Nepali Times. @kishore_chandra

Caste Vote

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