One arm stretched out into the air, with his hand decisively clamped into a fist, and a winning grin on his face, I was—as I for the first time set foot in the Tarai—greeted with a roaring ‘Jai Madhes’ by Randhir ji, a human rights defender by profession, and host, local guide, and cultural gatekeeper during my visit to Janakpur. The semi-jesting, semi-solemn gesture of Madhesi pride was to become the iconic symbol of my first trip to the Madhes.

Cultural cornucopia

After finishing my bachelor’s degree in my home country, the Netherlands, I flew to Kathmandu to commence an internship at the Nepal Madhes Foundation (Nemaf), an NGO. In anticipation of the upcoming work, I assigned myself a brief reading list, which included Battles of the New Republic by Prashant Jha, The Bullet and the Ballot Box: The Story of Nepal’s Maoist Revolution by Aditya Adhikari, and Madheshi Uprising: The Resurgence of Ethnicity by Kalyan Bhakta Mathema. Having familiarised myself with the political landscape of Nepal, the mosaic of ethnic communities, and the most recent historical developments, it was at last time to refine my inquiry, shift its focus, and immerse myself into the culture of the Madhesis—and what way would be better than to go to the Madhes and talk to Madhesis?

After the initial trepidations that come with meeting a six-foot-tall, light-skinned, English-speaking foreigner have subsided, the Madhesis make for warm, hospitable, and lively company. Dancing my way to a Maithili wedding, where I was privileged to witness the theatrical nagin dance, overindulging in a somewhat shameful amount of laddu, and being poked fun at for bungling just about every social custom possible, I ended my first day in the Tarai on a high. One of the joys of the Madhes is that you will never grow tired of people-watching. I was in for a treat: a conflagration of saris, each more distinctly patterned than the last; folks walking barefoot on stony roads (one dressed as Hanuman, another with plastic flowers on his head) for the last day of the pilgrimage in Janakpur; a bearded sadhu nonchalantly cycling by sharing his seat with three monkeys in the front enjoying the breeze; women with possessions atop their head defying gravity—in short, a cultural extravaganza.

New Nepal

While the backdrop of the wedding, the pilgrimage and later Holi made for a laidback, amusing, and sometimes exuberant atmosphere, my company—admittedly predominantly human rights defenders, activists, and NGO personnel—proved eager to answer any and all questions and the transition from light-hearted anecdotes to more contentious topics proved exceedingly fluid. Knee-slapping stories were quickly followed by passionate, and at times unnerving, accounts of the Madhesi treatment in Nepal, the merits of federalism, the iniquity and discriminatory implementation of state policies, and the resilience and robustness of the ever-present caste system.

As is often the case when conversing in a second or third tongue, graphics of body language prevail where words fail to bridge the gaps in understanding. My Madhesi companions proved no exception to this rule and the vigour, vitality, and sheer energy of their gesticulation succeeded to communicate what words could not say—that is, a temperamental Madhesi nationalism widely resonating through themes of repressive subjugation, social erosion, political exclusion, and economic deprivation.

Prior to having visited the Tarai, my stances on many of the contentious political issues of Nepal were motivated by what I believed to be objective and rational cost-benefit analyses. In this vein, persisting to speak local dialects over one national language seemed to me a roadblock to social cohesion, a burden on the economy and anathema to a meritocratic system of governance. Similarly, far-reaching federalism, with substantive power decentralisation, appeared detrimental to long-term economic growth and unfavourable to the future of Nepal. I shall be the first to admit the narrow-mindedness of my initial assessment. A nation’s wealth is not adequately reflected by the level of its GDP and its development is not synonymous with economic growth. Two-hundred and forty years of exclusion, marginalisation, and deprivation cannot be shoved under the rug of modernisation, and the empowerment of—among other previously side-lined groups—Madhesis should not have to make way for the vision of a ‘New Nepal’; rather, they should stand at its core.

Back in Kathmandu, I find myself reminiscing on my trip to the Madhes and as I jot down the events and happenings of the past few days, two words persist to triumphantly echo and linger on:  ‘Jai Madhes’.

Fatti, a graduate of University College Utrecht in the Netherlands, is currently interning at the Nepal Madhes Foundation