Interdisciplinary Research
Locating Nepalese Mobility: A Historical Reappraisal with Reference to North East India, Burma and Tibet
Gaurab K. C.- Pranab Kharel
Published 2018-11-30
Keywords
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How to Cite
K. C., G., & Kharel, P. (2018). Locating Nepalese Mobility: A Historical Reappraisal with Reference to North East India, Burma and Tibet. Kathmandu School of Law Review, 6(2), 87–104. Retrieved from https://kslreview.org/index.php/kslr/article/view/208
Abstract
Most literature published on migration in Nepal makes the point of reference from 19th century by stressing the Lahure culture - confining the trend’s history centering itself on the 200 years of Nepali men serving in British imperial army. However, the larger story of those non-military and non-janajati (ethnic) Nepali pilgrimages, pastoralists, cultivators and tradesmen who domiciled themselves in Burma, North East India and Tibet has not been well documented in the mobility studies and is least entertained in the popular imagination. Therefore, this paper attempts to catalog this often neglected outmigration trajectory of Nepalis. Migrants venturing into Burma and North East India consist of an inclusive nature as the imperial army saw the overwhelming presence of hill janajatis in their ranks whereas Brahmins (popularly known as Bahuns) and Chettris were largely self-employed in dairy farming and animal husbandry. In tracing out the mobility of Nepalis to North East, Burma and Tibet it can be argued that the migrating population took various forms such as wanderers (later they became settlers), mercantilist, laborers, mercenary soldiers, and those settlers finally forced to become returnees. In this connection, documenting lived experiences of the living members or their ancestors is of paramount importance before the memory crosses the Rubicon.
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References
1. The authors do not cite any relevant source to prove where and how the term Lahure came into being and rely on hearsay that it was first used for men serving in the army of Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh. Singh had a camp in the city of Lahore (presently in Pakistan) and the term Lahure is believed to have come from it.
2. David Seddon, Jagannath Adhikari & Ganesh Gurung, The New Lahures: Foreign Employment and remittance Economy of Nepal, Nepal Institute of Development Studies, Kathmandu, 2001, pp. xx-xxv.
3. British recruited some of the ethnic groups from Nepal like Rai, Magar, Gurung and Pun in their army considering them as a ‘martial race’. These people were called Gurkhas and were recruited in various countries as mercenary soldiers. Later the term was so popular that every Nepalis residing in North East and Burma were perceived and called Gurkhas. Back in Nepal they were also known as Lahures.
4. The accepted word for the English term ethnic/ethnicity in Nepali is janajati. This refers to certain stock of groups claiming to have Mongoloid origin and claim to have originated in the Hills of Nepal. They have distinct language and culture.
5. Ravinder Kaur, 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants of Delhi, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 1-41.
6. Ibid.
7. However, the authors did not undertake field visits to these destinations owing to the constraint of time and resource.
8. Tanka B. Subba & A.C. Sinha (eds). Nepali Diaspora In A Globalized Era, Routledge, New Delhi, 2016.
9. AC Sinha & Tanka B. Subba (eds). The Nepalis in Northeast India: A Community in Search of Indian Identity, Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2004.
10. Khemraj Sharma, The Nepalis of North Eastern Frontier of India, Abhijeet Publications, New Delhi, 2012.
11. Kesar Lall, The Newar Merchants in Lhasa, Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu, 2001.
12. Kamal Tuladhar, Caravan to Lhasa:Newar Merchants of Kathmandu in Traditional Tibet, Tuladhar Family, Kathmandu, 2004.
13. Corneille Jest, The Newar Merchant Community in Tibet: An Interface of Newar and Tibetan Cultures-A Century of Trans Himalayan Trade and Recent Developments, in Gerard Toffin( ed), Nepal: Past and Present, Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New Delhi, 1990, pp. 159-168.
14. Tirtha P. Mishra, ‘Nepalese in Tibet: A Case study of Nepalese Half-Breeds’,vol.30, Journal of Contribution to Nepalese Studies, 2003, pp. 1-18.
15. Tina Harris, Geographical Diversions: Tibetean Trade, Global Transcations, University of Georgia Press, Athens. 2013.
16. Triratna Manandhar, ‘Crisis with Tibet (1883-84)’, vol.3, Voice of History, 1977, p.7.
17. While Newars from Kathmandu played an influential role in Lasha, there were other trading communities residing in the mountain region of Nepal such as Thakalis who had received monopoly to trade goods such as salt on behalf of the Nepali state. However, transactional relationship existed between different cultural groups living on either side of the border.
18. H Tuladhar, (n 12), p.13.
19. Interview with Kamal Tuladhar at Kantipur Publications Premises, Thapathali, Kathmandu on 22 June, 2018. Tuladhar is one of our major informant who is the son of Karuna Ratna Tuladhar a popular tradesmen in Tibet.
20. Jest (n 13), pp. 159-168.
21. Mishra (n 14), pp. 1-18.
22. Kesar Lall, The Newar Merchants in Lhasa, Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu, 2001, pp. i-iv.
23. Ramesh Kumar Dhungel, ‘Nepal-Tibet Cultural Relations and the Zhva-Dmar-Pa (Shyamarpa) Lamas of Tibet’, vol. 26, Journal of Contribution to Nepalese Studies, 1999, pp. 183-210.
24. Ludwig F. Stiller, The Rise of the House of Gorkha, Human Resources Development Research Center, Kathmandu, 1995, p.16.
25. Mishra (n 14); Jest (n 13).
26. Harris (n 15).
27. Tuladhar stressed on the fact that it was not gold rather silver that dominated the trade.
28. The information on the routes was provided by the three of our informants used in the Burma section. According to the informants, their grandfathers had reached Burma via Calcutta through ship.
29. Tejimala Gurung, ‘Human Movement and the Colonial State: The Nepalis of Northeast India Under the British Empire’, in A.C. Sinha & Tanka B. Subba (eds),The Nepalis in Northeast India: A Community in Search of Indian Identity, Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2003, pp. 172-183; Tejimala Gurung, ‘Gurkha Displacement from Burma in 1942’, in Tanka B. Subba and A.C. Sinha (eds), Nepali Diaspora: In a Globalized Era, Routledge, New Delhi, 2016, pp.203-320.
30. The immigrants themselves are considered to be ethnic outside, here we need to catagorize bahun/chhetri vs janajati.
31. Interview with Dilli Ram Sharma, 18 June, 2018. (Sharma is an assistant CEO at Nepal Bank based at Kathmandu. He is a returnee from Burma. Sharma’s younger brother, who still lives in Burma, is married to a daughter of high ranking Burmese military officer.) 32. Dilli Ram could not ascertain the date of his grandfather’s travel to Burma.
33. It is a measurement unit used for majoring land in the Tarai belt of Nepal. One bigha is equal to 6772.41 square meters.
34. Gurung, (n 29) p. 203.
35. Sushma Joshi, ‘The Religious Life of The Gorkhalis of Myanmar’, in David N. Gellner & Sondra L. Hausner (eds), Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture and Community in a New and Old Diaspora, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2018, pp. 80-102.
36. In her ethnographic account Joshi presents the statistics by relying on a punjabi informant. She, however, does not take the effort of corroborating her informant’s statistics with relevant government or other sources.
37. Prakash Chandra Thakur, ‘Nepalese in Burma’, vol.12, no. 4, Vashuda, 1969, pp.7-11.
38. Kumar Karki, Jeevan Sangharsha, Media Service Nepal, Kathmandu, 2074 B.S.
39. Thakur, (n 37), p.7.
40. Sharma (n 10).
41. Gunnar Haaland, ‘Cultural Landscape and Migration’, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, vol.4, 2010, pp. 99-110.
42. Ibid. (English translation).
43. Currently the Far West in province number 7 while Midwest is province no 5 and Eastern Nepal is Province 1.
44. Interviews with Sharma, Subedi and Adhikari was carried out on June 18, 2018 in the office (Nepal Bank) of Sharma.
45. Even though the respondent claims that they were provided with four bigha of land, none of the reports on resettlement make a mention of the total number of land allotted or the number of families who received it. But there is a mention that lands were allotted.
46. Gunnar Halland, ‘Explaining Causes in Evolving Contexts: From Nepali Hill Farmers to Business Managers in Thailand’, in B. Walters & B. McCay(eds), Against the Tides.Festschrift to Professor Andrew Vayda, Alta Mira Press, Lanham, 2008, pp. 33-55.
47. Anil Sakya, ‘Creating Nepali Ethno escapes in Thailand, 2019’, in David N. Gellner & Sondra L. Hausner (eds), Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture and Community in a New and Old Diaspora, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2019, pp.103-136.
48. E.V.Gangadharam & P. H Stauffer, ‘Tektites from Burma? A suspected new tektite locality in Southeast Asia’, vol.4, Newsletter of the Geological Society of Malaysia, 1978, p.13.
49. Sharma (n 10).
50. Susan Thieme, Social Networks and Migration: Far West Nepalese Migrants in Delhi, NCCR North South dialogue, Bern, 2006.
51. Based on the conversation with Shreekrishna Anirudh Gautam on June 19, 2018 in Baudha, Kathmandu. Gautam has family members in the North East India who went there following the change of 1950. He and his kin members maintain back and forth relation.
52. Gurung (n 29), p.178.
53. Anna is a unit of exchange relating to commodities. This unit is no longer in usage at the moment.
54. Sanjib Kumar Chetry, ‘Nepalis in Assam: A Historical Perspective (1816-1985)’, vol.3, no. 3, Research Journal of Language, Literature and Humanities, 2016, pp. 22-25.
55. Lopita Nath, ‘Migration, Insecurity and Identity: The Nepali Dairymen in India’s Northeast’, vol.7, no. 2, Asian Ethnicity Journal, 2006, pp. 129-148.
56. Ibid.
57. Sharma (n 10).
58. Srikant Dutt, ‘Migration and Development- The Nepalese in North East’, vol. 16,no. 24, Economic and Political Weekly, 1981, pp. 1053-1055 59. Sharma (n 10).
60. Harris (n 15) p.12.
61. Ibid.
62. Dor Bahadur Bista, ‘Nepalis in Tibet’, in James F. Fisher (ed), Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetian Interface, 1978, pp. 187-204.
63. Harris (n 15).
64. Janak Raj Sapkota, Nepali Upanyasma Basaisarai: Dukhha Dekhi Dukhha Samma, Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility and Himal Kitab, Kathmandu, 2018.
65. Gaurab KC, Kamaune: The Cultural and Economic Imaginaries of Migration, Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility, Social Science Baha, Kathmandu, 2014.
66. Thakur, (n 37), p.10.
2. David Seddon, Jagannath Adhikari & Ganesh Gurung, The New Lahures: Foreign Employment and remittance Economy of Nepal, Nepal Institute of Development Studies, Kathmandu, 2001, pp. xx-xxv.
3. British recruited some of the ethnic groups from Nepal like Rai, Magar, Gurung and Pun in their army considering them as a ‘martial race’. These people were called Gurkhas and were recruited in various countries as mercenary soldiers. Later the term was so popular that every Nepalis residing in North East and Burma were perceived and called Gurkhas. Back in Nepal they were also known as Lahures.
4. The accepted word for the English term ethnic/ethnicity in Nepali is janajati. This refers to certain stock of groups claiming to have Mongoloid origin and claim to have originated in the Hills of Nepal. They have distinct language and culture.
5. Ravinder Kaur, 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants of Delhi, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 1-41.
6. Ibid.
7. However, the authors did not undertake field visits to these destinations owing to the constraint of time and resource.
8. Tanka B. Subba & A.C. Sinha (eds). Nepali Diaspora In A Globalized Era, Routledge, New Delhi, 2016.
9. AC Sinha & Tanka B. Subba (eds). The Nepalis in Northeast India: A Community in Search of Indian Identity, Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2004.
10. Khemraj Sharma, The Nepalis of North Eastern Frontier of India, Abhijeet Publications, New Delhi, 2012.
11. Kesar Lall, The Newar Merchants in Lhasa, Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu, 2001.
12. Kamal Tuladhar, Caravan to Lhasa:Newar Merchants of Kathmandu in Traditional Tibet, Tuladhar Family, Kathmandu, 2004.
13. Corneille Jest, The Newar Merchant Community in Tibet: An Interface of Newar and Tibetan Cultures-A Century of Trans Himalayan Trade and Recent Developments, in Gerard Toffin( ed), Nepal: Past and Present, Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New Delhi, 1990, pp. 159-168.
14. Tirtha P. Mishra, ‘Nepalese in Tibet: A Case study of Nepalese Half-Breeds’,vol.30, Journal of Contribution to Nepalese Studies, 2003, pp. 1-18.
15. Tina Harris, Geographical Diversions: Tibetean Trade, Global Transcations, University of Georgia Press, Athens. 2013.
16. Triratna Manandhar, ‘Crisis with Tibet (1883-84)’, vol.3, Voice of History, 1977, p.7.
17. While Newars from Kathmandu played an influential role in Lasha, there were other trading communities residing in the mountain region of Nepal such as Thakalis who had received monopoly to trade goods such as salt on behalf of the Nepali state. However, transactional relationship existed between different cultural groups living on either side of the border.
18. H Tuladhar, (n 12), p.13.
19. Interview with Kamal Tuladhar at Kantipur Publications Premises, Thapathali, Kathmandu on 22 June, 2018. Tuladhar is one of our major informant who is the son of Karuna Ratna Tuladhar a popular tradesmen in Tibet.
20. Jest (n 13), pp. 159-168.
21. Mishra (n 14), pp. 1-18.
22. Kesar Lall, The Newar Merchants in Lhasa, Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu, 2001, pp. i-iv.
23. Ramesh Kumar Dhungel, ‘Nepal-Tibet Cultural Relations and the Zhva-Dmar-Pa (Shyamarpa) Lamas of Tibet’, vol. 26, Journal of Contribution to Nepalese Studies, 1999, pp. 183-210.
24. Ludwig F. Stiller, The Rise of the House of Gorkha, Human Resources Development Research Center, Kathmandu, 1995, p.16.
25. Mishra (n 14); Jest (n 13).
26. Harris (n 15).
27. Tuladhar stressed on the fact that it was not gold rather silver that dominated the trade.
28. The information on the routes was provided by the three of our informants used in the Burma section. According to the informants, their grandfathers had reached Burma via Calcutta through ship.
29. Tejimala Gurung, ‘Human Movement and the Colonial State: The Nepalis of Northeast India Under the British Empire’, in A.C. Sinha & Tanka B. Subba (eds),The Nepalis in Northeast India: A Community in Search of Indian Identity, Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2003, pp. 172-183; Tejimala Gurung, ‘Gurkha Displacement from Burma in 1942’, in Tanka B. Subba and A.C. Sinha (eds), Nepali Diaspora: In a Globalized Era, Routledge, New Delhi, 2016, pp.203-320.
30. The immigrants themselves are considered to be ethnic outside, here we need to catagorize bahun/chhetri vs janajati.
31. Interview with Dilli Ram Sharma, 18 June, 2018. (Sharma is an assistant CEO at Nepal Bank based at Kathmandu. He is a returnee from Burma. Sharma’s younger brother, who still lives in Burma, is married to a daughter of high ranking Burmese military officer.) 32. Dilli Ram could not ascertain the date of his grandfather’s travel to Burma.
33. It is a measurement unit used for majoring land in the Tarai belt of Nepal. One bigha is equal to 6772.41 square meters.
34. Gurung, (n 29) p. 203.
35. Sushma Joshi, ‘The Religious Life of The Gorkhalis of Myanmar’, in David N. Gellner & Sondra L. Hausner (eds), Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture and Community in a New and Old Diaspora, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2018, pp. 80-102.
36. In her ethnographic account Joshi presents the statistics by relying on a punjabi informant. She, however, does not take the effort of corroborating her informant’s statistics with relevant government or other sources.
37. Prakash Chandra Thakur, ‘Nepalese in Burma’, vol.12, no. 4, Vashuda, 1969, pp.7-11.
38. Kumar Karki, Jeevan Sangharsha, Media Service Nepal, Kathmandu, 2074 B.S.
39. Thakur, (n 37), p.7.
40. Sharma (n 10).
41. Gunnar Haaland, ‘Cultural Landscape and Migration’, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, vol.4, 2010, pp. 99-110.
42. Ibid. (English translation).
43. Currently the Far West in province number 7 while Midwest is province no 5 and Eastern Nepal is Province 1.
44. Interviews with Sharma, Subedi and Adhikari was carried out on June 18, 2018 in the office (Nepal Bank) of Sharma.
45. Even though the respondent claims that they were provided with four bigha of land, none of the reports on resettlement make a mention of the total number of land allotted or the number of families who received it. But there is a mention that lands were allotted.
46. Gunnar Halland, ‘Explaining Causes in Evolving Contexts: From Nepali Hill Farmers to Business Managers in Thailand’, in B. Walters & B. McCay(eds), Against the Tides.Festschrift to Professor Andrew Vayda, Alta Mira Press, Lanham, 2008, pp. 33-55.
47. Anil Sakya, ‘Creating Nepali Ethno escapes in Thailand, 2019’, in David N. Gellner & Sondra L. Hausner (eds), Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture and Community in a New and Old Diaspora, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2019, pp.103-136.
48. E.V.Gangadharam & P. H Stauffer, ‘Tektites from Burma? A suspected new tektite locality in Southeast Asia’, vol.4, Newsletter of the Geological Society of Malaysia, 1978, p.13.
49. Sharma (n 10).
50. Susan Thieme, Social Networks and Migration: Far West Nepalese Migrants in Delhi, NCCR North South dialogue, Bern, 2006.
51. Based on the conversation with Shreekrishna Anirudh Gautam on June 19, 2018 in Baudha, Kathmandu. Gautam has family members in the North East India who went there following the change of 1950. He and his kin members maintain back and forth relation.
52. Gurung (n 29), p.178.
53. Anna is a unit of exchange relating to commodities. This unit is no longer in usage at the moment.
54. Sanjib Kumar Chetry, ‘Nepalis in Assam: A Historical Perspective (1816-1985)’, vol.3, no. 3, Research Journal of Language, Literature and Humanities, 2016, pp. 22-25.
55. Lopita Nath, ‘Migration, Insecurity and Identity: The Nepali Dairymen in India’s Northeast’, vol.7, no. 2, Asian Ethnicity Journal, 2006, pp. 129-148.
56. Ibid.
57. Sharma (n 10).
58. Srikant Dutt, ‘Migration and Development- The Nepalese in North East’, vol. 16,no. 24, Economic and Political Weekly, 1981, pp. 1053-1055 59. Sharma (n 10).
60. Harris (n 15) p.12.
61. Ibid.
62. Dor Bahadur Bista, ‘Nepalis in Tibet’, in James F. Fisher (ed), Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetian Interface, 1978, pp. 187-204.
63. Harris (n 15).
64. Janak Raj Sapkota, Nepali Upanyasma Basaisarai: Dukhha Dekhi Dukhha Samma, Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility and Himal Kitab, Kathmandu, 2018.
65. Gaurab KC, Kamaune: The Cultural and Economic Imaginaries of Migration, Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility, Social Science Baha, Kathmandu, 2014.
66. Thakur, (n 37), p.10.