Indian intervention in ethnic movement of Nepal: Did Madheshi lose or gain?

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Indian intervention on the Madheshi parties’ claim to self-determination in Nepal. In 2007, the Madheshi parties launched mass protests, demanding the recognition of their self-determination through an autonomous Madheshi province. Mainstream political parties became hesitant to incorporate this demand. The Nepalese government signed agreements with the agitating Madheshis but did not intend to implement its commitments. The Indian government was monitoring these developments; it stood on the Madheshi side and urged the Nepalese government to recognize self-determination and autonomy in the new Constitution. It increased pressure through press releases, parliamentary statements, bilateral visits, and an undeclared economic sanction. Against this background, this paper examines the following question: What is the impact of the Indian intervention on the Madheshi claims for self-determination in Nepal? It identifies that the Indian intervention obstructed the recognition of Madheshi self-determination as a constitutional right and the agenda of the nationalist movement. The mainstream political parties perceived the Indian intervention as unwanted interference in a sovereign state’s internal affairs and responded to this pressure by adopting the Constitution without including self-determination. The Indian government continued to pressure through economic sanctions, but the latter just increased anti-Indian sentiments in Nepal. As a result, the Nepalese government re-strengthened its ties with the Chinese government and concluded trade and transit agreements. The Indian government perceived that Nepal-China ties would affect its national interests in Nepal and stayed silent about the Madheshi parties. This silence constructed a permissive environment for the Nepalese government to ignore the nationalist demands and forced the Madheshi parties to concede their self-determination as the ethnonational agenda.