Nepal's Border to India-National Border and Identity Boundaries in South-East Nepal-by Benjamin Hans
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Nepal's Border to India
-National Border and Identity Boundaries in South-East Nepal-
-by Benjamin Hans-
Table of Contents
Foreword 2
1. Introduction 3
2. Nepal's Open Border 6
History of the Border 6
Status Quo 7
3. Methodology 8
Field Entry 9
Applied Methods 10
Problems 11
4.1 The Border Market – Flows of Goods and People 13
No Customs – Free Shopping 14
The Bribery System 16
Flows of People 19
4.2 Perspectives on the Open Border – Threat vs. Benefit 21
Everyday Views 21
Political Views 23
4.3 Border Cultures – Identity, Belonging and Separation 28
Being Madheshi – History of Exclusion and Discrimination 30
Being Muslim – Demanding Religious Rights 34
Being Tharu – Being Indigenous and of Nepalese Origin 36
4.4 Material and Symbolic Meanings of the Open Border 39
5. Identity Politics in the Terai - The Border Region in the Context 40
of Nepal's Democratisation and Federalisation
Conclusion 42
References 43
1
Foreword
From July until October 2009 I spent three months in Nepal doing research, which is
the basis of this report. Before this, I spent one year with preparation in the Lehrforschung
of Eva Gerharz to acquire first context information about South Asia, to develop my
research program and after the research I had half a year for analysing and interpreting my
data. This was a great, interesting, sometimes tough time, in which I could learn much
about working very intensive on one, on my own topic, doing research in a foreign country
and being confronted with unexpected problems. Maybe one of my most important
experiences in this time was that even if you are well prepared, you will always have to
deal with unforeseeable situations and try to handle this as good as you can. For solving
these problems I have met many people at different places throughout this research, who
helped me a lot on my ”path of research”, which finds its provisional ending in this report.
The following pages could only be written because of the help of these people, so at first I
have to thank all of them and mention the most important ones personally here. First of all
I'd like to thank Dr. Eva Gerharz and the Lehrforschungs-course, with whom I could
discuss and create my research project before, while and after being in Nepal. Then I'd like
to thank Professor Pfaff-Czarnecka, Professor Lachenmann and Dr. Meyer from Bielefeld
university, Mrs Dannecker, Dr. Münster, who at first focussed my attention on doing
research on border areas, Professor Sharma from Kathmandu University and other
university personal for their input and comments, which helped to develop my research.
Especially I want to thank my two research assistants, Sanjeev Thapalya, with whom my
fieldwork in Biratnagar started and whose help and support has a big part in this work and
Mohammed D. Gulzar as well, with whom I did some good work in the Muslim
community of Biratnagar and who gave my research a new and satisfying direction. I also
have to thank all my Interviewees and people I spoke with, who helped me in many ways
and gave me deeper insights into Nepalese culture and ways of living. I am very thankful
for the opportunity to make these incomparable, unforgettable experiences, which gave me
a lot and will be part of my further life. Danjebaat!
Benjamin Hans
2
1. Introduction
This introduction will give the answers on two basic questions for this research. At first
it will be illustrated, why studying borders might be one topic of importance for social
research, followed by the explanation, why to do this in Nepal, especially the South-East
border area, bordering India.
Borders are to be found on every geographical map, there are district borders and
regional borders inside states and international borders between states. Borders seem to be
as natural as the existence of nation states. So what is so fascinating about borders and
borderlands, to make this a topic of social research? Borders are not only the end of one
state's territory, they are also the start of another state. Because the control of its territory,
setting law on its population and dispose of its material resources1 are maybe the most
important parts of statehood, it is essential for every state to demarcate its territory from
other states. Fixed borders ensure states of their authority on their territory and enable them
to be seen autonomous and even to be accepted as a state by other states.2 As borders are of
this great importance for nation states, studying borders and borderlands seems to be quite
fruitful to get knowledge about the state and its influence on its citizens.
This leads to the next question, why to study the state? To quote Radcliffe-Brown, if
“the State, in this sense, does not exist in the phenomenal world; it is a fiction of the
philosophers [and] there is no such thing as the power of the State; there is only, in reality,
powers of individuals” (Radcliffe-Brown 1946, Preface: xxiii), then why to take care of
and even how to do research on the state, when it does not exist at all? If we follow
Radcliffe-Brown, it seems to be sensible to focus on individuals or institutions and not on
the state. But is this contradictory? Even if the state does not exist as an entity, if there are
only organisations and individuals, who act in the name of the state for legitimizing their
actions, then these actors practices will create at least some kind of imagination of the
state. In this sense, Trouillot gives one possible approach for studying the state:
If the state is indeed a set of practices and processes and their effects as much as a way to look
at them, we need to track down these practices, processes, and effects whether or not they
coalesce around the central sites of national governments.
(Trouillot 2001: 131)
1 Donnan, Wilson 2001: 15: „State borders secure their territories, which are the repository of their human
and natural resources.”
2 Hansen, Stepputat 2001: 8: „ […] boundaries and institutions enabling the political community to be
recognized by other states as a proper state.”
3
So studying the state in this sense means to study practices, which create a picture of the
state and give some kind of setting for people, who are confronted with these state
practices in their everyday life.
Then state practices are deeply connected with practices of the state's population.
Since the state exists through the imagination of people, which are produced by state
practices, the way people react to and cope with these state practices can tell us a lot
about constructions of the state. „The state is an object of analysis that appears to exist
simultaneously as material force and as ideological construct. It seems both real and
illusory” (Mitchell 2006: 169), so it's necessary to consider both dimensions, the real
practices and the imagined constructions and both sides of the interface of state and
population, where the actions take place and the imaginations are created.
To combine these thoughts about studying the state and the importance of borders, we
can look at borderlands as areas, where the interface between state and citizens or
human beings becomes most obvious, as “the space […] where encounters between
individuals and state power are most visible.“ (Trouillot 2001: 125). So border areas
should be good places to do research on people encountering and imagining the state.
As mentioned above, borders are essential for states by marking the territory for the
state's authority. At the same time they are its foundation and limitation, because state's
power ends behind the border.1 Most states are trying not only to enforce their authority
on its citizens with physical, but also symbolic boundaries by constructing some kind of
national identity. „By establishing a territorial boundary to enclose a population […]
governmental powers define and help constitute a national entity. […] These mundane
arrangements [...] help manufacture an almost transcendental entity, the nation-state.”
(Mitchell 2006: 16). Especially in border areas it should be possible to find out, what
this national identity means to the people. It is the question of whether this material
border and virtual boundary of nationality is of any importance for people's lives or if
the national border is just a line drawn on maps. By contrasting the national border with
other relevant boundaries, like ethnic or cultural ones, the social researcher could get the
chance to deconstruct conceptions of the nation state, nationality and national identity.
This is even of greater interest, if the object of examination is an open border, where
national boundaries should be transcended easily and the real importance of the nation
for borderlands population should emerge.
1 Donnan, Wilson 2001: 4: „Borders […] often transcend the physical limits of the state and defy the
power of state institutions. “
4
After these initial considerations concerning the border research I can answer the
question, why to choose Nepal's border to India for doing border research.
Nepal's border to India is an open border, so one could imagine, that a lot of cross-
border transfer takes place in this particular border area, especially as both countries are
populated primarily by Hindus, so close social relations can be expected. Besides this
similarity there are important differences in population and development, as India has
the second biggest population of the world and, even though huge parts of the population
are extremely poor, it is among the most industrialized countries, whereas Nepal is rather
small in population and belongs to the least developed countries in the categories of the
UN. Against this background of similarities and differences I considered the Nepal-India
border to be a quite exciting research subject. Additionally I thought studying an open
border would give the opportunity of easily doing research on both sides of the border
for deeper insights into cross-border interrelations.
The decision of starting the research in Biratnagar in South East-Nepal was at first
quite naïve by just looking on the map. India's North-East region, the so-called goose
neck, borders with Buthan, Bangladesh and Nepal in a very small region, so four states
and three borders are situated here in very short distances, which I thought to be a quite
good foundation for possible further, comparative research projects. Besides this I was
told about intense economic and social cross-border relations in Biratnagar, so I stuck to
my plans and started my data collection there.
Closing this introduction, I will shortly present the contents of this report. Chapter 2
will give a brief overview on the research's context, the history and status of Nepal's
Open Border, in chapter 3 the methodological procedure will be reflected, chapter 4
includes the analysis of data, in which three fields of research will be illustrated, The
Border Market, Perspectives on the Open Border and Border Cultures concluded with
the Material and Symbolic Meanings of the Open Border, in chapter 5 the data is
embedded in recent works on Identity Politics, before this research report is closed by
the final Conclusion.
5
2. Nepal's Open Border
Article VII
The Government of India and Nepal agree to grant, on reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one
country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of
property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and privileges of a similar nature.1
Nepal's border is special for three reasons. At first Nepal is surrounded by land at all the
3222 km of its frontier, it has no access to any ocean. This land-locked status has great
impacts on Nepal's economy, as it is dependant on its neighbours for importing goods from
third countries. The second is the aspect that Nepal has only two neighbouring countries,
which are the countries with the biggest population of the world, China and India. Nepal's
northern Himalaya region borders on the Tibetan autonomous region of China, in the
south, east and west it is surrounded by India's states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal
and Sikkim (from west to east). The third special aspect is the open border between Nepal
and India, which allows people of both countries to cross the border without visa and to
take goods for everyday usage across the border without paying customs. Besides the
economic relations across the border, Nepal's and India's populations are closely linked
with cultural and social ties, especially in their border areas. So the open border gives the
opportunity for people to live their social life unrestricted of the frontier.
The legal foundation of the open border is the above quoted article 7 of the Treaty of
Peace and Friendship, signed in the year 1950, which renewed and extended the Sugauli
Treaty of 1814 between Nepal and the East India Company. Both treaties are fundamental
for Nepal-India relations and are still discussed today, because since 1950 Nepal has
changed from a monarchy to a republic and it is the question of whether the old treaty has
to be renewed, changed or even cancelled. Before describing the present discussion on the
open border and its today's status, I will give a brief overview on history, how Nepal came
to existence and its relations to India with focus on the border.
History of the Border
The history of modern Nepal starts in 1743, when Prithvi Narayan Sha became king of
Gorkha, a small kingdom situated in the central Himalayas, in about the same location as
the modern Gorkha district within Nepal. In that time today's Nepal was divided into
several kingdoms. In 1744 Sha started to conquer the Kathmandu valley, which he finally
1 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Nepal and India 1950, quoted in Shrestha 2003: p. 266
6
invaded in 1769 and named his expanded kingdom Nepal.1 After the death of Prithvi
Narayan Sha in 1772, his son Simha Pratap Shah continued the expansion of Nepal,
followed by his widow Rajendra Laxmi in 1775, his brother Bahadur Shah, whose son
Rana Bahadur Sha extended Nepal's territory up to the river Tista in the east, including
parts of today's Sikkim and river Sutlej in the west till 1805.2 This history of conquering
under the Shah dynasty is known as the unification of Nepal and the greatest extend of
1805 is called 'Greater Nepal', on which Nepalese nationalist intellectuals still relate in
discussions on the border to India.3
Nepal's expansion came to an end in 1814, when British India declared war against
Nepal because of a dispute on the authority over Butwal, a city in the today's central Terain
district Rupandhi in Nepal. Nepal lost this Anglo-Nepal War and had to sign the Sugauli
Treaty in November 1815 after big military pressure of the British army on Nepal's capitol
Kathmandu. With this treaty Nepal had to cede the territories in the west of the river
Mahakali and the whole Terai, the plain land in south Nepal, to the East India Company
and the territories in the east of river Mechi to Sikkim. As later on the East India Company
restored parts of the Terai back to Nepal, Nepal's present border became fixed.4
“[...] till 1815 A.D. There was no sharply defined Indo-Nepal border [...]. The people of
the Indo-Gangetic plain were segregated and made to look towards the south and the north
after the treaty of Sugauli alone” (Pandey 1995: 27) Even though the fixed border came to
existence, border area's people could cross the border easily without passport or visa after
the restoration of Terai areas in 1857 at the latest.5
Status Quo
The present border between Nepal and India is based on two treaties, its location is
fixed by the Sugauli treaty and its following agreements on the restoration of the Terai,
whereas its management is regulated by the 1950s Treaty of Peace and Friendship between
Nepal and the then independent India. Besides the above mentioned freedom of movement,
trade, etc. the treaty grants Nepal the import of arms through India as well as Nepalese and
Indian people to involve in the other country's industry and economy. The 1950 treaty is
subject for discussion in the discourse on the open border, because Nepal has changed into
1 See ibid. : 7ff.
2 See Pandey 1995: 15ff.
3 Pant 2006: 3f.: “The area of Bishal Nepal [Greater Nepal, the author] is reduced from 2,04,917 to
1,47,141 square kilometer. Therefore, India has to return 57,776 sq. km. to Nepal.”
4 See Pandey 1995: 19f.
5 See Shresta 2003: 34, 76 and Pandey 1995: 22: “After the Sugauli treaty the common people of India and
Nepal freely began to cross each other's border and carried out their business and kept the socio-cultural
relations as in the days of the Karnatas, Senas and the Rainkas.”
7
a democracy in 1990 and into a republic without king in 2008, while the treaty was signed
under the monarchy. Some scholars judge the 1950 treaty as being unbalanced or unfair
and Nepal would have been forced into it:
When this treaty was signed, India had freed itself from the British rule, and so India was in a
powerful position. On the other hand, the condition of Nepali politic[a]l situation was very
fragile, and so Nepalis accepted this treaty without their wish. [...] Similarly, article six allows
Nepal's economy to be dominated by the Indian businessmen/industrialists. [...] In fact this treaty
was a scheme pre-planned by India, and Nepal Government had signed it under pressure.
(Pant 2005: 9f.)
As India is in a better economic situation, about 50 times bigger in population and the
dominant country in South Asia, one could imagine its dominant position towards Nepal,
the small northern neighbour. Nevertheless, a totally antagonistic view on this treaty is to
be found as well:
The 1950 treaty is said to be unequal. Is it unequal? If it is unequal at all, it is unequal for India.
The Treaty is given certain facilities to Nepal on non-reciprocal basis, especially in regard to
participation in industrial and economic development. [...] every year hundreds of thousands of
people from Nepal enter into Indian territory for employment opportunities. [...] As such over 6
million Nepalese population reside in India and are engaged in gainful employment. On the other
hand, the number of Indians working in Nepal is not more than 200 thousand.
[Jha 1995: 44f.]
Similar opinions I have heard during my research while interviewing people in the
border area, which will be presented in 4.3 Perspectives on the Open Border. This gives a
diverse picture of viewing the open border and Nepal-India relations.
Besides different perspectives I focussed on the border market and border cultures
within this research. These three fields, which developed throughout my fieldwork, will be
illustrated later on, after the presentation of applied methods in the next chapter.
3. Methodology
My first research question was very broad and open, as I just wanted to know what is
happening at the border and in the border area of Nepal and India. I had some basic ideas
what I might find, grounded in the theoretical presumptions given in the introduction.
Practices of state officials and citizens could be important and how imaginations of the
state are produced and what these constructions are about. Because of the open border I
supposed deep social and economical relations across the border, but I had no idea what
8kind of practices and cross-border relations would be relevant for local actors. So a
qualitative, ethnographic approach was necessary to explore who are the relevant actors,
what are their relevancies.
Suggestions for studying the border are given for example by Alexander Horstmann:
[…] scholars of borderlands should concentrate on cultural complexity of the borderland
communities themselves and on their transnational networks and spaces […] scholars of
borderlands are centring on the margin by documenting the life worlds of indigenous people,
languages and culture which transcends national borders. […] Identities are not only
multifaceted, but they can change and the fluidity and ambiguity of identities […] is a central
character of borderlands.
(Horstmann 2004: 22)
In the following I will present the concrete procedure of my fieldwork in South East
Nepal, the field access, applied methods and problems, which occurred during my
research.
Field Entry
Being in a foreign country with a foreign language I was dependent on working with a
research assistant and translator for doing research. Even though we did two weeks of
language course in Kathmandu, which was quite helpful for simple conversations and for
acclimatisation, this did not enable me to conduct interviews in Nepali. So my first step for
entering the field was finding a research assistant. As we could rely on existing contacts
from former research projects of the Bielefeld University conducted in Nepal, it was rather
uncomplicated. Only a few hours after arriving in Biratnagar, the border town in which I
started my research, I got a phone call of a student from Kathmandu, who gave me a
telephone number of a possible assistant, named Sanjeev. I called him immediately, we met
the same evening and started the research the next day. As time was limited, finding a
proper assistant that quick was very accommodating, especially as the first big problem
appeared soon after my arrival. It seemed as if I could not cross the border in Biratnagar,
even though I had a visa for India, because there was no migration office. After visiting the
Central District Office, a police office, the Nepalese Border Police and the Indian
Migration and Custom Offices it was at least possible to visit the Indian border market.
Even though, it was quite difficult to cross the border in Biratnagar, so I decided to travel
to Kakarbhitta, the nearest border town with Nepalese migration office. But there other
unforeseen problems appeared, which I will present in the section on research problems.
In the end of my research I could even work with two research assistants, which opened
new perspectives on my topic and allowed the access into different fields. As I was mainly
9interested in practices of local people related to the border, I was very dependent on local
knowledge and contacts of my assistants, which influenced the progress of research a lot,
as interviewees and places of interest were suggested by the assistant, on which I had to
trust, because of my lack of local knowledge. With both of my assistants I could develop a
good atmosphere of cooperative working, with open discussions on plans and further
procedure of research and they were the most important persons for entering the field.
Applied Methods
Throughout my research I used different methods to collect data. At first I just sat with
my assistant at the border crossing point and observed who was crossing, to find out who
might be relevant actors concerning the border. I held spontaneous talks on the street,
visited several places in the border area, like Nepalese factories where Indians are working,
made appointments with different people for interviews, etc. which was orientated on the
paradigm of triangulation of methods and perspectives. (see Flick 2000: 309ff.). I recorded
the Interviews when possible, which usually seemed to be no problem. Only some people
denied being recorded, for example the border police officer, the line managers, who
organize smuggling or a factory manager, who told me about exploitation of Indian
workers in Nepalese factories. Sometimes I had the impression that using a recorder would
be inappropriate or even impossible, for example when holding short talks on the street or
when starting an interview spontaneously. Choice and application of methods were heavily
dictated by the field and situation, I always had to react on new situations and
circumstances, for example when I had to leave camera, recorder and passport at the
border-crossing point in Biratnagar when I wanted to cross the border.
Even though I would have appreciated longer periods of participant observation, which
would have been quite fruitful especially in the end of my research when focussing on
border cultures, I always felt forced to gain as much information in the limited time I had,
so most of my data is based on semi-structured interviews, complemented by observations
I made. Within the interviews I tried to pose open questions, especially in the beginning,
like 'what can you tell me about this region', to give the interviewees the possibilities to
articulate their relevancies and to not dominate too much the direction the interview would
take.1 I always tried to react on the interviewees answers and was not working with a strict
questionnaire, which was mostly even impossible when we, me and my assistant,
spontaneously decided to start an interview or plans for a further procedure developed out
1 See Hopf 1978: 100, on whose conception of an explorative Interview I orientated
10of an observation or interview and were set into practice immediately, so there was no time
to prepare special questionnaires. But as my research topic limited the topics of interest, I
always used to ask questions about Nepal-India relations and opinions on the open border,
if possible in the end of each interview.
Due to my open approach I talked to as many different people as possible to observe
several perspectives on different dimensions on the open border. For this I held formal and
informal interviews with businessmen, factory workers, workmen, politicians, experts of
Nepalese anthropology and on border research, ordinary people in the street, Rickshaw
drivers, villagers, etc. Corresponding to Strauss' concept of theoretical sampling (Strauss
1994: 70, Corbin & Strauss 2008), the research developed out of information gained in
former interviews or observations, new data led to new focusses of interest, through which
the next interviewees and topics developed.
To sum it up, my research was dominated by spontaneity and openness, which allowed
to react properly on new insights into the field's relevancies and which corresponds with
fundamentals of qualitative research, such as an explorative character and adequacy of
methods in relation to the field. (see Bergmann 2006: 19 and Brüsemeister 2000: 39)
Additionally characteristic for this research was the deep influences of the research
assistants and a long period of searching for a focus, which I will discuss in the following.
Problems
In this section I will focus on my problem to find a focus throughout my research,
which can be illustrated by the three border towns I did research in and the reasons why I
changed the locality for three times. As mentioned above in the description of my field
entry, the first problem occurred immediately after arriving in Biratnagar, as it was difficult
to cross the border there. I planned to study both sides of the border to gain information on
interrelations and cross-border networks. I primarily chose Biratnagar for starting my
research, as I was told about the possibility of finding close cross-border relations, both
economically and socially there. In addition South East Nepal seemed to be favourable for
border research, as it borders North East India, India's so-called goose neck, where India
borders three different countries, namely Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in a rather small
region. But as even after discussing with several state servants the border-crossing of
Nepal's open border was still quite complicated for me1, because I had to leave recorder
and camera at the Nepalese border police post, I decided to change the locality of studying.
1 I was even suggested to hand over some Rupees to the Indian Custom Officer, to make the next crossing
easier. I have to admit having offered 40 Rupees as a bribe for this officer.
11For my second stage of research I chose Kakarbhitta, a border town at Nepal's eastern
border, as there is a Nepalese migration office and crossing the open border is quite easy
for a foreigner there. I hoped to get some information on cross-border social relations like
kin- and friendship, as studying on both sides of the border was possible there. But
Kakarbhitta turned out to be mainly a transit point. I got some new information on drug-
related crime and prostitution, both deeply connected to border-crossing, but not very
convenient for further research. On the Indian side was only a small border market, the
next Indian city Siliguri was so big that it seemed to be impossible to filter Indian Nepalese
interrelations in a short period. In addition my research assistant was less helpful in
Kakarbhitta, because he could not fall back upon contacts as in Biratnagar. So I decided to
change the locality a second time and to continue the research alone for some time.
From Kakarbhitta I went north to Pashupatinagar, a border town located in the hills in
Nepal's district Ilam, between the city Ilam on Nepalese side and Darjeeling in India. As
Pashupatinagar is a small village, I hoped to get an overview on social structures of a
border town and deeper insights into cross-border social relations. But Pashupatinagar was
so small, that the border transfer was very limited. Even though I could do one very good
interview, got some new insights into the border market and had some time to reflect my
previous research and to think about the further procedure.
The last period of research I spent in Biratnagar again, as I decided to work on special
groups in the border area, namely Muslims and Tharus and interviewed regional members
of political parties to gain political perspectives on the open border. Finally I thought this
to be a quite useful approach and an exciting field, situated in the field of tension between
nationality and ethnicity, related to identity politics and including antagonistic perspectives
on the open border. In the meantime, I got to know my second research assistant, who gave
me the opportunity of getting new insights and perspectives on my topic, especially
through the access into the Muslim neighbourhood in Biratnagar next to the border. But
still there was one problem left, namely the limitation of time, as I had only three weeks to
work on my last subject and additionally became sick for ten days.
Nevertheless, I think I could get some interesting insights into important issues of the
Nepalese border area, which I will present in the following chapters and which will lead to
some first interpretations. I would not call this a complete research, if a qualitative research
could be finished at all, but I guess my research could be the foundation of some further
work as I drew up some basic phenomena I found in the border area and opened up some
fields, in which further research might be of scientific interest.
124.1 The Border Market – Flows of Goods and People
Open border system is very good, very good, the part of the Nepalese people, in time of need we go
to that land and take a bit everyday needs, daily needs [...] by the Indian region.
(Madheshi Forum, Biratnagar)
80% of the population of Biratnagar normally visit Jogbani regularly for shopping.
(National Congress, Biratnagar)
The field which is the most obvious object of studying the Nepal-India border is the
border market. By just sitting for some minutes close to the border crossing point in
Biratnagar, you can see hundreds of people, going to or coming from India, some with
Rickshaws, many by bicycle and on foot. Almost everybody coming from India is carrying
some sort of bag or sack, electric
products or kitchen tools. Women
were accompanied by Rickshaw
pullers, who assisted them in
transporting daily goods, like rice,
fruits, vegetables or spices, people are
transported by Rickshaws with
kitchen tools, clothes or food beneath
their feet, etc. Most times there is so
much traffic, that it is hard to count Biratnagar, Central Border Crossing Point
how many people cross in which direction and it is even impossible to guess, how many
goods are carried by these people from India to Nepal. In an informal interview an Indian
Custom Officer told me, that about 30.000 people cross the central border crossing point
between Biratnagar and Jogbani each day.
This regular, cross-border contact and interaction is so ordinary for local people, that
asking precise questions is necessary for getting information on issues like cross-border
economic relations and labour migration, which are fundamental for border research. Other
aspects of interest, like bribery and smuggling, you can see in the middle of the street.
In the following chapter, some central aspects of the border market in the Nepal Indian
borderland will be described, like the everyday shopping, labour migration and smuggling,
which will lead us to effects and opportunities of the open border, like usage of the open
market, exploitation of foreign workers, dependency on smuggling and risks for Nepal's
economy.
13No Customs – Free Shopping
As people do not have to pay customs for goods of personal need, most people of the
border region use the opportunity to buy everyday goods in India. Once or twice a week
they go to the Indian market to purchase food, spices, kitchen tools etc.1, because these
goods are cheaper in India:
One thing that, what, in Nepal Indian goods are a little costly. If you see that 10 Rupees it is more
costly than India. So we women went to India to buy the goods. Because it is cheaper than Nepal.
(Woman Activist, Muslim Neighbourhood in Biratnagar)2
This is a normal life, life in border area and easy life, easy life also. We are very easy. Some, we
have need some thing, that is not available in Nepal, so we go to India and purchase there. Our
daily use. This is easiness for us. And no more than it.
(Leather businessman, Muslim Neighbourhood, Biratnagar)
This behaviour of everyday shopping produces special border sites. At all three border
towns I visited, there are border markets especially for Nepalese customers, which are
placed directly behind the frontier barrier on the Indian side. One can pay with Nepalese
Rupees without a problem and get Nepalese currency as change. Almost all customers
come from Nepal and even many shopkeepers are Nepalese citizens, who sell Indian goods
in the Indian market to Nepalese customers.
As there is so much traffic and customers have to transport their goods back to Nepal,
the border crossing point in Biratnagar is also a good place for Rickshaw drivers.
Sometimes there were about twenty
Rickshaws waiting for customers on the
Nepalese side of the border. The same
could be observed in Kakarbhitta.
Although Kakarbhitta's border market is
quite small and most customers take
buses to the next, bigger Indian cities
Naxalbari and Siliguri, even more
Kakarbhitta, Rickshaws at the Border Market Rickshaw drivers were waiting on the
Indian side to take customers and their goods just over the bridge across the Mechi river,
which marks Nepal's eastern border.
1 See for example CPN-UML: “[They are] normally crossing border for simple purchase, rice, sugar” or
Electricity officer: “If we need anything, small thing, just we went to India and purchase it. -Because it's
cheaper there? -Yeah.”
2 See also Maoist: “[I]f one thing we purchase in Nepal, if we pay ten Rupees, finally we get in India for
eight Rupees.”
14But not only Nepalese cross the border for purchase. In Pashupatinagar there is a border
market on the Nepalese side. When buying goods in Pashupatinagar, one could think of
being in India. Prices are in Indian Rupees and you get Indian currency as change as well. I
was told that the whole market depends on Indian tourists who visited Darjeeling and went
to Nepal for buying goods from China or other third countries, which are cheaper in Nepal
than in India. The following excerpt of an Interview with a young shopkeeper from
Pashupatinagar (Y1) and his Indian friend (Y2) gives a quite typical view on
Pashupatinagar's market and Nepalese foreign trade relations:
Y1: They come to just visit Darjeeling, to see the hill station Darjeeling, when they return back it's
the way our neighbour border of Pashupatinagar is in the way [...] They once enter to Nepal they say
that we are entering Nepal, so they enter to Nepal and when they enter here they see something new,
something very cheap and then they buy it
[...]
I: So what products do you sell?
Y2: Like eh you can say many more clothes, t-shirts, jeans, suits eh almost eh everything you sell it
comes from China, Thailand and [...]
Y1: China, Thailand,eh Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Japan
[...]
Y1: Ya because of business of business purpose, because eh people bring eh from China and [...]
give it to India, so almost eh main cities will have to establish in border area
[...]
Y1: Because eh almost [...] all border areas in Nepal are, they depend upon India for foods and
things like that and from China, from China we depend upon, depend for our business.
[...]
Y1: Because India gives us food and China gives us business.
(Young Shopkeeper, Pashupatinagar)
This extract includes an important aspect of the description of Nepal's foreign relations,
the feeling of dependency, which draws an ambivalent picture of border trade. On the one
hand, people can benefit a lot by using the opportunities of open border markets in
everyday life. The border area is described as a favourable place for business and trade.
On the other hand, when focussing on macro-economics, Nepal is dependent, especially
on India. Nepal's land-locked status between India and China includes, that any goods from
third countries have to pass India. Additionally, the regular purchase of Indian goods could
weaken the Nepalese market and economy, as Indian goods are normally cheaper and
Nepalese shopkeepers and producers have to compete with this.1 On the other hand the
Indian market can provide goods, which cannot be supplied by the Nepalese market, so it
is the question of whether Nepal is even able to be independent from India. These aspects
have strong impacts on political views of Nepal-India relations and the open border, which
will be discussed in chapter 4.3.
1 Described a bit exaggerated by Pant 2006: 112: “Nepali industries are ruined because of India's monopoly
market.”
15Simultaneously the open border market symbolizes the good economic relation between
and Nepal's dependency on India, as well as the country's different economic conditions.
But on the local level, the dominant view seems to be the above mentioned 'easiness' of
crossing the border and purchase the goods, wherever they are available or cheaper. The
open border with it's border markets is part of the daily life, people “can go daily for
marketing in India [...and] for the human being, for the lifestyle, we are feeling easy in
border.” (Leather Businessman, Muslim Neighbourhood in Biratnagar)
The Bribery System
Even though there is no need to pay customs on goods taken from India to Nepal, when
they are for personal need, providing and taking bribes is part of day-to-day life in the
border area. As Nepalese semi-military personal, border-policemen and custom officers are
responsible for preventing smuggling, they watch, stop and control customers crossing the
border, who might have taken more goods than for personal needs. From my perspective,
this seems to be a quite random procedure, because not everybody, who carries big bags
across the border is stopped and people, who are stopped are normally not controlled.
Sitting at the border side, I observed that mostly the stopped border commuters start a short
discussion with the border guard, then they hand something over and walk or cycle away.
Women, accompanied by cart or rickshaw pullers, who transport their shopping, normally
visit the police post to, as Rickshaw drivers told me, offer bribes for not being controlled,
regular customs would have to be paid to the custom officer and not to the policemen. So
bribes are paid to avoid control and to save time.
So bribery is quite common for border area's people, even for ordinary customers. For
them, it seems to be a quite spontaneous practice, because sometimes they are stopped,
sometimes they can cross directly. Even though one can speak of an established bribery
system, especially in the case of organized smuggling:
Very simple thing, that I would like to tell you about that, some goods we bring from India and
we have to pay certain charges to the police. If we do not pay, they snatch our goods, if we pay,
they allow us to take.
(Male and Female Carrier, Muslim Neighbourhood, Biratnagar)
Goods are smuggled in both directions and through both, the central and the small,
border crossing points. Common smuggled goods are torches, ropes, rice, petrol, diesel and
oil from India to Nepal and betel nuts, cardamom and tea from Nepal to India1, transported
by carriers with bicycles or carts. In Biratnagar I could observe two types of smuggling, a
1 See Male and Female Carrier and Line Carrier
16small-scale, one-man business and a large-scale, managed type of smuggling with
employed carriers. Both types occur mostly
in the Muslim quarter of Biratnagar, which is
placed nearby the two border crossing points
and which is populated by mostly poor and
uneducated people with low job
opportunities.1
Apart from the two types of smuggling,
there are two different types of carriers as
well, one self-employed and the other
Biratnagar, Small Border Crossing Point, working under the so-called line-managers:
Cart Puller
“We are not working under the line
management associations, on selves we have employed and on selves we have managed
the customs and the police and we pay them from our side.” (Male and Female Carrier,
Muslim Neighbourhood, Biratnagar)
Self-employed carrying includes four steps. First the demand: “[...] just I visit the
different shops and I ask what you need, and they just demand me” (Ibid.); second the
purchase, then the bribery and finally the carrying:
“[...] that we just check the goods in which shop it is available, and we purchase it and just after
it we talk and we just manage the police. How much he, she will take. After it we just bring the
goods in a small amount, slowly, slowly we cross the border.” (Ibid.)
So carriers transcend the border and the authority of the state by creating a transnational
network and using supply and demand of both countries, the easiness of border-crossing
and the corruptibility of civil servants. But carrying bears risks as well: “First thing is that,
it is illegal activities, [...] sometimes what happened, though we have managed the police
and customs, our goods has been snatched. And we have to bear a loss.” (Ibid.) Because of
illegality, carriers are helpless against police's and custom's arbitrariness. Even though,
many people are involved in carrying business, because of poverty, no alternative job
opportunities2 and because of good income.3
To avoid the risk of snatched goods, carriers can also work for a line-manager. Here
1 Detailed information on the Muslim society in the section Being Muslim in chapter 4.4
2 Former Ward President: “So directly Indian government cannot provide us some facilities to us, Nepal
government also, so we poor people what do?[...] We have no other options. So we are going India, poor
people are going India and they purchase some goods and they sell in Nepal. [...] This way, this is the,
means effects of open border. I think these all are normal thing. And we have no other options also.”
3 Male and Female Carrier: “And it is also one kind of business. It also make heavy amount. So I keep for
this job.”
17they do not have to manage the first three steps, purchase, demand and bribery, they just
carry: “[...] I haven't to [do] such kinds of jobs, already this line managers is responsible to
manage the police office, shopkeepers, not I, I'm responsible to carry the goods only.”
(Line Carrier, Muslim Neighbourhood, Biratnagar)
As the interviewed, self-employed carriers call themselves small businessmen, these
employed carriers are labourers of a smuggling organization and part of the cross-border
network around the line-managers.
Those goods we carry in our bicycles and when we are going to cross the border, PSP policemen
[...], when they are trying to capture and seize our goods, we just say that we are the persons
working under XY, so they left. Okay, so they left, when we enter in India, there is the SSB, there
is a BSF and there is also XY, there is one man, Z., he is also line manager, Indian line manager,
and when they are going to seize our goods, we say that we are the Z. and we are working under
the Z., so they left, like this we are working.
(Line Carrier, Muslim Neighbourhood, Biratnagar)
So employed carriers are working with the protection of the line-managers, which
seems to work properly, as the border-crossing is described as simple and uncomplicated.
The line-managers can employ carriers and seem to have quite good contacts to civil
servants, “they are the big businessmen” (Male and Female Carrier, Muslim
Neighbourhood, Biratnagar) of smuggling.
Naturally these line-managers are quite suspicious towards any research, so it was rather
difficult to get interviewees. Even though my research assistant could organize two
interviews with line-managers, who told him, they would inform me about the practices of
organizing smuggling. But especially the first interview was quite curious and
uninformative. It took place in a bureau with darkened window in the back of a furniture
store with four men. They told me, that they were just doing cross-border trade, they would
work together and there would be no labour division. As I asked, if they would organize
their work, if one of them takes care of the Indian part of trade, another for the Nepalese
side, they denied. All the four men would do the same, doing phone calls to India and
demanding the goods for trade. Almost every answer was concluded with 'and we pay the
customs'. Some days after this conversation, sitting in the street near this furniture store, I
could see two policemen waiting in front of the shop. A few minutes later, one of the men
opened the door of the store, talked to the policemen and handed over a packet of money.
Maybe this is an alternative way of paying customs.
According to this observation, in addition of a talk with another line-manager and the
interview with the line-carrier, the line-manager's network seems to be similar to the self-
employed carrier's one. Involved are the border guards, producers and purchaser on both
18sides of the border, the carriers and the managers. The difference between the small-scale
smuggling of self-employed carriers and line-managers smuggling is, next to quantity of
smuggled goods, the organizational aspect of labour division. There is the hierarchical
division between line-manager and carrier and the regional division of management in
India and Nepal. This gives the impression of an established system of smuggling, based
on the corruptibility of civil servants, opportunities of the border area with access to two
different markets, a less developed labour market and close, cross-border networks.
As I have illustrated in this section, taking and providing bribes, corruptibility and
arbitrariness of civil servants and smuggling networks seem to be quite ordinary in Nepal's
border area. Through this, the Nepalese state appears to be a weak and corrupt state with
limited abilities to enforce its laws, a construction of Nepal, which will be discussed in
chapter 4.3 on different perspectives on the border. On the other hand, this shows the
ability of borderland's people to transcend the state and its boundaries and to use border
area's opportunities.
Flows of People
Next to the exchange of goods, the Nepalese-Indian border market includes the labour
market as well. In the border area, labourers are free to search for jobs in the other country
if they cannot work in their homeland and can fill gaps in the other country's labour
market. If there's a need for skilled labour, Nepalese employers can engage Indian
professionals easily. While harvest workers from the other country can be employed. As
Biratnagar is an industrial city, here mostly Indian workers come to Nepal to work in
factories, like jute mills. Construction workers, shopkeepers and workmen cross the border
daily. But additionally to the opportunities of the open labour market, some factory owners
try to use this to elude labour law. Even if Indian workers in Nepal say that they are treated
equally and that working conditions and payment would be the same as in India, Nepalese
employers can benefit of foreign labour, because they do not have a lobby or union to
enforce their labour law. The foreign labourers are not entitled to be permanently
employed after some time, they can be discharged any time and are normally not organized
in unions. As this is a delicate subject, closer observation in this limited time seemed to be
quite difficult. I was told about this employers' strategy only in some conversations, but
this type of exploitation seems to exist not only peripheral and could be the topic of some
further research.
19Another type of using the open border for free human crossing is girls and women
trafficking. At all the three border crossing points I have visited, there were women
working for the NGO's Maiti Nepal or ABC
Nepal at special posts, who watched for
suspicious border commuters in company of
young women. It seems to be a big problem,
that girls and women are enticed into leaving
their villages and crossing the border for
working abroad, seeing big cities, etc., but
being sold to brothels and ending in
prostitution. It is difficult to estimate the Kakarbhitta border crossing point,
number of women and girls trafficked across Maiti Nepal check-post
the border, so the numbers differ from 5000 to 15.000 a year. 1 It is to note, that NGO's
fulfil parts of basic responsibilities of the state, namely border security by supporting the
border police by watching for and stopping people crossing the border, who might be
involved in human trafficking. Body trade and prostitution2 is another aspect of the open
border, for which an extensive observation seemed to be impossible in this research, but
too important, for not mentioning it.
The border market between Nepal and India has many faces. It is the existential
opportunity for poor people to earn money and buy cheap food. The main part of the
border area's business is based on the open Nepalese-Indian market. Besides that, the
border market includes the misuse of less restricted trade and crossing as well, like
smuggling, labourer's exploitation and body trade.
In this chapter I presented three patterns of the border market. Against this background,
complemented with the issue of cross-border social relations, I will now present different
perspectives on the border. This includes different views on Nepal-Indian relation, the open
border and visions of change and leads to imaginations of the state, which I will discuss in
detail in the following chapter.
1 03.04.2009 http://womennewsnetwork.net/2008/12/05/lostdaughternepal808/
or Narayan Shreshta 2003: 90
2 Prostitution appears to be a hidden phenomena in the border area and it was mentioned only twice in
conversations. I was told that in Jogbani, the Indian border market near Biratnagar, would be a special
red-light district for Nepalese people, because prostitution is prohibited in Nepal. In Kakarbhitta someone
told me, many prostitutes would work there, for Kakarbhitta is a transit point and many business men
would come there, who demand these services
204.2 Perspectives on the Open Border – Threat vs. Benefit
And [...] some persons think that Indian might a little bit cheap, but in totally, if we think about
total economy of Nepal, it is very bad for us, because due to this open border, this open market, we
are, it is a big threat for our industries also. We wanna be perfectly economically, industrially
independent.
(Maoist, Biratnagar)
Means both countries have the relations in each country, India in Nepal, Nepal in India. [...] I give
the emphasis to the benefits. [...] Why should we pay the attention on the loss? So, whatever, how
we are getting the benefit, that is important for us. [...] I feel good, because it's easy to cross the
border. If there will be the passport system, so it will be problem to cross the border.
(Former Ward President, Muslim Neighbourhood,in Biratnagar)
As in the previous chapter practices of economical usage of the border were described,
the following pages will give an overview of perspectives and opinions on the open border.
There are two perspectives or dimensions of looking at the border, one focussing on
personal, everyday issues, the other emphasizes national interests. This is a more or less
analytical distinction in everyday and political views, because both dimensions are
interdependent and influencing each other. But this separation is needful for structuring the
presentation of perspectives, because the argumentations are quite similar but referring to
different levels with different focusses. On both levels there are two antagonistic positions
towards the border, one stressing the benefits of open border system, the other
concentrating on the disadvantages. These two types of measuring the border include
visions of change and different views on Nepal-India relations, which implicate
constructions of the Indian and Nepalese state.
Everyday Views
To illustrate the everyday views on the border, I start with an excerpt of an interview
held in Biratnagar's Muslim neighbourhood, located very close to the border:
My family relations, [...] we have found one good family, rich family, good family, so my brother
has got married there. Personally I married in Nepal, we have no land, no house, no residence, no
any property in India, our property is in Nepal. And what we have seen, social relation is in India.
But due to the open border we feel quite easy to move, to get from Nepal to India, India to Nepal.
(Butcher 1, Muslim Neighbourhood in Biratnagar)
This statement is just one example of many similar positions I heard in several
interviews. Being asked for their opinion on the open border, most people relate, next to
the above mentioned economic opportunities, to social relations, which seem to be an
important aspect of cross-border interaction. “It is the social and cultural identity between
21them, [...] that bind them into a dense net-work of social relationship which can not be
snapped without destroying the local community-life.” (Nepali 1995: 33). Almost everyone
I talked to in the border area, told me about personal relations to India, like kinship and
friendship, for example:
[...] everyone, you see in this community, everyone has such a relation and I also.
(Electricity Officer, Muslim Neighbourhood, Biratnagar)
I have good friendship in India, because you know Nepal and India have a close, close relation
and it is the open border, so I have got the good relation in India.
(Ex Coal Businessman, Muslim Neighbourhood in Biratnagar)
Family relation, somebody marriage in India, some Indian marriage in Nepal. Okay? So that this
open border is perfect for them. Only for relation, for good activities and good relations and for
good manner also. They feel easy, okay?. There is no passport, no visa, they can go freely India.
They can go daily for marketing in India. Indian people very [???] to Nepal. This a good [...]
manner and good management that is for border area.
(Leather Businessman, Muslim Neighbourhood in Biratnagar)
So similar to the strong economic relations, there are close social linkages across the
border. People of both sides of the border are deeply related to each other through kinship,
culture and religion, which may be due to the history of the creation of the frontier and
migration to the border area. For this, most people I met in the border area gave a positive
opinion on the open border and India-Nepal relations. The two countries are tied together
in many ways, differences are hardly visible in the border areas and entering the other
country is so easy, that the national border even seem to disappear:
Y2: Actually Nepal is, Nepal is being just a Hindu culture [...] And India is being a Hindu
culture. [...] I think, due to this [...] they have good relations.
[...]
Y1: Because of religion you can eh almost you can say eh same country.
(Young Shopkeeper, Pashupatinagar)
This view on the border is not too
extraordinary in Nepal, as there are places
without any border demarcation, except of
single boundary pillars. I visited a village
placed directly on the border, divided into two
parts. Most huts lie on Indian, some on the
Nepalese territory, which was only visible
because of a muddy path crossing the village,
which, as inhabitants told me, marks the Border Pillar in a Village near Biratnagar
demarcation line. Even if they are inhabitants of different countries, this village's people
22called themselves one village community , the only difference due to citizenship would be
the country of voting and the access to administrative jobs.
But not everybody in the border area has social relations to India or benefits of the open
border. A special example are the Tharus, an ethnic group living spread across the Terai.
Many Tharus are rice farmers and as people have the possibility to purchase cheap rice in
India, it is hard for them to get good prices on rice. As some Tharus also told me in
interviews that they would have no social relations to India, they do not appreciate the
open border system:
[...] but we don't have any relation to India. [...] Nowadays rice is quite cheap in India. Due to
open border, this reason and the Indian side rice price is quite less . So it's a big threat for them,
because they are not getting a good price for their rice. It's not good.1
(Tharu Farmer, Tharu Village near Biratnagar)
Others relate to general or national issues, like cross-border crime or national economic
loss due to the border and would prefer an ID-card system. This type of argumentation is
characteristic for the members of three big Nepalese parties I interviewed and which will
be presented in the following section.
Political Views
To get a political or national perspective on the open border and the relation to India, I
talked to members of four main political parties on the local level in Biratnagar, namely
CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist, National Congress (NC) and Madheshi People's Right Forum
Nepal.2 The following two excerpts show the antagonistic attitudes, the party members
presented in these interviews:
So we don't have to think, [...] except only we have to think about anyhow to close this border.
East, south and west, the border to Indian side. We have to establish, there is no condition, [...]
because we know very well about that, there is, everything is bad from Indian side.
(Maoist, Biratnagar)
Open border system is very good, very good [...]. Open border system is not bad for the
development of the country [...]. Nepal and India relation is very very good from the very
beginning. And this relation is very good, very close relation.
(Madheshi Forum, Biratnagar)
Obviously, there are two possibilities of judging the open border, a positive and a
negative one. Both are deeply connected to different images of Nepal-India relations and
1 detailed information on Tharus in the section Being Tharu in chapter 4.3
2 CPN=Communist Party of Nepal; UML=Unified Marxist-Leninist; this parties were chosen, because they
are the four main parties with most seats in Nepal's Constituent Assembly, the NC is the biggest
oppositional party, the other three form the government; the party's names will be shortened to UML,
Maoists, NC and Madheshi Forum in the rest of the text
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