Land Politics in Nepal: An Ethnographic Study of Makar VDC in Nawalparasi District

Abstract

The present research is an ethnographic study on land politics in Makar VDC of Nawalparasi district. The main issues included in this research are land right, land ownership, land institution, dual ownership of land, fragmentation of holdings, nature of land encroachment and landlessness among the rural households. It is needless to say that land is the socio-cultural entity where co-existence of two or more legal system as well as specific rules and regulations are attached to it. Such plural legal processes have created complexity and confusion to the government and the concerned people. The study examines issue of landlessness, squatters (sukumbasi), and peasants, who played major role in the land development of Makar VDC. As the land value rose along with social change, they are unable to sustain land right due to local power politics and the land resource ultimately goes in the hands of the local elites. Similarly, the communal land is used in the name local institutions like schools, campuses, temples, monasteries and so on. The institutions played a means of land transformation in the study area. When land is transformed though local innovative rules and regulation, controversial and arbitrary legal systems are created. The process provided a fertile land to the local elites to germinate power and authority in social sphere. The dichotomy between local and central and peoples' perception on different social phenomenon has created dilemma that has relatively influenced the governmental land policy as well as local land development. Different commissions have been formed and their emblematic notion of 'land to the tillers' as well as rural political volatility has generated a new power politics over land. Adequate legislative and administrative machinery have not been provided to meet the ever increasing problems which have arisen in the implementation because statutory provisions have been pyramided. The burden of tenure insecurity that is better understood as an effect of social relations and their dynamics, many more land has became merely a political discourse even in the 'so-called' democratic society.