Plight of Tharus of West Champaran & Champaran Satyagraha Centenary Year

Plight of Tharus of West Champaran 

& Champaran Satyagraha Centenary Year

(All the images are subject to IPR)

The Tharus are an ethnic group indigenous to southern foothills of Himalayas. Most of the Tharu tribe live in the Terai region of Nepal. Some Tharu groups also live in the Terai region of India - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

Most of the Tharus in Bihar live in West Champaran district. The region inhabited by the Tharus is known as Tharuhat which is a stretch of land from East to West along Indo-Nepal border. It is surrounded in the North by Someshwar parvat (mountain) and West by Gandak river bordering Uttar Pradesh.

Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

The land of Tharuhat is very fertile even more fertile than that of Punjab and the Tharus are very peace loving people - very simple and gentle, straight forward and transparent. The Tharus of Uttar Pradesh ( now Uttarakhand also) have been recognized as Schedule Tribe almost five decades ago. But their brethren  of West Champaran could not get the same status thus throwing them open to all kinds of exploitation and oppression, torture and traumatization, plundering and looting by the non- tharus. Non-tharus are called bajis in local parlance. 

Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

After more than five decades of continuous and peaceful struggle the Tharus of West Champaran have been recognized as Schedule Tribe in 2003. 

Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

But can the damage done  be undone ?  Can the land grabbed by the bajis be returned to them ? Can the damage done to their culture be revived ? Can the damage done  to their social system be made up? Can the damage done to the honour of Tharu women be returned? Can the damage done to their image, identity and dignity be compensated? There are many and more such questions which are crying for answers.

We are celebrating centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha which was against the exploitation and  oppression of the indigo planters/farmers by the Britishers - non-Indians. 

But today,  the Tharuhat is waiting for another Mahatma in Champaran itself to get the simple and innocent Tharus  rid of sufferings and miseries, pain and pang, agony and grief, distress and dejection, exploitation and oppression, humiliation and embarrassment,  indignity and ignominy perpetrated by non-Tharus who are not Britishers, but Indians.

Regime changes, government changes, power changes, authority changes, but what does not change is "the mentality of exploitation and oppression of the weak by the strong" even after becoming educated. After-all man is an (social) animal - at macro-level and also at micro-level.