" MP Candidate from Valmikinagar but Not a Tharu Tribe from Tharuhat West Champaran Bihar

' MP Candidate from Valmikinagar but Not a Tharu Tribe from Tharuhat West Champaran Bihar"

When I came to know through TV that Baidyanath Prasad Mahto is the MP candidate from Valmiki Nagar constituency in 2019 election, I thought that he must be a Tharu tribe as Tharuhat "the land of Tharu Tribe" of around five lakh population comes under this constituency. 

I was very excited and immediately mobiled to Yogendra Mahto - Tharu (Schedule Tribe). At that time he was in the premises of the temple of Bhagwan Shiv Shankar" situated in Ramnagar of West Champaran Bihar.

Yogendra Mahto Tharu  Tribe ( Now ST) of Bakhari Bazaar Ramnagar Tharuhat of West Champaran Bihar talking on Mobile on 10th June 2009
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

When I asked him " Is Baidyanath Prasad Mahto a Tharu?" He replied  "No. He is not a Tharu." Later on I came to know that Baidynath Prasad Mahto had been MP from Valmiki Nagar in 2009 also.

Valmiki Nagar came into existence in 2008 following delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies. This constituency comprises of six Legislative Assembly:

Valmiki Nagar

Ramnagar

Narkatiyaganj

Bagaha

Lauriya 

Sikta 

Tharus are aboriginal people or native people living in the Terai region of Indo-Nepal border since time immemorial. Tharu Tribe of West Chamaparan has remained under Other Backward Community (OBC) for more than five decades and suffered on all fronts, exploited in every possible way.

My association with the Tharus of West Champaran has been almost from around four decades when there was no road, no transportation, no communication, no electricity, no telephone, no journalist or mediaperson to cover their stories of suppression/oppression/humiliation/exploitation - safe refuge for dacoits hence Tharuhat known as "Mini Chambal" and also "Lal Salam [CPI (ML)] infested".  

During this period I have done my field work based on participant observation staying in their hut in the most inhospitable & hostile condition without caring a fig for my life under the frequent threat from dacoits and lal salam, for pursuing my objective of preserving the life, culture & social system of a simple and innocent community claimed by  outsider of being "Jungalee", "Bagad" and what not. I took the risk, faced many challenges, and even today I am not only in touch with them but use to visit Tharuhat of West Champaran.

Let me make one thing crystal clear that I would have a taken any topic for my PhD which I was doing from Jawaharlal Nehru University  Delhi, any topic from Delhi itself but I decided to work on the Tharus of West Champaran. My bonding with Tharus is unique, very special perhaps divine that is why if anything happens in the Tharuhat of West Champaran, my heart immediately reaches there.

I wrote many articles, one in Yojana also for giving the Tharu Tribe the Status of Schedule Tribe. I used to discuss this issue with Shankar Mahto, Ramnath Kazi and others during those days and encouraged them for fighting for their genuine cause. Ultimately the peaceful and continuous struggle of the Tharu bore fruit in 2003 when they became Schedule Tribe. 

I have also been discussing during my regular visit to the Tharuhat, and writing in my Blog for making Valmiki Nagar Constituency reserved for Schedule Tribe and also Legislative Assembly in the Tharuhat reserved for Schedule Tribe, as these simple  & innocent Tharu community  have been divested and deprived  of their genuine rights for decades, tortured and exploited to the maximum for decades,  and after giving them Schedule Tribe status, reserving MP Constituency and Legislative Assembly Constituency of Tharuhat for Schedule Tribe will mitigate and mollify, to a great extent, untold miseries & sufferings they have been subjected to.