Routledge Library Editions
LAND AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN EAST NEPAL
ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY
Routledge Library Editions
Anthropology and Ethnography
SOUTH ASIA
In 4 Volumes
I | Land and Social Change in East Nepal | Caplan |
II | The Apa Tanis and their Neighbours | von Frer-Haimendorf |
III | Western India in the Nineteenth Century | Kumar |
IV | Caste and Kinship in Kangra | Parry |
LAND AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN EAST NEPAL
A Study of Hindu-Tribal Relations
LIONEL CAPLAN
First published in 1970
Reprinted in 2004 by
Routledge
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Transferred to Digital Printing 2009
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
1970 Lionel Caplan
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Land and Social Change in East Nepal
ISBN 0-415-32556-0 (set)
ISBN 0-415-33046-7
Miniset: South Asia
Series: Routledge Library Editions Anthropology and Ethnography
Lionel Caplan
Land and social change in East Nepal
A study of Hindu-tribal relations
First published 1970
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited
Broadway House, 6874 Carter Lane
London, E.C.4
Printed in Great Britain by Ebenezer Baylis & Son Limited
The Trinity Press, Worcester, and London
Lionel Caplan 1970
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism
SBN 7100 6643 0
To my Mother
and the memory of my Father
Tables
Illustrations
This book examines the changing relations between members of an indigenous tribal population in the Himalayas and the Hindus who have entered their region during the past two centuries, following its incorporation into the Kingdom of Nepal.
The data on which this study is based were gathered during the course of a thirteen-month field trip in 19645. The research was made possible by a grant from the London-Cornell Project for East and South-east Asian Studies, which is supported jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and by the Nuffield Foundation. The Service de laide aux tudiants of the Quebec Government, Canada, provided an additional award to finance the preparatory stage prior to my departure for Nepal. I am deeply indebted to these bodies and their officers for this generous assistance.
While in Nepal my work was encouraged and facilitated by a number of persons to whom I here express my warmest appreciation. I am especially grateful to my friend, Dor Bahadur Bista, who was my host and guide in Kathmandu. Helpful in other ways were the officials in the Protocol Section of the Nepalese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the members of the district administration in Ilam, where my field-work was conducted. My thanks are also due to Sri Mahesh Chandra Regmi for allowing me to read his manuscript on the kipat land system before its publication, and to Sri Damodar Sharma and Sri Lakshmi Prasad Kaphle, who acted as my assistants at various stages of the work. I take particular pleasure in recording my gratitude to the people who live in and around the group of settlements in Ilam which I have called the Indreni Cluster. The experience of living amongst them has enriched me more than I can say.
Others have contributed in different ways to the preparation of this book. I owe much to Professor C. von Frer-Haimendorf, who not only stirred my initial interest in Nepal, but read the manuscript at several stages in its development, and generously made available his considerable knowledge of the Himalayan region. I am also grateful to Professor Adrian C. Mayer, who, in his roles as teacher, colleague and critic, has been a constant source of encouragement and stimulation. My thanks are due to Professors F. G. Bailey and E. Gellner, Dr. M. S. A. Rao and my wife, Dr. A. P. Caplan, all of whom offered helpful suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript, and to Dr. A. Cohen, who read and commented on the final draft.
Finally, I express my appreciation to Mrs. Helen Kanitkar for preparing the index and seeing to a variety of publication details during my absence abroad.
Kathmandu, January, 1969 | LIONEL CAPLAN |
Some Nepalese words are treated as though they are English, are given a plural form where necessary, and are not italicized. Certain proper names are also left in their English version. All other terms in the vernacular are rendered as close to their proper pronunciation as possible and italicized in the text; they are then transcribed in the Glossary according to the system devised by Professor T. W. Clark in his Introduction to Nepali (1963).
The spread of Hindu civilization throughout most of South Asia has taken place over many centuries. An important aspect of this process has been the manner in which the Hindus, advancing here by military conquest, there by migration, have interacted with the tribal communities lying on the route of their progression.
The interpenetration of Hindu and tribal1 populations has attracted much attention. British administrators and their advisors in India were for many years concerned with the practical problems of protecting tribal peoples from what were regarded as the undesirable effects of association with Hindus. Objections to such association were phrased in terms of the breakdown of tribal character, evidenced in the loss of vitality and self-confidence, or in the assimilation of such Hindu habits as child marriage or caste consciousness. On the other hand, arguments against this view suggested the positive effects on the tribal peoples of exposure to such Hindu influences as improved agricultural techniques or more attractive bathing and dietary habits, and so on. These opposing contentions eventually crystallized into two main proposals for dealing with the tribal populations: one favouring their isolation from the Hindus; the other their total assimilation into the society of the latter (cf. Elwin, 1943: Ghurye, 1959).
