Tharu house with animistic wall decoration

The population of approximately 18.5 million people speaks some 20 different languages. These can be broadly divided into Indo-
Aryan or Tibeto-Burman linguistic groups. At various stages in the country's past, attempts have been made to incorporate Nepal's many different ethnic groups into a formalised caste system based on the Hindu model. As a result, the high-caste Brahmin and Chettri have become most powerful groups in Nepal. 

Slavery was officially abolished in 1926 but highly exploitative systems of labour continue. In addition to the Kamaiya System of the Mid and Far-Western Terai, other systems of agricultural labour exists which in some cases may be termed debt bondage. These systems are known as the Haliya System in the hills and the Haruwa System in the Terai. In the towns and particularly around Kathmandu, children know to be involved in debt bondage, working in sweat-hops, tea houses or as domestic servants. Bonded child labour is also reported in the carpet industry. Large numbers of women and children are trafficked from Nepal each year to be exploited as prostitutes in India.

The Origin of the Tharu

With a population of 1.19 million (6.5 per cent of the national population), the Tharu are one of the country's largest ethnic groups. They are indigenous to the Terai region where the vast majority is still spread across 22 districts from east to west. They are particularly numerous in the West and Far-Western Districts of Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke, and Dang. Government statistics indicate that 79 per cent of Tharu above the age of six have never gone to school. 

Tharu girl dancing at Maghi festival, the Tharu New Year’s Celebration. In the background girls and boys are singing.

Within the Tharu community there are some 26 major sub-groups5; these include the four largest groupings, Dangaura Tharu, Rana Tharu, Chitwan Tharu, and Katharia. A rivalry exists between these different Tharu sub-groups, some claiming separate descent. For this reason the exact nature of their origin is the subject of fierce debate. Some date their arrival in the Terai to the destruction of the Indus Valley Civilisation circa 1500 BC. Others declare that the Tharu are the descendants of the Shakya Dynasty who introduced Mahayana Buddhism to Nepal in the second half of the 1st millennium BC6. The Rana Tharu have a strong oral history which claims descent from the Rajput refugees who fled from their native Rajistan during the first Moslem invasions in the 13th century AD. 

The fact is that the Tharu themselves did not keep written records and what is known of their early history is derived from passing references in religious texts and etymological evidence. It seems probable that there is not just one origin of the Tharu and that the people arrived in the area from different places at different places at different times. As such there may be truth in all the theories.

Tharu women looking at of her window. In the baskets she keeps pigeons
 and below her is this year’s maize harvest.

The Tharu were feared by outsiders and the land they inhabited was infested with malaria, to which the Tharu have a natural immunity. They were consequently left to develop in comparative isolation for many centuries. It is only in t recent historical period that they have come into direct contact with neighboring civilisations. For the Tharu this contact has had disastrous results.