Conflict need not be a dirty word. It can be looked at in a different light depending on the circumstances. The word tends to conjure up strife and discord and the destruction and waste they bring. Strife and discord are synonymous with the c-word. Yet the outcome can be constructive, creative even. Conflict can be deliberately engendered with such an outcome in mind.

Gandhi also raised the art of creative conflict to a new level of sophistication. His theory and practice of civil disobedience and non-violence left the British stumped. They were up against a moral force to which they had no credible reponse. They were virtually shamed into quitting India and rolling back a vast chunk of their far flung empire.

Gandhi’s non-violent approach might not have worked so well against say the French, the other great colonial power of the day, or against the Japanese whose roller coster military victories in the lead up to World War Two brought them to the borders of India across from Burma. But where it worked it worked wonderfully well. It worked because of the innate British sense of fair play and their inclination towards rule of law. That it worked against them is almost as much a credit to the British as it is to the Mahatma and his followers.

Creative conflict at a more micro level can be seen unfolding in Nepal today where the problem of Kamaiya bonded labourers is still in the throes of finding a proper solution. But progress is being made. The Kamaiya system of bonded labour has been in existence for generations in the south western plains of the Kingdom of Nepal. It is a form of debt bondage under which farm hands who incur debts end up bonding their labour to creditor landlords.

The debt bondage is passed on from generation to generation as usurious rates of interest mean that the debt never gets paid back in full if at all. Most of the bonded labourers are from the Tharu community which is perceived as being straightforward and relatively simple in its ways. The landlords who benefit from this relationship tend to be upper cast members of society.

The government estimates that there are at least l6,000 bonded labourers in the five south western districts of Kailali, Kanchanpur, Banke, Bardiya and Dang. Human rights groups put the figure as high as 40,000. But according to statistics generated by other non-government organisations active in the field, the ex-Kamaiya population is 33,843 in Kailali district alone and 3l,444 in Bardiya. One fine day the bonded labourers woke up to realise that they were at the receiving end of an insidious form of exploitation. And they found that they were not alone. The NGOs were at hand to champion the cause of their emancipation. Soon a movement was born.

The Kamaiya liberation movement culminated in a proclamation by the government last summer emancipating all Kamaiya bonded labourers from their debt bondage. The proclamation freed the Kamaiya of all obligations they had towards their landlords including the money they owed, and all bonds either written or verbal were also declared void. The proclamation made it a legal offence to keep Kamaiya bonded labourers. Offenders were liable to ten years in prison and a fine of Rs. 25,000. There was much rejoicing among the Kamaiya communities scattered across that part of the country. They also took out demonstrations in the streets of the capital to vent their euphoria. But the euphoria was somewhat premature.

A generations-old system cannot be done away with at one stroke without putting something in its place. The Kamaiya found themselves turned out of the homesteads and farms of their erstwhile masters, with nowhere to go and no means of livelihood. They had to put up in makeshift huts on marginal land. The monsoon rains and the winter cold took their toll as did the outbreak of disease resulting from inadequate living conditions. Some of the Kamaiya ended up returning voluntarily to their previous servitude. The government had obviously not done its homework before giving into NGO pressure.

The second phase of the Kamaiya movement was thus born. This phase concentrated on securing land for the newly emancipated so that they could make a living off the soil. The government announced outright land grants for the Kamaiya. But this was easier said than done. Central member of the NGO, Backward Society Education, Yagyaraj Chaudhari, said although the government has been saying that it is distributing land to the freed kamaiyas, most of them have been given only the land ownership documents and not the land itself. The NGOs have had to get involved again to keep up the heat on the authorities.

The Kamaiya themselves have at times resorted to direct action, out of sheer frustration at the lack of tangible progress. Kamaiya bonded labourers started taking hold of public land since last January after they failed to get any other land for habitation. The pressure group Kamaiya Mobilisation Committee said 3,000 families in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts had taken hold of l,500 bigaha (992 hectares) of land. It further said that although the government had decided to distribute land to the ex-Kamaiya at the rate of five katha (944 square meters) per family, this decision also had not been implemented in practice.

The government says that under its programme of rehabilitating the Kamaiya, it has distributed over 1,999 bigha (l,32l hectares) in the five affected districts to 13,259 Kamaiya families who were without homes and to those who have settled on unoccupied barren land. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba told parliament the other day that all ex-Kamaiya in Dang and Banke have been given land as promised by the government. The government also decided to provide 75 cubic feet of timber and concessional loans of Rs. 10,000 for building homes. The freed bonded labourers have at the same time been provided skill development training in order to enable them to earn a living. They have likewise been provided 6,000 metric tons of rice under the Food for Work programme, along with tents, medicines and some cash. After the rehabilitation of the freed Kamaiya, an aid programme with a budget of Rs. 280 million will be forthcoming from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for making arrangements for their health care and education and for extending them other facilities.

All these measures however have not yet added up to adequate rehabilitation for the Kamaiya. So much can be made out from the reaction of a delegation of the upper house of the Nepalese parliament’s Social Justice Committee, which recently completed a study tour of the makeshift camps where the ex-bonded labourers have been staying since their recent emancipation. The delegation is now stressing the need for the government to take additional measures for a proper rehabilitation. A similar attitude has been articulated by the All Nepal Peasants Organisation unit in Kailali district. This organisation has handed in a 38-point memorandum addressed to the prime minister. The memorandum includes various demands relating to the rights and interests of former Kamaiya bonded labourers. Among these is a demand that the freed Kamaiya be provided l0 kattha (287 square meters) of land each towards their rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, the proclamation emancipating the Kamaiya has been drafted into a bill that parliament is now debating. The bill proposes setting up a committee in each of the affected districts to look after the welfare of ex-Kamaiya and ensure protection for their rights. Ex-Kamaiya needing legal assistance can petition the committees which can award compensation where this is found necessary. But the bill has already come under fire for not going far enough.

The road to genuine emancipation for the erstwhile Kamaiya of Nepal is thus turning out to be a long one. But substantial headway has been made thanks to the catalytic role played by NGOs and other social service organisations in generating the social conflict that alone could have moved mountains and borne the desired fruit.

Another example of meaningful conflict in Nepal involving non-government organisations, albeit with less clear cut results, is the struggle against untouchability in the southern district of Siraha. The case involves the local Chamar community members of which traditionally see to the disposal of animal carcasses. But with exposure to the influence of NGO activists in the field, the Chamars started refusing to fulfill their traditional but demeaning role. The animal carcasses remained undisposed of. This brought upon the Chamars retribution from higher caste members of the community including a former minister in the government of Nepal.

The retribution took the form of an economic boycott of the Chamars. They were not allowed to buy anything from the local bazars, not even vital supplies of daily necessity. Rights activists from the capital then descended upon the district to champion the cause of the Chamars and try and defuse a worsening situation. The activists themselves came under flak from local conservative elements for not minding their own business. This particular conflict is now no longer in the newspaper headlines although the problem has not yet been resolved. It has however been brought to nation-wide attention once and is not going to remain unacknowledged or ignored as in the past.

In talking about conflict in the Nepalese context these days it is impossible to avoid dealing with the Maoist insurrection which is now into its sixth year and has claimed over l,700 lives by official reckoning. Unofficial figures are higher. The Maoist insurrection or ‘people’s war’, as they themselves call it, started in the mid-western hills of this rugged country with the avowed aim of abolishing the Nepalese monarchy and instituting a republic along with sweeping social and economic reforms. The poorly armed Nepalese police manning isolated outposts in the countryside bore the brunt of Maoist attacks and fell like dominoes. The Maoists, armed with an assortment of weaponry including firearms seized from the police themselves in earlier clashes, would typically stake out a vulnerable police post and attack in a strength of hundreds. They keep up their fire until the police, who are usually hopelessly outnumbered, simply run out of ammunition. The Maoists then move in for the kill. In one twenty four hour period earlier this month they killed 4l policemen in three different incidents.

In the midst of this carnage attempts to start a process of negotiations between the rebels and the government have floundered because of mistrust and bad faith. It has taken a change in the leadership of the government to bring about a tenuous ceasefire. The prospects for talks are still problematical and uncertain. On the face of it the positions of the two sides appear too far apart to be amenable to reconciliation.

The Maoists want sweeping change including a new constitution framed by a constituent assembly representing all sections of society. The ruling Nepali Congress party on the other hand is sworn to preserve some fundamental elements of the existing constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system of government with political parties. The prime minister himself went on record to that effect only recently. However, the Maoists in their latest pronouncements seem to be reworking some of their positions. And even if this reworking does not go very far there is a possibility of the two sides agreeing to tackle the less central issues.

Whether or not the Maoist objective of establishing a republic in Nepal materializes, their movement will in all probability result in substantive socio-economic reform that will shake the semi-feudal classes who still run this country out of their smug complacency. It is hard to associate a positive word like ‘creative’ with a movement that has taken hundreds of human lives. But if the socio-economic reforms do materialize history may judge the Maoist movement to have been a creative conflict nonetheless.

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