Toward a federal structure By Dr Khagendra N Sharma The country is finally moving towards the Constituent Assembly (CA). The CA will be faced with the task of a full restructuring of the state. Nepal has remained a unitary state since its creation almost two and a half centuries ago, but one of the key demands of the present political revolution for restructuring will be to transform it into a federal state of some sort. There have been several claims as basis for the change to a federal structure. But all the claims cannot be accommodated in a single structure. Some claims may even be mutually contradictory. Some claims may lead to the disintegration of the state itself. So, caution has to be a necessary component of change. Nepal does not have to have a unitary structure to be a nation state, but a strong national existence is necessary to have a federal structure. So, keeping a strong and united Nepal should be the foremost principle behind creating the federal structure. Federations are generally created in two different ways. One way of creating a federal state is by breaking a single, unitary state into several autonomous units differently called as provinces, territories, states or they may be known by other appropriate names. When the British rulers left India, it was not a federation. The independent government used force to bring hundreds of autonomous princely states to make a greater India together with what was called the British India. They created a federation through the drafting of a new constitution. The federation was centrally created and the process of redefining the boundary of the federating states is still continuing. The other way of creating a federation is the amalgamation of independent or autonomous states or territories that come together out of their own volition. A federal state requires a written constitution which divides power among the central government and the state or the autonomous units of federation and guarantees the continuation of the union as an essential condition of nationhood. The United States was made in the second way and in the course of its history, president Abraham Lincoln had to fight against a civil war to protect the supremacy of the union over the states that were trying to secede from the union. But, there has never again been an attempt for secession. In the case of Nepal, however, new units will have to be created as parts of the national state. There were cries of discontent from several sections of people against the central excesses in several respects, but it was the Maoists who had given the first call for the creation of a federal structure. Thereafter, there have been several demands for converting Nepal into a federal state. The main grounds on which the demands vary can be grouped under these heads: geographical; ethnic; linguistic. Each of these criteria is a complex issue and all of them will have to be amicably resolved while drafting the new constitution. So, the CA will be faced with a tremendous exercise to arrive at a national consensus on these issues before drafting the new constitution. Although a comprehensive discussion is not possible in a single article, some aspects of the main criteria are briefly touched hereunder. Geographical aspects Although Nepal is smaller than most of the large Indian states, there are as many geographical variations as there are in India. Most of the high snowy mountains falling in the northern part of Nepal is mostly inaccessible. There is no population or very thin population in most of them. But the terai plains in the south are among the most accessible areas of the world and this region is getting very highly populated. The areas between these two regions have several varieties and attracted the farming communities from times immemorial. These areas used to be inhabited by about half of the national population but the trend in recent years has marked a slow thinning, giving way to the increase in the terai population. The geographical variation creates different scales of aspirations, attitudes, behaviors, roles, identities and demands among the people living in the different regions. They have very different kinds of problems, resources and potentials. So, small regions of identical aspirations and identities can be formed to address those problems and make maximum use of the human and material resources on a homogenous basis. This is a fundamental basis of forming smaller, autonomous entities that can govern themselves. The local communities will not only develop their respective capabilities, but also share the national problems of governance. These socio-geographical entities can be federated to unite the local strength to form a strong national federation. If these local interests and problems are not addressed, they will create social tension leading to the dissolution of the bonds which unite the nation. There are geographical demands for the creation of a federal structure which are being very loudly articulated among the local communities. This has been very strongly voiced by the people of the terai. But there are other geographical demands as well, some mixed with ethnicity and some with the linguistic factor. The recent movement in the terai is triggered by the regional emotions of neglect and discrimination. Ethnic aspects Ethnicity is a very crucial factor in forming political identities. There are almost a hundred ethnic groups in Nepal. In the recent past, the ethnic identities are making strong inroads into the socio-political structure. The prevalence of a steep vertical caste system had given rise to the accumulation of socio-political power in the hands of the high caste Brahmins and Chhetries, which was not reversed even in the adoption of a multi-party system of democracy. Despite the use of the tools of democratic election, the other ethnic groups were not able to come up in the political ladder in proportion to their population size in society. The higher caste failed to accommodate the rising trend of political aspirations and continued to monopolize political power. The growing awareness of this unjust distribution of power was articulated by the elite among the ethnic groups to stand united and make assertive demands for a fairer share. This assertiveness has been the foundation of the demand for the formation of the federal structure on ethnic considerations. Linguistic aspects Language is a strong bond of social identity. To a great extent, ethnicity and language go together to form the identity, but they are not necessarily the same in each case. Most communities are identified by their mother tongue and live historically together or in close areas. Nepali has been the official language in Nepal, and it has been given the status of a national language. But many local language groups have now been resenting the fact that the imposition of Nepali as the national language has retarded the growth of their languages and has forced many a non Nepali speaking group to accept Nepali against their wish. Many languages are spoken on a regional basis. The followers of these languages have claimed that those regions be the basis of the creation of the units of state to form the new federal structure. The ethnic and linguistic identities are almost parallel except that the followers of one language have not been confined within the region claimed to be the linguistic area to be recognized as the linguistic state. As an example, Newari used to be the main language in the Kathmandu valley. But Newars living outside the valley almost outnumber those living within it. Similarly, the present population of the valley includes as great or even greater proportion of non Newari speaking people than the Newari speaking ones. So, language cannot be the basis of regional identification. In the same way, some languages have no specific location. Nepali has no specific location. Similarly, Hindi has no specific location. Many local variants of Hindi are found in the different locations of the terai region, although Hindi is claimed to be the main terai language. Other language speaking communities also have their different pockets inside the terai region. So, language is a weak basis of political unit of a federal structure. www.kantipuronline.com