NN,

You are right. But Maoist was not alone to promote the idea of “ethnic federalism” (or if we get to the fundamentals , “ethnic fundamentalism”). Ethnic elites and NGOs have also contributed equally.

It is very interesting to see how three totally different camps could converse to a common point to create and promote a fundamentalist ethnic discourse in Nepal.

Another interesting development is that ethnic fundamentalist are not relying on Maoist anymore and are asserting themselves. And Maoist is clueless about what to do., which you can see in their internal conflict (Baburam Bhattarai against ethnic federalism and Dev Gurung firmly for ethnic federalism, for example). How they resolve it would be interesting and extremely consequential for Nepal.

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Sambhu,

Division of the land along ethnic lines is not only a bad idea, but simply an impossible idea.

Here is map showing the distribution of Kami group. VDCs with less than 10% population has been ignored.

Now, a challenge to ethnic federalists is this- where do you draw a “Kami state” ?

The two more concentrated areas in the west that you can see belong to “Khas state” (Remote west) and “Magar state” (west). The areas in the east belong to “Tamang state”, “Rai state” and “Limbu state”.

So where can Kamis have their state ? In the sky ?

Don’t laugh, but that’s exactly what one ethnic federalist scholar tells as the answer. “Non-territorial state” (a state in the sky) is his answer.

Do you think Kamis will be happy with that ? Even if they are happy now, what if they wanted a “territorial state” in future ?

When asked the same scholar has this answer – well, the ethnic division does not have to be permanently rigid. Depending on who fight with whom and for what in future, an ethnic state can be divided further.

Can you imagine what we are getting into ?

A uncontrollable chain reaction type of never ending multi-ethnic conflict.

The madness is mind-numbing.

Nepe