The major settlement areas in the study area include the villages of Benighat, Bahuntar, Bishaltar, Janagaun, Moharia, Irang, and Dumre. The major ethnic groups have tended to concentrate in specific locations, a pattern that was still observed at the time of the survey. Higher-caste people were concentrated in more productive areas while the lower castes were scattered in marginal and frontier areas. Map 2.2 shows settlements and Map 2.3 shows the concentrations of major ethnic groups. Benighat, Bahuntar, Bishaltar and Charaundi are near the highway and form cluster I of the settlements. Local government offices including the
panchayat, health post, veterinary health post, and agricultural centre, are stationed in Benighat. Along the highway are tea stalls, small shops selling daily necessities and medical stores; these are also service areas. The remaining settlement areas lie off the highway forming cluster II of the study area.
In the past when malaria was prevalent, the Lek (ridge) was used for settlement and the Bensi (flat low land along the river banks) was used for cultivation. This has changed quite a lot, nowadays settlements are also found in the Bensi although such settlements are not as dense as on the Lek or Tar (flat land between the hill ridge and the riverine basin). The ownership of flat lowland is very important because it is closely tied to rice production and related to food habits in the region. Rice is considered the food of the affluent and it is on the lowlands that rice is produced; not all the families in the study village had rice fields.
A brief historical sketch of the area is relevant to this study because it is in history that the roots of social and economic stratification are to be found. It is believed that ancient Nepal was predominantly Buddhist and tribal. One such tribal population still exists in Benighat, the Chepangs, a nomadic group whose subsistence base has been steadily eroded by the ever-increasing population in the hills. The Chepangs formerly subsisted on forest produce, mainly root crops and wild fruits which have become rare because of widespread cultivation. Consequently, they have been pushed to the remotest and most inaccessible parts of the district. Recognizing that the Chepang population might dwindle, the government has adopted the Praja Development Program to counteract these pressures.
In the preceding chapter, it was stated that the population of Nepal is stratified on the basis of caste. All the major castes and ethnic groups of Nepalese hills were represented in the study community.
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At the highest level of the caste hierarchy are the Brahman, followed by the Chhetri. Historically, the Brahman is the priestly caste and the Chhetri, the martial and ruling caste. At the middle of the caste hierarchy are the Ghale, Gurungs, Magar, Rai and Limbu, also popularly known as the Gurkha tribe. It is believed that until the unification of the country, these were tribal groups who mostly observed various forms of Buddhism and shamanism. As noted, the unification of Nepal provided a means for the Hinduization of the tribal population (Kawakita, 1974: 164-195). In the Hindu system that evolved, all the middle ranking castes are touchables from whom water and dry food but not cooked food can be taken and consumed (paani chalne) by Brahmans and Chhetris. The Kami and Sarki were the two predominant occupational castes in the study area. The Kami, Sarki, and also the Damai are untouchables from whom water cannot be taken (paani nachalne). In the past, it was even thought to be inauspicious to touch or speak directly to them. However, the abolition of untouchability by the New Civil Code (Nepali- Mulki- Ain) introduced in 1961 has relaxed these restrictions.
Most of the higher caste people in Benighat are Kanel and Silwal, who are both Brahman and Chhetri (descendants of a union involving Brahman and lower caste women) and trace their origin to the Kumaon hills of India. No one knows precisely who were the first Hindu settlers of the Benighat or when they came, but according to one story in the Bahuntar, one of the settlements in Benighat village pane hay at, one of the Kanel Brahmans came wandering and observed a big tract of upland flat (Nepali: Tar) on the lap of a hill ridge (Nepali: Lek). The tar had a hot and humid climate infested by malaria, so it was not good for settlement but was good for cultivation. The Brahman settled on the top of the ridge now known as Janagaun, and started cultivating the tar. The tar is nowadays known as Bahuntar (from a tar inhabited by Bahun, the Brahmans). The Silwals were affinal relatives of the Kanel, who also accompanied them. The first Kanel later on brought a Kami (blacksmith) to work on his land and repair farm implements; similarly, other occupational castes were brought to the area. The Kami was given a piece of land to work and
was asked to settle in a comer of the Bahuntar village. There is now a dense cluster of dwellings on the outskirts of Bahuntar known as Kamigaun (blacksmith's village). Similarly, other occupational castes were brought to the area to provide services to the higher castes. Another occupational caste with a substantial population in Benighat is the Sarki (shoemaker), the large majority of whom live in the Moharia settlement. Another caste group which shares the Moharia settlement is the Gurung-Ghale. Because of the erosion of traditional values coupled with introduction of the market economy, the traditional occupational castes do not adhere to the stereotyped traditional roles and have been found in a variety of occupations, mostly as wage labourers.
2.3.3 Demography
According to the 1981 census, the population of Benighat village panchayat was 11,000. In subsequent election reforms of local panchayat bodies, Benighat was divided into two panchayats. The population distribution of the village clusters included in this study is shown in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 shows that more than 40 per cent of the total population is in the 0-14 years age group; the older age group (65 years and above) accounts for about 3 per cent of the total population. The overall sex ratio of the population slightly favours males but the largest disparity appears in the older age group where, for each woman surviving to age 65 or older, there were 1.67 men in the same age group.
Although migration from the hills is a common phenomenon at the national level, the population of Benighat has remained largely immobile for some time because the highway had only recently been opened and because of the scarcity of land in the terai. However, there was a tendency for people to move from the remotest parts of the village to more accessible areas along the highway; this tendency seemed to be increasing at the time of the study. About 14 per cent of households had moved in this way but still maintained their land and houses in their places of origin; that is why they have not been considered as migrants in this study. Only 5
per cent of the household heads were bom outside Benighat. Most of these households were immigrants from neighbouring village panchayats who had come to take advantage of the new opportunities opened up by the construction of the highway.
Table 2.1: Population distribution of the study village clusters A g e G ro u p C lu ste r 0 - 1 4 1 5 - 6 4 6 5 + T o ta l C lu s te r I M a le 3 1 0 4 5 8 2 2 7 9 0 F e m a le 2 8 0 4 2 5 19 7 2 4 T o ta l 5 9 0 8 8 3 4 1 1 5 1 4 C lu s te r II M a le 5 1 9 6 5 2 4 6 1 2 1 7 F e m a le 4 5 6 6 1 9 2 3 1 0 9 8 T o ta l 9 7 5 1 2 7 1 6 9 2 3 8 4 A ll M a le 8 2 9 1 1 1 0 6 8 2 0 0 7 F e m a le 7 3 6 1 0 4 4 4 2 1 8 2 2 T o ta l 1 5 6 5 2 1 5 4 1 1 0 3 8 9 8
Source: Benighat Survey, 1988. 2.3.4 Household structure
Household structure is restricted to what is commonly known as Pariwar in Nepal. However, where possible, kinship and affinal relations are used to provide linkages and explanations. For the purpose of this study, a family (pariwar) was defined as a group of people linked lineally and affinally who live together and eat from the same kitchen. The following classification o f the family (pariwar) was used:
Nuclear household. A married couple with or without unmarried children.
Supplemented nuclear household. A nuclear household plus widowed parent and other unmarried relatives.
Lineal joint household. Two married couples living together who are lineally linked.
Lineal and collateral joint household. Two married couples linked collaterally or a lineal household plus another married couple linked lineally or collaterally with their unmarried children and other unmarried relatives. Two married brothers with their children living together (collateral) with their parents (lineal) is an example of this type.
Others. Families not falling into the above categories, such as married couples living with married daughters without their husbands.
In accordance with the above classification, the following is the distribution of household structure in the study village (Table 2.2). Contrary to the expectation that households in agrarian and rural areas are predominantly joint, it was found that the nuclear household was the dominant form of household structure.
Table 2.2: Per cent distribution of households by types and size
Type o f H ousehold N o. Per cent HH size
Nuclear 385 61.6 5.5
Supplem ented Nuclear 103 16.5 6.4
Lineal Joint 83 13.3 7.6
Lineal/Collateral 40 6.4 11.6
Others 14 2.2 4.6
Total 625 100.0 6.2
Source: Benighat Survey, 1988.
It was also observed that the joint family is idealized as the preferred form although it is not the most common. People talk of the joint family as good but think that it is not viable in changing circumstances. However, unlike the European household
formation pattern described by Hajnal (1982: 452), household formation in Nepal starts at quite an early age with marriage of children at relatively younger ages.
Household structures presented in Table 2.2 remarkably correspond to the household structure reported in the Nepal Fertility Survey. In that survey, about 63.4 per cent of households were categorized as nuclear followed by 15.5 per cent as extended households (Kabir, 1980: 54).
Family types are transitional and much depends on the life-cycle stages of then- members. This is particularly true of lineal-collateral households which will usually assume the form of stem household (lineal-joint) as one of the married sons moves out. Goode (1963: 238-254) also emphasized the functional role of the extended family and argued that the collateral joint family would be less common than the lineal joint family. In South India, Caldwell et al. (1988: 126-127) observed that the role of the joint-stem or joint family was indispensable for two reasons: for the organization of marriage of daughters which involved pooling the resources of all the household members; and as a training ground for the new daughters-in-law. In the present study, it was observed that lineal-collateral households consist of couples who had recently married: one household had five married couples, another four. My own observation of family functioning in the study village agrees with both Goode's and Caldwell et al.'s views.