Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Acharya, Upendra D. --- "A trinity of culture, law and politics: legal anthropology of the bonded labor system in Nepal" [2017] ELECD 1606; in Nafziger, A.R. James (ed), "Comparative Law and Anthropology" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 361

Book Title: Comparative Law and Anthropology

Editor(s): Nafziger, A.R. James

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781955178

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: A trinity of culture, law and politics: legal anthropology of the bonded labor system in Nepal

Author(s): Acharya, Upendra D.

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

The Tharu people of Nepal are an indigenous people who have been exploited for their labor and for other more sinister purposes throughout the history of Nepal. The result has been a bonded labor (Kamaiya) system. Nepal’s merely technical or formal legal attempt to eradicate the system has been insufficient to address the problem. Instead, this perplexing social issue requires a comprehensive approach rooted in both anthropological and legal insights transcending legal formalism. So far, the challenges inherent in the social, cultural, economic, political and legal systems have not been particularly helpful in resolving a problem of labor structure that was created and facilitated by the class/caste system. It is unclear whether post-Kamaiya Nepal’s efforts to reconstruct its culture through social, political and legal movements will bring a constructive culture that not only is alive, dynamic and inclusive, but also fulfills a specific function in integrating Kamaiyas socially, economically and politically.