In a recent report commissioned by the Norwegian Embassy, Magnus Hatlebakk, a senior researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), sheds new light on the ethnic based Terai conflict.
09/08/2007 :: The report tries to explain the unrest in Terai by deeper social and economic structures. Based on previous research on the village economies of Terai he describes the main socio-economic structures, and discusses to what extent the Terai movement represents the socially and economically excluded people. Hatlebakk argues that the landowner class, as represented by the Yadavs, is dominating the Terai movement, and a main conclusion is that the uprising is a struggle for political positions for the Madhesi leaders, rather than social and economic change. This contrasts with the Maoist insurgency, which to a larger extent has been a socio-economic struggle.
Magnus Hatlebakk is an economist whose research focuses on rural development. In particular he studies household level poverty traps that may result from inferior positions in the rural labour and credit markets. His main line of research covers informal credit and labour markets in rural Nepal, and includes analyses of interventions into poverty traps by way of micro-credit, workfare programs and land-reforms. Hatlebakk has conducted a number of field-works in rural Nepal.
Full report available here (pdf).