The Nepal Tarai corridor, where most of the industries in the country are located, continues to remain the economic hub of the country. Even though depleted, it still contains a lot of sal forests. It continues to be the place where the green revolution in Nepal is in its incipient stage. It is also where major conservation areas and national parks have been established.
The completion of the East-West Highway and recent plans to expand road networks within the Nepal Tarai as well as adjacent areas in India are bound to create new realities. Yet various issues vex the region. To begin with, many of its inhabitants are barred from obtaining citizenship papers. The �open border� continues to be seen as a liability, whereas some of the �blessings� are not being utilised. Issues related to inundation at the border point create perennial problems for bilateral relations with India, even while the issues and concerns of ground-level populations on both sides of the border do not get due recognition, either in New Delhi or Kathmandu.
There are several ways of bringing these issues into the national limelight. One such important strategy would be the planned conference to bring together experts and papers that address these various facets of the Nepal Tarai (and which would later be published as a book). Moreover, with the national debate on �inclusivism� being limited to the janajati, dalits and women, there is continuing danger that the neglect of the Nepal Tarai will lead to a festering and un-addressed situation. There is a need to remind everyone of the exclusion of the Nepal Tarai and its population from the Nepali national mainstream.
Call for papers
The Social Science Baha, which had earlier organised a conference titled �The Agenda of Transformation: Inclusion in Nepali Democracy� in April 2003, as well as its parent organisation, Himal Association, have been at the forefront of bringing latent issues to the surface for national debate, and both institutions believe that the Tarai has been neglected for much too long as a subject of social-scientific inquiry, which has ultimately affected the population living in this region. As the organiser of the �Nepal Tarai: Context and Possibilities�, the Social Science Baha calls for papers that will deal with the primary focus of the conference: how one could go about �including� the Nepal Tarai and its population within the Nepali state.
Themes to be covered
Identity-language politics
Political economy of the Nepal Tarai
Pahade-Madhesi (hills-plains) interface
Religion
Cross-border issues
Substantive issues to be covered
The peopling of the Nepal Tarai, modern demographic trends, the politics of citizenship, �open border�, interface with Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, economy, industrialisation, hill-plain interaction, evolving inter-community relations, and so on.
Time-table
Call for abstracts: August, 2004
Deadline for abstract submission: 30 September, 2004
Length of abstracts: around 1 page (typed/12 point font)
Review of abstracts/finalisation: 30 October, 2004
Deadline for paper submission: 30 January, 2005
Conference: March 2005
Paper Specifics
Total papers to be accepted: 16
Length of papers: around 10,000 words
Contact person: Ajaya Mali
email:
baha@himalassociation.org (abstracts/papers are to be sent to this address).