ABSTRACT
Every Monday, when the weekly market was held, the chairman of the Maidel village government or Village Development Committee (VDC), who everyone called Baje (grandfather), spent most of the day sitting on his verandah. There, Baje and the Bahun man from the neighboring village, appointed as the VDC secretary by the district government, attended to the requests and resolved the disputes of the dozen or so villagers who came to see them. A smoke-blackened wooden cabinet containing files, official stationary for Maidel VDC and a stamp and ink pad to imprint all official documents stood against the back wall of the porch. Across the front of Baje’s house and barn, MNO slogans were boldly painted with red clay: ‘There should be ethnic equality, there must be a secular state!’ (Jātiya samānta hune parchha, dharma nirapeksha muluk bharne parchha); ‘For the total elimination of the present ethnic inequalities in this country, let’s vote for the rooster [the MNO’s election symbol]!’ (Deś mā bhaeko vidhyamān jātiya asantulanko purna antyako lāgi, bhāle chinha mā matdan garau.) On the walls of the front porch, MNO pamphlets announced: ‘We want a president, not a king’ (Rājā hoinan, rāstrapati chāhanchha); above the pamphlets hung the treasured family photo of Baje receiving an award from the king during the Panchayat regime, for his contributions to the development of the country. This scene from 1997 encapsulates the contradiction between the MNO’s radical ideas and its operations in the village. Baje had run for election to the post of VDC chairman as an MNO candidate, claiming to uphold the party’s slogans of calling to end ethnic inequality by changing the structure and policies of the state. Yet, in his work on the VDC, Baje carried on the business of the village government just as representatives to VDCs from other parties did. MNO elected representatives to the Maidel VDC could not actually further their party’s plans for transforming the state; rather, they upheld the local presence of the state. This chapter examines the contradictions between political ideals and practices that the MNO contended with during the 1990s. Such contradictions are characteristic of the process of democratization, in which the discourse of democracy creates new political expectations, yet political and social structures do not allow for these to be fulfilled. After the institution of democracy in 1990, people
had high expectations for their ability to create dramatic social change through participation in the political system via political parties. Yet political actors in the village were faced with a highly centralized state structure that gave little power to village governments. Furthermore, while the MNO sought to mobilize people by convincing them to support its program of ending ethnic inequality by bringing Mongols to power, local political practices and social structures constrained the ability of voters to choose parties on the basis of ideas. A discourse of political affiliation as concerning party ideals existed side by side with practices of personalized politics. In this chapter, I examine the history of MNO mobilization and examine contradictions between the MNO’s stated goals and ideas and its operations in this village. I address the possibilities and limitations of political participation in the new multi-party system. While the post-1990 system promised to bring about new modes of political participation, there was considerable continuity between the Panchayat system and the multi-party system at the level of village politics. The village of Maidel was one of three villages in the northeast corner of Ilam district where the Mongol National Organization had considerable electoral success, considering its status as an unregistered ethnic political party. In local elections in 1991 and 1997, MNO candidates won the majority of seats in two village governments, or (VDCs), and gained many seats in a third VDC. The MNO’s success in Maidel VDC did not change the social structure or distribution of power within the village. Yet, the party introduced people to a new discourse of ethnic rights. This party’s challenge to high-caste Hindu dominance resonated with people in Maidel due to their experiences with state institutions.
