The Conundrum of Kamaiya: Ex-Bonded Laborers, Local Leaders, and the Construction of Claims and Profit in a Nepalese Squatter Settlement

《The Conundrum of Kamaiya: Ex-Bonded Laborers, Local Leaders, and the Construction of Claims and Profit in a Nepalese Squatter Settlement》

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关键字: kamaiya in Nepal; bonded labor; squatters; land claims and entitlement; caste and ethnic relations

作者单位: [Gallagher, Kathleen M.] St Marys Univ, Grad Program Int Relat, San Antonio, TX USA. Gallagher, KM (reprint author), St Marys Univ, One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, TX 78228 USA. E-Mail: kmgallagher1@stmarytx.edu

摘要: The following article seeks to explain how the relocation of former bonded laborers (kamaiya) into a preexisting Nepalese squatter settlement confounded conventional approaches used by local leaders in profiting from the controlled distribution of unregistered government land. I argue that while liberated bonded laborer populations provide an exceptional moral high ground from which to defend the use of land in the absence of legal tenure, the basis for their claims is not easily co-opted and therefore creates liability for leaders. I suggest that this liability is related to the content and lack of equivocation in ex-bonded laborer claims. The difficulties of constructing and utilizing claims to land associated with kamaiya are also linked to the complicated history of caste and ethnic relations informing the relationship between former bonded laborers and the higher castes that have historically dominated many regions of Nepal and comprise much of the squatter settlement leadership. Simultaneously providing legitimacy as well as liability, the liberated kamaiya were a conundrum in their new place of residence.