History Of Tharu (200-120 BC):
Lumbini, and in this area most of the people are and were Tharu. The Tharu are a mongoloid people who have dwelt in flat Terai region of Nepal since before the 1st century AD.
Modern history (1846-1999):
According to Nepali author Subodh Kumar Singh, a series of invasions by the other races, from north India across the border and from the hills and mountains of Nepal, eroded the influence of the indigenous Tharus. In 1854 Jung Bahadur, the first Rana prime minister of Nepal, developed the Mulki Ain, a codification of Nepal's indigenous legal system, which divided society into a system of castes. The Tharus were placed at next to the bottom (lowest touchable, above untouchables) of the social hierarchy. Their land was taken away, disrupting their community and displacing the people.
In the 1950s, the World Health Organisation helped the Nepalese government eradicate malaria in the Terai region. This resulted in immigration of people from other areas to claim the fertile land, making many Tharus virtual slaves of the new landowners and developing the Kamaiya system of bonding generations of Tharus families to labour.
Recent history (2000-present):
The Government of Nepal outlawed the practice of bonded labour prevalent under the Kamaiya system on July 17, 2000, which prohibits anyone from employing any person as a bonded labourer, and declared that the act of making one work as a bonded labourer is illegal. Though democracy has been reinstated in the country, the Tharu community has called for a more inclusive democracy as they are fearful of remaining an underprivileged group.
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