Nepal's Constituent Assembly passed last week the country's first ever permanent federal and republican Constitution, seven years after the monarchy was abolished. The new Constitution organizes the country into seven autonomous provinces, and grants rights to communities traditionally discriminated against. But the text has not satisfied the population of the Terai regions in southern Nepal, where violent clashes have left more than 40 deaths.

"The Constitution," International Crisis Group says, "was envisioned as an instrument to address longstanding grievances of large parts of society," including "plains-based Madhesi, Tharu and smaller groups, Dalit caste groups in the hills and plains, hill ethnic Janajati ("indigenous nationality") groups and women." "Many" of them, the analysis goes on, "have concluded" that the text "does not adequately deliver on commitments to a federal system and inclusion."

In Terai, Tharu protesters are rejecting the division of their traditional settlement area into two different provinces, while Madhesis are arguing that some of their lands have been left outside the Madhesi majority province.

Madhesi parties and the Maoists had established in 2014 an alliance aiming at the division of Nepal into ethnically based provinces and at the recognition of the right to self-determination. But at the last minute, the Maoists agreed to a division into multiethnic provinces and accepted that the Constitution does not mention self-determination.

Explaining why his party changed its mind regarding those issues, Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal recalled that the Madhesi have finally achieved their own province and that "the principle of proportional inclusion" for Nepal's different groups has been achieved.

But several Madhesi and Tharu parties who boycotted the Constituent Assembly vote are now setting up an alliance to further their claims before the three major Nepalese parties (the Maoists, the Marxist-Leninists and the conservative Nepali Congress).

Marxist-Leninist president Sharma Oli replied that the Tharu and the Madhesi should engage in negotiations with the government so that an alternative solution can be found. Oli further said that the Constitution "is not unamendable." The Maoist leader argued that province borders can still be discussed.

"Indivisible" nation, one single Nepalese people, some powers devolved

Under the new Constitution, each one of the seven provinces will have its own government and its own law-making assembly. Areas such as the promotion of language and culture, certain taxes, management of forests, and provincial roads will be the responsibility of the provinces. Each province will be allowed to choose its own official language(s) among those spoken by "most people" in its territory.

Federal authorities will retain powers such as defense, central police, main taxes, health, foreign affairs, citizenship, immigration, telecommunications, and civil and criminal codes.

The Constitution enshrines Nepali as the only official language at the federal level, and specifies that Nepal is a single, "indivisible" nation. Similarly, only one "Nepalese people" is recognized. Even though, it is admitted that the Nepalese people has "multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious and multicultural characteristics."

(Image: the Nepalese flag / photo by MShades / Chris Gladis.)

Further information:

• Follow-up on Nationalia:Maoists, Madheshis unite to get self-determination, ethnic federalism recognized in Nepalese Constitution, A second chance to build a federal Nepal