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. © 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.

Bonded labor squatters caste and ethnic relations kamaiya in Nepal land claims and entitlement

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