This paper addresses a gap in scholarship on the Nepal Terai by identifying links
between the ethnic exclusion of indigenous and Madheshi communities with the
evolving class contradictions at a local and national level, both today and in the past.
This study traces the roots of ethnic exclusion in the industrial belt north and east of
Biratnagar town. Following the colonisation of the region by the Gorkhali regime and its
subjugation to feudalism in the late 17th century, control over land was placed in the
hands of the state and powerful landlords from the hills, while indigenous and Indian
peasants joined an expanding landless tenant class. With the exception of a small local
functionary class, ethnic lines corresponded with class divisions.