TERAI PEOPLE

The word "Madhesh" is also referred  as Terai basai nepali and from the Sanskrit term Madhyadesh which means "middle country" between India and Nepal, referring to the ancient kingdoms such as Videha and Shakya whose main capital regions are now a part of Nepal and remaining in India. Middle country including Awadh is now in India and partially in Nepalgunj and Tulsipur Dang region of Nepal.Makwanpur was a part of Madhesh which served as trade route between India and Tibet of China in ancient times as it was between them. The word Madhesh is also believed to be derived from the Pahari term referring to the entire flat Terai region within Nepalese territory.The term Madhesi is a modern Nepalese term for Madhyadesi, the adjective Madhyadesh. The terms Madhyadesh and Madhyadesi started to be called Madhesh and Madhesi respectively by Pahari people after the unification of Madhesh into Kingdom of Nepal in 1769 by King Prithivi Narayan Shah and is now a part of Modern Nepal. Teraibasi Nepali is used as a synonym of the Madhesi people since they are Nepali citizens who inhabits Madhesh which is a part of Terai that lie in Nepal.
The total land area of the Madhesh is less than 34,109 square kilometres (13,170 sq mi) and comprises 20 districts which account for 23.1% of Nepal's total area. According to the population census in 2011, the Madhesi people made up about 35.9% of the total Nepalese population.[30] In 2001, 47.79% of Nepal's total population of 23.2 million lived in Madhesh districts with a density of 329 persons/km.

In 1854, Jung Bahadur Rana, the then Prime Minister of Nepal, enforced the Muluki Ain, Nepal's first legal system. It comprised applications of traditional Hindu Law and clauses to accommodate ethnic practices. In the Muluki Ain both Hindus and non-Hindus were classified as castes based on their habits of food and drink.Ancient Madhesi people were considered "enslavable alcohol drinkers" together with several other ethnic minorities.

In the 1950s, the World Health Organisation supported the Nepalese government in eradicating malaria in the forests of Madhesh. People from the hills migrated to the Madhesh and claimed the fertile land. Tharus and many other Madhesi people lost their traditional land and became slaves of the new landowners. This resulted in the development of the Kamaiya system of bonding generations of Madhesi people, mainly Tharu families to labour.

When the first protected areas were established in Chitwan, Madhesi people, particularly Tharus and Maithil communities, were forced to relocate from their traditional lands. They were denied any right to own land and thus forced into a situation of landlessness and poverty. When the Chitwan National Park was designated, Nepalese soldiers destroyed the villages located inside the boundary of the park, burned down houses, and beat the people who tried to plough their fields. Some threatened Tharu people at gunpoint to leave.
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. Although democracy has been reinstated in the country, the Madhesi community has called for a more inclusive democracy as they are fearful of remaining an underprivileged group.In 2007, Nepalese parliament passed a controversial Citizenship Act which allowed many Biharis and Uttar Pradesh origin Indian immigrants inhabiting Madhesh for a long time to acquire Nepalese citizenship and become Madhesi by naturalization. The indigenous Madhesi people criticized the Nepalese government for providing citizenship to non-Madhesi under their identity.