Current Issues
No.44
May 2005
 
    

Influence of Caste and Ethnic Groups on Nepalese Sports
Mr. Diwakar Lal Amatya, Nepal

 

INTRODUCTION
Administration, Physical Division & Population of Nepal
Nepal is divided administratively into 5 development regions (East, Central, Western, Mid-Western and Far Western Regions) and 75 districts. Currently there are 3,915 Village development committees and 58 Municipalities. The population of Nepal according to census 2001 is 23.1 million fixing an annual growth rate of 2.2 percent in 1991-01 decade. And its literacy rate is 53.7 percent (population aged 6 and over).
Language and Religion
The official language is Nepali. Classification of population by mother tongue, as reported in the population census 2001, shows that population speaking Nepali as mother tongue is 48.98 percent of the total population. And population speaking Maithali, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang and Newari as mother tongue are about 12.4, 7.6, 5.9, 5.2, and 3.7 percent respectively. Nepal is the only Hindu country in the world. The majority (80.6 % of population) are Hindu. The second largest religious group is Buddhist, constituting 10.7 percent of the total population (Statistical Pocket Book-Nepal, 2002).
Cast System and Religious Background of Nepal
Religion has always been playing a central feature in Nepalese Society but Nepal has never been plagued by any form of religious fanaticism. On the contrary, Nepalese people love colorful rituals of all kinds and have welcomed a variety of religious traditions and belief among different religious community. Different castes, ethnic groups and religions are mingling with each other living harmoniously and peacefully.
Historical Glimpse of Caste System in Nepal:
The caste system in Nepal has always been unique and has not copied something from abroad. The reason is that it had to adapt and adjust to socio-culture system with a very different background. Some of those who accepted the cast system and its accompanying belief system succumbed to the tendency to reorient away from Nepali society towards India, and developed a belief that India was a superior culture. Indian Hinduism was taken as the ideal. Those who have traveled outside of south Asia have broadened their perspective and appreciate the limited and archaic nature of caste. The abolition of caste laws (differential punishment for offenders of different caste for the same offence), in 1963, has done much to change the attitude of the people towards the caste structure.
Modern Sports Background in Nepal
Only around 53 years ago, Nepalese people had the opportunity of playing modern sports. Before sports was confined within the places of the Rana regime (for 104 years) and Nepalese people had even less possibilities of enjoying modern games. This whole century can be regarded as "Dark Century" for Nepalese people. Now there are more than 45 games National Association’s affiliated to various international games organization and active for the development of sports in Nepal.
Table 1. Sports Facilities in Nepal under National Sports Council-Government
S.N. Sports Number Remarks
1 Stadiums with Football Ground 10 4Int. Std.
2 Track & Field-Athletics 5 3 Int. Std.
3 Badminton Covered Hall 5  
4 Multiple Purpose Covered Hall 5  
5 Table Tennis Covered Hall 41  
6 Swimming Pool 2  
4 Volleyball Covered Hall 5  
7 Tennis Courts 2  
8 Gymnastics Hall 1  
9 Taekwondo Hall 3  
10 Weightlifting Hall 8  
11 Snooker 1  
12 Wushu (Chinese Marital Art) 1  
13 Shooting Range 2 Int. Std.
14 Physical Fitness Center 1  
15 Squash 2  
16 Judo Hall 1  
17 Karate Hall 5  
18 Boxing Gymnasium 1  
19 Medical Center 1  

(Source: National Sport Council)
All the infrastructures under the National Sports Council (NSC) are shown above (Table 1). Most of them were built around 10 to 20 years ago and it is very difficult for NSC to spend money for the maintenance of these infrastructures.
For example there are only two squash courts in Nepal under the NSC and there may be less than a hundred regular players in Nepal and still there is a National association for the game. Now one can only imagine the performance on an international level by the Nepalese squash players. Another example is there are 41 table tennis covered halls in Nepal, but the performance of Nepalese Table Tennis players is not very impressive on an international level. With only one gymnastics training center and few private schools one can again imagine what role is played by the National Gymnastics Association for the development of gymnastics in Nepal.
According to the above table (Table 1), it is clear that 60% of the sports associations have no sports facilities and no association office. When the investigators of the present studies discusses with concern sports coaches, it was noteworthy to mention their comments saying "to give national association status to any sports, National Sports Council should make a criteria that at least one separate playground should be there and a minimum number of regular players should be registered in that sport". The investigator thinks that with the socio-economical situation in Nepal, the logic is justified to some extent.
National Games - A Giant Step for the Development of Sports in Nepal
Table 2. Structure of National Games during Various Times in Nepal
National Games Venue Year TournamentSystem Number ofParticipants
1st National Games Katmandu 1981 Zonal 1,443
2st National Games Pokhara 1983 Zonal 2,007
3st National Games Birgunj 1985 Zonal 2,775
4st National Games Nepalgunj 1998 Regional 1,622
5st National Games Katmandu 2001 Regional 14,25*
* Postponed due to the sad Royal Family demise.

It is clear that the numbers of participants are decreasing from the 4th National games when the competitions are held in a regional system (see Table 2). There is a gradual increase in athlete's participation from first to third National Games. At that time competitions were held under zonal system where 14 Zonal teams had participated in National Games. As mentioned, there are 5 development regions-which means five regional teams along with the Nepal Police and Army teams taking part. Therefore the NSC must reanalyze the National Games competition policy to increase the number of athletes participating in the games. Many sports experts in Nepal agree with the old system and University and Corporation teams can be added to increase the athletes participation in National Games.
The main purpose of this present study was to find out the relation between number of athletes' participation in the various games in National and International Games and the infrastructure dispersion around the country. With this study the investigators aimed to give an idea of how disproportionate sports infrastructure scatter within the country and which will ultimately make it easier for future sports infrastructure and development policy for the NSC and Government.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Record and data keeping in Nepal is very poor in the field of sports. Within the sports society, there is no systematic record keeping system. For this study various souvenir and statistical records were the main source.
Altogether 1,996 athletes were studied form National Games, Olympic Games, Asian Games participants and South Asian Federation Games medal winners. Simple mathematical tools like means testing were used for the analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The total population of Nepal is 22.736 million (Cencus-2001). Out of this population Chhetri, Bahun and Magar are the top three castes with 15.8 %, 12.74 % and 7.14 % of the population respectively. The Tharu (6.75%), Tamang (5.64%), Newar (5.48%), Muslim (4.27%), Kami (3.94), Yadav (3.94%), Rai (2.79), Gurung (2.39), Damai/Dholi (1.72%), Limbu (1.58%), Thakuri (1.47%), and Sarki (1.40%) are the top fifteen castes and the main ethnic group population in Nepal. Apart from these top fifteen cast and ethnic groups, there are more than 80 caste and ethnic groups in Nepal living harmoniously. The majority (80.6 % of population) of which is Hindu. The second largest religious group is Buddhist, constituting 10.7 percent of the total population (Statistical Pocket Book-Nepal, 2002).
Distribution of Sportsmen According to Caste and Ethnic Groups
5th National Games-Kathmandu
The distribution of caste and ethnic groups' sportsmen participating in the 5th National Games-Kathmandu is shown below (Table 3). The table is based on the souvenir published by National Sports Council. The actual total number of participants is 1,424 sportsmen, but some of the games athletes are missing in that souvenir. Fifteen games and sports were included in the 5th National Games: Athletics, Badminton, Volleyball-men, Volleyball-women, Table Tennis, Football-men, Boxing, Swimming, Wrestling, Shooting, Karate, Kabaddi, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, and Squash.
Table 3. Distribution of Sportsmen According to Caste and Ethnic Groups 5th National Games-Kathmandu (2,058)
S.N. Caste / Ethnic Groups Men Women Total %
1 Chhetri 316 97 413 31.12
2 Newar 150 69 219 16.50
3 Bahun 127 53 180 13.56
4 Chaudhari/Tharu 105 18 123 9.27
5 Gurung 38 22 60 4.52
6 Lower Cast 30 13 43 3.24
7 Tamang 31 10 41 3.09
8 Tarai 30 8 38 2.86
9 Mongolian 24 14 38 2.86
10 Rai 14 20 34 2.56
11 Yadav 32 2 34 2.56
12 Rana 18 9 27 2.03
13 Magar 19 5 24 1.81
14 Bhandari 13 3 16 1.21
15 Cast Not Clear 13 3 16 1.21
16 Muslim 14 0 14 1.06
17 Chhetri / Bahun 4 3 7 0.53
  Total 978 349 1327 100.00
  % 73.70 26.30 100.00  
Note:
  • Mongolian consists of Limbu, Subba, Thulung, Yakthumba, Thapamagar, Ale, Pun, Thakali, Thebe, and Thulung, Ranamagar ethnic and indigenous groups.

  • It is difficult to distinguish the Bhandari cast whether they are Chhetri or Bahun, so they are kept in separate cast.

  • Apart from Yadav, Chaudhari and Muslim casts, rest of the Plain / Tarai area sportsmen are separated as Tarai.
The distribution of the Nepalese population according to caste and ethnic groups is different to the picture we get from the above table (Table 3). In general population tables, Magar is the third largest group on the basis of population, but their participation in national games shows them at the bottom of the table with just 24 athletes (1.81 %). According to the number of sportsmen who participated in the 5th National Games, Chhetri, Newar and Bahun are on the top three positions with 413 athletes (31.12%), 219 athletes (16.15%) and 180 athletes (13.56%), respectively. Most of the Newar people live in the major cities and towns of Nepal, where most of the sports facilities are situated in the urban areas and naturally they have ample of access to these facilities. Tharus (Chaudhari) are like black African athletes in terms of their body physique. Tharu athletes' participation in the national games is always performance oriented with plenty of athletic potential. The most surprising aspect is the Muslim participation with only 14 (1.06%) athletes in the National Games. Yadav athletes have just 34 (2.56%) athletes in the national games concentrating on a few games only - namely Wrestling, Track & Field and Kabaddi.
Chhetri dominates on nine games (Shooting, Athletics, Karate, Boxing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Kabaddi, Football, and Volleyball) in terms of the number of sportsmen participating. Newars dominated in four games (Badminton, Table Tennis, Swimming and Squash) and Yadav on only one game (Wrestling).
In this way only six castes and ethnic groups namely Chhetri, Newar, Bahun, Tharu, Yadav and Terai are able to make up the top three dominating caste and ethnic groups over 14 games during the 5th National games. This is an example of Tharu athletes, where they have dominated in track and field games since two decades.
Nepalese Athletes Participation in International Sports
Nepal in Olympic Games
In the History of Olympic Games Nepalese Athletes participated in the 18th Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 1964 for the first time. Since then, with the exception of the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968, Nepal has been continuously participating in the Olympic Games.
Table 4. Nepalese Athletes Participation in Olympic Games
SN Caste & Ethnic Groups Number Percentage
1 Chhetri 24 37.50
2 Newar 16 25.00
3 Mongolian 14 21.88
4 Bahun 9 14.06
5 Yadav 1 1.56
  Total 64 100.00
  Male 52 81.25
  Female 12 18.75
  Total 64 100.00
  • Within Mongolian-Ethnic Groups like Pun, Gurung, Lama, Ranamagar, Tamang, Magar & Rai has been grouped together.
  • In the History of 27 modern Olympic Summer games, Nepal started to participate from 17th Olympic in Rome/Italy Olympic Games (as observer) and 1968 Mexico Olympic, Nepal did not participate.
Until the last Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, 64 Nepalese Athletes have participated in the Olympic Games. In Olympic Games Nepal have participated in categories such as Athletics, Boxing, Weightlifting, Taekwondo, Shooting, Judo and Swimming. In 1988 at the Seoul Olympic Games Nepali Taekwondo (demonstration event) players Bidhan Lama's managed a Bronze Medal for their winning effort, but apart from this Nepal has yet to prove its potential in the highest level of competition. On the basis of caste and ethnic groups, out of these 64 athletes, Chhetri participated with 24 athletes (37.50%) and they were followed by Newars and Mongolians with 16 athletes ( 25.00%) and 14 athletes (21.88%) respectively (see Table 4). On the basis of gender, only 12 female (18.75%) and 52 male (81.75%) athletes participated in the Olympic Games.
Nepalese Athletes in Asian Games
Table 5. Nepalese Athletes Participation in Asian Games
S.N. Caste & Ethnic Groups Number Percentage
1 Newar 69 32.55
2 Chhetri 54 25.47
3 Mongolian 31 14.62
4 Bahun 20 9.43
5 Yadav 9 4.25
6 Gurung 8 3.77
7 Chaudhari 8 3.77
8 Rai 7 3.30
9 Muslim 3 1.42
10 Lower Caste 3 1.42
  Total 212 100
  Men 180 84.91
  Women 32 15.09
  Total 212 100.00
  • Within Mongolian Ethnic Groups like Pun, Lama, Ranamagar, Tamang, Magar Ranamagar, Sherchan, Lopchan, Shyambo, Subba, Shangdan, Gole, and Magar have all been grouped together.
In the history of Nepalese athletes participation in the Asian Games, Nepal have won only one silver medal and 17 bronze medals. A total of 212 athletes from Nepal have participated in the Asian games and that comprises of 180 male athletes (84.91 %) and 32 female athletes (15.09 %) (see Table 5).
On the basis of caste and ethnic groups, out of these 212 Nepalese athletes Newar had dominated with 69 athletes (32.55 %) and they were followed by 54 Chhetri athletes (25.47 %) and the Mongolians with 31 athletes ( 14.62 %) and Bahun and Yadav being the fourth and fifth with 20 (9.43 %) and 9 athletes ( 4.25) respectively.
Nepalese South Asian Games Medal winners (First three positions only)
Table 6. Nepalese Medal winners in South Asian Federation Games (1984-1999)
S.N. Caste and EthnicGroups Number Percentage
1 Newar 138 35.11
2 Chhetri 113 28.75
3 Bahun 40 10.18
4 Mongolian 39 9.92
5 Gurung 16 4.07
6 Muslim 16 4.07
7 Yadav 11 2.80
8 Rai 10 2.54
9 Chaudhari 8 2.04
10 Lower Cast 2 0.51
  Total 393 100.00
  Men 316 80.41
  Women 77 19.59
  Total 393 100.00

Out of 393 men and women medallion winner (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) athletes studied in this section, Newar had dominated with 138 winners (35.11 %) and they were followed by Chhetri, Bahun, Mongolian, and Gurung caste and ethnic sportsmen with 113 athletes (28.75 %), 40 athletes (10.18 %) 39 athletes (9.92 %) and 16 athletes (4.07 %) respectively being in the top five caste and ethnic groups (Table 6). The other five castes and ethnic groups' share of medal winners was less at below 5 % of sportsmen. Similarly out of 393 medal winners athletes studied, 77 athletes were females (19.59 %) and more than 80.0 % were male.
Newer castes' participation in national games was only 16.5 %, but had a 25 % participation rate in Olympic Games (second top caste), 32.55 % participation in Asian Games (top caste) and 34.61 % medals in the SAF Games dominating all other castes and ethnic groups in Nepal. Therefore it is not surprising that the Newars with a total general population of 5.48 %, had dominated in the overall sports field. Most of the Newars do live in the urban city centers and towns in Nepal. Economically and educationally they have maintained a higher status among Nepalese Society and are more advanced, so they have ample access to administration and state machinery. Besides these reasons most of the sports facilities developed by the NSC are in urban areas and this may be the reason that Newars are ahead of others in the field of Nepalese sports.
The only favorable and suitable standard of Nepalese sportsmen can be seen at the South Asian Federation Games, where Nepalese athletes are able to achieve some success. However, in spite of the hundreds of millions of government funds spent on the competition organized in the form of National Games and preparation for the participation in the SAF Games and other international competitions to improve the standard of Nepalese athletes, there are no events which really satisfy the people of Nepal with the performance of the Nepalese athletes in SAF Games . In various SAF Games, Nepal's performance has never come up better than 4th place in the overall medal winning table among seven countries participating in the games. During the last SAF Games, this was held in Kathmandu-1999, Nepal came in second position in the overall medal standing with major contributing sports from Karate and Taekwondo with fourteen gold medals each game. Now with Afghanistan joining as an eighth country in the SAF Games and a reduction in the number of Karate and Taekwondo events, Nepal will face more of a challenge to maintain its overall medal standing in the Games.
Representation by Caste and Ethnic groups in National Sports Association
Table 7. Shows the representation of the National Sports Council (taking into account President & General Secretaries) according to Caste and Ethnic Group Representation in 45 Nepalese Sports Associations.
S.N Caste/Ethnic Group Number %
1 Chhetri 21 25.3
2 Newar 18 21.7
3 Shaha & Rana 18 21.7
4 Bahun 13 15.7
5 Mongolian 4 4.8
6 Gurung 4 4.8
7 Tarai 3 3.6
8 Rai 2 2.4
  Total 83 100.0

It is surprising to note that Shah and Rana have occupied more than 21 percent representation in the decision and policy making officials without impressive representation in terms of number of participation as well as medal winning in any games in Nepal (see Table 7). Newar's representation in various associations is quite fair but other minority caste and ethnic group's representations are much lower.

CONCLUSION
Due to twelve years (after 1991 New Multi Party Democracy) of unplanned staff increases by various political parties' in Nepal, most of the funds which NSC receives from the government is spent on salaries of coaches and administration staff. The NSC must think differently to become economically independent for the regulation of sports training and competitions, within the country and for participation in the international competitions for the development of athletic standard to meet the intense top level international competition.
In spite of meager sports infrastructures in Nepal, more than 45 National Sports Associations exist in Nepal. Sixty percent of the sports associations have no sports facilities and it's surprising to learn that the majority of the associations do not have their own office. President and General Secretaries of these associations run their office through briefcase’s carrying stamps and letter pads.
Although there is apparently no catechism in sports in Nepal when developing infrastructure or organizing sports competition and training, serious attention should be given to minor caste and other ethnic groups according to their inherent talent and more opportunities should be given accordingly.

REFERENCES
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7. Stiller, L. F. (1968): Prithvinarayan Shah in the Light of Dibya Upedesh. Bihar. Catholic Press.
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12. Sports and Athletes (2003): Nepal National and International Athletes Association. Volume # 1: Jun-July.


Mr. Diwakar Lal Amatya
President - National Association for Sports Health & Fitness
16/1 Nakabahil, Lalitpur, Nepal.
Email: dlamatya@ntc.net.np



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