Background slide

A "canton" form of government refers to a political system where a country is divided into smaller, autonomous regions called cantons, each with its own government and significant degree of self-governance. These cantons control most domestic policy (taxes, infrastructure, social services, etc.). Nepal is currently made up of three broad and distinct ethnic groups divided into three geographic regions (the Khas Arya, Janajati, and Madheshi). These three groups have had a significant amount of historic ethnic tensions that have spilled over into conflict, including being a motivating factor for the Nepalese civil war in 1996. Today tension is significantly increasing again between the politically marginalized and relatively poorer Madheshi people against the other two groups.