The story about the Hayu caste and Junar (tangerine) is popular among the people of Ratanchura village of Sindhuli district. During the time of Rana regime, a landlord named Jabbar Sing Hayu, a village head of that time, ruled Ratanchura village. With the approval of Jabbar Singh, the people of Ratanchura had cultivated land for farming. At that time, the village head called Thari/Mukhia were the main person to collect land revenue and local tax from the people as assigned by the Rana regime.

One day Jabbar Sing visited Chandra Shumser Rana to submit the collected amount of land revenue. That was when Chandra Shumsher offered some tangerines to Jabbar Sing that he had just brought from his England visit. Jabbar saved the seeds of those tangerines and tried to grow it in his garden.

After six years, tangerines grew up on the trees. Jabbar Sing was elated with this so he offered the tangerines to the people of Ratanchura as souvenirs.

Tangerines as a souvenir and a symbol of Hayu caste

The Hayu peoples take tangerines to their neighbors and relatives as a souvenir until these days as a tradition of their culture. Besides Hayu community, the people from other own indigenous castes of Sindhuli district have also followed the Hayu tradition of taking tangerines as a souvenir while visiting their neighbors and relatives. Ratanchura village is still renowned as the main origin place of tangerine throughout in Nepal. Jabbar Sing was the man behind popularizing the tradition of offering tangerines as souvenir.

Nowadays, Sindhuli is famous for its tangerines all over Nepal, as most of the villages around Sindhuli have started tangerine farms and it was the Hayu peoples who first started the tangerine farm in Nepal.

Expansion of the market of tangerine business

After the thriving business of tangerine in Sindhuli, the government and other foreign organizations also showed their interest towards the business and helped out the people of Sindhuli. Although Ratanchura village is the major producer of tangerine and the Hayu peoples are responsible to introduce the tangerine farm in Nepal, the district administration has shifted the main farm storage & test laboratory centre of tangerine away from Ratanchura, its place of origin due to which the Hayu peoples of Ratanchura are disappointed.

Now a day, they used to say that the absence of the representation of the indigenous nationalities in the local and district level administration, the majority members of the Brahmin and Chhetri abuse their right decision to establish tangerine storage and building in the right place for the development of the Hayu peoples. This issue is enough for all on how do the majority of the so-called elite castes oppressed the indigenous peoples who are holding all power and position still now in the district and village level administrative unit of Nepal.

Establishment of tangerine storehouse

The Japanese governments provided its financial help on 2030-35 B.S. for uplifting the tangerine business in Ratanchura by building its storehouse but some government officers and the higher authority of Sindhuli district established the tangerine storehouse at the district headquarter which was four hours away from the Ratanchura village. Therefore, the storehouse could not facilitate the Hayu people and farmers of Ratanchura. It was hard for them to deliver the tangerines up to the storehouse. The local authority has now put the storehouse in rent to store other goods by for fulfilling their selfish purpose other than storing the tangerines for which the house was build.

Suffering of indigenous peoples

The indigenous peoples have been discriminated by the government in employment services. The government has not shown its interest on the issue of developing tangerine farm started by the Hayu peoples. The local authority of Sindhuli has abandoned the Hayu peoples and profiting from the tangerine storehouse established by the help of Japanese government by putting it rent on other purposes. Therefore, the Hayu peoples of Ratanchura are presently waiting for a new storehouse close to their village so that they could find a proper market for their produced goods.

The Hayu peoples have been residing at Ratanchura village of Sindhuli district since five hundred years ago and now there are approximately twentyfive households living at Ratanchura. The main income source of these villagers is the farm of tangerines and oranges due to which Ratanchura-6 of Sindhuli is famous all over Nepal for its tangerines and oranges.

However, the government and local authority have ignored the Hayu peoples of Ratanchura regarding the project of their tangerine farm to implement it with the right place. If they do so, they have to lose the benefit of the allocated budget for tangerine farm. Therefore, the storehouse was also build at the district headquarter instead of Ratanchura by the local authority so that they could profit from it by putting the storehouse on rent for storing some other goods.

Ten years ago, urea fertilizer was introduced for the first time and the farmers including the Hayu peoples used this fertilizer in their crops but after few months of using the fertilizer, the crops caught an unusual disease ruining the tangerine and orange trees slowly. The tangerine production was decreased by seventy-five percentage so the Hayu farmers went to the local authority to provide for technical assistance to diagnose disease of tangerine plant but they were disappointed as the local authority ignored the request of the Hayu farmers. The living standard of the Hayu peoples have diminished since then and now the storehouse is completely under the control of the local authority and they are benefiting from it by putting it on rent for other purposes. The tangerine farms at Ratanchura is now under a very poor condition and not a single organization has tried to help us out, if only the local authority had shown its interest towards tangerine farms and provided its support and help during the time of difficulties, the Hayu peoples would not face these adversities.

Now the whole Sindhuli district is endangered from losing its popularity that was made by the Hayu peoples and their tangerine farms all over the country.