The villagers of a rural district in of East Nepal have their own interpretations of what the multi party system of government (bahudal byabastha) is and is not.
After the April proclamation which announced the multi-party system, hundreds of thousands celebrated on urban streets. In rural Nepal, far from the political centre of Kathmandu, the celebration was more subdued, and the impact of freedom, and all its implications, more slowly digested.
Says one elderly woman, "I don't know, they say that there is a change. I don't see it, I don't know that there is any new bahudal byabastha."
However, even though many in the rural hinterland do not see political changes as affecting their lives, they are clearly aware that something has happened. Almost every villager has heard of bahudal.