 The town is populated by government officials, by soldiers and police of "Magar" and other "hill tribes" and their mostly "Chhettri" officers, by "Newar" merchants, by civil servants recruited mostly from local "Bahun" and Chhetri castes, as well as menial castes who labor as tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths and construction workers.Before King Gyanendra was removed from office in 2008, this district center was virtually a royalist island in a republican sea.Pyuthan district was the home base of Mohan Bikram Singh who was a charter member of the Communist Party of Nepal.