MOTHER NEPAL (Satis Shroff)
MOTHER NEPAL: Savvy
Schwarzwäldertorte? Nein, a Himalayan Torte (Satis Shroff)
It was the Nepalese king from Gorkha Prithvi Narayan
Shah (1768) who described his small Himalayan country as a yam between two
stones (China via Tibet and India). The Nepalese battled against the
Chinese in 1790 but in 1792 the Chinese
retaliated and in the following treaty the Nepalese had to promise not to
attack Tibet anymore, and pay a tribute to the Chinese emperor in former
Peking. Nepal paid till 1912.
Nepal’s borders in those days of the 19th century
stretched from Kashmir to Sikkim and their expansion was a challenge to the
East India Company and the Raj. Soon there were disputes over the Terai which
led to a war between British India and Nepal. The war ended with the Treaty of
Sugauli in 1816 after which the Raj took Sikkim and part of the Terai with the
borders of Nepal remaining intact till this day. Some of the land was returned
to Nepal in 1858 by the British as a reward for Nepal’s support during the
Indian Mutiny.
To come to modern times, hadn't it been for the
economic blockade on the part of Delhi, Nepal wouldn't have sought help for oil
supplies from its other bigger neighbour China. In view of the fact that there
are still Maoists in the Nepalese government who would like to have more than
cordial ties with Beijing, it was unwise on the part
of PM Modi not to recognise the new constitution of Nepal, which is a sovereign state with its
own rights.
Nepal has become a federal, secular, democratic republic, much to the
chagrin of the ruling Indian government which would like to see its neighbour
declared as a Hindu enclave. Times are changing in the Himalayan state. Even
though the majority of the population are Hindus, and the Buddhists, Animists
and Christians a minority, it had decided to take the secular path, like India
did after the partition for it was formerly Hindustan: the Land of the Hindus.
Mingling: The other matter was
the mingling of Delhi in the internal affairs of the Himalayan state. Nepal has
a long border with India in the south and there have been cultural ties since
time immemorial because Nepal was formerly a Hindu kingdom. It is only too
natural that the Beharis of India and the Lowlanders from the Terai developed
ties on common grounds. This was also due to the fact that the Terai (Lowland)
had been ignored by the central governments based in Kathmandu for centuries.
The Maithili-speaking people of the Terai had to adapt themselves and arrange with
the big southern neighbor India. When finally democracy came to the Himalayan
state the different ethnic people of Nepal wanted their share of good
governance that the new state promised. The talk was about federalism at the
beginning, which would have been useful if it could have been genuinely be
implemented like in Switzerland. But Nepal and Switzerland are worlds apart.
Migration of population: Nepal is a beautiful country with the highest peaks
but lowest infrastructure. During the times of King Mahendra in 1954, a
programme of drainage and spraying was introduced in the Terai area which was
till then infested with malaria. This action made it possible for a mass
migration of people from the northern hilly part of Nepal, as well as from the
south.
The fertile soil and
infrastructure led to the fast development
of Nepal’s madeshi. The lowlander are called madeshis by the highlander,
who in turn are called paharis, and the terai is the country’s granary and has
the same importance to Nepal as the Punjab to India. The terai produces more
than half the gross product of Nepal. Development is easy in this lowland area
because the territory is flat. But during the monsoon rains, from June to
September, the plains are flooded. And landslides occur in the Mahabharat and
Siwalik hills to the north of the country. It was the policy of the then
government to let the people from the hills to migrate to the Terai, where they
were allocated lands for new settlements, which is the reason why there are
also hill people living in the madesh. The idea was to hope for unity in
diversity, for the Terai people have always felt more attached culturally to
India than formerly Tibet with its Mahayana form of Buddhism.
The indigenous people
of the Terai are the Tharus and many people are related to other groups from
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Although the lingua franca of Nepal is Nepali, the
people in the Terai speak Maithili, Bhojpuri or even Hindi. All these people
are Hindus. Bhojpuri is spoken on both sides of the Indo-Nepalese border along
with Maithili.
Nepal’s new constitution includes provisions that will
enable a good number of parliamentary seats elected through a proportional
representation system which highlights the Himalayan state’s ethnic diversity.
The basic constitutional text has been passed and can now be further refined
through subsequent amendments. As a result Nepal now has a functioning
parliament and government. After the tectonic earthquake there is a lot of work
to be done in facilitating
reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the earthquake-affected areas.
It is hoped that Nepal will stabilise its polity. Not only India, but its other
neighbour China, have to help the modernization of this Himalayan country. A
step in this direction has been taken in the form of a political and economic
tripartite agreement.
The Nepalese have a long list of grievances against
India’s big brother attitude. This attitude has to change because Nepal is a
sovereign state and even though it is small in size, it cannot be compared to
Bhutan, because Nepal doesn't want to be a part of India's so-called
defence-system against the Chinese. Nepal and India have signed an arms
agreement in 1965 in which Nepal is obliged Nepal to buy military equipment
from abroad only when India is not in a position to do so.
Superpower India, it might be noted, imported US
weapons in 2013 to the tune of $ 1,9 billions and is the largest buyer. During
the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict Delhi under PM Nehru and Defence Minister Menon
didn’t feel obliged to consult Kathmandu. Nor did India inform Nepal about the
1965 Indo-Pakistan war even though there was talk about mutual security in the
1951 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Nepal and India.
Due to the
Gorkhas in the Indian Army, Indian businessmen and their families in Nepal, the
two countries have to carry on a cordial friendship, as well as maintain the
cultural and commercial ties between the two countries.
There was an article from a prominent Indian
journalist highlighting that although India wants to be seen as the 'big
brother,' Nepal is the actual big brother, having never fallen into foreign
hands and always having remained a sovereign nation, while India was 'born'
since independence in 1947.
That's a new, amusing
angle.The question of the Raj has been discussed very often in the British and
Indians, and both have divided opinions about the pros and cons of the colonial
times, especially the master-servant character of the set-up, proslytising
Hindustan's masses to Christianity,which was a part of the church-and-state
policy (that's why you have such a lot of Anglo-Indians in India and Britain).
Civil service: Then there was the question of what the British brought to India, namely
the civil service. The British governors,tax-collectors and judges were
completely incorruptible. The German administrators are also like that because
'Beamtentum' in Germany has a lot of
meaning. If the administrators are corrupt then there can be no hope of justice
and corruption, nepotism, afnu-manchey paves the way for the ruin of a country.
The Raj gave India British
justice and education for its brown sahibs who later ran the country after the
Brits left India.
Nepal was not conquered, and
as such, didn't enjoy the establishment of a British civil service, no
railways, no ropeways, no transport and telegraph systems. Only the rich Ranas
had telephones and they kept the commoner Nepalese at bay by declaring Nepal a
forbidden country. They did as they pleased and amused themselves in their
palaces with their families, servants and slaves for over a century.
Britain taught Indians the
meaning of democracy and patriotism. Indians were introduced to British culture
through journey and studies abroad. The British gave their colonies also a
common language: English. If the Indians didn’t have this common language,why,
most of the would have to speak Punjabi, Gujerati, Behari (Hindi), Sindhi,
Urdu, Bengali, not to speak of the Dravidian languages like Tamil, Telegu,
Malayalum of Southern India if they wanted to communicate, trade or make
friends with them.
The Raj also put an end to Sati,
the burning of widows in the funeral pyres of their husbands. But bride-burning
hasn't been stopped by the so-called modern, democratic Indian government. Nor
gang rapes. Women are still regarded as commodities to be sold in the marriage
market through dowries. This has long disappeared in Europe, but the Indians
still stick to this obsolete custom. Although India has made amazing
developments in the economic and commerce sectors, in terms of sociology, they
have a long way to go. Indian physicians have ruined the scientific idea of
sonographic diagnosis by making a biz out of the gender of the fetus. Girls are
thrown away in a bucket, boys are taken care of, pampered and given all the
love, attention and toys. The Brits managed to prevent religious wars between
Hindus and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent for 200 years. But right after
the partition of India and West Pakistan the mobs on both sides started
slaughtering each other, sending trains full of maimed, injured and slaughtered
Hindu and Muslim people to both countries. With the rise of the fanatical
parties in Pakistan and India, both countries are suffering from communal and
religious wars.
The sati-issue was solved by
the British but they did nothing for the Untouchables of India and the caste
system goes marching on in this age of globalization. Nevertheless when Indians
die they are no longer separated according to their caste in the burning ghats.
Till recently there were separate pyres according to the castes of the
deceased. This a small, democratic step towards Equality in Death. Perhaps
Nepal will follow suit and declare the former royal burning ghats free for all
and sundry.
The Nepalese are a sturdy folk
and don’t have the sub-servient Haltung (posture) of many Indians, portrayed by
Peter Sellers in Hollywood films. The Brits undermined the self-confidence of
the Indian population because they thought they had better self-confidence than
the Indians. What was even worse is that the Brits wounded the pride of the
Indian by refusing to interact with them socially. Dermatology played a
significant role in this interaction. Even ordinary Brits had the developed
the attitude that the colour of the skin
was decisive and put the Brit in the condescending role of the master and the
Indian in the role of the servant.
Indian culture is awesome and
has a long history but the Brits couldn’t care less about the ancient Indian
culture. They exploited India and Indians by slowing the development of
industries in India and used its raw cotton from the Deccan, jute, tea,
produced textiles in Manchester and sold it in India. Millions of villagers in
India suffered from drought, monsoon floods and famine as the Raj didn’t care
about irrigation and measures to prevent erosion.
And when the Brits had to
leave India the villagers were just as poor as before. Money is always
necessary when you want to buy something, but the villagers and people living
in the towns didn’t have money they went to landlords and money-lenders
bartering land in exchange for money, with the forlorn hope of getting rich
someday and acquiring the property back from the money lender or landlord.
Hindu fathers who were poor were ruined due to the dowry system in marriages.
If a father had daughters he’d not only lose his daughters to the bridegroom’s
family but also money in terms of dowry.
Since Tatopani, the largest trading point
between China and Nepal, has remained closed due to the severe quake damage in
Zangmu port and disruption in Araniko highway, traders have viewed Kerung as
their second option. Nepal and China celebrated the
resumption of Kerung border port on Thursday nearly six months of halt
following the April 25 massive earthquake.
The Nepalese
were shown in the photo with flags of Nepal and China in which the people
expressed their gratitude to the Chinese government for the assistance render
to Nepal after the tectonic calamity earlier. The Himalayan country needs and
welcomes help in many sectors from its two big neighbours Indian and China,
because Nepal is a land-locked (no harbours), mountainous country.
Nepal has always
been a sovereign country and was not conquered or annexed by the British East
India Company. It has been ruled by the Shah Kings and the Rana dynasty till
the last King Gyanendra was ousted by the Maoist government in Kathmandu. The
king's Narayanhiti Palace, designed by an American architect, is now a museum.
The
Nepalese cake has undergone a change and has been divided into seven pieces.
The question is will the people accept these new territorial changes? During
the reign of the Gorkha kings Mahendra and his son Birendra Shah in Nepal, the
country was divided into 14 Zones and 75 districts, and now the frugal cake has
been cut into five pieces. It took a long time for the sqabbling governments to
come to a settlement and write a new constitution, which India does not
recognize.
The ethnic
people of Nepal from the hills and the plains have been ignored by the
administrators in Kathmandu since generations, and now that a semblance of
democracy has been restored in the landlocked country, the people in the Madesh
(lowlands) are grumbling and are disgruntled. It is becoming hard for the
current government to please all Nepalese communities in the country. The
writing below asks the reader if he or she agrees with the division of Nepal
into these seven parts or not. One thing is clear: there is growing scepticism among the
public over the ability and political will of Nepal's political leaders.
And thereby hangs a tale.
The Terai and the tribal
people from the hills have been ignored and resources diverted to other sectors
in the past. A clause that increases barriers to Nepalese children
automatically acquiring their mothers’ citizenship has also been criticized as
backward.
Moreover,
there's no sign of a federal government in which the former 14-Anchals (Zones)
could have developed the ability to develop on their own but Kathmandu is still
Nepal, because there was never a genuine decentralisation of power. Power was
and still is very much centralised in Kathmandu, just like France in the Middle
Ages.
But
when we come to think of it, Nepal's democracy is very young and the country
has been misruled in the past by the Ranas, the Shahs, Panchayat government and
the coalition governments that followed. The clause 3 of Article 31 says: "In
exercising the right entrusted by this article, any act which may be contrary
to public health, public decency or morality or incitement to breach public
peace or act to convert another person from one religion to another or any act
or behavior to undermine or jeopardize the religion of each other is not allowed
and such act shall be punishable by law." In other words it would be
illegal to change another person's religion by force and proselytize them,
while the people fully retain the right to change their religion on their own
will. This law was brought out as a response of various Christian missionaries
proselytizing marginalized communities and increasing ethnic tensions through
forcing discrimination within their communities.
The new constitution of Nepal was declared by
President Ram Baran Yadav on September 20, 2015.
It
is hoped that time, education and the people's experience from the past will
lead to the formation of a new, democratic Nepal where justice, tolerance and
mutual respect will flourish. Constitutions are there to be amended through debates
and discussions in the parliament.
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