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Despite claiming that Nepal was a land of tolerant philosophies, the tale of Nepal for the last few centuries has been that of moral decline where intellectual descent was not tolerated. Understandably, those enjoying the power wanted to keep the status quo while the deprived ones sought to bring a change. Only unfortunate side of that inconvenient reality was that the discourse could not take a path of civility. For long, rulers acted as the gatekeepers of “truth” creating a dangerous antagonism between those who already embraced a new truth and those who will eventually end up embracing it tomorrow.
Aspirants of revolutionary change in the 1950s were vehemently suppressed just until the Rana regime was toppled. Panchayat regime suppressed the socialist and democratic forces until it was brought down by a popular movement in the 1990. Repeating the same pattern, the post-1990 regime sought to suppress the minority aspirants of change and challenged them to dare to rebel, and we know what the result was.
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"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." Albert Einstein
Shortly after writing the final semester exam of Intermediate in Science (Grade 12), I headed to Rasuwa, a district north-west of Kathmandu bordering China, in search of a teaching job. I arrived at Dhunche Bazaar in a winter evening. Coincidently, a day earlier in Dandagaun, I had found that there works a supervisor from my own district, Baglung. And his presence was a thread to hang onto in a strange place. I met him at the upper floor of District Education Office building, where a group of people were playing a card game. He was considerate to make an arrangement for me to stay with a junior staffer, a young and spirited person who hosted me by sharing a meal of rice and mountain potato curry, and his only bed in a crammed apartment. I slept under a warm Sirak (quilt) shared with him and escaped the bitter winter cold of Dhunche.
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Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. M.K. Gandhi
I: Who are NRN?
“Who are Non-resident Nepalese (NRN)?” I thought that the answer to this seemingly innocent question was obvious. But after spending a month in Nepal traveling as well as attending a weeklong conference of the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA), I was compelled to think otherwise. Being among the thousand delegates and observers in the largest of conference in NRNA history, listening to the President and Prime Minister of Nepal to “who is who” of Nepalese politics, businesses and diasporas from over 50 countries, and interacting with common people in the cities, towns and villages, made me realize that NRN is a well heard but poorly understood term. Consequently, instead of writing a report on the conference, I am pondering on above question with the context that made me rethink. This article is written with a hope to divert some of the intellectual energy currently expended in anchoring divisive thoughts onto healthy debate on NRN identity.
The history of migration of Nepalese in South Asia would be older than Nepal itself. However, we are concerned here with what is known in the world as Nepal, and Nepali, on the present context. Taking their distinct languages and cultures with them, Nepalese people migrated along the Himalayas and the environs, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sikkim, Bhutan, Burma, Bangladesh and Tibet, for long. The rate of international migration increased in the last few decades and started to span into countries of all continents. According to the United Nations, 3.2% of Nepal’s population has become international migrant in recent times [1]. Although cause of migrations of all times is mainly the interests of individuals, migrations of earlier times had not caught much attention of the Nepalese state, which saw no opportunity for stimulating knowledge, innovation, trade, and investment on the foundation of those migrations. The migration of the last few decades has, however, caught the attention of the state as well as the general populace. This may be because of the outflow of people and inflow of remittance ($3.1 billion in the last year [2]) at an unprecedented rate and also due to efforts of the NRNA.
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As a young boy, I grew up amidst traditional Hindu rituals that permeated most aspects of our lives. Year-long mourning of a deceased parent, 13 days mourning of close relatives, homage to ancestors, warding off of scabies or ghosts, periodic fasting, worshiping of deities, daily prayers, harvest ceremonies, greetings, and cleansing of the body are some examples of those rituals. Rituals defined our loyalty, respect, and interrelationships with gods, ancestors and everything that existed around us. Rituals came with magical qualities of communion, self-awareness, awe, solace, and intrigue. They often espoused happy memories in our psyche. On the downside, rituals were also like pests. They carried the burden of orthodoxy, competition of show-off, exposition of social hierarchies, financial burden, fear of ridicule in not-following or improperly-following them, and threat to scholarly freedoms.
I remember a time when my neighbours caught me not wearing my prescribed "sacred thread". To them it was solid proof of my deviation from my sanctioned duties. This became a matter of big ridicule and laughter in the village. I was relieved for the fact that my parents did not have to face this for they had already passed away. A student of engineering, dissatisfied by the lack of pursuit of science, technology and research in Nepal when some other countries were in the age of space exploration, I was appalled by the shroud of religion worn by the oppressive rulers of Nepal at the time. To me, our rituals looked so outdated, draconian, and superstitious. They did not make sense to me, albeit they did to my villagers for whom they were like fundamental basis of existence. Therefore, contradictions existed between the young and the old, learning and the all-knowing, aspiring and the habituated, and proof and the belief. And I belonged to the rebelling camp that sought justification and proof as the basis of accepting anything and everything.
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