Recent Arrivals

THE LAPCHA OF NEPAL, BY Jeffrey Schwerzel, Shanti Tuinstra & Juddha Pd. Vaidya (Publisher: Udaya Books, Kathamndu, 2000) This book, which is the first work entirely devoted to the Lapchas of Nepal, asserts that the Lapchas are the original tribal inhabitants of East-Nepal. It also stresses the role the Lapchas played in the "Unification" of Nepal. This well researched book sheds light on various aspects of Lapcha life, history, culture, tradition etc., in addition to picturing exotic peoples of exotic places. Until now, when neither local nor foreign researchers have performed in-depth studies on the Lapchas, this booklet should stand as something to reckon with for scholars and students interested in the Lapcha tribe and the history of Ilam.

THE EXCHANGE RATE POLICY OF NEPAL VIS-À-VIS THE INDIAN CURRENCY, Author: Dr. Nephil Matangi Maskay (PUBLISHER: Nepal Foundation for Advanced Studies, 2000)

As the title itself suggests, this book traces the Nepal’s Exchange Rate Policies since the foundation of modern Nepal in 1769 AD and various modifications it has undergone till date, including the establishment of Nepal Rastriya Bank in 1956 BS. Each chapter, in the book, explicitly examines the aspects of Nepali Exchange Rate Policy. The book highlights the two major aspects of present Nepali Exchange Rate Policy. First, the Exchange Rate Policy vis-à-vis the Indian currency. Second, the transformation of Nepali exchange rate over last four decades in comparison with foreign currencies. It also examines the factors facilitating the stability of the present Nepali Exchange Rate Policy. The author at the end raises a question about the need of revising the current Exchange Rate Policy of Nepal if the trends towards increasing trade diversification, financial sector development and economic integration continue in South Asia.

SAMAJIK ANDOLAN KI AGRANI TATHA KAVI YOGMAYA, (PUBLISHED BY: NEPAL STUDIES CENTER, 2000), contains many write ups by various persons that reveal the life and Nobel works of Yogmaya which have yet remained hidden in the history. Throughout the book, Yogmaya has been pictured as a feminist who stood against social injustice, disparity and caste segregation. Despite severe punishments and threats from the then Rana Government, and intense criticism from male-dominated society, she raised her voice against various sensitive social issues and social malpractice. She openly defied the superstitious beliefs rooted in the society and demanded injustice and exploitation free ‘Religious State’. When her demands were not fulfilled, she along with her 67 disciples committed suicide by drowning in the Arun River to express her disapproval and hate towards the then existing tyrannical Rana regime.

The book has depicted Yogmaya, in true words, as the feminist of the era who devoted her life for the shake of social justice and human rights.

INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE LAW, EDITED BY: B.S. CHIMNI (PUBLISHER: SAGE PUBLICATION, 2000). Students, policy makers, human rights activists, and people from various walks of social sciences, particularly, those involved in international refugee law, refugee studies will definitely find this book a valuable source of information. The book, however, can’t be misjudged as a book dealing simply with International refugee law.

The book is divided into eight chapters. The first four chapters, answer frequently raised questions such as, Who is refugee? What is asylum? What are the rights and duties of refugees? What are the prime functions of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees? The next three chapters analyze the root causes of refugee flows and the law of state responsibility including the durable solutions to end the refugee crisis. The final chapter pictures the legal conditions of refugee settled in India.

Is Violence Necessary?

By Anil Bhattarai

The social life in Nepal is beset with wide-spread and deeply entrenched problems: disparities
between sexes, widening gap between rich and poor, social exclusion through discriminatory caste practices, lack of social dignity, historical subjugation of ethnic minorities, and unequal distribution of resources among people. The political agenda of our time should be the elimination of all these problems. But is violence necessary to do that or does present open, democratic space allow for engaging in essentially non-violent transformative action?

Maoists have claimed that the electoral representative system is a farce. The elections are not truly representative process; the political parties do not represent the majority of the people and, in fact, they only represent a very narrow, urban-based, elite section of Nepalese society. They, therefore, argue that current system cannot solve the problems that beset the majority of people. The problem lies here. What we have, in fact, is much more than this. The current political system is much broader than the election, parliament and political parties. And there are enough spaces within present political system for transformative political actions.

Many elections were held during a little over one decade of multi-party democracy; many governments got formed. At the local level also two elections have already been held. But the initial optimism that the state is going to deliver has now given way to yawning cynicism. That is understandable. What have the so called ‘people’s representatives’ done other than lining their own pockets?

During the past one decade, many more things have happened than the holding of elections and forming of governments. The democratic opening provided freedom not just to form political parties, but it also opened up spaces for people to engage in influencing the decisions that affect their lives, to directly participate in those processes, to take control over the way these decisions are made, and to get organized at different levels. Thousands of women’s groups have emerged at different places. Thousands of community forestry users groups have sprouted. The dalits have been asserting social dignity. The bonded laborers have taken initiatives to free themselves from years of bondage in different parts of the country. The landless have organized themselves under campaigns for their right to land. The list can go on.

But quite often the tendency has been either to dismiss them as too local or to ridicule them as ideologically naive. These plural initiatives might not quite fit in within a singular ideological box of the political parties—from ultra left to the ultra right. They might look too fragmented for some. Their numbers might not be too large, and they are limited to isolated pockets of the country. But the kind of issues they are dealing with and the way they are doing that point towards the possibilities of social transformation within present political system.

These initiatives, mostly, though not exclusively, outside the electoral system, of women, janajatis, bonded laborers, landless people, dalits, rural people, and other marginalized sections of our society, are challenging the social disparities at various levels. Some are limited to local level while others operate at national and international level through various networks. One can argue that they are produced by ‘dollar farming’ of NGOs and aid business in the country. To the extent that some of these initiatives are financially supported by international aid agencies, it is true. But to go beyond and say that the agendas they are espousing are also created by these aid agencies is to miss the aspirations these initiatives represent- the aspiration to have equal citizenship both at the nation-state and at the community, the aspirations for social dignity, the aspirations for social justice and the aspiration to participate in taking control over the processes that affect one’s life.

Let’s look at Nepali State. It is the biggest lord in the country—with de jure ownership over all the land and forest, water resources, and even foreign loans and grants that come in the country. Those who have access to the state—the bureaucracy, the top level cadres of the main political parties, the elected representatives, the military, the professional urban elite, and other organized sectors—have now monopolized on that entity called state. The state, in a way, is privately appropriated by them. For example, we see that the forest that is under state agencies is in fact private resource of the department of forest officials, district forest officers, rangers, the forest guards, and local elite who ally with them. The initiatives such as that of community forestry is transforming that situation, though in a very limited scale, in which the control is shifting from the small groups within the state forest agencies to decentralized, essentially democratic, local community forest user groups.

Sadly, no political parties have learned from them and used it as an opportunity to challenge the centralized character of the state. In fact, some provisions of community forestry were changed to restore the regulatory power of the bureaucracy, but it did not become political issue. This shows that political parties have alienated themselves from the real aspirations of the majority of the people. The recent Kamaiya movement in west Nepal also shows that people’s aspirations to take charge of their lives remains intact. But do we have a political process to articulate these aspirations-aspirations to participate actively in the process rather than be a passive recipient -either of the revolution or the state? Do the political parties have any courage to accept them as genuine aspirations? There is an obvious gap between the centralized, bureaucratic character of political parties and these decentralized urgings and stirrings.

It is only through active and democratic participation that revolutionary transformation is possible. This is possible only in open, democratic system. Perhaps, what we need is not another state and political parties which are equally centralized (but perhaps with ‘good’ people) and bureaucratized. It is increasingly becoming clear that no single entity—individual, agency, party, state—can have best of ideas not just for defining the reality, but also for changing that. Maoists have laudable goals of bringing about a New Nepal—free from all kinds of disparities among people. And so do these diverse initiatives at the bases of our society. Besides, there are people in some parties who are genuinely committed to the causes of transforming our society. Perhaps, there is need of a new alliance—a plural alliance which respects diversity of struggles and aspirations, but at the core of which lies a common agenda of social transformation. Many of the specifics can be worked out along the way. After all it is always better to start with a broad outline, and the actors (can) fill in colors and rearrange shapes as they go along. It is high time that Maoists give up arms and engage in these dispersed initiatives. In that way, they will definitely be able to fill a yawning political vacuum we are witnessing at present.

(A Bhattarai is interested on public debate of democracy)

 A road newly travelled

By Sanjaya Serchan

The indigenous/ethnic resurgence following 1990 has manifested itself in various spheres. If politics
remains the most significant domain where it has found manifestation, the increasing cultural assertiveness is nonetheless also in evidence in fields like arts and literature. An anthology of poems in the various national languages of Nepal can be taken as an example of this.

Nepal boasts of more than 100 languages belonging to four language families, i.e. Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Munda and Dravidan. Of the languages, the highest number of languages belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family. The languages used in Nepal can be divided into further four groups, namely those with written tradition, those oriented towards developing a written tradition, those without written tradition and those on the verge of extinction. The book under review has poems in twenty-four languages: Gurung (Tamu), Chhantyal, Jirel, Tamang, Thakali, Thangmi, Tharu, Dura, Dhimal, Nepal Bhasa (Newari), Magar, Kham Magar, Yakkha, Rai-Koyu, Rai-Chamling, Rai-Thulung, Rai-Bantawa, Rai-Bambule, Rajbansi, Limbu, Sherpa, Satar/Santhal, Sunuwar-Kainch and Hyolmo. The book has provided the Khas-Nepali translation alongside the original poems. For convenience’s sake, even the original poems are in Devnagari script.

The poems in the book speak of one’s culture, community, life, land, livelihood and surroundings from the perspective of the bhumiputra or the son of the soil. The pride in one’s own identity, language and culture is affirmed (it is language that identifies a person - Bhumilal Rajbansi and in comparison to discos outside/I like more my own traditional Shyabru - T.D. Hyolmo). There is also the pride to be taken in one’s past and what one’s ancestors achieved (the contribution of our ancestors, our identity/let’s not forget our identity - Shyamraj Rai (Bantawa) and the history of yesteryear based on facts should not be erased - Bayansingh Rai). A few poems in the book cover more offbeat themes. Durgalal Shrestha writes about conjugal life (you remain you/I remain myself/you are not in me/nor am I in you/as without a husband you are/nor do I a wife possess). Another poet laments the outcome of revolutions (on calendars on walls/for picnics/for time to play cards/a red mark signifying a holiday - Sudan Khusa).

A large number of the poems, however, revolve around suffering, the injustices of history, the necessity of raising oneself and one’s community, and moving forward on the path to progress. Shanti Chaudhari writes about the fate suffered by her community as kamaiya or bonded labourer (his or her effort has no value/ since a slave is a slave and not a human being). There is also the reiteration that ethnic groups, though having suffered a lot during the course of history, have not received much in return in comparison to some other groups (although we toil in many areas/when we look at the government offices/all the important officers belong to other castes - Sankhabuddha Lama Mikchan). And politics, in this context, can be a cruel game (like maize, barley in the water-mill/they grind us in elections - Dhyan Bahadur Moktan). The poets exhort their brethren to rise and comprehend this iniquitous reality (for long we have slept, let’s awake/……our sweat and blood was shed in history/……remember who the corrupt, commission agents here are - Jhusya Magar and how we strove to make this land fertile, how we tried/……let’s pause, sit down and rest/……let’s think whether the load we are carrying is our own or not/……let’s look at the rules and regulations of the country/let’s try to understand why we have not progressed - Amrit Yonjan).

The iniquitous state of affairs has to be done away with, and this calls for effort (digging the canals of faith/I bring the waters of dedication - Tejeshwarbabu Gwanga). It can call for action (with smoldering anger beneath our feet/not only through speech but also with our hands/not only in dreams but also in reality/we should show the world - Kuberman Limbukhim) and for the raising of the banner of revolt (the thing that has to be moved forward is a step/it is not the sun but eyes that have to rise/unless we shout, from thin air how will come a sound - Buddha Sayami).

There is also the realization in some poems that ethnic groups might have become the slaves of their own history (Thangsuhang Pushpa Subba) and about the necessity of doing away with some of the excesses in the prevailing customs and practices. It is the pen that should be taken up today, writes a poet (now the pen, my friend - Ganesh Rai). This will ultimately lead to a bright future for the children (we are called uneducated indigenous today/let our future descendants never have to hear such thing - Patra Dhimal).

An interesting aspect of the anthology is the quantity and quality of poems in Nepal Bhasa. Not only do the Nepal Bhasa poets have a significant presence (12 of the total 79 poets are Newars) but their contributions also are among the better poems in the collection. This is no doubt due to the higher level of education among Newars, in comparison to other ethnic groups, as well as their rich written tradition.

The book has, as one of its objectives, the encouraging of creative writing in the various national languages of the country. As the indigenous/ethnic renewal continues, we can expect to see many more creations in the fields of arts and literature from writers belonging to the various indigenous/ethnic communities. This is, after all, only the beginning.

(S Serchan is a student of sociology)

Engendering Caste

By Jagannath Adhikari

The so-called lower caste constitutes a significant part (about 12.5 %) of Nepal’s population. Moreover, these people are present in almost every village of the country. Despite this, there is scarcity of research solely devoted to the study of our society from the perspective of lower caste, particularly the women. On the edge of auspicious is a step towards fulfilling this gap. This book is an ethnography of a community in western Nepal which addresses the questions like how gender and caste, as both social position and cultural practice, are meaningfully arranged in the lives of people.

Caste society as a whole has received interest from various researchers, particularly the western researchers. But there have been disagreements among these researchers on what makes this society hierarchically stratified and perpetuating. Of particular interest is the role of ideology versus power (political and economic) in the existence of disparities according to caste level. The old tradition of emphasizing ideology has been challenged by recent studies, including this, which reveal that it is the power, both political and economic, that has been instrumental in the evolution and maintenance of caste hierarchy and discriminations.

To emphasize the role of power, the author examines the historical realities in relation to land ownership, as it has been the main source of power in the study area. This historical study clearly leads to the conclusion that the subservient position of lower castes resulted mainly because of the betrayal of a local king to whom they provided various services. This betrayal prevented them from seeking land rights in the village. As they became landless they started to develop a patron-client relationships with the local elite, mostly Brahmins, Thakuris and Chettris, controlling larger proportion of land. This patron-client relationship, locally called riti-bhagya system, and the rights to patrons became hereditary, divisible on a patrilineal line.

The author has also linked gender discrimination that we see in a caste society to the control of economic power, mainly the land, by men and by its transfer along the patrilineal line. The ideology of jati and jatidharma, in combination with the dominant force of power has been instrumental in creating exploitative situation on a gender-selective basis. Due to patriarchy, women are considered, particularly in the higher castes, as a symbol of earning prestige or honor. Adherence to jatidharma and maintenance of chastity by women is believed to give prestige to men. Accordingly, the author argues that women’s performance is concealed for the benefit of men who always remain worried about their prestige through the conduct of women. As a result, they would always like to control women’s behavior and sexuality. It is, therefore, men’s striving for prestige and aversion towards dishonor through the conduct of women that they (in caste society) always prefer a son over a daughter – the author argues. This argument goes against the general assertion that sons are preferred because of ritual reasons. But it is again the power, according to author, that has created this situation of son’s preference.

It is commonly observed that position of women also differs from caste to caste. It is usually claimed that women in lower caste are relatively equal to their male counterparts. The author also finds various evidences to this effect. Women’s greater decision making role within the family; control over their travel; control over the remarriage, practice of divorce and widow marriage; greater freedom for local and outside employment; bride-price instead of dowry; and, relative absence of preference for son, etc., are the examples gathered by the author that demonstrate the relatively high position of women in lower caste in comparison to their men. On the other hand, women in higher castes do not enjoy these privileges even though their caste position is higher. Accordingly their position is far lower than their male counterparts. But ritually, women in all castes can be equally polluting.

The book’s main contribution is that it argues against the commonly held notion that the relative parity of lower caste women with their husbands is due to their equal caste impurity. The author argues that "parity with men and low-caste women’s autonomy and domestic power come from their real and recognized economic contribution to the household, the lack of land and its associated patriarchal ideology in low-caste families, and low-caste women’s religious roles." Most of the works that women do in low-caste households are related to subsistence provisioning. Wage labor in other’s farm, work on their own farm, and their participation in traditional works contribute directly towards the survival of the family. As the power of males is weakened by their landless or near-landless position, women’s contribution is considered high, and, often, equal to that of men. Moreover, their work is not concealed into another product like ‘honor or prestige’ as in high caste. Even though women in high caste work as hard as their counterparts in lower caste, their contribution is not seen in material terms, but as a symbol of ‘prestige’. As a result, their work is not valued in an objective and direct manner. And contribution of women always remains small if measured against males’ wealth (land) obtained through patrilineal hereditary. Hence their position vis-à-vis their husbands is lower. But the combined absence of land and social power among low caste households serves to partially remove male authority over women. More than that, the new changes brought about by changes in local, national and international forces have begun to transform low-caste women’s work in such a way that their contributions to household economy from outside the traditional confines have increased. This will further empower the low-caste women within the household, the author argues, but also raises the concern that their relative poverty will limit them to realize fully their needs and hopes.

The book seems to have strong implications on the current debate about women’s equal right over parental property. It is seen from the findings of the book that in the present context of Nepali society economic position of women should be equal to that of men to achieve an equal status. Unless this can be achieved, the patriarchal society will always put women in subservient position.

(J Adhikari is a researcher based in Pokhara)

Mapping the Psyche at War

By Manjushree Thapa

A refrain of psychological trauma runs through Michael Ondaatje’s prose writing. The central figure of Running In the Family is his father, light and dark: unhinged to the point of sadism in one of the book’s most difficult passages. Coming Through Slaughter depicts jazz singer Buddy Bolden, suffering, deranged and genius. In The English Patient, Ondaatje writes of a romantic scarred by the cataclysm of war. Eight years later, Anil’s Ghost follows up on this same theme, this time placing his characters in one of the world’s most complicated psychological landscapes, the war between Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Singhala populations.

Anil’s Ghost begins with the return of Anil Tissera, a forensic scientist, to the land of her birth to work for a human rights organization. Anil has no immediate family to return to, and she avoids all small-town celebrity offered a foreign-returnee. She is a hard-thinking woman, containing within her the jagged experiences of previous war crimes investigations, and of failed love, of moves from continent to continent, of the death of her parents and the loss of memory of her closest friend, succumbing to Alzheimer’s. She recognizes her emotions but does not indulge them; on her first day back she orders curd with jaggary as though to test her ability to withstand homecoming.

No Ondaatje reader expects his novels to read in linear fashion. The story of Anil’s Ghost meanders eventually to Sarath, an archaeologist and Anil’s local counterpart in investigating the unidentified corpses appearing with growing frequency in the countryside. Given the government’s complicity in the violence, it is never clear to Anil whether to trust Sarath. Ondaatje, though, sympathizes with Sarath. Sarath is a man confounded by the violence around him, who turns for guidance to his teacher Palipana, a blind man living in seclusion in a forest. A semblance of a plot comes into view with the discovery of a fresh skeleton mixed in with older skeletons at an archaeological site. On Palipana’s advice, Sarath hires a famed artist, now working as a mineworker, to reconstruct the skull so that they might identify the victim.

Anil’s Ghost is set before the full-scale eruption of ethnic war in Sri Lanka. This is a time when identifying one skeleton bears much significance, when each act of violence shocks, when sensibilities are still raw and no one is numbed to massacre. This is a time when trust between groups and between people is incomprehensibly, irreparably breaking down. One act of trust entails enormous risk.

Interesting as the main protagonists of the novel are, Sarath’s brother Gamini proves to be the most riveting character of the book. A doctor, who attends to war victims, he pops pills to keep himself awake to his reality. He has lost his marriage, his family life, his whole gentle upbringing, and he resembles his own brutalized patients wandering dazed through hospital halls. In Gamini, Ondaatje has created a specter as much as a person, a spirit drifting through a hellish reality.

At one point in the novel, Ondaatje writes: "The National Atlas of Sri Lanka has seventy-three versions of the island—each template revealing only one aspect, one obsession: rainfall, winds, surface waters of lakes, rare bodies of water locked deep within the earth. The old portraits show the produce and former kingdom of the country; contemporary portraits show levels of wealth, poverty and illiteracy. The geological map reveals peat in the Muthurajawela swamp south of Negombo, coral along the coast from Ambalangoda to Dondra head, pearl banks offshore in the Gulf of Mannar. Under the skin of the earth are even older settlements of mica, zircon, thorianite, pegmatite, arkose, topaz, terra rossa limestone, dolomite marble...."

Anil’s Ghost might be read as a sobering addendum to this atlas, one which maps the geography of ethnic hatred—and of that rarer emotion: trust—in the psyche at war.

(M Thapa is a writer based in Kathmandu).