Nepal’s international image

By Dr Mohan Lohani

Nepal is known to the international community as a sovereign independent country situated between the two most populous countries of the world - China and India. This landlocked country is the world’s only Hindu Kingdom and the Crown is the symbol of national unity. Nepal, although it is recognized by the United Nations as one of the least developed among developing countries (LDCs), has been able to establish its separate identity owing to its rich cultural heritage such as the birthplace of Lord Buddha and the land of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. In fact, a large number of tourists who visit this country every year, are immensely impressed by places, objects and memorials of historical, cultural and archaeological significance. Likewise, our folk literature, music, arts and dances have lent a unique dimension to the distinct identity of this country. Despite the fact that we are a multi-religious, multilingual and multi-ethnic country, different groups and communities constitute a single family and contribute to national integration. In brief, Buddhism, the Himalayas and the institution of Monarchy do no represent a particular community or ethnic group. Everybody takes pride in the country’s precious cultural tradition, values and institutions.

The foreign policy pursued by Nepal since it introduced a democratic setup in the early fifties is no less responsible for enhancing the international image of this country. As all of us are aware the world was divided into two blocs immediately after the end of the second World War. Some leaders of the Third World took the initiative to keep away from military alliances and launched the movements of non-alignment. Nepal was one of the founder members of this movement. The movement’s basic principles and ideals include non-interference, non-use of force, respect of each country’s sovereignty, national independence and territorial integrity and settlement of all disputes by peaceful means. Besides, the policy of non-alignment presupposes each country’s right to judge an international issue on its own merit.

Guided by the principles, purpose and ideals of the non-aligned movement Nepal has established diplomatic relations with more than one hundred countries during the last five and a half decades. The movement has organised twelve summits so far and Nepal has participated in these summits at the highest level. The Nepalese delegation to the Belgrade, Cairo and Lusaka summits was led by the late King Mahendra, while the late King Birendra led the Nepalese delegation to the six non-aligned summits from 1973 to 1983 in Algiers, Colombo, Havana, New Delhi, Harare and Belgrade. Following the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1990, Nepal has continued its foreign policy based on the UN Charter, Panch Sheel, principles of the non-aligned movement, world peace and respect for international law. The elected prime minister of the country has led the Nepalese delegation to the tenth, eleventh and twelfth non-aligned summits held in Bali, Cartagena and Durban. Nepal has presented its perspective independently and fearlessly on major issues of global concern and interest in all the summits mentioned above. Nepal’s participation in these summits at the highest level since the inception of non-alignment makes it clear that there is consistency in our policy, perspective and approach irrespective of the political system that has been adopted by the country. The international community has appreciated the independent stance taken by this country on outstanding international issues such as arms race, proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, growing disparity between rich and poor nations, problems of poverty, backwardness and destitution in most developing countries of the Third World.

The pursuit of a non-aligned foreign policy has enabled Nepal to raise its voice not only against imperialism, colonialism, racism and racial discrimination but also against all forms of exploitation, oppression and domination. Nepal has strongly pleaded for general and complete disarmament under overall control and supervision of the United Nations (UN). Recently, Nepal has condemned the terrorist attacks on the United States and has supported UN-led campaign and coalition against international terrorism. Nepal expressed concern over the danger of nuclear proliferation in South Asia after India and Pakistan, the two influential member states of SAARC, conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998. While other SAARC member states are signatories to NPT and CTBT, both India and Pakistan are under international pressure to sign the CTBT.

Nepal has vigorously championed the cause of LDCs and landlocked developing countries ever since it joined the UN in 1955 and became a founder member of the movement of non-alignment in 1961. In this context, mention must be made of the special privilege and opportunity provided by the first UN Conference on LDCs held in 1981 to the late King Birendra to represent the nine LDCs of Asia and the Pacific region. Only a few years ago, FAO had also invited the late King to address its annual conference as the Chief Guest. The Royal Address touched upon the challenges of globalisation to many developing countries, in particular the LDCs which have not yet developed their competitive capacity to benefit from the positive outcome of globalisation.

Last but not the least, Nepal has contributed significantly to world peace by participating in the UN peace missions in several trouble spots of the world. Nepalese troops as peace-keepers have earned admiration from the international community for their loyalty, discipline, honesty and above all, their gallantry in war-torn regions. It is, however, a pity that the country has suffered from acts of violence, terror and intimidation perpetrated by Maoist insurgents for the last six years. Nearly two thousand lives have been lost in insurgency and counterinsurgency operations. All segments of the population, including political parties, intellectuals and members of civil society, have expressed concern over the incidence of violence and terror in the country. What is encouraging is that the Maoist insurgents have participated in talks with the government so as to reach a settlement by peaceful means. The third round of talks has already been completed, and let us hope that both sides will show flexibility and maturity in resolving the six year old crisis that has badly hit all aspects of national life. The lingering crisis on the domestic front will, in no way, boost Nepal’s international image.

Festival for not all

By Pooja Shrestha

No Red Rice Tikas on the forehead. No delicious Masus. No get togethers. No multihued Mandaps. Surely, everything was entombed in the blanket of sadness.

Dashain is over, so is Tihar. With the demise of my relative, I could not celebrate the festivals this year. With the passing of the festival, it was a normal day, month and year for me. A festival for others..…..

For me, Tihar was one of my favourite festivals, but not this year. I could see my neighbour’s house being festooned with orange sayapatri flowers and lighted by mud diyos. Crackers and fireworks produced volumes of noises, throwing around extra light. Bhajans and the sound of the ringing bells spread far and wide.

The smell of the anarasa and sel roti’s travelled inside my house, keeping my eye balls in motion. Dogs woofed and cows mooed. Blessings and good wishes were exchanged among sisters and brothers. Some were seen walking down those lanes of Kathmandu city waiting for the taxis and tempos.

As I take my mind to the sadness overshadowing my life this year, I can’t help thinking about the lives of many others. Thousands of people, both young and old, are going through it year after year.

The Maoist insurgency or "the war of the people" has left hundreds of innocent people dead. When one member of the family is being killed every year, the festival is as good as non-existent for many families. The bloodshed and hatred have stolen the happiness of many. A girl of six or seven may crave for new clothes, while a boy may crave for a new toy. He longs to fly kite while the girl imagines herself feasting on masu bhat.

While the whole world celebrates Children’s Day, hundreds of thousands of poor and needy children continue to live in poverty and deprivation. Where are their rights to live and education?

Modernization and gender bias

By Jyotsna Poudyal

The attempt to define modernization as development has been a very controversial issue among scholars. How do we define the term "modernization"? Do you agree that modernization itself is development? If so, again, how do you define the term "development" or "developed"? Is development industrialization? Mass consumerism? Competition? Commercialization? If it is, then where do we draw the line?

There has been a very fierce debate among scholars regarding the concept of modernization in terms of development, and different scholars define development in different ways. Whatever the true implications of modernization and development should be, we have to accept the fact that there is no place in the world that has remained purely untouched by commercialization and industrialization or a person whose life has not been affected by them. However, the effects of modernization on people have not always been positive. One of the most visible examples has been the effects of modernization on women. Contrary to what was expected, the attempt to bring "development" through modernization, by implementing different development programmes, has increased the gender bias in society, instead of decreasing it.

The developmental theory that supports industrialization, advocates free market policies and commercialization is the modernization theory. The modernization theory claims that as industrialization raises the employment, living standard, and the economic and overall development of the country, the status of women would be raised simultaneously, and the male domination would be eliminated in that process of development. Its main argument is that traditional societies are patriarchal, or hostile to women, and modernization changes those societies. It argues that because of its free market policy, high efficiency, rapid process of industrialization and the creation of huge employment opportunities, women would work, and they would be independent from men. Therefore, we can see that women’s issues were taken very simply, and their development was granted without taking any serious measures towards it. It was thought women’s issues would be resolved concurrently in the process of industrialization and modernization.

The modernization theory ignores the power structure between core and periphery; therefore, it advocates the free market policy. Similarly, it also ignores the cultural barriers to women, which in most cases are reinforced by modernization process, and the factors that lead to the domination of women are sometimes strengthened in the process of so called ‘development’.

Modernization uses the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the measure of development, and most of the women’s work is not included in GDP. Most of the women in the developing and even in developed nations are largely "relegated to particular occupation" (Handleman). We can see that the vast majority of women are working in agriculture or the informal sectors, especially in developing countries. In Nepal, most of the women work in small farms for family consumption, or they work as street vendors, domestic help, and in small hotels, restaurants, schools etc- mainly in the informal or non-monetised sector. Therefore, their earnings are not included in GDP. Their valuable contributions to society, such as taking care of their houses, children and wage-earning husbands have no value in GDP.

Those who are working in industries (formal sector) are working as a labour in assembly lines, at the very low wages in horrible working conditions. Multinationals operating in Third World countries are attracted towards women labourers for the assembly lines works because they believe that women have patience, and are better at such work than men. However, the major factor for women’s preference is their low wage. Men are the breadwinners and women should look after children and household work: this concept that was widely prevalent among the colonisers (for example Victorian England), which was reinforced or implemented in traditional societies via colonization, rationalizes the lower wages of women than that of men. Culture that builds up in such concept presumes that women are working to help men; they are supporting them so it doesn’t make sense to give them the equal wage as that of men. The jobs that men were trained for centuries have more economic value than that of women even in today’s capitalistic society.

Anthropological studies have figured out that the gender gap in the traditional societies were much smaller than in the present "developing" societies. In household economy, i.e. traditional society, women’s work was equally valued with that of men. Women were actively engaged in subsistence; therefore, all the members of the family (male and female) were dependent on each other. The gender gap widened through the commercialization of agriculture. Small fields were combined into larger ones (in most of the cases forcefully), and family ownerships were reduced to corporate or to small number of privileged families, and the production for home consumption was altered to production for sale in the market. Commercialization of agriculture along with the Western concept that women should be protected or they should remain clean, beautiful and therefore should not involve in wage labour, detached women from their economic power and made them dependant on men in the developing male-wage-labour society.

Handleman refers to a recent study that suggests "women contributed over 60 percent of agricultural labour in Africa and Asia and 40 percent in Latin America". Agriculture in most of the developing nations occupied more than 80 percent of the economy. He says that despite the role of the women in agriculture, researchers, administrators and planners have given little attention to the role and the importance of the women in society. They focus mainly on men, and most of the developmental projects that assist in the development of agriculture ( for example providing loans) are granted to those who own the land. In almost all cases, male members of the society own the land, and therefore, women are deprived of the benefits of such developmental projects.

Colonization, commercialization of agriculture, industrialization, urbanization, and therefore, the whole concept of modernization confined women to private sphere or household works, and men’s works were made more public. Men became economically and politically active, and women lost the value of their contribution to the society.

This system reinforces women’s domination. Since men’s wage is higher than that of women, it is beneficial for the family to send men to work for wage-labour and confine women to perform household activities. Now, since women do not need to work outside, they don’t need to study. Therefore, contrary to the conviction that modernization process reduces gender bias, it was instead reinforced by this process.

In the "developing" world, men’s wages are not enough for the family expenses; therefore, women need to work outside. Because of this, they are locked up in double day work, i.e., women not only perform household chores like cleaning, washing clothes, taking care or raising children, cooking, but also work outside their houses in factories or the informal sector to support the family.

However, now after years of negligence, there are signs of hope, and women have proved that they are not any more passive subjects who are "aced upon". The study of women in the Third World countries is not limited to the inequality and victimization of women. Researchers are conducting studies on women in different countries to improve their situation, and international organisations like UNDP and World Bank, are including anthropologists in their developmental programmes. There has been growing awareness in the developing world towards the education and equality of women. However, what we need to understand is that equality of women is a very complex matter, and it will take a long time along with the right effort to alleviate that problem.

The gender stereotypes that our culture has created have become so deeply rooted and been reinforced over the centuries in our society that it would certainly take an immense strength and effort to honestly change those beliefs in a short time. A simple understanding and awareness that gender is culturally constructed can help an individual to dismiss the stereotypes like women are incapable of doing the works that men do. In the contemporary world, women have proved in many ways that they are no more inferior to men. Women are increasingly holding the jobs that were labelled as men’s work. The vast pool of literature produced by feminist scholars, which claims that modernization has overwhelming negative effects on women, are themselves the signs that tend to promote women’s equality with men.