View Point (Spotlight Weekly)

Thoughts From Volunteers At HVP On The Recent Peace Rallies

Five volunteer teachers from university in England were recently fortunate enough to take part in a peace rally, initiated by Shanti Sandesh Yatra Pariwar (Family for Peace Movement) under the coordination of C.M. Yogi and conducted in response to the current troubles in Kathmandu. The march itself was held after Mr Yogi, the Principal of Hindu Vidyapeeth school, appeared on national television in an interview program called Bahas ('Discussion), and was consequently invited by The Reporter's Club to give his opinion in a face-to-face debate with leaders of various religious sects. Such interaction provided the opportunity to meet with Islamic leaders, and the result was a gathering of over twenty different social organizations in central Kathmandu, arranged in under eleven hours and bringing together the many ethnic groups of Nepal.

The march itself was an enormous success, attracting a huge amount of support on the day from nearly 2,000 participants as well as coverage from the national media, and numerous further telephone calls and letters from enthusiastic well-wishers during the subsequent days afterwards. Having experienced the entire progression of these problems, from walking around road blockades of burning tires, furniture and even minibuses, to seeing these same blazes rising like funeral pyres across Kathmandu from the roof of Hindu Vidyapeeth Central school, to being forced to stay behind closed doors because of the army-enforced curfew, it was both rewarding and somewhat liberating for us to be able to process through the center of the capital along with such a plethora of the different religions and cultures of the Nepali nation. Two simple slogans embodied the essence of the rally, 'Peace, Love and Harmony, Our Prayer from the Heart' and 'Religious Tolerance and National Unity – the Need of Today'.

Surrounded by Muslim hazi topi, yellow Buddhist robes, Hindu dhoti-kurta, Jainist costumes, Christian habits and the occasional lost tourist, simply the discrepancy in modes of dress exemplified the resolution of all groupings of Nepal to come together and overcome not only the immediate issues regarding the brutal execution of Nepali nationals in Iraq, but also the longer term ethnic division and political instability which has become such a concern to the Nepalese in recent years. At the same time, it brought into sharp focus the very vibrancy and diversity of the country itself. Over 1,000 Muslims, whose main place of worship had been vandalized, burnt and despoiled, and who themselves had been victimized and ostracized just hours before, walked side-by-side amongst representatives of the very populace who persecuted them. Such a presence allayed fears not only of racial clashes predicted by many within the capital, but also potential backlash against the 700,000 Nepali workers employed in Muslim countries, whose jobs and very lives had been brought into question owing to recent events. Each leader of the various religious communities in attendance stressed the same message when addressing the crowd at the procession's finale, one of peace, love, non-violence and fraternity throughout Nepal's ethnic spectrum. As foreigners, it was a humbling and even awkward experience, having spent so little time in the country and in truth being almost wholly unable to relate to the situation at hand. But simultaneously it felt uplifting and hope-inspiring to be able to see a country put religious difference – the cause, albeit often as a pretence, of so many of the world's conflicts today – to one side and unite as a nation rather than under any banner of exclusivity. Furthermore, the rally's ethos of harmony and an acceptance of others, rather than an endorsement of individualism, was very reassuring at a time when extreme and restrictive religion is seen by some as the only way to preserve traditions and cultures against the influence of the West.

Such multicultural toleration seems essential for the cause of Nepal, particularly as the Maoist threat drives more and more of the country's population into the increasingly crowded Kathmandu Valley in search of security. One got the impression that the rally itself thus symbolized the determination of the people to safeguard national integrity and defy the forces at present trying to collapse the country in on itself, and as visitors it was both rousing to see such composed solidarity in face of such troubles, and heartening to feel that the future of this country was being supported by such a constructive and resolute attitude.

(The author Nick Grafton-Green ng274@cam.ac.uk and photographer Will Saab ws249@cam.ac.uk are volunteers at the HVP-Central)