The Nepal Digest - Aug 1, 1994 (18 Shrawan 2051 BkSm)

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The Nepal Digest Monday 1 Aug 94: Shrawan 18 2051 BkSm Volume 30 Issue 1

Today's Topics:

I. TAJA_KHABAR
News from Nepal

II. KURA_KANI

             1. Social Issues
                      Re: Women in Hinduism
                      Of Heroes and Zeroes

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****************************************************************** Date: Wed, 27 Jul 94 11:55:46 -0600 From: "Arbind Mainali" <arbind@maligne.civil.ualberta.ca> To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu Subject: Role of Nepali Women

It was very impressive to read Bijaya's and, as she points out, many other Nepali women's opinions on a pervasive double standard in our Nepali society. I think a very well presented reply like Bijaya's reminds us of the pathetic status quo in our society regarding the role of women. TND would be a good forum to educate ourselves. Interestingly enough, if one were to examine how many Nepali women or, women in general, who have access to TND, I am sure it would certainly be a rather ironic figure.

Arbind Edmonton, Canada

************************************************************* Date: 27 Jul 94 17:25:08 EDT To: nepal@cs.niu.edu From: Anita Regmi <AREGMI%ERS.BITNET@DARTCMS1.DARTMOUTH.EDU> Subject: Status of Hindu Women

Dear Editor,

First I would like to express my appreciation towards Mr. Mishra
for his lengthy articles. I am frankly amazed that a Nepali man would
dwell so much in this subject. Is he professionally researching the
subject? In any case thanks for initiating the subject. I have been
a silent and thankful reader. I dared not speak out much since we've
been trained to watch every word we speak out. However, after Bijaya
Ojha's letter I felt I had to come out in support for her.

I am one of those who does not believe it to be an issue of
religion as much as of culture. We've been litterally fettered
and chained all our life. I can't tell you how imprisoned I've felt
growing up. At every aspect of our life we've been harassed and
discriminated. Those of us who walked to school and colleges in
Nepal know what a humiliating and degrading daily chore that was. This
did not necessarily improve after education.

The role of women in our culture was designed by men in power (the same men who designed the caste system to perpetuate their power over people). Note that rishis were men and uppercastes. So I question the very basis of structure in Hindu religion. I am sure this may not go too well with many. But it is spoken!

A word of advice to Bijaya from someone older. Forget about the wagging tongues. Women talk because they envy your freedom and guts, men talk because they feel their uncontested superiority threatened.
(Note this applies only to the gossip mongers she fears).

To see how this discussion fares between the genders, I'd like to know the gender of all participants. Thanks.

************************************************************ Date: Wed, 27 Jul 1994 17:18:31 EST From: lpdhakal@maple.circa.ufl.edu To: Nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu Subject: Women in Hinduism

Dear editor,

I am writing this in response to Mr. Pramod K. Mishra's letter about Women in Hinduism. I found his views on the role of women in Hindu society as inappropriate, misleading and focused toward social rather than religious issues.

Mr. Mishra's accusation of Hindu life style is more sentimental than factual, if read precisely. The depiction of Hindu father as an irresponsible and cruel being is a sheer outrageous remark that he is trying to pass on us (at least to the father with a daughter like me).

I want to put this question to everybody: Is our (Nepal's) constitution based on Hindu codes in totality ? Does Manusmriti, Upanishad or the Purans guides our law ? Of course the answer is generally no; however, as every where, where there is a majority of one particular sect of religious group the laws reflects some of it's beliefs. Maybe, having cow as a national animal and laws to protect it, can be considered to exemplify this.

As is seen, much have changed for the women since the early 20th century, slowly and surely. Women of Nepal hold significant proportion in the education system and work force compared to the past. A comparison of recent and earlier SLC results would depict the fact that women are no more restricted within home, but are capable of excelling their male counterpart. Of course, if the situation as Mr. Mishra wanted to paint was true, then this would not have been the real life situation.

I don't know what Mr. Mishra's articulated views on upbringing of the girl means. He says "disguised conspiracies" "panorama of injustice" and ever repeated "32 virtues." I can never imagine in any rational sense that a father can be a conspirator against his own baby girl. The conspiracy Mr. Mishra means is (during the first menstruation period) to put the girl in a different area or room within her home (mind that it is not keeping them in prison, but is to put them within their female friends, peers and family members). However, in reality this is simply to educate the girls, that now they have come to the age in which they are capable to bear a child. This activity in actual term, is to educate young and tender growing girl to accept the real life situation, and understand the human developmental stages. I think this kind of education system is applaudable in our Hindu culture. Since it has prevented to certain extent, in our society, the problem of unmarried teen mothers. We all know how the teen mother issue is creating social problems in US and other developed nations.

Let me say something here, in the often talked case of secluded period ( during first menstruation) no torture is inflicted upon the young girls but they are given good food and enjoyable environment. During this period they are not allowed to meet males only. Of course, the tradition may differ within different sects and regions. My point is that it is not as what Mr. Mishra wants to depict.

Mr. Mishra is intentionally silent about the great celebration of
"Gunyoo-Choolo festival" a proud occasion for a female child in which they are supplied with beautiful dresses, during the age seven. This proud occasion is not less exciting and enjoyable than the "Bratabandha" for boys.

Thirty-two virtues, as Mr. Mishra puts are not the yard stick to judge females in any sense. I have never heard during my entire life time any of my friends or family members, or at least somebody I have known, judging any women by these standards. This may be true for machines but not for humans. As I know 32 virtues are qualities to exemplify perfection of a women, it is not a covert activity of inflicting injustice upon women.

Mr. Mishra's accusation is sometimes very much objectionable and errational. He says "brother is allowed every privilege-- like talking loud and clear, chasing the skirts of lower-caste women and girls ,falling violently in love, tasting the pleasures of the flesh, bragging about his conquests--she, on the other hand, is not allowed even to have a hearty laugh" likewise "Pahile chhori hansche, tes pachi fansche." It is simply not true. Again, is not these on itself contradictory. I find his comment even ridiculous when he says "A young female teen can barely produce enough sound or that even her interlocutor can clearly understand." It only means that Mr. Mishra has not heard school debate competition, where many girls excells their counterparts in Nepal. What about women politicians and their fiery speeches ? And further more, all these issues are unrelated to the religion, contrary to Mr. Mishra's opnion. My understanding is that they are social issues, if it in fact ever exists.

Generally speaking, we should not forget the universal traditional belief (?) that men supposedly possess the breadwinner character as competent, authoritative and dominant; whereas women supposedly possess more gentler character as nurturer of the family. However, this is slowly changing and women are sharing the responsibilities in the so called men's domain and increasingly earning income by doing job outside her home in Nepali society.

In every society, behavior patterns expected from males and females are taught by families. It is true that it reflects the moral and social values. But the question here is whether or not we should put on our moral codes unto our children or not. I think it should be judged by it's importance and rational justification. It will be a mistake if we just try to put aside all our values without any reasoning (Quote from ND: If you don't stand for anything you will fall from every thing (?) SRJK). I believe that Hindu society respects female as the equal counterparts to males, and in some respect even more. Women in Hindu society are regarded as symbol of sympathy, caring, love and compassion. It is true that women in Hindu society give more importance to the family, and downplays her own ego and career
(in some respect). It is well known that men are achievement oriented in every society (slowly this is becoming true for the women also). Women are traditionally raised to be family oriented, and to place family need before her personal needs and drives. This is not to say, however that a Hindu women are passive and powerless, but in fact they are the power behind the family decisions.

Society needs positive change, and so do the misbelief. But not in a way by loosing it's traditional and moral qualities. Some of the issues on upbringing of a child is debatable amongst every culture, often different psychological school of thoughts debates on these issues.

Roles of females, as demanded by the developing society is changing, and will continue to be so. Societal necessity has always been prime agent of change. Nowadays Nepali women are suddenly seen as a capable person for performing work that they were thought could never do: e.g. - being atop the Everest, being the world class athlete (taekwando), possessing higher level jobs in International and National level. And, now even it is speculated that the probable new Prime Minister post may go to the women of the ruling party of Nepal. Surely this is a very positive development.

I urge all the readers to critically and rationally analyze the these kind of sensitive issues. I think it is time for all of us to introspect before making up our mind and expressing the views on the issues which touch our very heart.

LP Dhakal University of Florida

************** From: Abi Kumar Sharma <abi@sfu.ca> Subject: NC and joint Press Releases To: NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 10:52:46 -0700 (PDT)

Two days ago I recieved fax copies (1) a letter by Mahendra Narayan Nidhi, Mahamantri Nepali Congress, issued on behalf of the central committee (2) a joint press statements signed by 7 major political parties representated & signed by Mahendra N. Nidhi, NC; Nirmal Lama NCP(UC); Lila mani Pokharel, UPF; Mahesh mani Dixit, NCP( united); Madhav K. Nepal, NCP(UML); Dina nath Sharma, NCP( Masal); and Shambhu ram Shrestha NC League. I do not have time to translate these docume nts in full, if anyone would like to read the originals, I can fax them. What follows here is a pharaphrase.

1. The NC press statement calls on the king to dismiss the PM immediately and to set in motion the political precess as set out in the constitution. The letter states that PM Koirala has brought the country to an unprecedent political crisis, having involved himself in a whirl of controversies. This crisis affects not only the party but the whole country.The central working committee brought a no-confident motion against the PM at the end of last Phalgun. President KP Bhattarai and the party supremo pleaded with the PM to resign but he refused to do so.

2. Joint Press Release:
This joint Press Release announces that the above mentioned parties have united in taking a firm stand on the current political crisis.It gives notice of a joint rally to be held at Tundikhel open theatre on July 31st. It states that the mid-term poll has been called without seeking a solution from the parliament in session, without the decision & support of the ruling party, and without regard for article 53(4) of the constitution. The House of Representatives was unconstitutionally dissolved. This despite the fact that both the ruling party and the opposition party had claimed to form government in accordance with the constitution. This act disregards the constitution of the country; the value and tradition of multi-party democracy, and the essence of democratic, parliamentary procedures. It has brought about an unnecessary state of political confusion and poses a serious threat to democracy. We, the issuers of the joint press release, have resolved that it is
}inecessary to take the responsibility of standing together in a united front, in order to resolve the situation, to make the actions of all political parties more effective, to protect the hard won multi party system, and to conbat the threat to democracy. We request that all other political parties and their related groups, and the people of Nepal to join us in this united effort to protect domocracy, for the sake of teh country and people. We agree that the restoration of the unconstitutionally dissolved parliament is reasonable and right demand. It is inappropriate for a person who has been accused by the constitutional committee misusing the post of premiership to continue to lead the government through the elections. Therefore, we demand that the Koirala goverment be dismissed immediately. To achieve this goal we have organized a joint rally on 31st july at the Khula Manch.

******************************************************************** Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 20:49:43 -0400 To: nepal@cs.niu.edu From: rajendra@coos.dartmouth.edu (Rajendra P. Shrestha) Subject: News7/27

Source: Reuters

HEADLINE: NEPAL PARTY TELLS LEADERS NOT TO CONTEST ELECTION DATELINE: KATHMANDU, July 27
BODY:
    Nepal's ruling Congress party on Wednesday barred Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and other leaders from contesting November's general election, ending a party feud.

   The central committee voted 24 to three to ban Koirala, party president Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and general secretary Mahendra Narayan Nidhi from standing in the polls.

   The three, all aged over 70, accepted the decision, party legislators said.

   But warring party factions dumped their differences on Wednesday at a meeting in which dissidents had planned to call a vote on expelling Koirala from the party, legislators said.

   ''The meeting ended in compromise after hearing charges and counter-charges from either side,'' said Kuber Sharma, a central committee member and a dissident legislator.

   Congress sources said although the party's internal crisis was resolved, Nepal's constitutional crisis was far from over.

   The Supreme Court will shortly hear a petition challenging parliament's dissolution. Some 105 Nepali legislators asked the king earlier on Wednesday to cancel his move.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

HEADLINE: MPS URGE NEPALI KING TO ACT ON POLITICAL CRISIS DATELINE: KATHMANDU, July 27
BODY:
   Some 105 Nepali legislators asked King Birendra on Wednesday to cancel his dissolution of parliament and act to end the Himalayan kingdom's political crisis.

   The members of parliament, led by Beni Bahadur Karki of the fractious ruling Congress party, marched to the royal palace to hand over their petition, witnesses said.

   ''We request your majesty to immediately initiate constitutional processes aimed at restoring the House of Representatives so that the grave political crisis it is facing is resolved,'' it said.

   There was no immediate word on what King Birendra would do about the petition, signed by members of Congress and two opposition parties.

   The petition said the royal proclamation disolving parliament was hasty and deprived it of constitutional rights to solve the political crisis.

*********************************************************************** Date: 28 Jul 94 21:07:11 EDT From: Rajendra.P.Shrestha@Dartmouth.EDU (Rajendra P. Shrestha) Subject: News offer To: nepal@cs.niu.edu

Since the Nepal Digest is mailed only once in a week or two, people who depend on it as their primary source of news from Nepal are probably finding its news a bit outdated, especially at times like the present when so much has been going on. If you have access to the WWW, you can get into the News page in my Nepal Home page (http://coos.dartmouth.edu/~rajendra/Nepal.html) in which I keep the latest newsreports I have access to (which usually means a day old). However, if anyone who does not have WWW or Usenet access and wants to be more updated on news, I am offering to send News supplements
(call it the Nepal Digest News supplements), at least until the November elections. As per the reports I get and the time I have, I will send updates once in every few days(or maybe even more often). If anyone wants to receive this, please send me an e-mail. To save bandwidth (and since this will just be a summary of the reports in the Home Page), please reply only if you don't have access to WWW or Usenet (SCN).

rajendra@dartmouth.edu

************************************************************************ From: "Raj Kumar Dubey" <RAJ@caedm.et.byu.edu> To: NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 21:41:21 MST Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - July 28, 1994 (13 Shrawan 2051 BkSm)

Dear Editor,

This is in response to Mr. Tilak B. Shrestha's july 28 comments to my article. Will try to be more discreet in later articles.

He wrote that he was amazed to read "I would not let my wife fast on the TEEZ brata" from a "proponent of women's rights" as myself. Perhaps he will not be so amazed if i equate the teez brata to SATI pratha. Both these rituals demand extreme loyalty by women to men. However, there is no ritual for men to show loyalty for women. I don't thin my saying " I won't let my wife go on SATI (or TEEZ brata) for me" violates women's right. If Mr Tilak B. Shrestha thinks so, then so be it.

The relationship between SLC results and enslavement of our daughters and wives ( I didn't mention sons in my article) is this.

Generally, in Nepal when the students fail the SLC exam their education stops right there. And mostly the students get introduction to social and political issues in colleges. So, when 70 percent of this year's batch fail then they couldn't get exposure to the issues ( in this case the social issue of women's rights). When there is no exposure then how can we expect any improvement? I was trying to emphasize on the importance of improvement of quality of education.

Further comments from Mr. Shrestha are welcome.

Prakash Bhandari

********************************************************************** Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 16:31 EST From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - July 29, 1994 (14 Shrawan 2051 BkSm) To: NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu

Women Ambassadors from US
===========================

Why do Nepal get a preponderant share of female american ambassadors, the latest being Dr. Sandy vogel..something?

I am glad my posting provoked a few to respond. Some readers have wondered if I expressed sexist notions by highlighting some aspects of their appointment. Nothing is further from truth. I personally knew Carol Laise, Julia Chang Bloch and Margarita Maytag and they are individually very fine individuals, some of them have climbed high up despite their sex.

However, I am challenging apologists of Western humanism, in particular US feminism who see all Third World men as incorrigible, patronizing sexist men to disprove to me that Carol laise did not get her ambassador job because Nepal was a convinient way station for her heavyweight ambassador to Vietnam, Mr. Bunker. When the GI came to Pattaya to rest and recreate with Thai girls after slaughtering Asian men in Vietnam, Mr. bunker flew to the ethereal heights of the Himalayas to rest with Carol, may her soul rest in peace.

Similarly, I challenge any republican feminist to prove that Margerita maytag had any claim for ambassadorieal appointment other than campaign gifts to republican election war chest from the Maytag washing machine factory. Surely nepal meant next to nothing to Gerard Ford, but he could find more qualified women political appointee than Maytag, who , it is rumoured had to physically lifted out her seat by the Marines when doug heck took over.

Julia Chang is special and everyone in Nepal readily accepted her talent, skill, and aplomb. She was a fighter who grew up from a refugee from China all the way to be an ambassador to US. But accepting her individual credentials need not negate her republican links and the benefits of having a rich and influential husband. So when she returned after her assignment she readily found appointment as Vice President of an influential american bank. Sanjay Manandhar says she reserved in malaysia as a peace corp, maybe he is right. My information was best on the 1/2 hour conversation I had with Julia while riding with her to the lampatan Sheep Farm in Pokhara from the Institute of Forestry to show her out USAID funded fodder tree reseach. I think she said she served InNepala long time ago, maybe my memory is failing.

The important point I am making is how to read the appointment of Dr. Sandy Vogel... as the new ambassador to Nepal. In the present American context of American women who have got ahead in life and where Hillary have stood on her won right though there are plenty of mean, family values republicans and far right who think she has gone too far, there has been a greater visibility of remarkable, talented women in powerful positions, although the bankers and and war machine of the Secretaries of Defence, Tresury, and State are still reserved for old-guard patrician figures because "Wall Street will panic". We have Donna Shalala, Albright, Elders, DeeDee Myers handling sensitive high responsibilities not only due to their individual capacities but because of the political environment created by Hillary who wont be taken as a Pat Nixon shadow. Some of these women are there especifically for the special linkage and access to Hillary's ears.

Just as we have in Nepal the famous source force, Ministers with access to Girija are more equal than those who are not, one would venture that Dr. Sandy who may be a phd doctor, a rarity inthe pool of dumb jocks that make up the State Department, is probably one of those best and brightest pool of political friends of Hillary. My questions is this: does Sandy Vogel... imply a promotion in the clout of Nepal and a privileged ear of the Clintons, or is Nepal still one of those vacation gateways given to rich and powerfull contributors who other wise cannot contribute a lot. Perhaps some Americans who may know may enlighten us readers.

******************************************************** From: "Raj Kumar Dubey" <RAJ@caedm.et.byu.edu> To: nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 15:40:56 MST Subject: Decision of NC Central Committee is Welcome

Dear Editor,

I am finally relieved by the decision of the NC Central committee to bar GP, KP and MN from the election. I think it is a very timely and necessary decision. For the last three years the politics of Nepal was focused on the egoes of two people KP and GP. MN joined th the fray threatening to break the Congress. I am glad that now that the congress won't have the name Congress(gp) and congress(kp) as in India.

Now, the young generation can take the helm like we were discussing before. They may not be experienced, but hey if never given a chance they will never be.

I hope the Congress party is successful in enforcing the decision. I would hate to see last minute theatrics by any of these leaders.

It is time for the six communist factions to unite too. Then only, I think these parties will be able to defeat the dark forces of RPP and Sadhbhabana Party.

Sincerely, Prakash Bhandari

******************************************************************* Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 09:17:03 EDT To: The Nepal digest Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> From: "Pramod K. Mishra" <pkm@acpub.duke.edu> Subject: Of Heroes and Zeroes

     Man is a hero-worshipping animal. In childhood, we worship
(Freud would say "hate") our fathers; in adolescence, our school masters (but if you live in the United States, then the sports stars); and in adulthood, whoever becomes a tyrant and rules over us--from our office boss to the head of the state. At every stage of our lives, we constantly look for heroes to worship. And when we don't find them in this world, we manufacture them and call them God to ensure hero-worship after this disappointing, transitory world.
     Every culture, whether so-called civilized or so-called uncivilized, worships heroes, lays down lives for them. Without heroes, the culture finds no glamour, no excitement, no shoulder to lean on and leave the responsibility of living as humans. That's why, Carlyle wrote about heroes and hero worship and Nietzsche advocated the unavoidability of the superman and anticipated and brainfathered Hitler. That's why, the people in the African societies produced tribal kings and chiefs and danced under their majestic glare, and the European societies, proud of their new-found civilization, produced queens, generals, and pirate-adventurers who butchered, plundered, destroyed, annihilated, and colonized both their own people and those whom they thought savages, surpassing the savagery of those whom they called savages.
     Hitler and Idi Amin are but one moment in the long tradition of hero worship. But then there are other heroes, who become victorious in wars and become saviours, providing national glory. What are Napoleon, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Swartzcoff
(is the spelling correct?), if not heroes? But then again there are those who lead struggles against tyranny and foreign rule and become Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha, Martin Luther King, Mandela, and Ganesh Man Singh (talking of home). Mao, Lenin, and Castro belong to yet another category, to quench the hunger for hero worship of those who don't believe in the Supreme Hero. I had great regard for Jesus and his teaching of love and forgiveness until the day I met his worshipper who was so blind he could see nothing, not even the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus as a hero alone, a demi-god, an object of unquestionable idolatry. That level of devotion is what, if not idolatry?
     Hitler, Churchill, and Gandhi are examples of three different kinds of heroes. Hitler became a hero by running his Nazi propaganda machine and firing squads and gas chambers; Churchill became a hero by his glib pen and by the circumstances of war. And what about Gandhi? Well, the credulous people of India made him a demi-god and in the process of doing so, killed him for good. As soon as they made him a hero and began to worship him by touching his feet and smearing the dust on their foreheads, Gandhi died alive, well before Godse killed him on a fine January morning in 1948. Gandhi became well aware of his slow death even while alive as he increasingly disliked his feet- touching countrymen, who thronged his camps in rural India but refused to understand and practice his ideas. If you don't believe me, read his autobiography.
     Heroes either manufacture themselves or are manufactured by people to satisfy some ancient need. In either case, their good ideas become too dazzling, faded under their heroic hallow, and therefore inaccesible and their bad ideas thrive because they begin to look good in reflected glows of hero-worship. Whenever some blood and flesh, less than eight feet (what's the height of the tallest man in history?) human being is transformed into a hero in life, his ego balloons into a mountain. When he looks down, he finds only two-legged ants crawling in their little nests, and he doesn't even feel the natural twinge of human conscience when he tramples them and sends them to gas chambers and firing squads.
     In death, we make heroes to put them in a worship room to pray to them--sacred, distant, dazzling, mysterious, sublime, a show piece like some gold-cover classics tucked inside the dustless mahogany shelves in the drawing room of the well-to-do. The process of making heroes works like the embalming of the corpse in a funeral home--all the dents and the fractures, the good and the bad, the humanity and the inhumanity become equally blurred and embalmed at the hands of the mortician, the enthusiast, the fan, the hero-worshipping historian.
     I thought heroes, of the kind we are talking about here, had become a matter of the past. We needed heroes when society was ruled by feudal kings, tyrannical generals, the Leviathans of the world. I thought we had arrived at the threshold of democracy, where a lion was not necessary to rule the jungle, where several little mice collectively made decisions for and contributions to the culture and to the people by rotation in the talking shop that is called parliament, of small-size politicians who jumped, shouted, fumed but did not throw majestic glare; of writers, singers, artists who didn't practice his or her art to please the sovereign, to earn a seat at the lion's feet, but to please and educate the millions of mice sweating in the fields and factories, running on the roads, and singing a sad-happy song at a long day's end.
     The mentality of making heroes and the habit of becoming one create numerous problems for a country. That's why, no matter how popular you are, you can't become a president in the United States more than twice. What's the reason we have almost always seen an unending series of military coups, party break-ups, violations of the norms of constitutions in certain parts of the world? The mentality of making and becoming heroes incites undemocratic ambitions and invites ruthlessness. The hunger for power increases more than any hunger when one dreams of becoming a hero, and this dream makes a demon out of a fighter of tyranny, even out of a saint. Even a poet becomes a tyrant; Mao and General Ershad both wrote poetry. By making a list of heroes, we only strengthen this tradition of making a demon out of a simple soul and whet the appetite of the tyrants for cannibalism.
     In a democracy, there is no room for heroes, except for the sports stars and talk show hosts. One's family members--fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, friends--could be one's best role models and heroes--those hole-digging mice. Therefore, let's not make a list of heroes, for God's sake; we've had enough of them even without making a list. We had to sing every morning before class at school, read every day in text books and take exams about them, except when you went to an English boarding school, where they didn't care what kind of books you read; or went to a foreign country, where you had to read "Bapu is the father of our nation," or something like this.
      But if we can't live without heroes, then let's make a list of those who sweat the whole day in the summer sun but go to bed half hungry for food, not power; those who have died but whose name no one knows; those who have been hanged and shot dead but whose names no one dares whisper; those who cook food, wash dishes, give birth to us and slave for us all their lives. Let's make them heroes. Making them heroes will establish a tradition of work ethic for hard labor, not laziness; self-sacrifice, not rapacity and hunger for power; concession and reconciliation, not break up of a democratic institution for personal ambition; expansion of the horizon of sympathy, not parochial gutter- mentality and ruthlessness. For heroes are manufactured by writing about them, singing eulogies to them, sacrificing for them, struggling against them, expressing dog-loyalty to them. If we have to sing, let's sing about love, sympathy, living a nice day, accomplishing a simple task--plowing the barren field, grazing the sheep, cutting the grass and harvesting the crops, washing dishes, driving taxies, making needles, sewing clothes, writing a poem, teaching a class, lending a hand to the weak. But for God's sake, let's forget about the heroes, those lions who love to scare the mice when they ruled the jungle.
     In Nepal, we need histories of struggle, not only the academic kind. We need stories of suffering and untimely death of numerous sons and daughters of well-meaning parents. We need memoirs of Ganesh Man Singh, R. K. Mainali, K. P. Bhattarai, Modnath Prashrit, the Koirala brothers; those who spent major parts of their lives in the cells; those who spent most of their youth in exile. We need the account of their suffering, their isolation, their loneliness, their moments of flickering hope amidst relentless despair, their inner resourcefulness for bare sustenance. We need to know what it is to face the noose today but become a minister tomorrow; we need to know what it is to be separated from one's wife, one's children, one's society for years and years. We need to know the price of freedom; the posterity deserves the accounts by those alive and about those who have been untimely put to sleep for ever. Havel, Mandela, Solzenitsyn and the survivors of the Holocaust have created a mass of material for humankind to understand the inhumanity of those who suffer irrevocably from megalomania. Let us ask those Nepalese who have suffered and are still alive to tell us in their own words their stories of struggle and pain so we can understand what it costs to live in a free society, so we may not weigh the harvest of blood and pain with roadside pebbles. But for God's sake, let's not make even them heroes. Once we elevate them to the pedestal of a hero, we shut our eyes and begin to worship, incapacitating our faculties to understand and analyze what they said and thought and did. Blind loyalty is a surefire recipe for tyranny.

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