Received: from mp.cs.niu.edu (mp.cs.niu.edu [131.156.1.2]) by library.wustl.edu (8.6.9/8.6.9) with SMTP id KAA27391 for <huestis@library.wustl.edu>; Mon, 29 Aug 1994 10:59:47 -0500 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA29606 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-dist); Mon, 29 Aug 1994 09:21:56 -0500 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA29602 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for nepal-list); Mon, 29 Aug 1994 09:21:54 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 09:21:54 -0500 Message-Id: <199408291421.AA29602@mp.cs.niu.edu> Reply-To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> From: The Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> Sender: "Rajpal J. Singh" <A10RJS1@cs.niu.edu> Subject: The Nepal Digest - Aug 26, 1994 (13 Bhadra 2051 BkSm) To: <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> Content-Type: text Content-Length: 36020 Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 31
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% N N EEEEEE PPPPPP AA L %
% NN N E P P A A L %
% N N N EEEE P P A A L %
% N N N E PPPPPP AAAAAA L %
% N NN E P A A L %
% N N EEEEEE P A A LLLLLL %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The Nepal Digest Friday 26 Aug 94: Bhadra 13 2051 BkSm Volume 30 Issue 5
This issue is dedicated to Rabi Shrestha who survived the random
violence against him. TND wishes you a healthy recovery.
*****************************************************************************
* TND Board of Staff *
* ------------------ *
* Editor/Co-ordinator: Rajpal J. Singh a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu *
* SCN Correspondent: Rajesh B. Shrestha rshresth@black.clarku.edu *
* Editing Editor: Padam P. Sharma sharma@plains.nodak.edu *
* Discussion Moderator: Rajendra P. Shrestha rajendra.shrestha@dartmouth.edu*
* *
* Subscription/Deletion requests : NEPAL-REQUEST@CS.NIU.EDU *
* Provide one line message: sub nepal "lastname, firstname, mi" <user@host> *
* [OPTIONAL] Provide few lines about your occupation, address, phone for *
* TND database to: <A10RJS1@CS.NIU.EDU> *
* Snail-Mail Correspondences to: Rajpal J. Singh *
* Founding-editor/Co-ordinator *
* The Nepal Digest (TND) *
* 502 West Lincoln Highway *
* DeKalb, Illinois 60115, U.S.A. *
* Digest Contributions: NEPAL@CS.NIU.EDU *
* Discussion Topics ideas: RAJENDRA.SHRESTHA@DARTMOUTH.EDU *
* News clips for Taja_Khabar: RANA@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU *
* Contributors need to supply Header for the article, email, and full name. *
* *
* Postings are divided into following categories that are listed in the *
* order below. Please provide category-type in the header of your e-mail. *
* *
* 1. Message from TND Editorial Board *
* 2. Letter to the Editor *
* 3. TAJA_KHABAR: Current News *
* 4. KATHA_KABITA: Literature *
* 5. KURA_KANI: Economics *
* Agriculture *
* Forestry *
* Health *
* Education *
* Technology *
* Social Issues *
* Environment *
* Tourism *
* Foreign Policy *
* History *
* Military/Police *
* Politics *
* 6. Entertainment (Humor, Recipies, Movie Reviews, Sattaires etc.) *
* 7. JAN_KARI: Classifieds *
* 8. Immigration/Taxes *
* 9. TITAR_BITAR: Miscellaneous *
* *
* The Nepal Digest(TND) is a publication of the Nepal Interest Group for *
* news and discussions about issues concerning Nepal. All members of *
* nepal@cs.niu.edu will get a copy of TND. Membership is open to all. *
* THE EDITOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT ARTICLES FOR CLARITY. *
* *
* **** COPYRIGHT NOTE **** *
* The news/article posters are responsible for any copyright violations. *
* TND, a non-profit electronic journal, will publish articles that has *
* been published in other electronic or paper journal with proper credit *
* to the original media. *
* *
* +++++ Food For Thought +++++ *
* "If you don't stand up for something, you will fall for anything" - Anon. *
* "Democracy perishes among the silent crowd" - Sirdar_RJS_Khalifa *
* *
*****************************************************************************
**********************************************************************
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 12:22 EST
From: ATULADHAR@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: Review of the latest "Himal" May/June 1994 Issue
Mainstreaming Neo-Marxism in "Himal"
======================================
The Himalyan Magazine "Himal" of May/June 1994 must be congratulated for
mainstreaming Neo-Marxism in the intellectual debate about development and
change in Nepal.
The lead paper of this issue is Dipak Gyawali's "A Fate other than
Marginalisation" as is the cover page. "Himal" has a reputation for being an
"alternative" magazine and indeed started with that subtitle in its infancy
until it did not know what they were talking about. So it is now stuck with
more modest, to some still presumptious, self-description as a "Himalayan
Magazine".
It is important that "himal" has mainstreamed a marginalized view of
development because "Himal" considers itself as the highest impact readership.
This translates into the English speaking elite corps in Nepal, the local and
expatriate serious development and change wallahs. Yu will see the magazine
discreetly displayed in the offices of Ngos and mega agencies as World Bank
and anybody who is anybody in Nepal claims to have read everything on this
page and this includes Vice-Chancellor of Universities and Forest Ministers.
Indeed, "Himal" is given credit for bringing some new debates to light
including those on "ethnicity". This is why "Himal" deserves credit for
mainstreaming a marginalized view on development, namely the political economy
approach.
This is not to say, political economic perspective on Nepal is very original.
In the early eighties, there was Pier's Blaikie and his colleagues in
University of East Anglia who wrote "Nepal in Crisis" a book that was
reportedly banned by the Pancha government for revealing connection between
the gvoernment and the State role including the castes and castes that
controlled the State in bringing underdevelopment. Since the nepal government
has been merrily constructing a reality in which Nepal's problem or constraint
to development has been its land-locked nature and its lack of natural
resources and infrastructure, an explanation that takes attention from the
role of the king and the government in surplus extraction process that began
with Prithvi narayan and his nation-building.
Mahesh Chandra Regmi's treatises on economic history of nineteenth century
nepal has documented this process of surplus extraction, a Marxist critique of
capitalism, and Richard Tucker has extended the surplus extraction process to
regional and global level by documenting forest exploitation in the Himalayas
by the British using neo-Marxist concepts of core-periphery, world-systems,
development-underdevelopment, metropolis and satellite frameworks of
exploitation. These are all theoretical frameworks developed since the late
1950s through the 1980s to explain why underdevelopment still exists despite
such a explicit committment to development and progress made by the least and
developed countries. At the risk of simplification, the fundamental thesis is
that capitalism and the spread of markets requires the under development and
exploitatin of the marginalised groups.
In the field of political economy and ecology, called regional political
ecology we have Blaikie and Brookfield write a seminal book on "Land
Degradation and Society" which is considered a major reference on political
ecology and yet we find it being "marginalised" in an intellectual/academic
conspiracy of exclusion by the pundits of nepal's community forestry the Nepal
Australian Forestry Project who, believe it or not worked under one academic
roof, the Australian national University. This is ironic because Nepal's
environmental and development problem is discussed both as an exemplar case
study.
We have Nepali serious scholars too like Nanda Raj Shrestha using neo-marxist
theoretical framework to explore the connection between population, migration
and landlessness for encroachers of Nawalparasi, as have Krishna Ghimire who
problematized the links between forestry and farms.
All of these theoretical frameworks consider the State and inequitable power
relations as the prime problem but the more they pinch the more they are
ignored or vehemently condemned or dismisssed as a useless theory (Marxism) or
screwed up research (Fatalism and Development). When the villain of
underdevelopment is painted in suffeciently vague categories as the "plains
agenda " or the elite of Nepal as Dipak Gywali has done in his article,
everybody can afford to rationalize that THEY are not real crooks.
Gyawali has embellished his article with some interesting snippets from
secret British documents to buttress his political economic process at work.
he is helped by the pretty substantial body of literature establishing the
workings of political economy by other development theorists and critiques.
I sincerely hope that both Gyawali and Himal succeed in bringing political
economy to the front burner of Nepali debate on what paths to take in
post-Pancha Nepal.
It might be pertinent to point out however that there are "newer", not
necessarily better theoretical and political and philosohpical perspectives in
the horizon of development crique. They are broadly grouped as post modern
challenges to the notion of modernization. Here is the modernization is
understood as the broad flow of civilizational change in which development and
progress are just two important strands. Both Marxism and Capitalism and for
that matter democracy and one-party rule promise development by way of
increase of "production". One questions if the ideal democratic state, super
capitalist USA already consumes 35 times as much energy as an Indian child and
we already have so much environmental problems is it sensible that all nations
on earth that are committed to "development' also strive towards consuming as
much as the US what sort of the world can you expect. Scholars have continued
to link development with persistent poverty, social inequities, desperation.
Is this the progress we want?
Given that "development" is the greatest dharma of contemporary Nepal, one
must blashpheme with the heresies of questioning development, progress,
modernization. This is not to be reactionary or hark back to the dark ages but
to question who is getting all the benefits who is suffering in the name of
"development". Like all great religions, a lot of human suffering and violence
have been committed by religions who think they are doing good to the human
population and the "development dharma" is just one such religion sweeping
intolerance, hiding suffering, killing children in Ason, polluting Bagmati,
transferring wealth to |Nepali elite who siphon their wealth to US for sending
their children to school here.
*************************************************************
Date: 15 Aug 94 17:37:25 EDT
From: Rajendra.P.Shrestha@Dartmouth.EDU (Rajendra P. Shrestha)
Subject: News 8/13-14
To: nepal@cs.niu.edu
SOURCE: Xinhua
HEADLINE: five more indian policemen held in nepal
DATELINE: kathmandu, august 13; ITEM NO: 0813096
BODY:
five more indian policemen including one police superintendent were
arrested in nepalgunj in mid-western nepal, the second such arrest
within a week to bring the number of the arrested indian police to
reach 10 altogether. five armed indian policemen were caught by
nepali customs officials on august 6 evening when they tried forcibly
to enter nepal through nepalgunj. they were later handed over to
nepali police by the customs office. according to today's english
daily "the kathmandu post", the indian policemen, believed to be of
the indian central bureau of investigation were arrested from hotel
orient in nepalgunj. it was not immediately clear why they had
entered nepal, the reports said. among the five, two came here from
butwal and baharaich (india) respectively, the hotel records show.
however, local police administration refused to talk to the press
regarding the arrests.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: Xinhua
HEADLINE: indian policemen raid in kathmandu again
DATELINE: kathmandu, august 13; ITEM NO: 0813113
BODY:
three indian intelligence officers raided a place in downtown here
when they tried to look for an indian national working as a teacher at
a local school. director of the school g.n. thapa said the three men
coming on friday was led by cid inspector g.r. shishupal who claimed
to belong to the indian maharashtra police, "the kathmandu post"
reported today. "they entered our premises at 3:30 p.m. and said they
were looking for paul thomas (the indian national)," thapa said.
thomas, however, refused to give himself up to the intruders and
instead asked the school staff to hand him over to nepal police upon
which he was taken to the kalimati police station, thapa said. the
raiding team had already left the scene when the nepali police arrived
there, police sources said, adding that they are now on the look out
for the raiders. however, one home ministry spokesman said he is
unaware of any such incident when contacted by "the kathmandu post".
a similar raid was conducted by indian police on march 27 this year at
new baneshwar in kathmandu, exactly the same place in this raid, which
led to severe criticism by the nepali government. later, india
expressed its deep regret over the case and indian prime minister
narasimha rao assured nepal that similar cases will not occur in nepal
in the future.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: DPA
HEADLINE: Nepal brought to standstill as communists step up pressure
DATELINE: Kathmandu, Aug 14
BODY:
A general strike brought Nepal to a standstill Sunday as left-wing
parties stepped up their demands for an all-party government to guide
the country through general elections due to be held in three months.
The strike was called by the United Marxist-Leninists (UML) group,
which wants a cross-party government to oversee the November 13
elections in place of the current government of Prime Minister Girija
Prasad Koirala.
Normal life was disrupted in almost all Nepali towns Sunday, with
markets remaining closed and transport staying off the roads, Radio
Nepal, quoting the RSS news agency, reported.
Up to 400 arrests were made in various parts of the country, media
reports said. In isolated disturbances that marred an otherwise
peaceful day of protests, strikers stoned buses and police charged
protestors with canes in the Kathmandu valley and other regions.
The most serious incident occurred when leftists and supporters of
Koirala clashed in the western town of Dhangadi. More than 50 people
were arrested in the town. The disturbances erupted as leftists were
asking shopowners to close down for the day.
Public transport was worst affected in the cities of Kathmandu,
Bhaktapur and Lalitpur. Numerous industrial establishments and schools
were closed and people walked to their offices in monsoon rains.
All shops in the main streets of the three valley cities were
closed and riot police were patrolling the streets in strength. There
was little tension in the capital, although leftists held rallies.
Tourists and others were taken to the airport from the centre of
the city in special buses under police escort. The United Peoples
Front (Bhattarai group) are calling for another general strike for
Wednesday.
Business, industry and tourist sectors had asked the leftists,
including the United Marxist-Leninists (UML), to call off the strike
as it would cost the country an estimated loss of 500 million rupees
(a little over 10 million dollars).
The leftists rejected the appeal, saying the continuation in power
of the Koirala government was far worse than the loss brought about by
the strike. dpa jp
****************************************************************
From: mbhatta@sas.upenn.edu (Madhav Bhatta)
Subject: And you thought Panchayat was Bad
To: NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu (Nepal Digest)
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 12:49:30 -0400 (EDT)
Corruption & Abuse of Power by Girija and Koirala Family
In the popular movement of 1990 hundreds of people sacrified their lives
to bring about democracy in Nepal. And we thought we got democracy, but
the last three years of Koirala rule has been the primal example of abuse of
power. Nepali people had great expectations, and we had every reason to
do so. After all we brought the democracy, we deserve a break from
hundreds of years of autocratic despotism. Alas, we were wrong! It seems
Girija thinks he and his family alone brought about the change of 1990, so
they deserve every post and privilages. Why didn't we think of this
before? May be we would have peacefully persuaded the Shah family to
share power with the Koirala family, rather than sacrificing the lives of
ordinary Nepalis' to restore so called democracy.
Here is the list of some of the Koirala appointees, an example of his
understanding of democracy.
Sushil Koirala (Brother)- M.P.(Banke District),Personal Advisor & Member
Central Committee(NC)
Nona Koirala (Sister-in-law)- Member Central Committee(NC)
Jyoti Koirala (Nephew)- Advisor, Karmachari Pajani Bibhag(Sorry couldn't
find an appropriate translation)
Prakash Koirala (Nephew)- M.P. (Sunsari District)
Nitya Raj Koirala (Nephew)- G.M.( Bhaktapur Brick & Tile Factory)
Dirgha Raj Koirala (Uncle)- Advisor
Madan Koirala (Nephew)- GM ( Lumbini Sugar Factory)
Bijay Koirala (Nephew)- Chief(Arun Barun Makalu Project)
Ashok Koirala (Brother)- Mayor(Biratnagar Nagar Palika)
Sasank Koirala(Nephew)- Chief( B.P. Koirala Cancer Institute)
Shekhar Koirala(Nephew)- Chief(B.P. Medical College)
Sushil Koirala (Nephew)- Special Advisor( Radio Nepal)
Pradip Koirala (Nephew)- Chief(Tea Development Board)
Sriharsha Koirala(Nephew)- Chief( B.P. Planetoriumm)
Dharmanath Koirala (relative)- G.M.(Krishi Samagri Sasthan)
Sujata Koirala (Daughter)- Chief(Sushma Trust)
Niranjan Koirala(Nephew)- Advisor
Shiva Kumar Koirala(Nephew)- Chief(Kosi Dam)
Minachi Nepal (Niece)- Secretary( Purbanchal University)
Lila Koirala (daughter-in-law)- M.P.(Dhanusa District), President(
Greater Janakpurdhan Development Program)
Source: Punargagaran Weekely Asar 28, 2051
-Dil Basnet, Alliance for Nepal
-Madhav Bhatta, University of Pennsylvania
mbhatta@mail.sas.upenn.edu
****************************************************************
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 18:37:38 EST
From: tilak@maple.circa.ufl.edu
To: Nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu
Subject: HINDUISM
HINDUISM
Hinduism believes that God showers compassion on to the
universe at all times and in all places, in different ways or forms
according to the need and the situation. That is, it sees different
religions as different paths to the same goal. The term Hinduism
actually is a geographical term meaning the spiritual teachings
collected in Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is a blend of all
ethical teachings and inquiry in to the universal truths. It is not
started by a certain individual, or at certain historical time, or
does not espouse only a certain doctrine. Hinduism contains all
the spiritual development taken place in all the humanity, from the
time immemorial, from all the races - black, semitic, caucasian or
oriental. It is the collection of divine revelations throughout the
human development. Like genepool or ecology of a virgin forest,
Hinduism contains roots of all divine revelation. For example, the
laws of king Hammurabi (1728-1686 B.C.) contains all the 'Ten
commandments', and these laws themselves are based on the Hindu
'Rig Veda', which had already existed for millenia. It comprises
all and dynamically changes with time and situation. Hinduism does
not straightjackets an individual in to a certain world view or
moral standard. Hinduism is the coexistence of different world
views, and there is no inquisition in any form or practice. It
merely shows different ways of cultivating individual conscience
toward the same goal of realizing God.
God : Hinduism defines God as 'Neti'; or 'not that'. Hinduism
believes that God is unlimited but we are limited. So whatever be
the human concept of the God - 'not that'. God is attributeless,
formless, genderless, colorless. God creates all these attributes
and is beyond these attributes. Upanishad states 'God' is whom
'eye' cannot see, but who makes 'eye' see; whom 'mind' cannot
understand, but who makes 'mind' understand.
Soul : Soul is eternal, sinless, immortal and divine. Soul is
a part of God and eventually every soul will return to God. An
individual soul may not realize temporarily its true nature,
because of illusion/maya of this creation. But eventually, every
soul will be free of the illusion or the karmic cycle and realize
the self and thus achieving Salvation or Nirvan.
Karma : The law of karma simply states that the law of cause
and effect, or action and reaction holds true both in physical and
spiritual world. Hinduism considers the observation of the law of
cause and effect in physics, as an example of the operation of the
law at much larger scale of the spiritual world. This is as simple
as saying 'you reap what you sow'. Hinduism believes, a person's
action determines the consequences that person has to face in the
future. The ripening of the consequences may take place in
different time lag and forms. Thus a person has to face all the
consequences of all the person's actions, good for good, and bad
for bad; more for more, and less for less. The cycle of karma keeps
on acting endlessly. Hinduism defines Salvation (Nirvana) as the
freedom from this cycle of karma and realizing God.
There are many ways to spiritual advancement or cultivating
conscience or achieving salvation. It is up to individual to choose
any or practice as much as the individual wants. A few of the ways
(Yoga) are mentioned here.
1. Bhakti Yoga : The way of devotion. In this way you practice
only the love for God through prayer. No arguements or doctrines
are considered. The method of prayer is entirely up to the
individuals. Most of time, the method depends upon the family
tradition or culture where the individual is brought up. Thus a
christian may go to a church, as a moslem might go to a mosque. A
hindu might go to any place or temple and pray any which way.
2. Karma Yoga : The way of duty. In this way you perform your
duty as the situation and conscience demands, but without asking
for reward or without being involved with the case. That is to see
one's action as a sacrifice on to God, not as an effort for self
promotion; so as to gain freedom from karmic law.
3. Raj Yoga. The way of meditation. In this way you get rid of
all the mental aberrations like anger, passion, greed, pride etc.
The Hinduism looks at human being as a shelled body, with the
divine soul at center, which is expressed externally by the
conscience, then by the mind, then by the sense perception, and
then by the physical body. The mind with its aberrations acts like
a colored glass through which soul is not clearly visible. Hence if
a person can get rid off such mental aberrations then the person
can see the divine soul and realize God. There are many anti brain
conditioning systems exist in the Raj Yoga.
4. Gnan Yoga. The way of knowledge. In this way you depend on
pure truth only. Only reason and logic is considered, and no mental
blockade or brain washing or belief system is allowed. There are
many philosophical ways of looking at the truth exist. All of these
ways are considered to contain partial truth. A student is
encouraged to learn all of them and any other ways, but will be
advised to avoid getting attached to any of them. Then a student is
encouraged to find the truth by its own personal effort. In this
system any philosophical questions are valid and encouraged to
persue. For example, 'does God really exist ?' is a perfectly valid
question. A few of the philosophic system is mentioned below.
a. Materialism/Atheism, b. Buddhism,
c. Brahmanism/Ritualism, d. Monotheism,
e. Dualism, f. Nondualism/Vedant.
Model of truth : Hinduism sees God as the only ultimate truth.
As the different individuals are brought up differently, their
reasoning, experiences and learning necessarily has to differ. Thus
in personal level the truth can be seen as a combination of first
direct observation, then reason, analogy, and belief system. That
is, different individual will have different sense of truth and
Hinduism provides ways to improve on it.
*************************************************************
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 18:38:56 EST
From: tilak@maple.circa.ufl.edu
To: Nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu
Subject: Women in Hinduism
Dear editor,
Please allow me to continue my thoughts on Mr. Mishra's
article 'Women in Hinduism'. Since it is very difficult to see
the consistency of pattern in Mr. Mishra's account, I take
liberty to break it down to a few headings to keep the debate
simple. Let me begin with caste/brahmanism and hinduism.
It is in fact true that the caste system did not exist in
ancient hindu society. The caste system has evolved as a
specialization in division of labor. In those days most of people
in Indian subcontinent were farmers. (Even today in Nepal the
farmers makes about 90 % of the population. By the way, when a
farmer go to work and sweat in the farm to feed his family, does
that sounds like he is furthering his career at the expense of
his wife's dreams and career). The brahmans specialized into up
keeping of knowledge base of the society. Most of the knowledge
were transmitted verbally in a specialized cultural setting, in
terse sutras and then were explained in the master/desciple
manner. These knowledge, whether it is on the subject of
theology, or kitchen recipe, or medical science, or social
ethics, or engineering, were transmitted and stored in memory.
Thus brahmans were to specialize from childhood in memorizing and
up keep of the knowledge base of the society. Same principle
applies to farmers or cobblers, who would pass on their knowledge
of farming or shoe making to the younger generation. However
brahmans specializes in more abstract and economically less
productive part of the knowledge base. The ancient society could
not have supported large numbers of brahmans (Compare the number
of Professors in USA today). In those days many kingdoms, large
and small, mushroomed all over the India; and as well as went out
of business. In such setting of reoccurring warfare, it became
very important to protect and honor the brahmans which may be
compared to a library today. As a matter of practicality also,
the kingdoms which protected and able to use the knowledge base
survived longer than those who did not. This principle applies
even today. In other hand brahmans were also to follow certain
guide lines. They were to live strictly a nonviolent life. They
were not to live life of luxury, eat meat or drink intoxicant.
You might have heard traditional stories of fabulous palaces of
Ranas or wealth of Newar merchants, but you would not have heard
of wealthy or militarily powerful brahmans. Brahmans makes mostly
living out of dan/daxinas, basically on charity. There is always
a limit in getting rich out of charity in any society.
However a number of abuses of this Brahmanism have evolved.
The structural problem is the keeping the knowledge base as
monopoly of a particular brahman family and passing down strictly
to its offsprings, and jealously excluding others. It may have a
certain practical value of training a person from the beginning,
who was born in the right environment. However it is a brahmanic
swindling of epic proportion. It has passed many ignorant
brahmans as a scholars and in the same time denying knowledge to
other members of the society. It also fostered the myth of
superior brahman caste, casteism and related ills. Many bright
minds could not get opportunity to bloom, and so on. However to
keep a proper perspectives, we also have to notice that a king
would like to make his son next king, and a rich person lives his
wealth to his own children. Another problem which cropped out of
brahmanism is the evolution of ritualism. Instead of
philosophical base of the religion and the simple fire ceremony
(Yagna) practiced by each household in ancient India, gaudy and
elaborate rituals - a display of power and wealth, were proped up
as the religion. Here Brahman priest will put a show with
complicated rituals, postures, and sounds. A vain jajaman and a
greedy purohit will be satisfied at the expense of the spiritual
values. The success of Islam in India is directly related to this
brahmanic degeneration. However such degenaration did not go
unchallenged. Upanishads denies the value of such rituals,
instead advocates the permanence of soul/god and meditation.
Krishna, Buddha, Mahabir, etc. in the ancient times and Nanak,
Kabir, Surdas, etc. in medieval times stood against. There are
many sects like Buddhist, Jains, Sikhs, Tantrics, Hare Krishnas,
Yogis, where every body is welcome. Again the brahmans were not
the custodian of all the knowledge base. There are many shastras
open to all, notably Agamas, Buddhist sutras, and others.
Presently any body can go and read any shatras or vedas, nor does
brahmans command same special treatments (check your brahman
friends).
One more development evolved out of brahmanism. In ancient
time brahmans were teachers where every body would go to study.
Would be merchants, doctors, soldiers, engineers, or philosophers
would go and study their subjects under the teachers specialized
in those fields. They were called gurus and the place is called
gurukulas (schools). The gurukulas are open to all, however the
brahmans would decide who learns what and Vedas are taught only
to brahmans. Later many brahmans instead of specializing in their
field specialized in going out to jajamans and telling stories,
legends with ethical overtones, to the popular audiences. The
contemplative philosophical part slowly replaced by this
mesmerizing yarns in general public and became solace only to a
select few. Such stories and legends has its own role to play,
but one particular negative effect was to eclipse the teachings
of Upanishads, Gita and even Buddhist doctrines. This development
is simply because of popular demand (more daxinas) for such
activities. Brahmans were not able to ( or would not) teach the
higher themes of Sanatana dharma to the public at large. This
sadly led to the ignorance of considering Hinduism merely a
collection of idol worships and myths.
Thus it is a profound ignorance to define hinduism as
brahmanism. Brahmanism has played some positive and some negative
role within Hindu society, but it is not hinduism. If you would,
Hinduism is like democracy within which brahmanism (like many
political parties) exist. It will be wise to recognize the
particular negative attitude and treat them as a doctor would
treat a boil. However it will be a mistake to eat a rotten apple
and condemn all the apples and go on to condemn all the fruits.
As per Mr. Mishra's contention that a higher caste men can
go around and chase skirts of lower caste women, it is pure
nonsense. In case Mr. Mishra happens to be from so called 'high
caste', I would advice him not to follow his fancy. Perhaps it
may be wise to meet Mr. John Bobbitt.
Rest for next. Regards - Tilak B. Shrestha.
**********************************************************************
From: gshah@st6000.sct.edu (Gopal Shah)
Subject: Gun shooting
To: nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 13:22:48 -0400 (EDT)
Nepalese student,Rabi Shrestha, was shot five times in Gadsden,AL.
When he was waiting for his friend outside a grocery store,two black
guys approached him and asked for a ride.They told him that their car
was out of gas and they need to go a gas station nearby.After driving
a block away they asked him to stop the car.They rubbed his $30 and
told him to runaway.When he was running they shot him five times.
Luckily, he survived from this horrible shooting.He was just
discharged from Riverside Medical Center,Gadsden,AL on Aug 15.
Bachan K.C.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% %%
%% END OF "THE NEPAL DIGEST". %%
%% %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 11 2000 - 11:15:30 CST