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The Nepal Digest Friday 18 August 95: Bhadra 4 2052 BkSm Volume 41 Issue 6
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* TND Board of Staff *
* ------------------ *
* Editor/Co-ordinator: Rajpal J. Singh a10rjs1@mp.cs.niu.edu *
* TND Archives: Sohan Panta k945184@atlas.kingston.ac.uk *
* SCN Correspondent: Rajesh B. Shrestha rshresth@black.clarku.edu *
* *
* +++++ Food For Thought +++++ *
* *
* "If you don't stand up for something, you will fall for anything" -Dr. MLK *
* "Democracy perishes among the silent crowd" - Sirdar Khalifa *
* *
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From: Ranjan Koirala <s923392@minyos.xx.rmit.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - August 11, 1995 (27 Shrawan 2052 BkSm)News Subscribtion
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 16:07:22 +1000 (EST)
Dear Editor,
Thank you for your efforts and contribution in running a Nepalese
type computer magazine, TND to the Nepalese living away from their
motherland. Some of my friends and relatives are interested to get this
digest regularly so will you please put the address given below as a
permanent subscriber of TND.
s9251208@cougar.vut.edu.au
Thank You for your time and consideration.
Yours
Ranjan Koirala
************************************************************
Subject: Congratulations to Dr. Hari Koirala
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 1995 23:21:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: abi@sfu.ca
The Vancouver ( saanotino) Nepali Community gathered yesterday
Aug. 12, to celebrate Hari Daai's succussful completion of his
Ph.D. ( Education/math) from University of British Columbia. We
also bid farewell to Hari Daai, Sita Bhaauju, and their two
daughters. After four years in Vancouver, the family leaves next
week to pursue a bright future in Connecticut. We will miss them,
and wish them all the best.
The gathering was blessed by the presence of Dhruba Bhakta Mathema,
a prominent Nepali elder, who is visiting his daughter and her famaly
( they live in Vancouver).
Despite the political uncertainly back home, everyone was in high
spirit. The blue skies ( after a week of rain), the grandeur of the
mountain view, and the ocean-side setting of the UBC location may
have contributed to the happy mood. The Food ( Yummy!) definitely
had something to do with it as well. There was of course the
"chhoto mitho tar Bhabuk banaaune khaalko" mantabya by Hari Daai
& Sita Bhaauju; followed by the cutting of the delicious CAKE
prepared by Ishwari ( Mathema) didi.
After the Bhoj - Bhater, our own Rodi Ghar maestro Som Pun took over
the floor with, " Suntalaa Paani, Suntalaa Paani... sss," prompting
everyone dancing Laibari bhaakaamaa. The Party was brought to an end
with the singing of,
Bidaa hune bhai gayo belaa
Feri bheta holaa ki naholaa...
E ho ki hoina, ho ho
Hoina bhanne ko ho (!)
The party was put together by Jasmin and Anil Tuladhar. A special
THANKS to both.
Namaste
abi sharma
**************************************************************
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 1995 16:16:45 EDT
From: tilak@UFCC.UFL.EDU
To: Nepal@cs.niu.edu
Subject: Religion
The Koan - 'The Battle of the Left and the Right Hand'.
Tilak B. Shrestha, University of Florida, Summer 1995.
(Part II of IV parts series. The part I was published in
the August 7, 1995 issue of the Nepal Digest. Comments
are welcome.)
A Hindu, never claims to know all the truth, or expresses
that his or her religion is the only correct religion. A Hindu,
like a scientist, rather admits the limitation of his or her
background or upbringing and present living environment, and does
as best as he or she can do to improve his or her spirituality,
with the help of countless spiritual masters who has left their
teachings behind. That is why, if you ask ten Hindus to define
Hinduism, you will get twenty different answers.
To consider Hinduism only as rituals and casteism is, as
Buddha might have put, ignorance. They are some of the negative
aspects of Brahmanism, not Hinduism at large. Brahmanism has its
own relevancy, imperative and usefulness. However, unfortunately
it also has developed a few strands of objectionable practices
through the ages. If told, the saga of exploitation of poor and
ignorant by learned and powerful, the evolution of casteism,
degeneration into ritualism, Brahmanic adulteration of
scriptures, will never end. Those kind of corruptions, like bad
apples, need to be discarded. However, we cannot condemn all the
apples. Like in any society, there are many problems in the Hindu
society. However, they are social problems, not religious. I can
imagine a mad scientist, but not a mad science. The answer lies
in the moral and intellectual discipline, not in politics.
Sanatana :
The notion that Buddhism is different from Hinduism has come
due to the misunderstanding of the nature of 'Sanatana' or
inquiry into the universal truth. The difference is the
approaches taken by different sects, not the truth per se. After
all truth remains the same, though it may be approached or
understood from different perspectives.
The eternal truth cannot be understood by us, not because it
is mysterious, but because our human faculties like the physical
body and the intelligence are limited. Thus, like the fable of an
elephant and blind men, we may be able to perceive only partial
truth. This is expressed in Sanskrit as 'Ekam sat vipra bahuda
vadanti - Truth is one, sages call it by different names'.
Sanatana or inquiry of the eternal truth can be done with the
available human tools only.
The classical Hindu spiritual masters point out those tools,
in order of preference, as - a. Physical observation, b. Logic,
c. Simile, and d. Revelations. The truth as understood due to the
direct physical observations gets the first preference. Next, in
order of preference, is the truths which, though cannot be
directly observed, can be logically deductible. Next, would be
the use of simile. For example, if we like to know the number of
teeth of a live lion, we may count that of a cat instead and make
inference. The last source of truth is the so called
'revelations', which needs to be taken with a grain of faith or a
grain of salt, as you prefer.
The order of preference pertains to the validity of the
truth. We might argue that the validity becomes less credible and
more difference in opinion precipitates as we base our inquiry in
the later tools. However, if we base our inquiry only within the
observable phenomena, then the scope of inquiry will be limited,
though arguments will have stronger credibility. This is how a
spectrum of sects or metaphysical views have developed in the
Hinduism.
Materialist like Carvak bases their world view strictly
according to the observable phenomena only. Strictly speaking,
they cannot be called atheist, because they do not say that God
does not exist. Rather they will argue that there is no physical
proof of existence of God. Empiricists like Buddhists and Jains
base their world view strictly according to the observable
phenomena and logically deductible concepts, but not on
revelation or faith. Typically, Carvak would argue that there is
not enough physical evidence to prove the theory of Karma. Where
as Buddhist would argue that the law of Karma is empirically
provable, however it needs higher perspective than that of
Carvak's. Vaishnav or Shaiva would consider the law of Karma as a
revealed truth. Similarly, Carvak would consider Newton's law
'every action has equal and opposite reaction' as an observable
truth, but not the Karmic law. Whereas, others would consider the
Newton's law as the physical subset of the universal Karmic law.
The dwaita philosophers like Vaishnavs would add on the article
of faith that God exists. They may also talk about their faith
that God reincarnates into the human history frequently in
different forms and personality according to the human need or
divine will. Thus, they will emphasize on relation with God in
personal way, through love and prayer. Where as Adwaita
philosophers like Shaivs will add on their faith that there exist
eternal truth which they call, at the lack of better word, the
big one (Brahma). They would argue that all the cosmos, including
human being, is simply a transient manifestation of the Brahma. A
dwaita-adwaita philosopher may argue that the Brahma does
manifest as personified God. Thus, the arguments and metaphysical
views continues, till the cows come home.
The Gnan yoga observes that each of these views contains
partial truth but not the whole truth. Thus, a student is advised
not to attach himself or herself to a particular view but to
learn all of them and later to go forward on his or her own
strength. The point here is that Hinduism consists of a spectrum
of many interconnected world views including that of Buddhism.
Buddhism :
Buddhism need to be understood, not as a faith, but as the
rational approach to the truth and according to the priority it
assigns. Buddhist approach of truth is strictly empirical, or
based on the knowledge, symbolized by Gnan Chachhu or Eye of
knowledge. Buddhism's priority is the practical way of lessening
the suffering. Other issues, like Buddhahood (Arhat) or
metaphysical views are only secondary. Majjhima Nikaya Sutta
states - "If a man is struck by an arrow, then as the first order
of business the arrow should be pulled out and the wound should
be treated. It would not help to insist to know what caste the
person belongs to, or what kind of arrow it is, or how tall the
man is etc., before pulling the arrow out. Similarly, it is not
on the view that the world is eternal, that it is finite, that
body and soul are distinct, or that the Buddha exists after death
a religious life depends. Whether these or their opposites are
held, there is still rebirth, there is old age, there is death,
and grief, lamentation, suffering, sorrow, and despair. I have
not spoken about these views because they do not conduce to
absence of passion, tranquillity, and Nirvana. And what have I
explained ? I have explained suffering, the causes of suffering,
the destruction of suffering, and the path that leads to the
destruction of suffering. For they are useful in life.
Therefore, my disciples, consider as unexplained what I have not
explained, and consider as explained what I have explained."
The concepts like Karma, Incarnation, Raj yoga's techniques
of meditation, Gnan yoga's technic of inquiry into universal
truth etc., which are also the staples of Buddhism existed long
before Buddha was born. However, the difference is that Buddha
recognized them through empirical means, not as revelation out of
Veda. Buddha insists 'Ye be lamp onto your self'. That is why he
is correctly called 'Nastik', that his teachings do not depend
upon 'Veda' or other scriptures. 'Nastik' does not mean atheist.
It simply means teachings independent of Vedic scriptures, as
opposed to 'Aastik', which means teachings dependent upon 'Vedic
scriptures'. For example, Krishna considers 'Gita' as milk out of
scriptural cow. Otherwise, the truth is the same. Buddha himself
had many teachers, who were trained in then prevalent schools of
Hinduism.
The greatness of Buddha is that he is able to bring many of
the truths, which were considered purely a matter of faith and
revelation, within the realm of rational deduction. That is why
initially many Brahmans opposed him, and once they understood the
importance of the Buddhist approach they recognized him as an
incarnation. His way of knowledge was indeed the ignorance
shattering. Such height of spiritual innovation is not achieved
easily. However, there are other instances also. For example,
Krishna's Karma Yoga brings the possibility of Nirvana within the
grasp of ordinary people or Grihastha, instead of being only for
professional ascetics.
If Hinduism is considered strictly Vedic teachings only then
Buddhism, south Indian Shaivism (whose Agamas are independent of
Veda) etc. are not Hinduism. Exclusive Vedic teachings and
attendant culture may be termed 'Brahmanism'. If, Hinduism is
considered as truth in general, then not only Buddhism, but
Confucianism, Taoism, physics, mathematics etc. are also
different approaches to the same eternal truth. As I said before
both 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism' are adopted alien terms. On one hand,
Sanatana is not limited within any book, geography or history;
though certain book might illuminate certain aspect of it. On the
other hand, if every so called concept of Hinduism is purged out
of Buddhism, then left over will truly be the heaven of Sunyabad
(pardon my pun). Einstein would not have incarnated without the
background of Galileo, Newton, Planck, Fitzgerald, Lorentz and
countless other physicist.
Any Buddhist doctrine needs to be understood in terms of the
Buddhist approach and the context, not taken as an article of
faith. Unfortunately, some of the Buddhist doctrines like that of
'Anahata - no soul' some times has been mistakenly considered as
a Buddhist faith. As I mentioned before, Buddha neither cares
about metaphysical views, nor builds his thesis on faith. Just
for the argument sake, consider the fact that Buddhism recognizes
the karma and reincarnation. Then question may be asked what
connects the one life from the next and keeps the karmic action
intact. In Buddha's time the vulgar concept of 'Atma - soul' was
the 'Suchsma shareer - microbody', which in English may be termed
'Ego-substance'. As if there is a small etherial or astral body
within the larger physical body, kind of trapped inside. This
suchsma shareer is supposed to carry the memory and physical
attributes of the given life like a seed of a plant. At the death
this suchsma sareer escapes out of the physical body and jumps
into a new body or goes to heaven, carrying the karmic bundle and
the subdued form of memory and attributes from the past life.
This is similar to the christian concept of soul, which after
death retains all the attributes and memory of the life.
According to christianity, when resurrection occurs all the souls
will come back alive in their previous forms, even the families
would come back and live as before, though in happier state. This
egocentric concept of Atma is denied (Anahata) by Buddha.
However, the classical Hindu concept of Atma also is not
egocentric. Yogavashista states (52.44) - "In reality, there is
no such thing as the ego-soul, nor is there any mine and thine,
nor imagination. All this is nothing but the manifestation of the
universal soul which is the light of pure intelligence."
According to classical Hinduism Atma is divine, attributeless,
eternal, and is not subject to karmic law.
(Message inbox:157)
-- using template mhl.format --
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 09:11:00 EDT
To: a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu
From: DGURUNG@CLEMSON.EDU
Subject: Chinese Pressure on Nepal's Tibetans Deportation
Return-Path: <DGURUNG@CLEMSON.EDU>
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 10953
Crosslisted from WTN
Chinese Step Up Pressure on Nepal Deportations (TIN)
Tibet Information Network 12 August, 1995
The Chinese Government has asked the Nepalese authorities to
step up their restrictions on Tibetan refugees in Nepal. The
Chinese are reported to be increasing security on the Tibetan
border to stop refugees fleeing, and the Nepalese have responded
by deporting most recent Tibetan refugees.
"The Chinese want Nepal to restrict undesirable activities of
Tibetans in Nepal," said Ganesh Prasad Bhattarai, the
Director General of Nepal's Department of Immigration,
according to Reuters news agency on 7th August.
Mr Bhattarai was leading the Nepal side in three days of talks
with a seven member Chinese delegation led by General Zhang
Guogang, Director-General of the Chinese Border Security
Department, visiting Kathmandu to discuss "border security and
other matters of mutual interest". Mr Bhattarai's involvement
suggests that the talks focussed on immigration issues.
In the last two weeks the Chinese are reported by unofficial
sources to have moved a border post or roving patrol to a
posiiton high up the Nangpa-la, a 5,700 metre high pass in the
Himalayas which most refugees use when they attempt to reach
Nepal.
In the last month Nepali police have been deporting some
refugees to the Nangpa-la, which until now has been unguarded,
instead of escorting them to the main border town of Dram
[Nepali: Khasa, Chinese: Zhangmu], 150 km south west by road.
Since April over 200 Tibetans have been forcefully repatriated by
Nepalese officials via Dram.
- Tibetan Preferred Death to Repatriation, says Tourist -
Forced deportations have also been taking place in the far west of
Nepal, and in early July Chinese security officials in Burang,
western Tibet, wrote to their Nepali counterparts thanking
them for their co-operation in repatriating a group of
Tibetan refugees. The asylum seekers were described as "people
who disturb the border business", according to a tourist who was
shown the letter.
In one incident last month witnessed by western tourists a
Tibetan refugee asked a doctor to help him commit suicide
rather than face deportation to Chinese border guards.
The Tibetan was amongst a group of 11 refugees who were being
marched under armed escort through Humla, in the far west of
Nepal. On July 4th the deportation party encountered a group
of Swiss tourists on a trek towards the Nepali-Tibetan border post
at Yari, through which western trekking groups are occasionally
allowed to travel on their way to Kailash, a famous mountain and
pilgrimage site in Western Tibet.
The 11 Tibetans had escaped from Tibet in June but had been
detained by Nepalese police at Basra, in Darchula district, 100
km south-west of the TIbet border post, and had been marching
back under escort for seven days before they met the Swiss
group.
"They were guarded by 7 Nepalese policemen with rifles, walking
all the way," said Bruno Baumann, a well-known photographer and
mountaineer from Munich who was leading the group, which
included a medical doctor. "The refugees were very weak and they
asked if we had a doctor and if he could see them - one or two had
very bad diarrhoea and could hardly walk. They were very thin
and they didn't look very healthy at all," said Mr Baumann.
Most of the refugees, seven of whom were monks from Kham, an
former area of eastern Tibet now known as western Sichuan, had
been travelling for four months before they crossed into Nepal,
following a circuitous route of about 2,000 km across central
Tibet in order to avoid detection.
"On the second day one of the refugees asked the doctor to
give hm an injection which would kill him, as he believed that
he would be shot by the Chinese," said Mr Baumann, who named the
refugee as Sonam Gyatso, a 26 year old from Ngari. "He also tried
to practice something like passive resistance, refusing to walk
further than Yari, the last settlement in western Nepal before
the border", said Mr Baumann. The protest was unsuccessful, and
the eleven refugees were handed over without incident to
Chinese police on the Humla-Karnali bridge on 7th July.
The trekking group asked the Nepalese officer if he would
release the refugees in the no-man's land between the two border
posts - a practice which some Nepali guards have followed in some
areas to give deportees a chance to escape - but a small squad
of Chinese troops with automatic weapons had already been
informed of the deportations and had travelled to the border
below the Nara-la, 4,500 metres high, to collect them.
"We tried to think about what could we do, and in the end we took
photos and tried to record details of their biographies," said the
tourists.
The deportees were escorted by the Chinese squad to the road-head
a kilometre inside Chinese territory, where they were loaded onto
a truck. "This was when we saw the refugees for the last time,"
said Mr Baumann. "A monk signalled to me to come to him in the
truck, and then gave me a badge with his identification
from his monastery. To my friend he passed all the religious
texts that he had hidden under his clothes," he added.
"They were too weak to resist, and they were much too weak to try
to escape," said Mrs Brandenberg, another member of the Swiss
trekking group. "They looked very sad, very hopeless," she
commented.
The Nepalese policemen were also driven to Burang, the local
military and administrative centre 25 km from the border, and
returned the next day. "We were told that they are paid 1,000 yuan
(about $200) each by the Chinese, and that as a reward the
policemen are also offered a trip to Lake Manasarovar", said one
of the trekking group. The sacred lake, 80 kms beyond Burang, is
an important pilgrimage site for Hindus as well as for Buddhists.
- Earlier Repotts of Beatings and Imprisonment -
There are no accountsu of returned Tibetan deportees being killed
by Chinese police and the refugees' fears that they would be
shot are exaggerated. Imprisonment of two months or more and
beatings are, however, frequent in such cases. Semi-official
sources in Burang say that the 11 refugees deported on 7th July
were handed over by the Chinese border guards to the Army
Headquarters in Burang, where they were beaten by soldiers
before being transported to Lhasa the following day.
In Lhasa they are likely to remain for some months in prison,
according to a Tibetan who tried to escape to Nepal in November
1994 but only succeeded this month on his second attempn. "The
Chinese arrested 13 of us in Dram, and we were detaoned and
questioned there for seven days," said Dudul Dorje, a 46 year
old nomad fromr Jyekundo in eastern Tibet, adding that they
had been bhaten with electric batons by border police in Dram.
The nrisoners were then sent to Lhasa, where they were
imprisoned for up to four months, d ring which they were
questioned every day, mainly about their reasons for trying to
le ve Tibet. "We were accused of being splittists and being
followers of the Dalai clique," said Dudul Dorje, who says he
was questioned up to three times a day, given electric shocks
and beaten. The prisoners were released when the authorities
finally accepted that their motive for leaving had been only to
see the Dalai Lama.
Information about the treatment of deportees or escapees by
the Chinese authorities is rare, since only a few manage to
escape again. Some are released after only a few days, but
others are sent on to larger prisons in Shigatse or Lhasa.
Those who have re-escaped allege that they were ill-treated by
guards at the border town of Dram. Three youths from Damshung
in Northern Tibet, caught trying to cross the border at Dram in
March 1994, say they were detained and tortured in the prison
there. "As soon as the interrogation started I was given
electric shocks in my face and chest," said Nyima, who was then 19
yeas old. "The interrogator kicked me in my kidneys and I could
hardly breathe for a while. They beat me in my face with their
fists and interrogated me for a few hours." The three, who say
that they were also made to stand barefoot in the snow as a
punishment, later escaped from the prison after 10 days in
custody and walked across the mountains to Nepal.
A Tibetan monk from Tashigompa, near Labrang in Gansu says that
shots were fired at him by border guards when he and a group of
refugees tried to cross into Nepal from south-east Tibet in May
1993. None of the escapees were hit, but after being handed over
by Nepali guards to the Chinese, the men were sentenced by a
military court to 2 months and 2 days imprisonment, which they
served in a military prison in Lhasa. They were beaten or
given electric shocks twice daily for the first five days,
according to the former prisoner, who asked not to be named.
Nepalese police have opened fire on Tibetan refugees several
times during attemtpts to detain or deport them, killing at
least two. In January 1992 a 22 year old student from Lhasa was
shot in the back and killed when he tried to run away from Nepali
guards deporting him. In June 1993 a 20 year old monk from Lithang
was shot dead and seven other refugees were injured when they
tried to run away from Nepali police. In August 1994 a refugee
had to have his leg amputated after being shot by a Nepali
policeman.
Last month Nepali police opened fire on a Tibetan student who
tried to escape while being escorted back to the border in Solo
Khumbu, in eastern Nepal. The bullets missed him but he was
severely beaten by police, according to an informed source in
Nepal.
[Note: names of deportees available from TIN]
Names of Tibetans Deported from Humla, Western Nepal, 7th July
1995:
Gompo Gyaltsen, 45 years, monk from Miwa monastery, in Hongyuan
county, Ngaba prefecture, Sichuan Choeku, 26 years Tsedrup, 25
years Rigpa, 24 years Gyathar, 44 years Oegyal, 25 years Wajar
[ba-cor?], 25 years
(all monks at Garthang [mgar thang] monastery in Kham Minyak,
Ganze Prefecture, Sichuan)
Urgyen Nyima, 20 years, layman from Amdo Dondrup, 32 years, layman
from Amdo Dorje, 19 years, layman from Amdo Sonam Gyatso, 26
years, layman from Ngari
Names of Tibetans arrested in Dram during escape attempt November
1994, imprisoned for up to 4 months in Lhasa:
Nyima Tashi (from Dzado in Kham, c. 20 years) Karma (Chamdo, c. 20
years) Thupten (Nagchen, c. 18 years) Topgyal (Dzado, 26 years)
Karma Gyurme (monk from Nagchu, c. 30 years) Urgyen Topgyal
(Nagchu, 22 years) Sonam Gyurme (Derge, c. 26 years) Sangye Nyima
(Chamdo, c. 26 years) Sonam (Lhasa, c. 30 years) Thupten Gyurme
(Lhasa, c. 26 years) Tashi (Nagchu, c. 31 years) Konchog (monk
from Drayap, age not known),
******************************************************************
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 01:08:56 EDT
To: The Nepal digest Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu>
From: "Pramod K. Mishra" <pkm@acpub.duke.edu>
Subject: Two Cheers and a tear for Communalism
Dear Editor,
In the recent issues of TND, some readers have lamented the lapse
of TND debates into communalism. I feel like investing this unpopular
beast. What after all is communalism? Although any -ism tends to make
its followers one-track thinkers, communalism may not necessarily do so
in every case. Racism and, its extreme form, Nazism are the most extreme
form of harmful communalism because in these forms the more powerful
dehumanize the less powerful, discriminate against them, put the less
powerful down and keep them down as long as possible. But the positive
form of communalism takes places when the deprived and dispossessed raise
their voice and critique the more powerful, in academic parlance, the
dominant, and demand equal rights.
Of course, there are mainstream parties that can address these
communal issues, absorb them, and change them from ethnic concern to,
let's say, class-oriented, human-oriented concerns. Liberalism and its
political front democracy to some extent addressed these concerns in many
countries. American affirmative action and the Civil Rights movement
could be taken as one example; the reservation of assembly seats for the
untouchables and the tribals in India could be taken as another example
of good communalism. In this kind of communalism, social inequality is
analyzed in its historical context and action is taken to redress the
mistakes made in the past.
Now, more to the point, is Nepal's UML party is going stray when
it addresses communal problems? I would say, not at all. One of the
shortcomings of traditional Marxism has been that it reduced a human as
only an economic animal, but a human is a cultural animal, too. That's
why, in many parts of the world, Communism contained communal forces, but
couldn't resolve them, and as soon as communism disappeared, communalism
rose like a uncontrollable monster to devour all vestiges of civility and
human values.
These days, after the collapse of the Soviet System and the
general failure of Marxism in producing wealth, Marxists have tried to
broaden the sphere of oppression and dispossession in various forms and
understand the myriad ways in which economic inequality can overtime
occur.
All form of governments in the world have been communal
governments under democracy. Democracy can succeed only when it becomes
communal, takes into account the interests of all communities, not just
impose one sets of values as the so-called national value. Neslson
Mendela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi all were communalists in its
best sense. On the other hand, Hitler and his past and present cohorts
are communalists in its worst sense.
I don't think we need to be afraid in Nepal of the rise of
healthy communalism, for if we don't timely recognize this positive
communalism, it's going to take a twisted form and refuse to reconcile to
the common norms. Shri Lanka, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia are but only
a few example among many lesser ones.
Before we dismiss the concerns raised about the discrimination
against people based on their language, facial profile, religion as
communal therefore taboo, we need to examine the nature of communalism
and see if there is any validity in the concerns raised, and if there is
validity, then is it possible to address those concerns within traditinal
paradigms? Or, do we need to formulate a new paradigm to resolve the
communal concerns. For by just dismissing certain concerns, we are not
going to get rid of those concerns in a democracy.
I, therefore, think that UML, by following a structured policy
about communalism, is doing the right job, courageously tackling the
demon. The Panchayat system also was communal, at least in the form of
tokenism, and the Congress party's haphazard, mouth-sweetening communalism
is well-known. The distribution of tickets in all election in a
democracy has so far occurred based mainly on communalism. So in stead
of getting scared, I feel that we should embrace communalism, which,
among other things, would mean respecting another person's culture,
language, religion, dress, rights. This kind of communalism strives to
bestow human dignity to every human.
***********************************************************8
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 18:51:06 -0000
To: nepal-request@cs.niu.edu
From: shimkhad@cgs.edu
Subject: Re: Nepal's Music and Dance Performance
Internationally known music and dance group Sur Sudha will be performing at
the Pacific Asia Museum on Saturday, August 19 to celebrate the 9th anniversary
of the Himalayan Arts Council, founded by Deepak Shimkhada. The program begins
at 6:00 PM with a pot-luck dinner in the courtyard of the Pacific Asia Musuem,
located at 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena. Admission is $8 for HAC
members, and $10 for non-members. The money collected will go to pay for
transportation of the artists. The HAC will host a reception before and after
the show. To reserve your seat and for more information and/or directions,
call Liz Corey at the Museum (818-449-2742, ext. 14).
If you don't wish to participate in the pot-luck dinner, you may simply come
for the show at 7:30 PM.
**********************************************************************
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 07:25:35 EDT
To: The Nepal digest Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu>
From: "Pramod K. Mishra" <pkm@acpub.duke.edu>
Subject: The Dancing Girl and Her Religion
Dear Editor,
Did you read in the current issue of India Today about Manisha
Koirala's security guards? Yup, these days she goes around escorted by
her security guards, for she has been threatened by Hindu extremists for
playing the role of a Muslim girl in the recent so-so Bombay film "Bombay."
Now what can you say to that? It is not Manisha's wise advice to
the Indian public about teenage sex (Manisha is reported to have told
the Indian media that premarital relationship, even sex, is good for the
girls) that has irked these zealots. No, it's not even the fact that
she said such an outrageous thing even as a girl herself. It's her
acting the role of a Muslim girl that seems to have threatened the
existence of Hindu religion. What has Hinduism come down to? I thought
it was a "sanatan" eternal dharma! It needs to be defended by such cowards
and dimwits who threaten a young woman for playing a fictional role?
These godforsaken zealots have not only forgotten all about the
much vaunted spirituality ("tatwamasi," "neti neti,"), universalism
("basudhaiva kutumbakam"), tolerance ("satyameka bahudha badanti"), they
have exposed their abysmal ignorance of Nepal's tradition of lack of
historical animosity toward people of other faiths, let alone the
iconoclastic, enlightened heritage of her family.
No matter how serious and how many differences one might have
with the political ideologies of the Congress Party, with B.P. and Girija
Koirala, and with others in the family, one can't help but acknowledge
the contribution of this perhaps one of the most enlightened and cultured
families of Nepal. No hero worship here, let me tell you.
Even a brief glance at B.P. Koirala's written works, even at the
thin booklet called "B.P.ka Bicharharu" would convince anyone of the
man's revolutionary temper in social matters. Of course, one can, if one
wants to, go back to the imprisonment and death-in-prison of the Koirala
patriarch, Krishana Prasad, and trace the political struggle and years of
political sacrifice of the family for civil rights and liberties in
Nepal. One doesn't have to be an admirer of the Congress Party or its
political and economic values to see the contribution of this family to
the cause of freedom and human rights in Nepal.
But these ignoramuses have nothing to do with these values and
ideals. They are so insecure and tied down to the filth of the moment
that they take this artist as any other dancing girl, forgetting that
this dancing girl is like no other, for she carries in her bearing, in
her art and temper the ideals of humanity, the universalism of Hindu
seers without their hypocrisy and close-mindedness, in deed, the ideas
and values perhaps of her own grandfather, B.P. as found in his thin booklet.
We must condemn such threat on this artist, not because she is a
daughter of Nepal but because these zealots have already defamed Hinduism
by their simplistic minds and cudgel-wielding hearts. Only by critically
examining Hinduism from within can its ideals be saved; only by
condemning and doing away with the abuses, the hypocrisies, the bigotry,
and the rottenness from within can Hinduism be kept alive, not by writing
facile, simple-minded essays and platitudes. Manisha Koirala and her
kind could be the saviors of Hinduism whereas these zeolots the cause of
its undoing.
Subject: Mourning for Nepal's Village People: The Tyranny of "-Ism" in Environm
***entalism
Dear Editor,
Arun III hydroelectric project now seems to have been quashed in the womb,
and I feel like taking the banner of an anti-abortionist in this matter. Most
of the
arguments the opponents of Arun III have made against this project have so far
failed
to convince me. That this project was in the long run against the interest of
Nepal;
that the flora and fauna of the region would be destroyed; that the local peopl
e would
be displaced; that China would do something to the glacier from which the Arun
descends; that India wouldn't buy electricity; that thousands of Indian skilled
workers
would stay during the construction of the project for years in Nepal affecting
the
economy, demographics, lifestyles, and so forth of Nepal; and that Nepali peopl
e
wouldn't be able to afford the cost of this expensive electricity are all uncon
vincing
arguments. They stem either from the condescending attitude of Western
environmentalism and their native cohorts don't want to destroy what they see a
s the
pristine pastoral lifestyle of mountain women, who become old in their late tw
enties
from backbreaking labors, and men who very often flee their harsh terrain eithe
r to
the easy life of the Terai or to foreign countries as mercenary soldiers and me
nial
laborers. Or, they seems to stem from the exaggerated fears of the ultra natio
nalists
within Nepal, whose comfy, electrified middle class life in the city makes it e
asy for
them to draw easy conclusions for those who live in darkness in the villages.
On the
contrary, I have been convinced all through that the gains from Arun III, done
right,
far outweigh the hazards, and the project represents the one once-in-a-lifetime
shot in
the arm of Nepal's ailing economy and the economic misery of majority of its pe
ople.
It's unfortunate that the World Bank and other major donor countries have decid
ed to
withdraw their support from Arun III project in the face of unrelenting opposit
ion
from these groups. It is definitely a day of mourning, not at all of celebrati
on.
On the forefront of this group of people who oppose such a huge project as
Arun III are the environmentalists. It was indeed heartening to read many arti
cles
about the environmental degradation in Nepal. Particularly Prabigya Regmi's pi
eces
did much to enlighten me about the details of what has already happened in Nepa
l. I
also learned much in detail about the various regions all over Nepal, from the
east to
the west, which I had but scanty knowledge about. An educated rising middle cl
ass
myself, I had most of the time been concerned about what happened to Kathmandu;
whether its people were breathing fresh air and drinking clean water; living in
health
and happiness. Or, if the horizon of my concern expanded at times, it included
Biratnagar, my beloved district town, and most often when I met a person from
Biratnagar, I asked, "Garmi kattiko chcha Biratnagar ma?" (How hot is it in
Biratnagar?). And when I met a person in Biratnagar who had just come down fro
m
Kathmandu (most likely by a night bus), I asked, "Kathmandu maa jado kasto chch
a?"
(How cold is it in Kathmandu?). In fact, if you ask me, I must confess that I
don't
know much about the people and places west of Palpa and Nawal Parasi, although,
like most children of Nepali public schools, I memorized the fourteen zones of
Nepal
in this formulaic fashion "Jaseko Bhena Basma luka gamera dhau" (the first lett
ers of
all the fourteen zones) and chanted like a mantra "Nepal ko dhan Hario Ban." A
nd
the shameful thing is I have pretensions of being an informed, educated person.
Why
couldn't I know more about the people living in various parts of Nepal through
visits
and personal contact than a casual Westerner, who visits many more parts and me
ets
many more people from various parts? The question is complex. I don't know th
e
answer fully yet; I'm trying to figure out. But some of the articles written a
bout Arun
III definitely broadened my knowledge.
Environmental activists have contributed much to the well-being of the mo
st
wonderful and vulnerable planet earth. From Al Gore's book "Earth in the Balan
ce"
to the Green Peace movement in France and all over, to the Green Party in Germa
ny,
to the "Chipko" movement started by Sundarlal Bahuguna in north-west India, to
the
vociferous scientists and activists in the Amazon region, most people and ideas
concerned about the welfare of the earth have done good to restore in some meas
ure
earth's health. At least, they have drawn the attention of the law makers and
many
common people in the educated world. Although the ozone layer still remains, a
t least
according to the news paper reports, depleted and depleting, it is primarily be
cause of
the efforts of the environmental groups that the profit-motivated, value-free c
apitalistic
machine is doing what it is doing to lessen pollution and protect the environme
nt.
Instead of mere development, we now have "sustainable development."
Any "-ism," however, can fall victim to the blindness of its one-track the
ory.
Communism failed because the Russian bureaucrats failed to take into account th
e
global reality of checkered world, failed to keep renewing more ideas and quest
ioning
the old ones that didn't work. Democracy has disappointed many because it very
often fails to recognize the pitfalls of its unholy alliance with merciless cap
italism; and
capitalism has proven disappointing because it very often refuses to wear a hum
an face
and take into account the human factor in its running.
Has environmentalism similarly failed, particularly in the context of what
is still
conveniently called the Third World? It seems so to me--at least partly.
Environmentalism in the industrialized world is not the same as it could be in
the
poverty-stricken, infrastructure-lacking developing world. At this point in hi
story, the
industrialized world consumes (the data is well known) more energy, pollutes mo
re,
and in a highly sophisticated manner, and has done not enough to stem the
deterioration of world environment. The ozone layer, for example, is not the r
esult of
burning bushes or lighting the clay oven with firewood or bonfire in the winter
in
places like Nepali villages; it is the result of manufacturing technology and c
hemicals
and letting technology consume the chemicals on the streets of the developed an
d
developing world for the luxury and convenience of the world's elite. My villa
gers
and the villagers of most parts of Nepal and other such countries have very lit
tle to do
with all this. Their women still light their oven with dry leaves and dung cak
es and,
if fortunate, firewood; the children of the fortunate few still in most cases f
inish
reading books before sunset and some read by the kerosene lamps (thank God I st
ill
don't wear reading glasses); they still cover the miles to their nearest towns
either on
foot or mules or bicycles; most of them still wear a single pair of cloth all t
he year
round; and their women wash their metal pots every morning with the ashes of th
eir
oven. The only commodities in most parts these people still need from the
industrialized world are kerosene, salt, soap (soap has replaced a kind of dry
fruit
people used once to wash their hair, but Rajbanshi women still wash their bodie
s and
hair with "khalli," squeezed mustard seeds), pieces of iron used to make tools
such as
a spade or a plow blade or a knife, clothes, and for the well-to-do radios and
watches.
Now in Nepal, if Arun III had gone on to be a complete project, every villa
ger
could have had at least electricity. They may not have driven motor cars (alth
ough
that is also possible), but they wouldn't have to depend on the whims of the mo
nsoon
rains to water their rice paddies and wheat and corn fields; women in the hills
wouldn't have to go down very often miles to fetch drinking water. In addition
to
making a villager's life a little bit easier to live, Arun III could have allev
iated the
poverty of Nepal's rural population by increasing agricultural productivity and
educating its still large number of illiterate population. Like my village, ma
ny
villages these days, particularly in the Terai, have black and white 14" televi
sion sets
run by a car batteries. Village children, many of whom have never been to scho
ol,
come to watch television shows, but the darn thing runs out of its battery, and
every
two weeks or so someone has to take the car battery to be recharged ten or so m
iles
away. Electricity could have solved this problem, and helped people see a diff
erent
world. Watching television could be addictive in New York, but watching it in
a
remote village in Nepal could change a man or a woman's life for the better. B
ut
without Arun III, all these aspirations have stalled at least another several d
ecades.
Now the arguments. China would do something to the glacier, the source of
the Arun river. If China does not object now when all these world agencies and
Western countries are financing such a huge project, it wouldn't object in futu
re as
well. At least, here we have to take into account Nepal's historical relations
hip with
China and the stakes of the world powers in this matter. So to say that China
would
at some unspecified future time try to abort the Arun III project by draining t
he
glacier amounts to little more than unfruitful speculation. Arun III would def
initely
displace the local people, but that doesn't seem to be a world-shaking problem.
We
students of Nepal's demography and the migratory trends and its history should
know
that because of the harsh terrain Nepal's people have migrated for centuries to
various
places in the world, including Burma, Assam, and the north-eastern region of In
dia.
In the past fifty years, particularly since the eradication of malaria from the
Terai
region, the hills of Nepal have emptied into the plains, creating a serious pop
ulation
imbalance and deforestation. And it is widely known that those middle income a
nd
poor people who migrated to the forests of the Terai didn't have an easy life.
In
addition to facing the immense task of clearing the massive forest for a few bi
ghas of
land, they very often faced the guns and battens of the Panchayat regime and
mercilessly evacuated from one settlement to another at the whims of the policy
makers. So if adequate compensation is given to the people who face the risk o
f
displacement because of Arun III and safely resettled somewhere else, I don't t
hink
many people would object to that. On the contrary, they may very well welcome
such
a move.
As for the flora and fauna, they would be destroyed anyway in the absence o
f
growing economy to feed the increasing population. I would argue that because
the
success of Arun III would have laid the infrastructure of Nepal's economy, not
only
the destroyed flora and fauna but even others which are in danger could have be
en
saved and rescued. American environmentalists know pretty well that at the tur
n of
the 19th century, most of the forest of the American South-East had been cut do
wn for
logging purposes. Much of the dense forest that exists now in this region has
been
replanted primarily the economy has been productive. And even in those regions
where the American government is at loggers head with the timber industries,
environmentalist efforts are paying dividends because there are still other sou
rces that
can sustain the people. The basic tenet of environmental safety is the presenc
e of
alternative sources of livelihood both in the developed and the developing worl
ds.
It is true that if the contract is given to the Indian companies, a large n
umber of
skilled Indians would stay for several years in the hills of Nepal, affecting t
he local
way of living, in many cases even destroying the balance of the economy. But t
hat's
the kind of hazards that accompany most development projects. As for these peo
ple
settling in Nepal, I don't think there is any danger. After all, the Mahendra
National
Highway was made for the most part by the Indians in the sixties. As a child,
on
picnic from school, I saw Sikhs working on the river, drilling huge pipes. I d
on't
think any of them stayed on in Nepal. Besides, what would the government of Ne
pal
do? Indian migration into Nepal for the most part has been from the neighborin
g
states, mainly of Bihar and Uttarpradesh, particularly semi-skilled workforce,
such as
vendors, barbers, jute washers, harvesters, and unemployed school teachers and
so on.
Those who are already well employed in India seldom come to Nepal to face gente
el
poverty. In fact, my observation is that those lecturers (M..A's. and M. Sc.'s
in
English and the sciences) who cross the border to teach at colleges on contract
as
soon as they get a job in India they rush back to their familiar, better paying
surroundings.
Yes, it would be difficult for the Nepali people to pay much higher rate for
electricity. But if that's the case, that is, if the river is not conducive to
producing
cheap electricity, then it's not worth it. But my impression was that the Arun
possessed large potential for cheap electricity. And by the time the project i
s
completed, it is the responsibility of the world development agencies to see to
it that a
suitable ground is laid down in Nepal so the electricity could be used for prod
uctive
purposes--to develop the hills, to increase industrialized farming of fruits an
d nuts and
so on. Sooner or later, Nepal has to stand on its own two feet, and for that i
ts people
would have to be educated on a massive scale about the possibilities of its
development. Although I didn't like the unionizing of elementary school studen
ts on
partyline, I admired their song, "Mange ko roti le mero pet bharinna; diyeko dh
oti le
mero laaz chchopinna." (My hunger cannot be quenched by the doled out bread and
my body cannot be covered by the charity cloth). The hard working, quick-study
people of Nepal would have found ways, given the right means, to raise their in
come
level to pay for this electricity. Even now, a large portion of Nepal's annual
budget
depends on foreign aids; subsidizing the cost of electricity for a few years wo
uldn't
have been a very difficult task for the donor agencies.
As I'm writing now, I feel lost in the maze of would-have-beens. I must sa
y
that this project would have brought about a massive transformation in the life
style of
Nepali people; they could have been better off. I'm all for it. I have no nos
talgia for
dark nights in which every evening when you sit down to read, the smoke of the
lamp
changes course and enters into your nostrils and irritates your eyes. Yes, I h
ave no
nostalgia for the back-breaking fruitless labor of Nepal's singing planters. I
want all
of them don pants and shirts like the environmentalists and other city dwellers
; I want
all the fruitless traditional ways to go away to herald a new culture, a new wa
y of life-
more enlightened, more materially comfortable, richer and longer. I want ever
y
villager, living in the far off hills or the interior Terai, to have every comf
ort of a city
dweller. And for all this, Arun III was a must. Piecemeal projects would Nepa
li's
condition in bits and pieces; only a project like Arun III had a chance of over
hauling
the system.
Therefore, let's mourn this day on behalf of the majority of the people in
Nepal
who still live in unelectrified, unpaved villages, because the abortion of Arun
III may
mean a victory for a few misguided activists but misery for many years to come
for
these people. I wonder how true were the cynics in Kathmandu who very often ca
ll
such vociferous Nepali environmentalists as having "Mangi khane bhando (extendi
ng
the begging bowl in the name of environmentalism)."
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