By: Bikal Dhungel
In this article I focus on four
different issues, the one sided history of Nepal, the issues of Buddha,
Nepalese Nationalism and current choices in political leadership.
History was always written by the
winners. The winners determine how to present historical facts to the future
generation who often disregard the suffering of losers. This results in mind
manipulation of future generation and hides the truth and neutrality.
So called ‘Father of Modern
Nepal’, Prithvi Narayan Shah is regarded as unifier of Nepal. Raising war with
small kingdoms scattered throughout the areas of present day Nepal, he slowely
created a single nation. This is why millions of Nepalese regard
him as a unifier, a saviour, a hero. But barely any textbook presents the suffering of
people by his hands. Fact is he did not acquire other kingdoms by peaceful means,
rather by voilent means. No records of how many people were killed, how many
houses were destroyed, memories lost and no account of financial losses.
As a child he was sent to live in
Bhaktapur with the kings to learn politics. Inturn, in the process of war in
Kathmandu Valley, Prithvi Narayan killed the same people who taught him and who
raised him in Bhaktapur. This is like killing your own parents. In the battle
of Kritipur, where Prithvi Narayan was defeated twice and where he lost his close
brother and a powerful commander Kalu Pandey from his batallion, after winning
the third battle, he ordered to cut the ears and noses of every youth and man
in Kritipur. Wasn’t that the cruelest act ever? A king with a vision of unifying
a large number of kingdoms to create a greater Nepal had infact a huge
ingredient of hate inside him. His aim was not to unify the kingdoms for the
sake of people rather to be the king of everybody for personal gains and
prestige. Hence, Nepalese, your ‘Father of Nation’ Prithvi Narayan Shah is a
mass murderer ( as per the modern definition of ethics ). He was a colonizer who had imperial dreams and acquired it
disregarding the lives of people including women and children. Having said that, it should also not be forgotten that, whatsoever, PNS unified the nation that was so diverse and at last, for few hundred years, Nepalese took pride of being a diverse nation. But this has many downsides too. Emergence of an kind of force to disturb this unity ( like the Maoists have achieved ) can end in a terrible bloodshed. So, though PNS might have achieved the unification based on his own personal gains, the situation of Nepal remains vulnerable. Note that the aim of this article is not to blame PNS for unifying Nepal, but the display the both sides of the coin, not only the good one.
Since some time, I’ve been
noticing a map of Nepal in facebook called ‘Greater Nepal’. Some additional
parts were added which does not belong to Nepal anymore. This kind of
statements is stupid, foolish and slaps in one’s own face for being unable to
think well. You cannot fight to claim the areas that were once part of your
country. If so, the Mongolians should claim whole Russia, till Poland and
Turkey and Iraq and China because they were all once the part of history’s
largest empire called Mongol Empire. If so, the Turkish should claim whole Arabian
world till Vienna because it was once Ottoman Empire. If so, the Persians would
claim a big part of Asia. Germans would claim half of Poland as it was a part
of present day Germany during the rule of Prussia. Sweden would claim Norway as
its part, Russia would claim ex Soviet Republics and Britain might ask for all
the parts of its empire in six continents. There is no doubt that there were
some imbalances in cultural level when the United Kingdom, India and Nepal
declared their boundaries. Culturally indian parts came to Nepal and nepalese
parts went to India. However, four regions Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur
were added to Nepal as a prize for being faithful to the British especially
displayed by the Gurkha soldiers in the upraisings of Sepoys in India when the
British along with Gurkhas massacred the indian people. This has a huge
importance because these regions are bread basket of Nepal especially for rice.
Still, it was not a correct dicision to divide the border in such a way. But
that time is over and it makes no sense for fighting for these causes today.
There are more border problems in the world than the total number of countries,
because one country can have more than one border problems. The list will go on
if we take account of developing countries. Even highly developed countries are
facing this problem. China and Russia are still struggling for the region of
Manchuria. Japan and China are still fighting for Senkaku Islands. Sweden and
Finland havent solved their territorial disputes over Aland Islands. Similarly,
Russia and Ukraine are discussing over Sevastopol. Even in North America, there
are disputes over Alaska’s boundry between Canada and United States. So,
there is no sense in fighting for border in today’s time. At least these
countries are rich enough to integrate additional areas in their territory but
Nepal is poor itself. Its not in a condition to control the traffic system of
Kathmandu, why should it bear the burden of more areas consisted of mountains.
It has enough homework to do in order to create an economically self-sustaining
and peaceful nation, why its people are concentrating on unnecessary stuffs
which will have no outcome anyway?
Keep in mind; humans are by
nature, a nomadic volk. They are Nomads, Immigrants. Throughout the history
they have immigrated from place to place, in search of better opportunity, to
flee natural catastrophes and in the modern times, to flee the voilence and
political repressions. The European Aryan people, mainly in today’s Germany,
Austria and Scandinavian, immigrated from South and Central Asia. Europeans
again immigrated to Americas in search of better life and freedom, to the
United States, to Argentina, to Brazil, to Mexico and to many other places. The
Carebbeans were originally from Africa, the Australian aborigines arrived in
the island continent when due to the cold age, the level of water came down and
they stuck there again when the water level got higher. Similarly, people of
Nepal in history arrived there from present day Mongolia, Persia and whole
South Asia. The origin of Humans can be traced back to East Africa. Hence,
there is no actual home country for any person living today. The earth as a
whole belongs to everybody. Tracking back your origin can tell you an
interesting fact that your great grand parents or great great grandparents were
someone before that time actually emigrated from a different place to where you
live now. It might be far or it might be very very far.
Milton Friedman, a nobel prize
winner in Economics and a great visionary of 20th century once wrote
in his book Capitalism and Freedom, “ to the free man, a country is a collection
of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. But he
regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither grantors of favor
and gifts, nor a master of or god to be blindly worshipped and served”. So, we
should not mind telling ourselves citizen of the world instead of a tiny area
somewhere on earth and claiming that area is yours called a ‘country’ and you
are ready to die for it is not a right thing to tell and to do.
A similar issue is about Lord
Buddha. Buddha was born in a place called Lumbini, modern day Nepal. Though
some idiots try to spread confusion in virtual and real world about the
birthplace being India there is no reason to hate indians and India as a
country. This does not give anyone a right to criticize India by blaming and
insulting indians in general. Travel throughout India and you will soon
discover that the large part of indians love Nepal and of course nepalis.
Moreover, the central indian government in Delhi has recognized with clear
words that Buddha was born in Nepal and presents no doubts in it. UNESCO does
the same. Running behind the fake vibres of internet regarding this topic is
stupid enough. Do not forget the fact that Buddha once told that hate can only
be ended by love, hate can never be ended through even more hate. It only
results in the destruction of both sides. Peace and non-violence has the
highest power. Non-Violence in the 20thth century has brought down
an empire where the sun never set. So, many Nepalese feel proud that Buddha was
born in Nepal but do the actions that is exactly opposite of what Buddha said.
How logical is that? . Once again, hate can never end
hate, only love can. Especially to those who hate you, you got to love more, to
prove that love is more powerful. Try this at home, or at school.
The works done by Buddha or the
teachings he gave is what that made Buddha, not the place he was born. Einstein
became famous from his deeds rather than his birthplace. Picasso is known for
his paintings and not from his home country. It is less important where
somebody was born. It is more important that somebody has done something so
that the whole world profits as a whole. If Buddha were born in India, I would
follow his teachings the same as I do now, same like I do follow the principles
of Gandhi and ignore the fact where he was born.
India and Nepal are a family that
share common cultural heritage and somehow similar language yet two different
nation-states. Nepalese can/should/must learn many things from the Indians. India’s role in
the world is increasing rapidly through its economic growth that was generated
by a vast amount of highly educated people and advanced entrepreneurs. An Indian was the richest person of Great Britain and now one of the richest men in Europe when
Luxemburg’s steel giant Arcelor merged with Mittal Steels. His name is Laxmi
Mittal. The highest salary earner in Germany is the manager of Deutsche Bank,
called Anshu Jain, an Indian. The director of world’s largest donor agency,
USAID is a doctor named Anup Shah, appointed by president Obama. Amartya Sen was awarded Nobel
Prize in Economics in 1998. C.K prahalad is a worldwide known management guru
and a professor at the University of Michigan. Raghuram Rajan is the visiting
professor at the World Bank, the US central bank Federal Reserve, and to many
governments like Sweden and India and is the professor of Finance at the
University of Chicago. Nithin Noria was the dean of Harvard Business School. S.
Shankar Saastry is the dean of engineering department of University of
California, Berkeley. Jagdish Bhagwati was an advisor to World Trade
Organization, to the United Nations as well as many other governmental and non
governmental organization. He taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and currently teaches Economics in Columbia University in New York. The father
of Fiber Optics is an Indian called Narindar Singh Kapani. Sabeer Bhatia
co-founded Hotmail. 51% of Microsoft’s employees are Indians. Dr. Sanjay Gupta
is well known to the regular viewers of CNN. Ajay Banga is the president and
CEO of Mastercard. Rajeev Gupta is general manager of Hewlett Packard. Bobby
Jindal and Nikki Haley were the governors of Lousiana and South Carolina,
states of USA. Kamala Harris is the Attorny General of California. Fareed Zakaria, the moderator of Global Public Square, CNN (the only high profile individual to write 'Buddha was born in India in his book The Post American World ) is likely to be the Foreign Minister of USA in the future. Dr. Ravindra Gujjula was the Mayor of Altlandsberg, Brandenburg, Germany and the member of Social Democratic Party. Sir Anand Satyanand was the governor general of New Zealand. Similarly, Indians have reached very high level
in technology, research and development in the whole world. The list goes on
but this is not my intention of this article. Nepalese, think genuinely, how
long you are going to blame indians, scold and insult them in facebook while
they are toiling upward in the night to become the top in their field in the
whole world? How long you will follow the hate preachers and act as stupid as them?
Isnt it a time to think for yourself about how to excel in your field instead
of pulling others legs?
Focus on what you can do better
and as a country there are many things Nepal should concentrate on including
the development and regulation of tourism sector. Tourism is also one of the
thing Nepalese take pride of but infact Nepal lies far behind in international
tourism arrivals chart. In the year 2008, among 190 countries of the world,
Nepal was on 115th place. We have to keep in mind that over 50
countries were small island nations with less population. India, Pakistan and
Maldivs had more tourists than Nepal. This shows that Nepal actually lies in
the bottom. Hence, tourism is not the sector to be proud of. A lot of homeworks
are needed by the government. The second richest country in the world in water
resources after Brazil, they say but except saying that, nothing was done from
this fresh water availability. Kathmandu valley as well as other big cities has
a very high scarcity of water. Whats the use of it if you could do nothing out
of it ? One thing for sure is, it does not make sense anymore telling the world
that you are second richest country in water resources when there is no fresh
water coming to your house.
When we come back to present day
political scenario, now there is a trend in Nepal claiming that the return of
Monarchy will be better because of the behaviour of 601 members of parliament.
People are supporting Gyanendra though he is well known for trying to abolish
democracy in the country. His son is a proved Gangster. How good is the idea of
making somebody a king and giving him palaces whereas the poor people have no
blankets on the streets, where people in rural parts should walk days if not
weeks to get medical treatment and where there is no money for education and infra-structure? This
is not the justification of good deeds of current parliamentarians but please tell me
any one country, any single country in the world whose transition was peaceful.
It took some time to get everything on track. Monarchy played a large role in
putting Nepal backward and finally we abolished it and within some time,
instead of solving the problems, nepalese are trying to get back to the problem
once more, which is a fatal mistake. The history of monarchy in Nepal isnt that
long. Remember Prithvi Narayan Shah given some pennies by Bise Nagarchi to
launch attacks, remember Tribhuwan borrowing a coat to wear and see Gyanendra
who owns a large fortune in such a short period and research how he made this.
Monarchy itself for Nepal is a wrong way to govern. It will only prosper the ‘Aasepases’
of the king and not the people.
In the
other hand there are Maoists who, in the name of social justice, killed 14,000
people but still do not understand that in today’s age, any country cant go
Maoist. China itself rejected it 40 years ago. Same with Communism, what
Karl Marx had made clear from the beginning that this model is not for
developing countries, but still Nepal has a second biggest party running for it
knowing that there is hardly any nation remaining in the world that calls
itself a communist. See the misery in Cuba. Nepalese should answer few questions
now. How long will you carry the flags of these failed model parties dreaming
for wealth for yourself? How long you will be an ‘ Aasepase ‘ of the king hoping
for an enormous fortune in the cost of poor hardworking nepalese ? How long you
need to give away your greed? Every individual should take these questions
seriously as, you as a ‘nation’ can only grow together and Nepalese can only
flourish together with integrating with the globe in order to create long term
prosperity and peace, without any ingredient of hate.
