These are my notes
from a lecture by Kanak Mani Dixit at Roja Muthiah Library, Taramani, Chennai on
March 1, 2018. His talk was titled “Nepal
turns a corner”
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The priest of
Pashupathinath temple is a Namboodiri. The soldiers in Nepal are called
Telinga. The Karnataka people have a strong connection to Nepal. The Nepalis
left to various parts of India and became Gorkhas in Indian and British armies.
The rath yathra of Katmandu
makes the Puri rath yathra look staid in comparison. The murthi Matsyendranath
is from Kamarupa, is also called by Bundeo and has another name associated with
Vajrayana Buddhism.
Nepal is deeply connected to
India, more so to the south than the Gangetic plain. There is very little trade
now between India and Tibet via Kathmandu but it used to be high volume.
Jesuit priest Ludwig Steller
in his book Silent Cry, listed the exploitation of Nepal by Katmandu government
and resultant poverty. Ranas and British became richer, but people became
poorer. But Nepal maintained autonomy as princely state.
Jang Bahadur in 1800 went to
London, his portrait is central in the hall of Indian Potentates in the India
Office library. He supported British in 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, but allowed refuge
for Nana Sahib and Begum Hazrat (??) as a way of displaying his autonomy.
Koiralas fought with Indian
freedom fighters, went to prison with Rajendra Prasad, hoping to overthrow the
Ranas, which was only possible if British were overthrown. After 1947, Koirala
had a chat with Nehru, when he realized he was no longer talking to a fellow
freedom fighter but to a Prime Minister
First election in 1959. Nepal
has altitudinal diversity which no other countries have. And this affects its polity.
It has the ravines of Afghanistan and the forests of Vietnam.
Koirala had the most
inclusive cabinet, but he was overthrown by king Mahendra in a coup supported
by the army, then exiled.
In nineties, when the Maoists
realized they were getting no support at the voting booth, they exploited the
romantic delusions of the youth, and brought in physical violence never seen in
Nepal’s history. Local government was killed off. Army was violent by day,
Maoists by night. In earlier eras, murders were confined to the courts.
After the formation of
republic, GP Koirala gave Maoists equal seats as formal communists UML. Maoists
never picked up gun against monarchy, only against democratic government. They
were more opportunists rather than fighters. The gora sahibs, western activists,
entered under UN auspices, and turned every Nepali who could speak a few
sentences in English into a consultant. The Maoists try to impose a North
Korean style constitution for a while.
Maoists and Dalits were
funded, so there was a functioning workshop and seminar economy for them, but
the Madhesis were totally ignored. And they rose up against that neglect.
Nepal had not suffered
partition and 1971 and such trauma as India or Bangladesh, but all of it
telescoped from 1996-now. Insurgency, foreign intervention, Communal tension,
blockades, economic hardship, earthquakes.
Largest community in Nepal is
Hill Kshatris sixteen percent, next is hill Brahmins is twelve percent. All are
micro communities, so no serious communal violence. Nepal has both castes and
ethnic groups, and castes within the ethnic groups.
I think Nepal has turned a
corner, but I have said that before, many times, and been wrong, so you can
take it with a pinch of salt.
Added December 4, 2020 A Quora essay on Nepal - frankly, this essay was more informative than anything I have ever read ir heard about Nepal
My blogs on Politics
Gurumurthy
on Demonetization
Marriages
and Divorces – some statistics
Margaret
Thatcher – in memoriam
Some other lecture notes
Science
1493 – The Columbian Exchange
Manjul Bharagava on Sanskritam and Mathematics
CNR Rao on Faraday and GN Lewis
Economics
Renminbi as international currency
Literature
Subramanya Bharathi’s Essays
Siddharthan book on Samrat Asoka
Law
Experiences of a lawyer and judge
