B. K. Rana has a standing as a Janajati intellectual that stands in a class of its own, and I respect that, but I have been disturbed by his Pahadi tendencies during the course of the Madhesi Movement. He has readily bought into the ruling class demonization of the Madhesi Movement, he has made at least one comment of ridicule to me during the course of the movement, and now after having tried to peddle the ridiculous schools of thought that the monarchists and Hindu supremacists were the instigators of the Madhesi Movement, he is now suggesting the Madhesi Movement was a violent movement.
The movement was violent in that state terror was unleashed upon it. The state terror the Madhesi Movement was subjected to was worse than the state terror subjected upon the April Revolution itself.
There were a few acts of violence here and there, sure. Like Upendra Yadav said, people naturally reacted to police brutality. But for the most part this was a peaceful movement. I call it nonviolent militancy. The goal was to paralyze the state and we did it. The exact same thing happened during the April Revolution. Back them the demonizers said it was the Maoists who did it. Wrong. Both time it has been the people. The average person. The masses rose up saying enough is enough.
I have consistently tried to build a Madhesi-Janajati coalition. But I get a clear impression the likes of B. K. Rana are not interested. To the Bahun we are Janajati, but to the Madhesi we are Pahadi, that seems to be the suggestion of the likes of BK Rana.
I am a great admirer of the work of Dr. Om Gurung - it was an honor to sit next to him at this event: Janajati Sammelan At The New School - and the umbrella Janajati organization, NEFIN, just like I am a great admirer of the leaders of the Madhesi Movement. And I have been very much part of the conversation. My involvement with the Madhesi Movement was daily, hourly. I kept myself informed of all the developments, constantly suggested strategies, and was part of some major activism efforts. And I have done all that in a transparent way so as to give credit to all participants generously and in real time.
But Rana's hostility tells me it will be a while before we see the emergence of a Madhesi-Janajati coalition. Maybe it will be issue based and will happen inside the assembly and not before, which will be fine, but I think it is a shame that we Madhesis and Janajatis can not see common ground when our enemy is the same: the status quo. Power is in numbers, and political logic dictates that we get together. I wish enlightenment upon BK Rana.
The small scale Janajati Movement that seems to be underway is a direct result of the Madhesi Movement. The Madhesi Movement in its intensity has inspired the Janajatis. The likes of BK Rana should acknowledge that much instead of participating in the demonization of the Madhesi Movement to which he owes so much as a Janajati.
The Madhesi Movement's gift to me has been the idea of a Madhesh state. Before that I was still toying with the three state federalism of Koshi, Gandaki, and Karnali. I have ditched that.
The Madhesi Movement's contours have drawn the boundaries of the future Madhesh state. I also noticed the Kirats of the east are thinking of their own state in the eastern Hills. If the Madhesis of the eastern plains and the Kirats of the eastern Hills are not agitating for a combined Koshi state, who am I to impose the idea on them?
Our strategy now is to get Krishna Sitaula out. Then the Madhesi Movement will coalesce around the idea that only Madhesis get elected from all the Madhesi majority constituencies in the country. We want a federal republic, and we want a Madhesh state.
The Madhesi Movement is very much on.
NYC Nepali Are Madhesi, Powerless
समानता अौर अिधकार पर्याप्त नहीं हैं, हमें तो शक्ित चािहए
Photos From Janakpur: Santosh Bhagat
सत्ताधारी सात पहाडी पार्टीको घैंटोमा अझै घाम लागेको छैन
सरिता गिरी: अशान्त मधेस, नया नेपाल
माघे क्रान्ित, राजावादी र िहन्दु कट्टरपन्थीबारे
Infighting for Identity with Violence ?
B. K. Rana
Email: rana1616@yahoo.com
The 1998 Nobel Prize Winner Amartya Kumar Sen, a Harvard Economics Professor, writes in his book ‘Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny’ that his ‘first exposure to murder occurred when I was 11’ - that was in 1944. In the book he argues that identity has offered an ample opportunity for violence in the world. He talks of Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda also. He writes- ‘For a bewildered child the violence of identity was extraordinarily hard to grasp. It is not particularly easy even for a still bewildered elderly adult’.
He saw certain Kader Mia - a Muslim laborer knifed by Hindus. It had happened a few years before the collapse of British Empire in India and the period of widespread Hindu-Muslim violence. The poor Kadar’s wife had urged him ‘not to go into a hostile area of then-undivided Bengal. But he had to feed his starving family, and he paid with his life’.
The victim ‘profusely bleeding suddenly stumbled through the gate to our garden, asking for help and a little water.’ – writes the Nobel laureate. Sen's father had rushed the bleeding Mia to hospital where the victim was pronounced dead of the sustained injuries. More than 13 thousand Nepalese people also lost their precious lives during Maoist insurgency that began in the country in 1996. Many others also lost their lives during the Panchyat system.
The recent Madheshi peoples’ protest was at most a movement against the state-denial of their identity or state of state non-recognition. The movement was reasonable. The demands are just. The movement has some bases. The Madheshi people still feel being unjustly treated as second-grade citizens of the country; most of whom have not obtained citizenship certificates or identity. The case of citizenship is another grave issue of Madhesh.
After the promulgation of the Interim Constitution on January 15, 2007 the ever disgraced and disgruntled Madheshi people found an outlet to protest against the state for their fundamental rights – the right to identity. The sate being backed by radical force on the other hand apparently ignored what had been cooking inside the minds of Madheshi people. Now, the Madheshi movement has fully demonstrated that they are different than the Maoist insurgents in the country. The Madheshi people, however suspended the protests, seem still not prepared to shun violence. Some of their leaders are reported to have sought assistance from Delhi Durbar by visiting New Delhi along with some leaders of monarchial parties in the country. This movement also took at least 29 lives.
The solitarist Nepal, for the sake of its ‘national unity’ which virtually has not been realized by all of the Nepalese peoples, at best stands for the ‘benefit and happiness’ of only those in the governance and always portrays itself monolithic as discussed in Samuel Huntington's much impressive paper ‘Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order’[1996 ].
Kenji Yoshino, a professor at Yale University, Law School and author of ‘Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights’ while commenting on the Nobel laureate Sen’s book in discussion writes ‘Its [ identity’s] weakness lies in its failure to explain why, at critical junctures, we disown that knowledge. Is it because human cognition tends to trade in binaries? Is it because violence creates identity as much as identity creates violence ? Is it because human beings fear the choices or solitude a more cosmopolitan outlook would force them to face?’
It is worth taking note here that the indigenous peoples or Aadibasi Janajatis [the majority folks in the country] who, also in a state of state non-recognition and second-graded as the Madheshi peoples, are adopting peaceful measures to expressing their differences which is always laudable[1].
Won’t it be possible for the Madheshi people to protest peacefully in case the government did not again address what they are making voices for? There has been lot more blood-shed in the country. The country needs peace for now.
February 12, 2007
Boston, USA
[1] www.nepalnews.com Feb 11, 07
NFIN to sit for talks with government, continue protest http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/feb/feb11/news02.php
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1 comment:
Parmendra,
Unfortunately, there are people like BK Rana and Parshu Tamang who are destructive for the Janajati movement itself. They work for their own self promotion and self interest every opportunity they get. That's their track record all along. So I won't give too much weight on what BK Rana writes. I would rather believe in NEFIN's solidarity with the Madhesi movement that most of the Janajatis support. Lets also consider that there are many other Janajatis who honestly do not understand the Madhesi or Janajati movements yet. They still buy into the bahun propganda that talking about such ethnic issues is a communal and unpatriotic thing. It is a long learning process. Thanks to the generations of exclusion. But I agree that we need a coalition between the Madhesi and Janajati movements urgently. I hope that the talk team for Janajatis headed by Dr. Om Gurung would coordinate it with the Madhesi talk team and bargain together for a better and inclusive Nepal.
I personally believe that Madhesi movement was a non-violent. It was the state that was violent in its suppression. I would, however, not agree with you that Janajati movement is "small scale" and taking momentum because of the Madhesi movement. I think what inspired the Madhesi movement to gain momentum is inspiring the Janajati movement - continued bahunwadi politics and conspiracy even after 11 years of maoist insurgency in which 13000 people died, mostly Janajatis. Either way, we are in the right direction.
Thank you.
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