The Brahmins of Nepal are more convinced than the Taliban that God is on their side. It is beneath them to carry guns. They pay people to do that for them.
The four tier hierarchy is as natural to them as the three branches of government are to the Americans. Order is not possible otherwise. It is that or chaos. They do not believe in violence, but they do believe in order. And to maintain order they are as convinced about threat of force as the police in China or the American FBI. It's just that their idea of order is different. Order is the four tier hierarchy.
That four tier hierarchy is so amazing, if you can just maintain it, order flows out of it. You don't even need the police, or very little of it. And so maintaining that four tier hierarchy is way more important than building a modern state.
And what modern state! Everything modern was already conceived and invented by their ancestors aeons ago. There is mention of missiles and fighter planes in the Mahabharata.
To them the caste system is an invention, a positive, social invention. Of course it has universal value. To them the caste system is penicillin.
They gave Nepal a constitution where Madhesis and Janajatis are rendered second and third class. The Dalits are where they always were supposed to be. They know that. They are not hiding it any more than Americans are hiding their Declaration Of Independence.
They are genuinely puzzled as to why the Madhesis are agitating, and if they are agitating, that is but a challenge to the natural order of things. And that explains the cruel use of force, human rights be damned.
Their behavior defies western logic so much westerners too often simply go in denial. There is much love in the west for Nepal. Nepal has been the most popular destination among Peace Corps volunteers for the entire existence of that program. How can it be? How could things go so horribly wrong suddenly?
Nepal gets loved for the Buddhism, but these Brahmins wiped out Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent; it was Rwanda. The Buddha rejected the caste system wholesale, any thinking person would, so these Brahmins rejected The Buddha, tit for tat. There was blood. The Buddha's rejection was peaceful and through enlightened discourse. The Brahmins were butchers.
The Buddha was a Madhesi. It is Madhesis who are agitating for basic rights.
Nepal gets loved for exotic cultures like the Sherpas and the Newars and the other Janajati groups have, all groups rendered officially second class by the Brahmins. The constitution of Nepal is fundamentally hostile to all those exotic cultures that Peace Corps volunteers have admired for decades.
The mercenary Gurkha soldiers are not Brahmins.
But they still shamelessly exploit the global brand value of The Buddha. Just like they engage in bottomless corruption of the state treasury even as they preach their spiritual ways put them above the West and its flagrant material ways. Nothing physical is real. The only life that matters is the afterlife. Wealth is but corruption, all wealth.
The 2015 earthquake has shone the headlights upon them. The world is puzzled with the behavior. Why would a government stand between global aid and its people in dire need! Makes no sense. Except you are not respecting the order. The way it is supposed to work is, you are to hand it over to them. And they will do as they please. And you have to make peace with that. They did disburse over $800 million already. Very little of it ended up with the intended recipients. The corruption is total.
The Brahmins of Nepal are all destined for Hell. Their ways are the ways of The Devil.
These are not Hindus, these are caste Brahmins. They don't give two hoots about Modi, for example. It is written on Modi's forehead in big letters, he is not a Brahmin. He was not born one, and that's the end of it.
In Bhutan they have a Gross Happiness Index. These Brahmins have a Gross Caste Index. It is the only index that matters to them. You could not scare them with talk of negative GDP growth. They don't care. The four tier hierarchy gives them direct access to the state coffers. They are not impacted.
The aftermath of the earthquake has seen the Brahmins try and bring white folks under the umbrella of the caste system. That white folks have hesitated is like some parents choosing not to vaccinate their children. Or so the Brahmins think.
It is mind boggling as to how these Brahmins managed to exploit Marxism. They used it as a tool to use the people to capture the one last remaining structure of the state that they already did not have, otherwise they also completely own the media in Nepal.
The caste system is nothing religious or spiritual, it is a sick social, political ideology. But it has served Brahmins well, or so they think. 300 years ago Nepal and America had comparable levels of per capita income.
So far the Madhesi movement has been about trying to convince the Brahmins. It is a recipe for failure. There can be no genuine Madhesi liberation unless there is a total rejection of the caste system.
The king was not convinced before the country became a republic. The former king is still not convinced.
Trying to convince the Brahmins otherwise is an impossible task. You have to make peace with the fact that a thousand years from now they might still be sticking to their casteist worldview.
The goal can not be to convince. That you try to do after you have thrown them out of power. The goal has to be to politically outmaneuver, just like with the king. Madhesis, Janajatis and Dalits are 80% of Nepal. It is lack of political homework on their part that gives the Brahmins the upper hand. The Brahmins don't want a one person one vote democracy or federalism because, strictly speaking, they are not even 13% of the country.
Hereditary Brahminism is 100 times more harmful than Hereditary Monarchy. The Hereditary Monarchy needed to be thrown out of one palace. Hereditary Brahminism needs to be said no to in every village in Nepal.
Madhesis can not achieve genuine liberty without rejecting the caste system wholesale. The caste system, by definition, is not designed to give you equality.
The Brahmins can be politically defeated easily. But they can not be convinced for a hundred years. There have been 36 rounds of failed talks. There will be 136 more of those as long as the goal remains to convince the Brahmins. What are you trying to convince them? That they should ditch the caste system? As they see it, that is 100% of their identity.
Defeat them, like you defeated the king. That is the only available option.
