What is going on in Nepal these days?” an American acquaintance asked a Kathmandu-based Nepali-speaking friend of mine who was visiting me for a few days in the US. My friend, an astute observer, casually replied, “We are going through a pre-civil war period right now.” I was taken aback. I sensed a feeling of inevitability in his calm voice just like the unavoidable doom of William Shakespeare’s tragic hero because of his character flaw that leads him to make a mistake which snowballs into a chain of events culminating in a catastrophe. Baburam Bhattarai’s premonition of doom in his Facebook post came not long after.

If Nepal is indeed hurtling towards a civil war, are there ways to avert it? Or, will Nepal meet the fate of many African and Middle-Eastern countries—destruction, fragmentation and genocide? When Mahendra, in his dynastic arrogance, annulled democracy and imprisoned and exiled democratic leaders, did he foresee that the long-term effect of his hubris would be the abolition of his own dynasty? Still it was only a dynasty then. What would the consequence be if the Nepali-speaking hill caste leaders of the CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and UCPN (Maoist) promulgate the constitution at the barrel of the gun?

Sanctioned ignorance

First of all, let us examine why the country seems to be headed towards a disaster. The hill caste leaders of the three parties are determined to promulgate the constitution in a few days. Their security forces are determined to suppress the violent discontent in the Tarai-Madhes. So far, they have killed 37 Tharus and Madhesis and nine policemen have also lost their lives in the process. The Madhesis of Bhardah, Saptari complained to the journalists that—in the August 24 raid into the houses of the village, in which a protester died in police shooting—the Nepal police and Nepal Armed Police abused men, women and children by calling them Bihari, Madhise and Dhoti and asked them to go back to where theycame from.

Even now, after a month of violent unrest in the Tarai-Madhes and simmering discontent in Limbuwan, Tamsaling, Tamuwan and Magarat, you see the hill caste people voicing their opinion in two ways. On the internet, you read their responses—to Madhesi leaders’ statements, the Hindustan Times associate editor Prashant Jha’s desperate attempt to forestall the doom-drive of the Nepali state, and former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai’s Twitter and Facebook posts—and cringe at the obscene and abusive language. Then, you read the newspaper reportings of Nepali-language journalists and you marvel at their sanctioned ignorance and lack of intelligence in putting two and two together.  

To give you just one example, many educated, intelligent, articulate hill-caste folks, including media men, believe that many Madhesi leaders are Indians and they are waging their campaign in the Tarai-Madhes for federalism to split Nepal. They believe that India is behind this grand design and that if the Madhesi leaders had not incited the Tharus of Kailali and Kanchanpur, the Tikapur killings would not have occurred because Tharus cannot be violent. This group of Nepalis has built a wall of ignorance and illusion in their minds; or, rather, the Nepali state, especially during the 30 years of Panchayat system, built the wall of ignorance. Why am I saying so?

Let us for a moment assume that we patriotic Nepalis must ignore a Madhesi leader or two who are really Indian (wolves) in the guise of lambs (Nepali). But what about all Madhesi leaders? What about the Tharu leaders? What about the Limbu, Tamang, Gurung, Magar leaders who have been struggling for Limbuwan, Tamsaling, Tamuwan and Magarat? What about the Dalits? Forget about the Madhesi Dalits. What about the Pahade Dalits? Are all women and Dalits Indians, too? Well, then, they would say they have been incited by the West. Why?

The reply would be, they are not Indians but want to become Christians. Give us a break, people!

And then, when one argues the inevitability of identity-inclusive federalism as a negotiated settlement between and among Nepal’s stakeholders, such people would say that in such a situation, we should surrender ourselves and our country to India. I have heard and read such argument more than once.

Against status quo

The incapacity of these ostrich-like people to critically think through the issues is mind-boggling. What such people do not understand is that the diminishment of the Nepali-speaking elite’s power does not mean the end of Nepal. And that the Limbus, Tamangs, Newars, Gurungs, Tharus and, yes, Madhesis need Nepal’s sovereignty and integrity as urgently as they do. The sooner they get rid of this illusion, the better for the country and its future.

But many hill caste Congress and UML politicians are the worst of this lot. What can one say of former prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal’s use of the term ‘Dhoti Pradesh’ in his interview with Reporter Club’s Rishi Dhamala about the Madhes province? By using this derogatory expression, he acknowledged that Nepal has so far been a ‘Topi Pradesh’. And then you have the word juggler KP Oli whose colourful words have only worsened Nepal’s political situation.

In the face of this confederacy of dunces, how can people of all ethnicities, including hill caste folks of conscience and foresight, work together to stop Nepal’s downhill slide to civil war? Yes, all the people of conscience need to come together. Otherwise, it will be too late. And the sufferers would not necessarily be the hill caste elites like Khanals and Olis but the ordinary hill caste folk in the Tarai-Madhes as well as in the hills.  Because of the fault of a few, the Madhesis, Tharus, and other Janajatis of the hills and the plains, the Dalits and women may come to hate all hill caste men, which would be really unfortunate. Therefore, public opinion needs to be built in favour of non-violence and justice right now. Public opinion also needs to be built against the Congress and the UML so that in the next election or two, no Janajati, Madhesi, Dalit, woman and hill caste man as well—who is conscious of one’s right—votes for these parties. There has to be a total boycott of these parties in at least a few elections to stop Nepal’s slide to doom and destruction.