Articles

• Mary Des Chene and Pratyoush Onta

  Writing and Reading about Nepal
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• Mark Liechty

  Selective Exclusion: Foreigners, Foreign Goods and Foreignness in Modern Nepali History
  This article considers the cultural dynamics of "foreignness" in Nepal, or how associations with distant lands, peoples, and objects have been tied to local political projects. I suggest that foreignness has been an important theme in modern Nepali history serving both as the basis for a contrastive national awareness, and as a resource for constructing identities of distinction. How was foreignness managed and how did its meaning change as Nepal entered into ever-larger political, economic, and cultural spheres? I suggest that from the late-Malla to late-Rana periods Nepali elites experimented with a policy of "selective exclusion" whereby they sought at once to harness the volatile powers of foreignness while attempting to keep those powers out of the hands (and minds) of their subordinates. Part one examines the movement of people into and out of the Kathmandu valley while part two considers the movement of goods. I examine one set of imported goods most in demand by nineteenth century elites (mirrors, glass, clothing) and ask how they might be related to new modes of class practice and cultural distinction.
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• Pratyoush Onta

  Activities in a "Fossil State": Balkrishna Sama and the Making of Nepali Identity
  Scholars interested in historicizing Nepali nationalism need to recognize that both the love expressed for the Nepali language in Nepal and the phenomenon of a national history of Nepal are of recent vintage. This essay suggests one way in which we can understand how the Nepali language and nationalized bir (heroic) history of Nepal written in the Nepali language came to exercise the power of cultural attachment over specific Nepalis during the twentieth century. The argument is exemplified by focusing on the early life and work of Balkrishna Sama (1903-1981), an articulate Nepali nationalist and one of the founding fathers of modern Nepali literature. By the early 1920s, Sama had begun to define Nepal as a place lacking 'pure' Nepali culture. As he developed as a writer in the next two decades, Sama made the Nepali language the centre of his search for a new national identity for Nepal, and for 'pure' Nepali culture. Based on a long petition Samawrote in late 1932, the article then discusses Sama's thoughts regarding the overall progress of Nepal and Nepali culture. Some of Sama's plays are also discussed. In the1930s, Sama used his meditation over the Nepali language in his play Mukunda Indira to claim a 'pure' domain for Nepal, separate from the colonial 'impurity' and 'debauchery' of Calcutta. In the 1940s and the 1950s, Sama contributed to the elaboration of bir history through full-length and short plays. These plays were important media through which lessons on Nepali nationalism were dispersed.
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• Khagendra Sangraula

  Kaalo Patti Parva: Jan Andolanko Junkiri
  Written by a participant and organiser, this essay documents the Black Band protest staged by writers and artists during the People's Movement of 1990 which overthrew the Panchayat system in Nepal. The essay takes readers from the days of organisation preceding the protest, through their congregation for the protest, the arrest and interrogation of the writers and their release. It provides a close-up view of the difficulties of organising across political divides and in a period of intensive state suppression of protest. It also contains lessons about the delicacy of momentum in a social movement against an entrenched state system. The descriptions of conversations among the writers while incarcerated, and the author's observations on willingness and unwillingness to participate within the literary community both provide insight into the roles and responsibilities of intellectuals as a collective body in a time of social struggle.
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• Mary Des Chene

  "We Women Must try to Live": The Saga of Bhauju
  This article recounts the trials and tribulations of one Gurung woman over several years living as a daughter-in-law in her husband's parental home while he worked abroad in India. The story recounted encompasses several tragic events, but its focus is on the mundane run of events within which those tragedies take place. Thus there is an argument made here that attention to the exceptional, and the marked or formal event which may be easier both to observe and to narrate, should not overshadow the daily context, and the long-term reverbations of life-changing events if one wishes to understand the constraints women face and the conditions under which they make choices. In the final section of the paper Bhauju's story is placed in the context of the ongoing debate in Nepal over women's property rights, using this concrete situation to assess the claims of those who argue against altering the law to give women equal property rights. Return to 2(1) Contents

• Kamal Mani Dixit

  Foreign Aid in Nepal: No Bang for the Buck
  Dixit asks if the USD 3.7 billion that Nepal has received as foreign aid (both grants and loans) between 1951 and 1995 has acted as a catalyst to upgrade the living standards of the population in a way that Nepal might not have been able to achieve otherwise. Dixit argues that the answer to this question is an overwhelming 'no'. While he faults the donor brigade and foreign consultants for foreign aid's failures in Nepal, he puts the greatest blame on the Nepali elites - politicians, bureaucrats, project chiefs, NGO workers, university scholars, journalists - for failing to look out for the country's interests as far as foreign assistance is concerned. Dixit argues that there is no pride in being a country of beggars, which takes anything and everything that is offered by anybody. What can be done? He suggests that there is really nothing to live for if Nepal cannot guarantee proper education at all levels, for only then will Nepal's tomorrow be better than its today. He calls for a moratorium on all kinds of external assistance for an initial five-year period, except that which deals directly or indirectly with education, from pre-school to the university level. He acknowledges that to use foreign assistance in this way only will require superhuman courage and willpower.Return to 2(1) Contents

• Sharad Paudel

  Shabdaka Bui Chadhera Nirman bhairaheko Bikas Vyuhko Kinarbata
  This is a commentary on the relationship among donors, INGOs, national-level NGOs and the supposed beneficiaries of all the bikas (development) work and money that is coming into Nepal. Paudel argues that while mouthing words such as 'democracy', 'transparency', 'empowerment' and'responsibility' these various bikas-doers are fostering an extreme form of heirarchy between and within their organisations. Top-down agendas continue to dominate the relationship between communities and various levels of donors. In their continuous play with words, Paudel argues that bikas itself has become a fashionable word-farming industry for those who have made the most out of it. He challenges various levels of bikas-workers to reflect on what bikas means - bikas is to realize that we are human beings, and behave accordingly.Return to 2(1) Contents

• Mahesh Maskey and Mary Des Chene

  'Tramping on the Skin of the People': The Politics of "Compulsion"
  A Context for Reading Mechi-Mahakali Express
  Beginning from Nepal i Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala's proclamation that "Male, Mandale and Mashale are birds of the same feather", this short essay explains some of the political background implicit in the play Mechi-Mahakali Express to provide a context for reading the play for those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Nepali politics. It also considers the lessons of the play for those political parties that have not, thus far, lost all sense of responsibility toward Nepal and its people, like those depicted in Mechi-Mahakali Express.Return to 2(1) Contents

• Sharad Paudel

  Mechi-Mahakali Express
  A One-Act Play. Translated by Mary Des Chene and Mahesh Maskey
  Mechi-Mahakali Express is a satirical play with a serious message. Set in post-Panchayat (i.e. post-1990) Nepal, it depicts the hypocrisy, moral bankruptcy and lack of independence of the three main political parties, Nepali Congress, Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist-Leninist), and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (the party formation of the erstwhile partyless Panchayat politicians). Leaders of each party appear in two scenes. First they are seen interacting with "the people" represented by a group protesting on the street against Indian border incursions, the Mahakali treaty and other issues on which the parties have failed to protect Nepal's interests against a rapacious India. They mouth nationalist slogans, but flee when the people see through their hollow pronouncements. Next they are seen in audience with the Indian sarkar (government). Though they show varying degrees of resistance and discomfort (none to a little), each party leader ultimately sells Nepal's interests to the Indian sarkar in return for promises of protection of his and his party's power. The Indian sarkar's promises to the Nepali party leaders are shown to be as hollow as those of the Nepali leaders to the people, as each party in succession is promised power in return for subservience. Mechi-Mahakali Epress is an example of progressive social realist drama, a vibrant part of the Nepali literary scene. The author is a well known progressive playwright and songwriter. It was staged as a street play in various places around the Kathmandu Valley in December 1996 and in full at the Royal Nepal Academy in January 1997 by the performance group Indreni Cultural Society.Return to 2(1) Contents