Book Review Pages
The Kathmandu Post Review of Books
Vol. 1, No. 2
Issue Coordinator: Pratyoush Onta
Martin Chautari for
CSRD and The Kathmandu Post
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Essay
Reviews
- Gods, Men and Territory: Society and Culture in Kathmandu Valley (Anne Vergati)
- Caste Today (C.J. Fuller, ed.)
- The Politics of Humanitarian Intervention (John Harriss)
- Thick Face Black Heart: The Asian Path to Thriving, Winning & Succeeding (Chin-Ning Chu)
Revisiting Panchayat with Sangraula
Pratyoush Onta
Khagendra Sangraula is best known as a short story writer of the progressive Nepali literary camp. His stories have been collected in Handighopteko Jitbaji, Seteko Samsar and Nalekhieko Itihas. Sangruala has also written two novels and several plays. As an active participant in debates related to marxist literary aesthetics, he has also published several articles in journals such as Jhilko, Pragyik Jhilko, and Kalam.
Sangraula has authored several essays in recent years and it is this genre of his writing that I would like to highlight here. In particular I shallrevisit the Panchayat era by discussing his 1990 collection, Jana-Andolanka Charaaharu (JAC).
In the preface to JAC, Sangraula mentions that he wanted to write a novel in the immediate aftermath of the Jana-Andolan that brought an end to three decades of Panchayati rule in 1990. But amidst a mindset steeped in painful confusion and raw anger, he realized that he was not quite ready to create a novel about the Movement. Out came a series of essays, twelve of which have been collected in JAC.
In the first essay, by way of commenting on a caption given to a photo printed in a newspaper, Sangraula draws our attention to how, during thePanchayat era, certain phrases of the Nepali language had distorted oursense of the real. Ugra Pradarshankari (extreme demonstrator) is hardly,he argues, a fitting description of a man who rose above the anonymity of the protesting crowd to attack the statue of King Mahendra. The man, as many know, was shot dead. In thinking of his courage, Sangraula presents a cameo history of the violent excesses of the Panchayat system.
In the second essay, Sangraula writes about the climactic moment of the Andolan whereby even as the Panchayat leaders tried desperately to save their power against the people's onslaught, Radio Nepal continued to transmit crude romantic numbers such as "panko pat, maya timla...". Pankopat, in Sangraula's mind, is the epitome of that Nepali culture which had become hegemonic during the Panchayat era. Even as the people were feeling the pain of live ammunition, he writes, the farcical pancha-rallies were being conducted to the tune of panko pat.
In the third essay, Sangraula comments on the compromise reached between the leaders of the Jana-Andolan and the King that ended the Movement. Given the reformist (as opposed to the revolutionary) nature of these leaders, thiswas to be expected adds Sangraula. In the next essay he captures the immediate aftermath in the public use of the phrase "prajatantra ayo."Noting how former Panchas had reinvented themselves as democrats, he comments about the perspicacity of Girija Koirala's remarks made in his first speech after the lifting of the ban on political parties. In talking about the success of the Jana-Andolan, Koirala had said that the Panchas had won too.
In the following essay Sangraula highlights the importance of words.Panchayat culture, he argues, was characterized mainly by the hijacking of all value from words. Calling those who sought justice in simple civil language "anti- nationals", Panchayati commandos understood only the language of power. The sacrifice of the martyrs of Jana-Andolan, he argues,was for the restoration of the value of normal language and the elimination of the commando culture of power, a process he recognizes as being fraught with difficulties.
In three essays, Sangraula comments on the literary scene of the immediate post-Panchayat moment. While on the one hand panegyric celebration of Shah family writers was no longer necessary, he argues, on the other hand "rajatkabis" - writers who had succumbed to the seductions of the Panchayat regime in terms of money or power - were re-inventing themselves as self-appointed guardians of social morality. In another essay he questions what Ganeshman and his party had welcomed when Pancha-leader Parashunarayan Chaudhuri was welcomed into the folds of the Nepali Congress.
In one of the remaining essays Sangraula argues that Pamphadevi, an invention of the Jana-Andolan, is an unusually sensational iconic representation of Panchayati ills. He regrets that when the Andolan ended in a compromise, this invention had to remain incomplete. But he argues that it is precisely in its incompletion that the true identity of the Jana- Andolancan be seen.
Sangraula's writings stress the violence which sustained the Panchayat system. The state which built its edifice on a pervasive hounding of those who did not accept its ideology is described in a powerful way in Sangruala's memoir essay published in the Madhuparka of Bhadra 2052. Therein he describes how while teaching in Chitwan, he was threatened by the chief district officer via the chief of the college where he taught. The gap between the rhetoric of democracy and actual practice is the subject of Sangraula's autobiographical essay "Prajatantra, prajatantra ra pheri Prajatantra" (Samakalin Sahitya, No. 9, 2049 v.s.).
Sangraula prefaces the JAC by stating that since essay writing is a new thing for him, the essays contained therein are not great specimens of thought or art. In saying so he is being excessively apologetic because in his short but sharp readings of the Jana-Andolan and its immediate aftermath, Sangraula achieves much that many other so-called blow-by-blow accounts of the same have not.
Few people have captured the end of the Panchayat era in as rich anmethnographic way as Sangraula has done in these essays. Those and others he has written more recently are powerful statements of the contradictions that constitute the political culture of governance in contemporary Nepal. As his weekly columns in Jana-Ekata and Shree Sagarmatha demonstrate, post-Panchayat Nepalis politics has hardly been able to rid Nepali society of the Panchayat-style commando mentality.
While he continues to write short stories (his most impressive recent one has been "Balidanko Bharyang Mastira" published in Madhuparka of Maag 2052v.s.), it is in his essays that Sangraula brings together his insightful sense of satire with his forceful anger against the depressing politics of post-Panchayat Nepal.
The present Nepali state continues to use the machinery of governmental violence for self-preserving politics. The recent arrest of Sangraula as so-called Maoist activities were recorded in different parts of the country and the farcical charges that were brought against him (he is accused of disturbing public peace and the like) even as he was released in bail are the most disgraceful evidence of the sickness of our democracy. His concise and powerful writing is to my mind a beacon of conscience in a country that seems to have lost its sense of morality and hope.
(Onta is a historian).
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Gods, Men and Territory: Society and Culture in Kathmandu Valley
Author: Anne Vergati
Publisher: Manohar Books, Delhi, 1995
Price: Rs. 560
Newar Society: One View
Shailesh Gongal
This book is a collection of 10 previously published essays. Vergati has brought them together for she thinks that when read as a whole, "they present an overall picture of some of the essential features of Newar society." She focuses her studies in Bhaktapur, which she claims was sheltered from the deluge of social and administrative change that affected the rest of the Valley.
Newar society is complex for those who live in it and for those who observe it from the outside. Vergati argues that most of the researchers of Newars have tried to distinguish what is Buddhist and what is Hindu in Newar rituals. Instead she argues that a better way to understand Newar society is to comprehend the significant differences in the religious and social practices of high and low caste Newars.
The adaptability of both Hinduism and Buddhism makes it really difficult to isolate Newar rituals as simply Hindu or Buddhist. In a Hindu ritual of ihi (the pre-puberty ritual marriage of girls to Vishnu), it is difficult to explain the presence of a Buddhist priest. It is equally amusing to see the Hindu Kings taking part in the annual procession of the Rato Matsyendranath, a Buddhist deity. But, ihi is not celebrated by lower caste Newars. From this Vergati concludes that the rituals are celebrated to establish a hierarchy in the society.
Bisket Jatra, the most important event in Bhaktapur, is a no-caste-barred festival. Processions of Bisket Jatra and Matsyendranath Rath Yatra trace the boundary of Bhaktapur and Patan respectively. Untouchables lived outside these boundaries. From the legend about these festivals, we understand that they were started and continued for the protection and prosperity of the cities in which they are held. Brahmins and rajpurohits offer prayers and worship the deity. But Vergati does not mention who is responsible for carrying out menial works such as pulling the vehicles or sacrificing the animals. To my mind her main thesis remains to be proved more conclusively.
My being a Newar made it easier to follow this book to a great extent. Prior familiarity with the rituals and the deities she describes helped me overcome the difficulty of reading somewhat dense essays. The detailed explanation of certain rituals like ihi informed me about some of the things I had taken for granted. But, as a whole the book does not add significantly to the knowledge of a Newar.
Though this book provides detailed information on Bhaktapur Newar rituals, layout of temples and sanctuaries, it could be a one tedious read for non-Newars and those new to Newar society. A rigorous editing would have made the book more readable. And where pine means inside and dune means outside - mistakes not to be expected from a person who had edited a Newar dictionary - the whole Newar society has to be turned inside out! And does bel in ihi represent Vishnu or Shiva?
(Gongal is interested in Newar culture)
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Caste Today
Editor: C. J. Fuller
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1996
Price: Rs. 632
Caste in the Present
Rachana Pathak
Caste Today, a collection of nine academic essays presented at a 1993 South Asian conference in London, deals with the contemporary aspects of caste systems. It steers away from the convention of simply condemning these often-misunderstood systems. The essays deemphasize ritual, purity, and intermarriage aspects of caste. They scrutinize established perceptions and adopt a less biased approach to understanding caste structures. The book raises such diverse questions as: How is caste defined? What factors cause this definition to continually change? Do Indian Muslims have a caste-like hierarchy? What are the implications of caste for public policy?
André Béteille in "Caste in Contemporary India" persuasively argues that caste consciousness among the urban elite is diminishing. It is being replaced by other forms of status-consciousness related to occupation, education, and income. Although this elite is small in number, it has much influence on the rest of the country.
In an essay with ethnographic information from rural Rajasthan, Helen Lambert argues that traditional anthropological research on caste is male-biased. Researchers often ignore that women have not only a caste identity, but also a locality-based identity. Rural women generally grow up in one village and move after marriage; they have two homes. For ethnographic purposes, their locality may be just as important as caste.
Three essays in the book deal with caste among Indian Muslims. A problem that many Indian Muslims have, according to one paper, is that they have constructed their identity against a Hindu caste identity. The Muslim identity is thus dependent on a crumbling structure.
The book's main strength is that it questions how caste has been and should be defined. Traditional definitions of caste have created a caste/scheduled caste dichotomy. This may be convenient for government policies, political reservations, and employment opportunities. However, it is problematic in that it clumps people into two rigidly defined categories and erases the diversity within these groups. Several papers stress that it is difficult to draw this distinguishing line. Caste is not a single, constantly definable concept. It varies by perspective, society, class, ethnicity, gender, location, and must be contextualized properly.
The essays in this book do not discuss caste textually but instead emphasize dynamic political, economic, and historical issues related to it. Caste is no longer just a purity-maintaining phenomenon. Relevant questions such as how to correct inequalities in social hierarchies through affirmative action and through politics of resistance (Dravidian movement) are also raised.
One problem with Caste Today is its selection of essays. Of the nine papers, (eight written by Westerners), four are on Tamil Nadu. The diversity of issues covered overshadows this specific South Indian bias. Still, at least one essay on Nepal's caste system could have been included as it was a South Asian and not an Indian conference. Also, some essays could have explored caste issues for those living in the South Asian Diaspora.
Overall, this book offers much analytical information and may push scholars to take broader perspectives in the study of caste systems.
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The Politics of Humanitarian Intervention
Author: John Harriss
Publisher: Pinter Publishers, London, 1995
An Alternative Approach to Humanitarian Assistance
Shizu Upadhya
The international community, spearheaded by the United Nations, has reacted ineffectively to the political and humanitarian crises it has had to face in the course of the 1990s. Be it in Somalia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Rwanda or former Yugoslavia, international relief efforts to protect human rights have been tainted by overt politicization, militarization, intransparency and poor management. The UN itself has emerged as an institution incapable of providing the necessary leadership during these moments of crises. Yet humanitarian crises continue to break out. Hence more than simple criticism of the UN is required in order to equip it and other actors to deal with the challenges still to come. This book provides constructive recommendations for an improved approach to relief efforts and hence is an insightful read.
Above all, it is argued that this alternative approach needs to be rooted firmly in the doctrine of humanitarian neutrality, justifying only needs-based humanitarian action that is immune to political or other considerations. For although, as John Harriss argues in the introductory chapter, a clear trend towards the recognition of the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention is discernable, it still conflicts with the traditional doctrine of non intervention in the affairs of sovereign states.
Humanitarian neutrality, as a set of criteria permitting humanitarian programmes, provides interveners with a degree of moral legitimacy which, in the eyes of the international community, they still lack. For although the "watershed cases" of Somalia, where UN troops were authorized to secure the distribution of aid, and Iraqi Kurdistan, where safe havens were created, were based on decisions taken by the Security Council itself, the UN still lacks this moral legitimacy.
The UN is compromised by its (increasing) reliance on the resources of the major western powers, and the fact that it is seen as a vehicle for western interests. Its credibility as a consistent actor in international affairs is further undermined "by the reluctance of council members to criticize operations involving the only remaining superpower". Thus, Martin Griffiths et al., in their chapter, argue for the formulation of clear principles of humanitarian neutrality to guide the action of the UN.
In support of more consistency in humanitarian intervention, the book points to the need for improved decision making mechanisms when planning relief operations. Paul Taylor, for instance, argues for the need of an improved information base on which decisions about intervention can be made. The production of timely and accurate information, in turn, facilitates consistency in humanitarian operations by reducing the public's reliance on the media for on-the-ground situation analyses and can even alert decisionmakers to early indications of impending hotspots. Taylor assigns to the UN Department for Humanitarian Affairs such facilitating functions as information gathering, analysis and dissemination, recommending that primary responsibility for monitoring on a longer term basis be allotted to local UNDP Resident Representatives.
The urgent need for improved humanitarian operations is highlighted in the two chapters which analyze the particular cases of UN intervention in Somalia and Iraq. The degree to which the UN's operations were ineffective, as accounted in these two chapters, is, indeed alarming. In Somalia, Hugo Slim and Emma Visman underline the UN's strong and unilateral political and military action and its failure to consult with and involve NGOs and nationals, particularly the victims themselves. In Kurdistan, David Keen argues, operations were marked by an essentially short-term mandate, not designed to facilitate the move from emergency relief to the promotion of self sufficiency.
John Seaman outlines an alternative, sometimes called a 'development' approach to relief, which "takes as given that the greater part of the work will be done by the population of the country concerned....It is the nature of this approach that it tends to have a longer-term effect and to be a more efficient use of resources." Ultimately, effective humanitarian intervention requires concrete and unambitious goals, timely and well-planned relief operations that run alongside efforts at political mediation, conflict resolution and restructuring.
This book has no concluding chapter, though its message is apparent enough: that unless the UN emerges as a politically-immune, consistent, credible force in the international community, its role will continue to be marginalised as donor countries increasingly prefer to manage relief on a bilateral basis, or hand them over to NGOs. Yet it is particularly in the politically and morally sensitive sphere of humanitarian intervention that there is no satisfactory alternative to collective action by the United Nations. It is up to the powerful states themselves to decide whether or not they will allow the UN to exert unquestioned leadership which, in turn, will depend on whether or not the UN is able to improve the ways it manages its operations.
This thought-provoking, factually sound book, put out by the Save the Children Fund (UK), is impartially written as it highlights also the failings of leading international NGOs in past humanitarian operations. The individual chapters, written by a selection of writers from various backgrounds, provide a balance between the theoretical and policy-related issues. This book now needs to be read by those who can make a difference.
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Thick Face Black Heart: The Asian Path to Thriving, Winning & Succeeding
Author: Chin-Ning Chu
Publisher: Nicholas Brealy Publishing, London
Price: Rs. 470
East Asian Management Culture
Surendra Sthapit
With the economic progress of East Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia, western companies are eager to know if there is any difference in management principles between the east and the west. As economic interdependence grows, more and more interaction between western multinational companies and newly industrialized East Asian countries is unavoidable. Banking upon an often "misunderstood" Asian (read: East Asian) business mind, Chin-Ning Chu, president of Asian Marketing Consultants, Inc., (USA) has written this book to note down the style, principle, strategies and mind-set of Asian executives.
She takes the idea of Thick Face Black Heart from two ancient books: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and a slim volume written by Lee Zhong Wu called Thick Black Theory. Thick Face is a shield to protect our self-esteem from the bad opinions of others. A person adept at Thick Face creates his own positive self-image despite the criticism of others. Black Heart is the ability to take actions without regard to how the consequences will affect others. Black Heart is ruthless, but it is not necessarily evil.
The book is replete with examples where the Thick Face Black Heart attitude has successfully achieved its goal of convincing, cajoling or obtaining the desired result. There are Chinese rulers who managed to defeat the opponent, Japanese kamikaze warriors of the 2nd World War, Arjuna and Krishna from Mahabharata, Abraham Lincoln, Hollywood Stars and ordinary citizens. Throughout the book, she quotes profusely from the ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese scriptures.
With her experience in dealing with American and Asian companies, she feels confident to write that "Deception (without Deceit)", "Winning through Negative Thinking," and "Acquiring the Killer Instinct" are traits of successful Asian executives. Author Chu asserts that negative thinking is not necessarily bad, and in fact good in many occasions. Even some of the most positive-thinking successful people fake their positive attitude. So, instead of trying to hide negative attributes and replace them with a "fake" positive attitude, Asian executives put this negativity to the best use. Instead of judging themselves by others' standards (which results in guilt or shame), they accept whatever qualities they have as the constituent elements of their uniqueness.
Deception, which has a negative connotation in the west, is given a slightly new meaning here. War is a game of deception, so is the art of negotiation. So in order to achieve a greater objective, deception "is a tool to be utilized to gain the necessary advantages". In most business, some degree of deception is used and a good businessman knows that. However, deception is not to be used to cheat others (that would be deceit).
The most significant aspect of the book is its discussion of "Acquiring the Killer Instinct". This principle states that one should be able to sacrifice the small for the benefit of a larger unit. The army major has it, a matador needs it, a surgeon acquires it and a business executive will benefit from it. It is like the art of knowing to use a knife. A knife could be a deadly weapon, but if properly utilized, it could also cut away the unnecessary and harmful excess. Asian executives, the author argues, have become better managers by using this principle.
In the Nepali context of largely family-dominated business scenario where kinship networks, relationships and traditional business ethics are prevalent, this book might appear revolutionary and aggressive. However, for those who have to deal extensively with the harassing bureaucracy and the never-to-the-point officials, the attitude of the Thick Face Black Heart could be just the required approach.
(S. Sthapit is interested in management theories and practice)
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