Book Review Pages
The Kathmandu Post Review of Books
Vol. 3, No. 10
Issue Coordinator: Pratyoush Onta
Martin Chautari for
CSRD and The Kathmandu Post
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Essay
Reviews
- The Beginnings of Agrarian Change: A Case Study in Central Nepal (Jagannath Adhikari)
- Changing Faces of Nepal (Susanne von der Heide)
- Poet's Choice: Poems for Everyday Life (Robert Hass)
Gurkhas and British Morality
Seira Tamang
On paying a Pakistani cricket umpire less than his British counterparts, England's Umpires Association chairman Barrie Leadbeater said among other things "[i]t is difficult to justify paying the others so much less but if they were paid the same they would be rich men in their countries, where the living standards are lower."
It is quite admirable that the British - of all people - are so concerned about issues of class equality, albeit in countries other than their own. Their "moral courage", with the unspoken implication that of course that they would only be too willing to pay equal wages would it not be so unfair for those at home, is most excellent.
And most in line with their logic in the equal pension debate for British Gurkhas. But it seems to me that the real, underlying issue remains untouched. Dare we be less coy, and more straightforward?
Racism.
One of the main problems is that we don't have the written memoirs of those soldiers for whom "doing chakkas in polo with those other chaps" was but a vicarious experience. Neither do we know exactly what was going on in "Johnny Gurkha's" mind during the time in which, as his British captain recorded later, "his eyes steely concentrated on only one goal - to capture the hill, he fearlessly marched forward with only his kukhri in hand as bullets whistled past him". Nor is it widely known what really lay behind those "ever-cheerful faces", "that amazing courage typical of Gurkhas", "the undying bonds of loyalty formed between the Gurkha sipai and his British officer" etc.
What we have is one-sided myths formed from the very biased opinions of those who held the power to decide with one word, the future of the lives of the Nepali men under their command.
And the other side? I have some bits of it. My father speaks very rarely of his experience in the British army - especially the war time. And you see, no one makes movies recounting the horrors experienced in war by brown men. Their emotions, their feelings, their fears or hopes remain mostly unrecorded - thus "not real."
My father and I watched the opening scenes of "Jacob's Ladder", the film about the flashback experiences of a white, American Vietnam veteran. Out of the blue, my father said "I used to get those." Some minutes later he added "It was just like that in Malaysia. You never knew where the enemy was. You had to be tense all the time. It's very hard being tense all the time. And it was hot, rainy and sticky. And the leeches were everywhere. And you had to leave your friends behind to die cos you couldn't carry them". .... He left the room 5 minutes later.
I've never asked him if he killed anyone. I did ask him if he was scared. He sneered. "Of course I was. Everyone was. Who wouldn't be? We could die any moment. Many wanted to run but we needed to earn our living. Who would support our families? I was nearly killed three times. I didn't know if I would live to see your eldest brother being born. I used to be so scared"
So much for inherent courage, fearlessness and bravery.
My father told me how terrible the conditions were when he was sent in 1949 to fight in the "Communist Insurgency" in Malaysia. Many of his friends were sick with malnutrition and diseases because of inadequate food and shelter. He said "we were treated like dogs by the British". It wasn't that they didn't complain. But whenever anyone complained to the British officers, and this was true for all his service years, the immediate response was "You'll be put back on the plane and sent home." So how deep exactly are those bonds again from British officer to Gurkha soldier?
That there are many more questions that need to be answered is clear. As is the fact that my father's age, rank and privilege provide only a certain picture, a slice - but an alternative none-the-less to the myths constructed by British officers.
What is also clear is that because they do not have written memoirs, does not mean they do not remember. Because they cannot articulate themselves in English does not mean that they are stupid. Because you did not hear them complain did not mean they were happy. Because they did not talk about their children, it did not mean they did not want to go home and be with their families, who were waiting hopefully, just like British wives and children, for their husbands and fathers. Because they were Nepali, it did not mean that their blood was any less valuable. Because they are brown, does not mean they do not feel. They feel, they hurt, they remember.
The British have made a mistake. They thought that they could get people like my father to risk their lives, undergo much physical and emotional hardship and be satisfied with less pay and pension than that of their British counterparts. A colonial era ago they got away with it. But no longer.
To continue pressing the argument of paying according to "their country's standard of living" is in today's age, embarrassing in its straightforward racism. For what that really means, is the standard with which the "natives" should be satisfied, the lifestyle with which they should be accustomed, the amount for which they should be grateful according to the station of life to which they belong.
Past mistakes need to be rectified because the world is watching what the British will do for "those cheerful chaps" who shed their blood for the Union Jack. It is British honor and prestige that is now at stake. Let the world see how much they really valued our fathers, brothers and sons.
Do the British have the moral courage?
(S. Tamang, a social science researcher, is an organizer of Martin Chautari)
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The Beginnings of Agrarian Change: A Case Study in Central Nepal
Author: Jagannath Adhikari
Publisher: TM Publication, Kathmandu, 1996
Biased Agrarian Restructuring
Pramod Bhatta
Since the 1970s, several scholars have predicted that Nepal's society is headed toward a crisis. They have identified Nepal's overwhelming reliance on peasant agriculture as the major element of this crisis whose causes, they have argued, include over-population, ecological collapse in the hill areas, depletion of natural resources and increasing food shortages. However, after observing the restructuring of the rural communities from subsistence farming towards small-scale commercial agriculture and off-farm employment, researcher Jagannath Adhikari contends that rural Nepal now seems likely to escape that 'crisis.'
The Beginnings of Agrarian Change examines the process of agrarian restructuring occuring in the villages of the middle hill region of central Nepal. The book, based on a Ph.D thesis, is the outcome of field data collected from four major ethnic groups: Brahmin, Gurung, Chhetri, and occupational caste during intensive research in two villages of Kaski district, Lachok and Riban in 1989-90 and 1992-94. It is divided into three parts. In the first part, Adhikari discusses how the present unequal social and economic situation evolved. In the second, he discusses the recent changes in economic relationships between ethnic groups while in the last, he examines the reasons for the continued plight of the occupational caste and the prospects for their upliftment.
After describing the process of agrarian restructuring in ethnically diverse hill communities of central Nepal Adhikari argues that this process has not had uniform impact in the different sections of the society. The existing internal divisions have prevented the lowest income class - the occupational caste group - from receiving substantial benefits including those from natural resources. In spite of this the restructuring process resulting from changes in the livelihood strategies of different ethnic groups has been critical in putting off the state of extreme poverty.
But how exactly has this restructuring occurred? Firstly the population pressure on land has been contained as more Gurungs have retreated from farming. Some marginal, swidden land previously used by them has been converted into forest plantations which has helped in the conservation of forests. Secondly the accumulation of outside earnings - British Gurkha remittances in the case of Gurungs, civil service incomes in the case of Brahmin-Chhetris - has decreased their dependence on subsistence farming. Many have become 'hobby farmers' with dual residences. This has created more wage employment opportunities within the villages from which members of the occupational caste have benefitted.
Thirdly, agricultural intensification and commercialization has increased due to better irrigation facilities, new technical inputs and transportation network. Gurungs' retreat from farming has enabled Brahmins and Chhetris to expand their cultivation by renting their land. Even occupational caste members now rent more land. But here also, the intra and inter-ethnic economic disparity has widened. Fourthly, economic interdependence across ethnic boundaries has strengthened because of economic transfers among them. This has helped many rural poor to live marginally above the threshold of extreme poverty.
What have been the stimulants to this restructuring process? According to Adhikari, increased migrations and differential access to off-farm employment both within and outside the village community have been the most important influences. Foreign army service and the state have provided employment to Gurungs and Brahmins-Chhetris respectively. It is only for the occupational poor that things have not changed much in this front. Low wage employment within the village farm sector and the nearby urban areas and traditional occupations like tailoring, metallurgy, mat and basket weaving are their main sources of income, even as the latter is gradually declining as a source.
But Adhikari argues that there has been no real change in the structure of production.The peasant mode of production and the tradition of ethnic inequality still predominate. This is evident even in the management of forests where the untouchables have had relatively little access to its resources. The caste-based forest management has denied them equal access to the 'community forest' and it is the 'high forest' which has provided relief for those without ownership rights over the forests located near the village houses. This differential access has not been without conflicts. However, it has forced the villagers to try to find a solution that provides more equitable access to forest resources to untouchables.
So, here is an indigenous effort to describe the possible course of the socio-politico-economy of an ethnically diverse rural community. It is not the first study of the rural Nepal. There is an abundance of such studies but very few of them have accurately explained the persistence of the rural economy in its largely traditional form. Nor have such studies appreciated the intricate intra and inter ethnic relationships in view of social, political and economic structures at large. Adhikari's attempt is hence commendable. It is an excellent research work and should be read by all social science researchers and policy planners.
But the book also comes with some shortcomings. This is reflected in the tendency of the author to generalise his research findings to a wider rural society without conducting similar studies of other villages in the more extreme localities of the country. And the still peripheral but important rural Tarai may be restructuring in a very different manner. Similarly, the author exposes the plight of the poor but offers no real, workable solutions for their upliftment. Simply to assert that their current problem can be solved by creating a conflict free situation and by improving their skills and educational abilities is to acquiesce to the forces of traditional domination. Finally I could not help having my reservations about change. While research 'experts' are constantly busy digging out all sorts of changes, I wonder if the people, who are often the former's research guinea pigs, are aware of this 'change' as well!
(P. Bhatta is doing a masters in sociology at Tribhuvan University)
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Changing Faces of Nepal
Author: Susanne von der Heide
Publisher: Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu, 1997
Rs 950
History of Nepali Photographers
Pratyoush Onta
Until recently photography in Nepal was in search of a historian! Some recently published evidence of scholarly interest in this subject now suggests that the wait is almost over. Changing Faces of Nepal is one such evidence. It is a catalogue prepared for an exhibition at UNESCO (Paris, December 1997) of selective photos taken by the Chitrakars of Bhimsensthan, Kathmandu over the 20th century. It has been compiled and written by Susanne von der von der Heide, a familiar Nepal hand.
After several prefatory remarks, we come across a brief statement with the title "The Past in the Present" where von der Heide discusses the cultural developments witnessed in Kathmandu in the modern era of Nepali history. In particular she highlights how the Ranas cultivated a "taste for Western cultural and consumer goods." This change meant that Chitrakars who had access to Rana courts had to redefine their traditional role as painters and artists. When photography entered the scene in late 19th century, some took it up even as they continued to paint. The new technology also gave birth to the hybrid product of 'retouched' photos (photos that had been reworked with the painter's brush).
In the following essay (spiced with relevant photos) entitled "Pioneers of Early Photography in Nepal: Photographers, Artists and Patrons" von der Heide provides substantial information on pioneering Nepali photographers and wealthy Rana individuals who patronized them. The book also contains 60 photographs, 59 of which were taken by the father and son duo of Dirga Man Chitrakar (1877-1951) and Ganesh Man Chitrakar (1906-1985) between 1909 and 1970.
von der Heide identifies Dambar Shamsher (1859-1922), younger brother of Rana RM Bir Shamsher (r. 1885-1901) as the first Nepali photographer. Dambar had set up a photo studio in his durbar with money provided by his father Dhir Shamsher. It seems that Dambar had learnt the art in the mid-1870s from European photographers who had visited Nepal from India, namely Bourne and Shepherd. Dambar's son Samar Shamsher and grandson Bal Krishna Sama (one of the founding pillars of modern Nepali literature) were also good photographers.
von der Heide names Purna Man Chitrakar (c. 1863-1939) as an important early photographer who was patronized by Dambar Shamsher and Gehendra Shamsher, son of Bir Shamsher. Purna Man is said to have learnt photography from the former around 1880 and was sent to Calcutta in the early 1880s for further training. Even as he continued to paint, Purna Man also received instructions from a Bengali photographer Neel Madhaba Deen who was invited to Kathmandu in 1888.
Dirga Man Chitrakar came under the tutelage of Purna Man in the early 1890s when he was in his early teens. Later he was patronized by Chandra Shamsher (r. 1901-1929) who gave him a job in the art department in Singha Durbar and took him in his entourage to Europe in 1908. Whether Dirga Man took any pictures while he was there has not been ascertained but it is known for sure that many cameras were brought back to Nepal at the end of that trip. It is with them that Dirga Man began to photograph, and this also explains why the earliest photos taken by him included in this exhibition date to 1909. He set up an enlargement studio in his house in Bhimsensthan around then as well and later taught photography to his son Ganesh Man.
Purna Man taught photography to many Chitrakars: his brother Badra Man, Badra Man's brothers-in-law Ratna Bahadur and Hira Bahadur; Krishna Bahadur, Tej Bahadur and possibly Harka Lal Chitrakar and his son Prithvi Lal. Other pioneering Chitrakar photographers mentioned by von der Heide include Chaite Chitrkar and his son Purna; Prithvi Man Chitrakar, the brothers Laxmi Bahadur and Tulsi Bahadur (grandsons of the famous artist Bhaju Man who Jung Bahadur had taken to Europe in 1850) and the latter's sons Buddhi Bahadur and Krishna Bahadur.
Other early photographers included Chakra Bahadur Kayestha and his three sons: Tej, Darsan and Sahilu; Madan and Sri Man Kayestha; Ghyan Bahadur Karmacharya and his brother Shanta Bahadur, latter's son Samar; Narayan Prasad Joshi, Pashupati Lal Shrestha, Bharat Shrestha and Tirath Raj Manandhar, Govind Vaidya, Bishnu Dhoj Joshi and his son Hiranya Dhoj.
von der Heide also briefly discusses the first photographers in Nepal who were almost certainly Europeans. As was reported in a 1992 article by J. P. Losty, the earliest photographs taken in Nepal that can be uncontroversially dated are those taken by Clarence C Taylor, an officer at the British Residency in Kathmandu, in 1863.
Among the 60 photos exhibited, some have been developed from the original glass negatives; some have been published before. We get a glimpse of many of Kathmandu's monuments before they were destroyed by calamities such as the 1934 earthquake or catastrophic fires. Shots of Rana courts and families can also be seen. Other photos show different Kathmandu locations during festivals and ordinary occasions. Clothings of the Ranas and ordinary people seen in different photos make for an interesting comparison. Of great interest are two pictures that depict a Chitrakar marriage in 1927 and the extended family of the photographers in 1947.
To conclude then, this is an important contribution to the history of Nepali photography. von der Heide's presentation, however, suffers from some omissions. She provides no photographs of Purna Man Chitrakar. In the references given at the end of the book, the title of this reviewer's article on Balkrishna Sama published in Studies in Nepali History and Society (vol 2, no.1) is inaccurate. More surprising is her lack of references to Mark Liechty's article published in the same issue on how Nepal's modern rulers have consumed foreign goods and foreignness and to my 10,000-word, six-part article entitled "History of Photography in Nepal" published in this paper in 1994. In the latter, I had proposed a scheme within which we can understand the consumptive history of photography in Nepal and von der Heide's analysis could have easily made use of some of the insights provided therein.
(P.Onta is an editor of Studies in Nepali History and Society)
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Poet's Choice: Poems for Everyday Life
Editor: Robert Hass
Publisher: Ecco Press, New Jersey, USA,1998
Living by Poetry
Manjushree Thapa
Robert Hass begins his new poetry anthology with this quote from William Carlos Williams:
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably
for lack
of what is found there
Poet's Choice: Poems for Everyday Life tries indeed to save its readers' imaginative lives by introducing them to poems of lyric intensity which provoke much sensation, feeling and thought. The book is a compilation of a newspaper column Hass authored while appointed the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995-97. His original goal was to introduce readers used to the "debased public language" of popular media to the elevated language of poems in the hope that the refinement found there would teach them to make more sophisticated judgments as democratic citizens. The book makes the same attempt. Hass's ambitions for poetry are not modest.
He goes about fulfilling these ambitions with disarming ease. Following the seasons, he provides readers with poems which suggest the particularities of that time of year. This haiku by Basho, for instance, is a poem about "the permissions of summer:"
Napped half the day
no one
punished me.
As is the following one, also by Basho:
As for the hibiscus
by the roadside,
my horse ate it.
Most poems in the anthology are considerably longer than these haiku. Each comes with an introduction by Hass, and sometimes a brief commentary about the author's life and some aspect of the work. Hass's musings on these poems are themselves eloquent, and they always make the selected work more approachable for the reader. Paul Celan's poem about the Holocaust "Deathfugue," for instance, becomes immensely vivid once the reader knows that Celan spent his life trying to write poems ñ and create beauty ñ in his native German tongue after barely surviving the Third Reich concentration camps where both his parents were murdered. His torment rings clearly through this small, urgent excerpt:
Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at morning and midday we drink you at evening
we drink and we drink
a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margareta
your aschenes Haar Shulamith he plays with his vipers
The poem is translated in such a way that it slowly switches from English to German so that the reader may share Celan's harrowing relationship with his language of expression. It ends by contrasting, in German, the golden-haired Margareta, who is the object of an SS Officer's fantasies, to Shulamith, a Jewish woman described hauntingly as having ashen hair.
Poet's Choice includes work by renowned contemporary poets Amiri Baraka, Louise Gluck, Jorie Graham, Denise Levertov, WS Merwin, Sharon Olds, Robert Pinsky and Derek Walcott, along with strong works by lesser known poets. A few older poets such as Dickinson, Frost, Rilke and Yeats are also included. By his own admission, Hass tends to select English-language poets, but he does make room for some translations of works by important world poets like Bei Dao, Joseph Brodsky, Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, and Wislawa Symborska. In addition, the book contains an excellent chapter on children's poetry which teachers of English might be interested in examining. Chief among Hass's recommendations for early childhood are Mother Goose, the songbook Go In and Out the Window, and Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library. Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, and the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein are recommended for middle childhood. For late childhood, he recommends the stories of CS Lewis and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the simpler poems of writers such as Shakespeare, TS Eliot and Emily Dickinson, which can be found in the anthologies The New Oxford Book of Children's Verse and A Child's Anthology of Poetry. Obviously, Hass's recommendations are western in focus, and should be viewed as such when creating reading lists for the Nepali child.
Adult readers, Hass steers towards subtler verses, some sad, some celebratory, and some philosophical like this excerpt from Stanley Kunitz's "The Abduction":
Our lives are spinning out
from world to world;
the shape of things
are shifting in the wind.
What do we know
Beyond the rapture and the dread?
With Hass acting as an expert guide, Poet's Choice offers a rare chance for those unused to poetry to reach its rarified heights. Readers wishing to experience the fullness of life that beautiful language offers will find much of value in this book.
(M. Thapa recently completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Washington)
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