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We, the Bigots
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - Declaration of Independence.
We are a diverse country. With over 92 different living languages, and countless different ethnicity and religion we have a wide variety of culture and people. However, only few individuals from the minority communities take part in policy formation and decision making at the government level. The government and bureaucracy are filled with people from either the Bahun or the Chetri community. They have dominated politics, army, bureaucracy, education and most of the other institutions.
However, over the past few years the political awareness of the masses has increased by a significant level. The oppressed have begun to raise their voices. The government and people in general cannot ignore the fundamental ethnic polarization in our culture for long. The issue needs to be addressed. I am not talking about addressing the issue at the government and bureaucratic level. With the increase of political power of the minorities, especially the Madhesi community, I am sure at the government level some improvement will come. But I wonder whether or not we as citizens are ready for intelligent and meaningful debates about letting our bigotry go.
A Madhesi should not have to undergo the humiliating treatment, and stereotyping he/she has been subject to in the past. They should not have racial slurs hurled at them for something they have no control over. A Pahadi in Tarai should have the right to live without harassment. It’s the 21st century and we are still categorizing people based on ascriptive characteristics. And this is being done not only by people who are uninformed and uneducated, but disappointingly by people who we are hoping will change the way our country is. The youth all over the country is still engaging in what they so loudly preach against. So how are we to change a system in whose formation we all are equally and presently guilty.
For this type of bigotry to end we must engage the civilian population in meaningful conversation. We have to inculcate the idea of equality and anti-discrimination in our educational and social system. Educated youth must challenge the bigotry of the past. Are we going to build a nation where we hate and hold prejudices based on our skin tone and accent? Is that what we want to leave behind for our children? A messed up country with so many unresolved issues, like the one we have inherited, courtesy our unquestioning forefathers.
We all think everyone should be equal (at least I hope we all do), then why not practice what we preach. It’s not that difficult. Engage someone who is being a bigot in a conversation, ask them for their logic. Stop your friends when they pass a racist judgment. Talk to people, friends from different backgrounds, about the situation and work with them and through them to make a difference. Question your parents, teach them, and learn from them. Change does not come from sitting on our fat and lazy posteriors and complaining, it comes from active engagement and debate. And if and when you debate remember what Aristotle so wisely said, “The end result of a debate should not be victory but wisdom”.
( Feb 2nd 2010, 11:17 AM ) says:
How can you expect non-Bahuns to not act as bigots when 99% of all seats of power are controlled by Bahuns. Add to this, the perception that Bahuns have attained this power through trickery and nepotism and continue to benefit through their ability to demand bribes. If you want people in Nepal to stop behaving like bigots then the fastest way to do so is by making sure that people (all people) are able to rightfully enjoy the fruit of the labor without having to payoff every peon to every hakim in the never ending list government offices (which all seem to be controlled by the Bahuns).
And the author is right, people are finally starting to wake up, I hope the Bahuns do too.
"You can fool some people some time, but you can't fool all the people all the time".
( Feb 8th 2010, 02:22 AM ) says:
"How can you expect non-Bahuns to not act as bigots when 99% of all seats of power are controlled by Bahuns. Add to this, the perception that Bahuns have attained this power through trickery and nepotism and continue to benefit through their ability to demand bribes. If you want people in Nepal to stop behaving like bigots then the fastest way to do so is by making sure that people (all people) are able to rightfully enjoy the fruit of the labor without having to payoff every peon to every hakim in the never ending list government offices (which all seem to be controlled by the Bahuns)."
I do agree with what you say but you make it seem like Bahuns are the only reason we find ourselves in the dump we are in. Although a majority of the blame does go to the Bahuns ( because they held the power) lets not kid ourselves into believing that everyone else is not doing the same thing. Plus justifying bigotry because "99% of all seats of power are controlled by Bahuns." is like saying its ok for afro-americans to be racist because white people are the ones with all the power.
I dont want people to do to the bahuns what bahuns and other powerful groups have done to them. Lets not make it ok to pick on them( I am considering being a Bahun a non-ascriptive characteristic) just because they have picked on everyone else.
p.s- I do apologize for stereotyping all Bahun in one group. I am well aware that not all bahuns or any other group for that matter share the same responsibilities and do the same thing.
( Feb 8th 2010, 11:59 AM ) says:
the thing is bahuns and all castes have a stereotype i mean cant help it. and i find that most are true. bahuns are tricky, newars are business-minded, chhetris are less bahuns, gurungs are gorkhas. i mean that's why bahuns are mostly in politics with the manipulative bunch. newars are mostly business people. gurungs are mostly in the army. as much as discrimination is wrong, there are facts and there are stereotypes because of the facts. i'm a newar and i dont get along with bahuns. they easily prey on those who are honest. its their nature cant help it. newars have their flaws too, if it can be called a flaw, same as manipulativeness for bahuns, is that a flow? they do really well in their fields i mean we need these kind too. but personally i dont like bahuns and yes i will put them as one bunch because most are like that and i don't like their traits. if we had more of other caste types in our govt we will have a better system, meaning less corrupt system.
( Feb 8th 2010, 11:38 PM ) says:
Wow.....I guess Sachin's convinced bigotry proves my point.
I do not think all Bahuns are born with the capability to trick and manipulate people like the same way not all newars are good in business.
"as much as discrimination is wrong, there are facts and there are stereotypes because of the facts."----but these aren't facts ...we've been made to beleive they are facts but they arn't. These are stereotypes which having been established, creates a len through we we then look at all people of the certain group. Once we look at people with a stereotype in mind we can only reconfirm our stereotype and not challenge it.
"i'm a newar and i dont get along with bahuns. they easily prey on those who are honest. its their nature cant help it."-------sorry but this made me laugh..I was born in a Bahun family ...which i guess makes me a bahun too...but i dont think i "easily prey on those who are honest" and it is defiantly not in my "nature" ....haha but it did make me laugh..
I do agree with u though we do need people form different castes to come into the government.
( Jun 16th 2010, 02:10 PM ) says:
Have you read Nepalese history? You know when the golden ages for Nepalese civilization commenced? It was all before the unification of Nepal, when the Newari kingdoms were independent. That is when all the temples, the vaunted Durbar squares of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Patan were built. Basically all the temples, all the tourist attractions, and cultural assets of Nepal, hell, even the Pagoda are the work of Newars. We built Nepal's culture, its art, its only intellectual property. What happened after the unification of Nepal under the Shah dynasty? Well for one thing the Ranas usurped the Shahs and they imposed an isolationist policy, which was fine since British Imperialism was at its height, but frankly, I think we would have been better off under the British; so bad was the Rana's management of the country. They just suspended progress, for 150 years Nepal was in a self-imposed dark ages. When the Shahs finally regained power, well, I think you know how the story goes from there on out. Now I dont know if we could blame this on the Bahuns, indeed when you look at Jung Bahadur he certainly doesn't look like an Indo-Aryan, if that is the paradigm for the Bahuns, and even the Gurkhas, Prithvi Narayan's army, consists mainly of Mongoloids. Hell, the Gurkha region itself is in the Northern part of Nepal, a place inhabited by Mogoloids instead of Indo-Aryans. Logic would say Prithvi Narayan shah was a mongoloid also, even the Shahs look to be a mix between mongoloids and Indo-Europeans, so the current paradigm of power, where we have Indo-Europeans, doesn't really make sense. Where did they come from, when the Gorkhas the people who conquered us, the Newars, were mongoloids, and Jung Bahadur too was a mongoloid. Just look at his orignal last name Jung Bahadur Kunwar, a name associated with mongoloids.Where did all these Indo-Aryans come from to occupy the seats of power, that is where the vagueries come from, and I am not going to speculate, but definitely a thing to think about. Of course years of inbreeding and so on has left the Newars quite diverse, we might be the ethnicity with the greatest racial diversity, so race for us, shouldnt be that big of an issue. Newars have been liberal that way, we have been the traditional bourgeosie class of Nepal, the liberal force that has stayed on the sideline since Prithvi Narayan Shah first united Nepal.
Good post. Good for you for saying this.