RSS

It was the festival season and I was travelling in a crowded bus from Dharan to Biratnagar. Two rows ahead of me, a middle-aged man was wiping his forehead with a gamchha that was already soaked in his sweat. Just then a brightly dressed woman chewing gum entered the bus, took one look inside, and turned to leave.

The conductor tried to convince her not to go, saying "seat milauchhu ni didi, aunu na". She followed the conductor, who walked up to the man with the gamchha and said, "Oh bhaiya, uth ta, didi lai basna de". The man looked up and quietly gave up his seat. She thanked the conductor, who was evidently quite flattered. The dejected look on the man's face went unnoticed by the other passengers. A thought occurred to me then: what if some day a Madhesi passenger refuses to give up his seat? 

Five years later, Bishendra Pashwan and Sadrul Miya threw a chair out of the fourth floor window of the building where a Constitutional Committee meeting was underway. This is not about whether or not such conduct was becoming of a CA member. What I am worried about is the depoliticisation of the incident, which has led to the downplaying of the uncomfortable questions it raised.

Madhesi Tarai Dalits, ethnic minorities, and Muslims make up about 19 per cent of Nepal's total population. According to the UN's 2009 Human Development Report, Madhesi Tarai Dalits have a life expectancy of 61, adult literacy of 27 per cent and annual per capita income of US$743. Tarai Madhesi Janjatis live an average of 61.55 years, have a literacy rate of 48 per cent and a per capita income of US$1,224. Muslims live for 61 years, have a literacy rate of 30 per cent and a per capita income of US$890. These three groups occupy the bottom three positions of Nepal's human development ranking.

We may say this is due to regional disparity, and that the Tarai Madhesi population will benefit automatically once state restructuring leads to decentralised governance. But hang on, take a look at this: Tarai Madhes Brahmins and Chhetris  live for 64 years, have a literacy rate of 84 per cent and earn US$2,333. Is this regional disparity or systematic socio-economic marginalisation? Anyone would be outraged by this disparity, especially if you are Bishendra Pashwan and Sadrul Miya, who carry the huge expectations of one fifth of the country but are told that there are more urgent matters to discuss than this.

The wretched of this land have suffered enough, been humiliated enough, and protested more than enough. The lawmakers in the constitution drafting committees, including the Constitutional Committee, need to understand that the days of 'bhaiyas' conceding their rightful space to daju-bhais are over, whether in a public bus or a public debate.

Institutionally, the socio-economic mosaic of the nation needs to change to include hitherto marginalised aspirations. But the plight of Madhesi Dalits, Janjatis and Muslims is not just political and economic. Nepal hasn't completely emerged out of feudalism and residual racism. So the demand for an inclusive Nepal cannot be met with a few constitutional gestures. It needs an equally progressive and sensitive outlook on a personal level, which the Constitutional Committee members clearly failed to demonstrate. 

Such fault lines run deep, from the parliamentary secretariat building to rented apartments and buildings, classrooms, hostels, offices and every other public space. Any attempt to address these resentments has to go beyond the legal and challenge the socially accepted myth of 'Nepali nationalism' that pits the fair-skinned, Nepali-speaking Indo-Aryan and Khas identity against the dark-skinned Awadhi, Bhojpuri and Maithili speaking Madhesis. It is Dhaka topi and daura versus gamchha and dhoti.

This cannot be just a constitutional project. It has to be a political and cultural exercise as well, where all sections of society including the so-called intellectuals engage on a personal level to create a heterogeneous Nepali identity that is culturally diverse and politically vibrant. Only then will the seed of the new constitution bear the fruit of an inclusive democracy that is accessible to all citizens.

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