The United Nations observe September 21 as the International Day of Peace. The "Partnerships for Peace—Dignity for All" is the theme of commemoration this year. Ironically, Nepal inaugurated a constitution, its seventh in less than seven decades, which seeks to institutionalize indignities inflicted upon all minorities by the brute majority.Citizenship is the foundational feature of a democratic statute. By conflating nationality with citizenship, a constitution written in the second decade of the twenty-first century ensures that ideas of bloodline, masculinity and patriotism shall continue to be guiding principles of protecting the purity of Nepali Nation. In operative terms, it means that the women and the Madheshis of all genders will have lesser citizenship rights and may be barred from higher public posts if they fail the ancestry test.
Equality of all votes is the fundamental premise of democratic representation. Rotten Boroughs are history in the United Kingdom. The constitution of Nepal shall continue to honor the discredited concept in the name of geographical presence in the legislature. Advantage of unequal representation can sometimes be given to benefit the marginalized. Nepal being the country of Mount Everest, birthplace of Lord Buddha and the home of One-horned Rhino, the constitution of this country declares that the externalized Madheshis will have to sacrifice their fair share to maintain the unchallenged supremacy of the dominant community.
Political inclusion is born out of the idea of moral meritocracy rather than competitive animosity. In a moral meritocracy, equal opportunity for the historically disadvantaged is a form of reparation to build a better society. Nepal has turned the concept on its head to assert that since no wrongs have ever been committed in its history with any community, everyone deserves equal reparation. The statute distributes positive discrimination opportunities to Bahun-Chhetris, Janjatis, women, Madheshis and Dalits with an even hand.
Redefinition of citizenship, representation and inclusion rights has robbed the nascent republic of its essence. With such provisions enshrined in the constitution, elections will merely end up being multiple replays of musical chairs institutionalizing an oligarchy of deceit. Reigns of the regime shall remain firmly in the hands of the PEON that will make the polity dance to its tunes.
In order to thwart any challenge that may emerge from the federalization of the existing unitary state, the PEON has emasculated state restructuring with at least two preemptive measures. Map-making has always been an important tool of exerting power. The PEON has drawn boundaries of federating units in such a way that every province will have the dominance of the same Bahun-Chhetri community that has ruled this country since its emergence in the late eighteenth century. Federating units have further been enfeebled with the creation of multiple municipalities that will forever be dependent upon central authorities.
Among the four thunders of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity and secularity—the idea of keeping statecraft free of religious fervour failed to take root in most countries. Modern states, however, try to make an attempt to distance governance from religion. In Nepal, the state has been constitutionally obligated to protect and promote Sanatana Dharma, which is shorthand for Hindu religion, and the Holy Cow as the national animal. Proselytization remains proscribed.
Definitional power
It's a truism of social science that no community in the history of human civilization has been as resiliently hegemonic as the Brahmins of the Indian Sub-continent. In India, Brahmins never constituted more than five percent of its population prior to the partition of the Subcontinent. And yet they successfully thwarted at least three of the most powerful empires of the world—the Buddhist Mauryas, the Islamic Mughals and the Christian British.
Even today, Brahmans number less than ten percent in most parts of India except for the two mountainous provinces of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where the figure hover around 20 and 15 percent respectively. And yet, the priestly castes are the most dominant force everywhere in the region.
How have they done it? Why is it that no matter who fights whom, the Brahmins always win in the end? Explanations vary. But there is one element common to all understanding of hegemony of Brahmanism in much of South Asia: Its fierce defense of power of definition. Through the concept of hierarchy, victorious warriors were lured into being defenders of faith and protectors of cows and Brahmans. The Vaishyas were transformed into conformists with the promise of order in society. The Vaishyas accepted unjust hierarchy on the condition that the warriors and the priests will protect them from the onslaught of much numerous Shudras—the largest section of population that consisted of indigenous peoples, the Dalits and according to the lawgiver Manu, women of all castes.
Pacification of Shudras required production of knowledge to establish centrality of fate in human society. Someone born a Vaishya could become rich through his efforts—class was open to endeavor—but he could never be a Brahmin in this birth. Community was a closed category. Purity, pollution, atonement and sacrifice are some of the important constituents of Brahmanism. More than a central figure of the religion such as an Ayatollah or a Pope, this belief system required a committed cadre, plurality of texts, and multiple mythologies to maintain its hegemony.
A knowledge system built over millennia was fated to prevail in Nepal. Most women lawmakers voted against their own long-term interest to allow unequal citizenship laws pass. Majority of Janjati members of the Constituent Assembly seem to have gladly accepted that they don't deserve the dignity of distinct identity within the national polity. The Dalits failed to challenge the status quo. Some Madheshis too bowed their head in front of priests of their political parties. However, Madheshbadi parties refused to be cowed down by the rhetoric of democratic divinity, which is interpreted to mean that justice lies with the will of the dominant majority.
For now, Madheshbadis have lost the game. As the prevalent majority celebrates its victory, the vanquished minority mourns it dead that gave up their lives for equality, dignity and justice for oppressed community.
Long struggle
Coping with continued defeat isn't easy. It saps the emotional energy required for recuperation, reorganization and re-agitation. That could be the reason many give up the fight as soon as few rounds are over. To borrow an analogy from the "Exit, Voice and Loyalty" template of consumer choices postulated by Albert O. Hirschman, carrots and sticks of power lure the defeated away from their convictions.
Voice is difficult to maintain when hegemony pervades through instruments of coercion, persuasion and consistent propaganda. Even when expressed, the murmur of dissent dies out in the cacophony of conformism. It's difficult enough now, but will get increasingly challenging to raise concerns of the vanquished in public sphere. Cry of victims is often music to the ears of victors and feeble voices of opposition are merely amusing diversions.
Little wonder, exit is usually the first option of the vanquished. Violent resistance is a form of exit from the rules of the game that privileges the dominant. So is self-exile, which is an escape into a different world with its own challenges. What does one do when there is darkness all-around? Many Madheshis, mostly youth, will have to struggle with this question for quite a while. There should be no delusions about situation getting any better on its own. Unlike in other religions of the world, charity in Brahmanism doesn't mean empowerment of the weak and betterment of the marginalized. It implies continued patronization of the priestly order.
When hope evaporates in the heat of suppression, one has to create it again from the ashes of one's loss. Gandhi suggested penance, patience and peaceful protest as ways of regenerating rightful energy. Ambedkar's prescription was to educate, organize and agitate. It's a long and lonely struggle where only those with the iron will shall survive.
There is also an element of dread when the line between the victorious and the vanquished is so clear. Enunciates Alan Paton in Cry, The Beloved Country hauntingly, "I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating". The brute often end up brutalizing their victims. There is a reason Gandhi believed in prayers and was away from the celebrations of new dawn in New Delhi.
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