Quest for freedom is the characteristic of the animal kingdom of which Homo sapiens are the most prominent and persistent seekers. Conspiratorial and coercive politics can silence the voice of dissent for a while—sometimes for a frustratingly long while—but once masses pour out into the streets, nothing can stop them from having their way.
Matrika Yadav was once almost a messiah of Madhes. He happened to be on the wrong side of the barricades during Madhes Uprising and has since never been able to reclaim the lost ground. More or less the same could be said of the three big nationalist parties—the UCPN (Maoist), the CPN (UML) and the Nepali Congress—that are waiting for Madhes-based political outfits to fail rather than come up with alternative strategies to address the aspirations of the people. Idle anticipation, however, is an ineffective substitute for energetic activism.
Democratic deficit may be the primary concern of the intelligentsia in the capital city, but hope—though tinged with a sense of frustration with the performance of their leaders—is still more prominent in eastern and central Tarai-Madhes. In formal programs, professionals rave and rant against Upendra Yadav and Mahantha Thakur and rue that the agenda of Madhes Uprising has been lost in the games being played in the salons of power. Underneath the public anger however, there is still a lot of sympathy for helplessness of their representatives in the hostile political environment of Kathmandu.
Bewildered by the lack of urgency for a new constitution among politicos, the middleclass that had spearheaded the movement for equality, dignity and identity in 2007 does wonder whether promises made back then will be kept by the current crop of leaders. However, disappointment has not yet turned to desperation. The general feeling seems to be that gains of Madhes Uprising are now irreversible and if existing leadership fails to deliver, it would not take long to prepare a new line-up capable of taking the struggle for dignity forward. The confidence probably comes from the realization that no matter how imperfect, every democratic movement since 1940s has helped to make society a little more equitable.
Cradle of revolts
Apart from holy ponds and majestic temples, Janakpur was once also known for pretty holiday homes of absentee landlords along the Parikarma Sadak that circumscribed the town. These specious compounds would be abuzz during winter months when the old and the young of Shahs, Ranas, Singhs and Upadhyayas would come down and mingle with Mishras, Giris, Nidhis, Sahs, Jhas, Lals and Yadavs. Each knew their places in the social hierarchy and unwritten codes of behavior were scrupulously observed. During anti-Rana struggles of 1940s, the local social elite struggled with the custodians of ancien regime and a new compact between the two emerged.
Janakpur lacks many things, but hope is certainly not in short supply. Unbridled optimism seems to strangely pervade the air where almost nothing works normally. What it lacks for the present is somebody with sufficient credibility to organize and channel the energy toward sustainable social change.
Even though some kind of bonhomie had developed between the ruling class and the ruled in their common goal of overthrowing the Rana oligarchy, the dividing line between the power elite, their local associates, and the rest of the subject population remained distinct. The Revolution of 1950 improved the situation somewhat and transformed the landed gentry into vote-seeking politicos. Other than that, there was no discernable change in social relations.
Establishment of the Janakpur Cigarette Factory (JFC) transformed the sleepy little town of pilgrims and vacationers into an industrial settlement with the dynamics of labor-manager contradictions. Generator-powered electricity, pumped-up water supply, the tiny airport and a circuitous road connection from East-West Highway to the Indian border brought stillborn industrial revolution to the region. The local college emerged as a hotbed of oppositional politics. During the long night of Panchayat authoritarianism, Janakpur kept the flame of democracy flickering, occasionally replenishing the fuel of the lamp with blood of martyrs like Durganand, Kameshwar and Kusheshwar among a host of others that embraced death for the future of their country.
Dhanusha-Mahottari paid a very heavy price for its obsession with forms of governance—government’s investment in the infrastructure remained abysmal for decades. No attempts were made to improve irrigation system of a region almost completely dependent on agriculture. JFC was emasculated with tight government control and milked mercilessly by henchmen of the regime. It failed to modernize or inspire ancillary industries. Its death became a foregone conclusion once Tobacco Development Board was allowed to die and a multinational, with its access to links and resources of all kinds, was invited to compete with a national enterprise.
Seventies was the time when Stalinists like Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoists of Chandra Prakash Gajurel variety began to discover that the soil of Mithila was fertile even for politics of extremism. They may not have succeeded in their propagandist endeavors, but their efforts did help in raising awareness and pushing popular aspirations. However, whether by design or sheer short-sightedness, communists boycotted the Referendum and became complicit in the crime of undermining the cause of democracy.
After the politics of plebiscite in 1980s, a new crop of Pancha leaders emerged that sought to sabotage the democratic movement through politics of populism. Hem Bahadur Malla, late Krishna Charan Shrestha and Sharad Singh Bhandari became the new messiahs of the masses who mocked the creamy layer of Madheshi upper class even as they sold the support of the absolute poor to the wheeler-dealers in Kathmandu for power and pelf. In post-Referendum politics of patronage, a newly-empowered class of Madhesis emerged under the leadership of entrepreneurial Pahadi protectors. Dissatisfied with the treatment meted out to them in the circles of Panchayat power, some of them would later be at the frontlines of democratic struggles in 1990s and Madhes Uprising.
Post-1990 ennui
Hopes ran high in Tarai when the Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal-1990 was being discussed. To the charge that the commission formed to formulate and frame the supreme law of the land had no Madhesis, its chief Vishwanath Upadhaya had responded that he was indeed one himself. Nobody could question his assertions. Having been born, brought up and educated in the vicinity of Jaleshwar, Justice Upadhyaya has as much claim of being a Madhesi as republican icon Ramraja Prasad Singh. In time, that assumption was to turn out a little too simplistic—at least for few generations; cultural beliefs apparently remain stronger than obligations of geographic location.
With the benefit of hindsight, it now appears that the mono-cultural doctrine inherent in the constitution of 1990 went little beyond the assimilative elite compact of 1950s and was feted to fail the moment it was promulgated. History had moved forward and restoration of multiparty democracy rhetoric lacked the dynamism to direct its journey ahead.
Similar failures of Spring Uprising in 2006 stopped it from becoming a full-throttled Rhododendron Revolution. Subsequent Constituent Assembly elections ousted the institution of monarchy, but cultural, economic and administrative anachronism of monarchical system remains intact. Revolutions are moments in history when a society breaks open shackles up its past and dons new ornaments (which too become chains after a period of time to be broken by future generations) for the journey towards an ideal world. The recent hiccups in the replacement of something as ordinary as paper currency shows that traditions have deeper roots in Nepali society than its political leaders tend to assume.
Madhes Uprising proved once again that it is more prepared for repeated revolts simply because it has almost no stake in haloed ‘Nepali traditions’ except Hindu religion. Behind the deceptive ennui in Janakpur, the restlessness is slowly becoming apparent. When barricades have to be put up again in defense of status quo, there will be no shortage of youngsters ready to break it at the very first opportunity.
Quoting philosopher Leszek Kolakowski about lessons of Poland’s transition for Arab uprisings, Carl Gershman of National Endowment of Democracy writes that there has never been a successful revolution that did not produce “massive disappointment almost at the very moment of its victory” since having “extremely inflated hopes” is “a necessary condition of success”.
Janakpur lacks many things, but hope is certainly not in short supply. Unbridled optimism seems to strangely pervade the air where almost nothing works normally. What it lacks for the present is somebody with sufficient credibility to organize and channel the energy toward sustainable social change. The Madhesi middleclass believes that leaders are bound to emerge, especially from the ranks of returnees from West Asia. Unlike professionals that have migrated to developed countries of the west for ease of life, these youngsters send remittances and bring back enthusiasm for change. They will be the change they wish to see in their land.
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