For those of us who grew up learning and believing with certitude that Lord Buddha was born in Nepal, News 24’s record-breaking television program “Lord Buddha was Born in Nepal” last week was but a retelling of a historical fact. It is globally accepted that Buddha was born in Nepal. UNESCO has recognized Lumbini as one of the world heritage sites and the birthplace of Lord Buddha. So was such publicity necessary? I believe given the proliferation of propaganda on Buddha’s India birth, such an effort to reinforce the truth was long overdue. The historical fact about Buddha’s birthplace has been distorted and falsified, by design or default, by writers, intellectuals, filmmakers and textbook publishers—especially those based in India. Here is an overview of this intellectual dishonesty.
Some of the all-time bestselling books in the world support this falsity: Jawaharlal Nehru’s Glimpses of World History (1934), Charles Van Doren’s History of Knowledge (1991) and Fareed Zakaria’s Post-American World (2008) are perhaps the most-notable examples. All three claim that Buddha was born in India. It seems the Indian establishment is bent on proving it through every means possible. Peter J Karthak, an eminent writer and senior copy editor at Republica, shared with me what may sound like a strange anecdote. Karthak was working with the Bangkok-based newspaper The Nation sometime during the late 80s. He wrote a story about Lumbini stating that Buddha was born in Nepal. When the story was published then Indian ambassador to Thailand telephoned the editor to mildly reprimand him: “You should not have published that story.” The editor clarified that it was a historical fact. The envoy insisted “Still, you should not have published that story.”
AFP
Children in India are taught that Buddha was born in India. Some private schools in Nepal do the same. DAV School of Lalitpur was in news last month for using textbooks which mentioned that Lord Buddha was born in India and that Mt. Everest is located in India as well. Nikhil Advani’s Bollywood blockbuster Chandani Chowk to China reiterates the same claim (the movie caused quite a stir in Kathmandu in January 2009). As if all this were not enough, India has established a fake Lumbini and Tilaurakot in Aligadhawa, in Siddharthanagar district of Uttar Pradesh which abuts Kapilbastu. To add credence to this false premise, India has rechristened Piparhawa of that region as Kapilbastu. The fake Lumbini, say Indian news reports, receives a hoard of Buddhist pilgrims who go there to witness Buddha’s birth place.
Such misrepresentation, misreporting and falsification of truth is a crime. In post-colonial literary discourse it is known as what Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak calls “epistemic violence”—that is violence on knowledge, truth and reality. So how should Nepal respond?
There are many schools of thought. According to one, we need not fuss over Indian propaganda about Buddha’s birthplace, because 2558 years ago when Siddhartha Guatama was born, there did not exist the present-day Nepal. The present day Kapilbastu, Tilaurakot and Nepal as a whole, so goes the argument, was part of the Indian subcontinent. After all, Nepal of mythology and ancient history was Kathmandu Valley, Kapilbastu was not a part of it. Therefore to react to such a claim is to display intellectual immaturity. The second view holds that Buddha’s birth in Nepal is a historical accident, and as such nothing to take pride in.
If there is one thing that still unites Nepalis even in these divisive times, it is our rich culture and civilization.
Both these schools of thoughts are dangerous and need to be tackled head-on. The propaganda claims and books mentioned above came out long after Nepal’s present-day geographical boundaries had been settled following the 1816 Sugauli Treaty. So Lumbini has been a part of Nepal for at least the last 200 years. Granted that Nepal was part of the Indian subcontinent 2,558 years ago, but even then the subcontinent was known as Bharat Barsha, not India. Besides, the strongest evidence of Lumibini as Buddha’s birthplace is the Ashoka pillar. What can legitimately be claimed is that although Buddha was born in Lumbini, which was formerly a part of Bharat Barsha and falls in present-day Nepal, he achieved enlightenment in Gaya which is in present day India. But to claim that Buddha was born in India would be as big an intellectual dishonesty as claiming that Christ was born in Iraq, formerly a part of the great Mesopotamian Empire, not in Bethlehem. Imagine the stir it would cause if someone were to distort this historical fact. If India still wishes to stick to “born in India” claim, it will have to disown the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka who authenticated Lumbini as Buddha’s birthplace, and whose chakra (Ashoka chakra) is used as an emblem in the Indian national flag.
It is not for these historic reasons alone that we need to reaffirm the truth about Buddha’s birthplace. We are living through one of the most troubled periods in the country’s history. Our politics is in disarray, economy in ruins, and foreign intervention at an all-time high. In this climate of flux, cases of border encroachment by India are on the rise. If there is anything that all Nepalis can still take pride in, it is our rich cultural and civilization legacy, which still has the potential to unite us even in these divisive times. Hence it is our responsibility to protect this glory by telling the world loud and clear that Buddha was born in Nepal. Silence could be suicidal.
We need to talk and fight the propagandists by disseminating more information about Buddha’s Nepali origin. We can do so by getting responsible officials from the Indian establishment to acknowledge the historical fact. When Rajiv Gandhi visited Nepal in the capacity of India’s prime minister in the late 80s, he affirmed Nepal’s claim to being the Buddha’s birthplace (a fact revealed during the marathon talk show). Indian ambassador to Nepal, Jayant Prasad, himself admitted in the show that Buddha was born in Nepal. Our next attempt should be directed at making the writers and publishers of books with false claim on Buddha’s birthplace correct their mistakes.
At a personal level, Rabi Lamichhane, the presenter of the talk show, may have won a Guinness World Records certificate for breaking the record for the longest TV talk show. But through his personal initiative he has also shown how propagandists can be deterred from further falsifying historical facts about the Light of Asia.
mbpoudyal@yahoo.com
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