In the famous formulation of historian Eric Hobsbawm, the short 20th century began with the First World War and ended with the fall of Soviet Union. Even a “short century” is a long period for human memory. Triumph of libertarianism and ceaseless trumpeting of dangers of terrorism have eclipsed the era of constant warfare when countries fought fiercely against each other in the name of ideologies that varied from Nazism and fascism to colonialism and communism. Since god is most often on the side of bigger battalions and craftier schemers with deeper coffers, the West decisively won the long-drawn Cold War of otherwise short century.
Free-market fundamentalism, libertarian orthodoxy or majoritarian theories of democratic politics have not succeeded in filling the vacuum created by the fall of the Soviet dream. The so-called Chinese Model holds little appeal for multi-national societies. Consequently, ideologies have become the bugbear of ambitious politicos. The old saw “Let fools contest over forms of government” is back in fashion with even more emphasis being placed upon “whatever is best administered is best”. Indicating the zeitgeist, David Cameron—one of the youngest Prime Ministers in British history—had written soon after becoming the Tory leader: “I don’t believe in ‘isms’. Words like communism, socialism, capitalism and republicanism all conjure up one image in my mind: extremism.” [break]
Janakpur Terminal under construction.
For someone educated at Eton and Oxford and presiding over the legacy of a former imperial power, it is quite easy to dismiss all ‘isms’ and celebrate the singularity of individualism. However, when people have gory memories of brutal oppression rather than hoary histories of democratic traditions, ideologies offer tantalizing glimpses of redemption. While it is true that political entrepreneurs often manipulate the gullibility of masses for their own advancement, the power of ideologies to fire the imagination of the oppressed is impossible to ignore. The question then is not that of the end or the beginning of ideologies but the constant invention of grand narratives.
Control outposts
During the Ranarchy, cousins and courtiers of the ruling family were banished from Kathmandu to Tarai-Madhesh where they would grow fabulously rich by clearing the forest, exporting timber, contracting colonized land for cultivation and terrorizing the peasantry. In land records of Mahottari, the name Bahadurgunj is as common as Mahendranagar, Ratnanagar and Birendranagar would later become in the second wave of extensive deforestation, colonization and exploitation of the 1960s. Thereafter, tensions between inhabitants and settlers made Tarai-Madhesh politically fissile. That is when the best and brightest of Shah loyalists such as Damodar Shamsher, Lila Raj Bishta, and Ram Chandra Bahadur Singh were appointed as Anchaladhishes to manage the population of the region. They based themselves in border towns in the plains even though their realm would often extend to the Himalayas.
Among settlements along Nepal-India border, Biratnagar lives up to its name and still harbors grand (Birat) ambitions of becoming the industrial hub of the country. Unfortunately, landlocked countries, that too without raw material, skilled manpower and uninterrupted power supply, are difficult to industrialize. The mismatch between ambitions and realties has created the preponderance of lumpen bourgeoisie in the town. From Dil Bahadur Shrestha to Parushram Basnet, the continuity in the rise of a certain kind of political animal has been an inalienable feature of local politics. The PEON finds them immensely useful in countering whatever it perceives to be the main challenge to its hegemony.
Birgunj is primarily a trading town with no concern other than maximization of profits irrespective of its social, cultural or political costs. The sheer volume of transaction is so big that the town has always found it lucrative to feed off the insatiable greed of the capital city. Loaded trucks with goods from India and abroad have to pass through the town to join the long queue to Kathmandu. Conformist politics is the natural outcome of the character of the settlement.
Bhairahawa has repeatedly failed to register its presence on the national scene. Before the commercialization of Buddhist pilgrimage to Lumbini, the town had little distinction to differentiate itself from other bazaars across the border. Due to fears of lawlessness and banditry, traders would often close shop every evening and cross over to the Indian side for safety. Madheshis had little voice in the town until the Madhesh Uprisings of 2006 and 2007 and most had chosen to accept secondary position in the social hierarchy.
Nepalgunj remained more or less a colonial outpost of Gorkhali Empire. Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. Exceptions apart, most Madheshis of Awadh-Tharuhat have not been able to shake off shackles of psychological slavery. Despite being in Tarai-Madhesh, Nepalgunj is yet to claim a Madheshi identity with Muslims and Tharus still chasing the dream of being sanctified as ‘authentic Nepalis’ by the PEON intelligentsia.
Among all major towns of Tarai-Madhesh, Janakpur is the only place that retained a modicum of its dignity even during the darkest days of Panchayat authoritarianism. It’s not so close to the border that shopkeepers would close shutters and cross over to the other side for safety. Illicit trade is high-risk and low-return gamble for the same reason. However, its historic role as a religious center gives it confidence to assert itself irrespective of material deprivation.
It is more by default than design that Janakpur acquired its status as the cradle of Madheshbad. With most other Tarai-Madhesh towns in the grips of eclipsed ideologies, the responsibility of reconciling monarchism without the monarch and Maoism sans Mao has fallen upon a town battered by decades of willful neglect of the center of politics in the distant capital.
Cradle of revolutions
Closure of Janakpur Cigarette Factory, once the largest taxpayer in the country, brings an end to the Nehruvian era of political economy in Nepal. Its main proponent was a close aide of BP Koirala. Ram Narayan Mishra, a scion of landed gentry of Pipra, believed in creating “temples of modernity” throughout Tarai-Madhesh. Mahendra Narayan Nidhi of Nagarayan remained a committed Gandhian throughout his life and refused to take up guns despite the call of Nepali Congress to go for the armed revolution in the mid-sixties.
Saroj Koirala was fascinated by Che Guevara and fell to the bullets of conspiratorial assassins in a comparable manner. Durgananda Jha was first Brahmin to get a capital punishment and Laxmi Narayan Jha became the most illustrious case of ‘forcibly disappeared’—whereabouts still unknown—person in the country. During the Maoist insurgency, more Maithils bore the brunt of state oppression than any other Madheshis except the Tharus of Bardia-Kailali region.
There never was any expectation from the UML or the Maoists. Madheshis joined communist parties knowing fully well that they could never ever aspire for leadership position. Plurality and communism do not go together. Inherent inability of communists in managing cultural diversity ended up in the disintegration of Soviet Union where nearly a century of ruthless assimilation failed to dampen aspirations for the dignity of identity. From Nepali Congress, however, Madheshis had high hopes. It turned out to be just that in the wake of 1990s when free-market fundamentalists hijacked gains of democracy, which then stuck to the Panchayat model of nationality to exercise complete control over society and polity.
Janakapur appears dilapidated because it is dispirited. The town is in search of a personality befitting its radical character. Invention of Madheshbad could probably fill the vacuum left by the death of democratic socialism. Components of cultural (celebration of religious, linguistic and community diversities), economic (emphasis upon ecologically sound livelihood), social (creation of coexistence, cooperation and egalitarian policies), and political (establishment of federalism, decentralization, inclusion and empowerment programs) realms of political economy are still in nascent stage. Situation on the ground in the citadel of rebels however indicates that the transition is going to be messier and longer than most ‘opinionators’ of the capital city perceive.
Fermentation of a political ideology is a nauseating process. Little wonder, it is an ordeal to endure any conversation these days in cradle of revolutionaries.
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