CK Lal recently noted:
“Among Peggy McIntosh’s oft-quoted 47 advantages of being White, three come to mind while talking about social harmony to mixed groups of Pahadis and Madheshis: “I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial; I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race; and I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.” [break]Even enlightened Pahadis judge a Madheshi by who he is rather than what he has to say.”
His reference to McIntosh’s 1990 article ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack’ raises an interesting question: What does ethnic privilege look like in Nepal? And how do you know if you have it?
McIntosh details her realization of the unearned, unexamined advantages she holds as a white person in America. The article has opened countless minds to a better understanding of the subtle ways privilege functions and why countering only the crassest indicators of power disparity, such as financial status or legally sanctioned mistreatment, does not erase the deep discriminations of an unequal society.
McIntosh’s article was influential because of her simple checklist of privileges: “… an invisible package of unearned assets… like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions...” She recognized these as a result of her work in women’s studies: “… I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are overpriviliged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged… Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.”
Discussions of ethnicity in Nepal in 2013 are a different beast from race relations in the United States in 1990. But McIntosh’s core point – that systemic inequities can be so entrenched and subtle as to be effectively invisible – is a valuable one here too.
In a political environment where conservative commentators are mocking federalism as having died a slow, painful and deserved death with the Constituent Assembly, and when even the federal model’s strongest supporters seem to have lost faith and momentum, the conversation has shifted disturbingly from critically examining the efficacy of these specific attempts to build a more inclusive political Nepal to a broader dismissal of the very basis of making these attempts.
Evidently federalism, or at least in the forms it was proposed, is not for Nepal, or at least not at this stage.
PHOTO: KESHAB THOKER
However, underlying the call for ethnic federal states was frustration with the longstanding elite, caste-based domination of the political, public and economic spheres in our country that is to the direct detriment of minority and indigenous ethnic (often self-identified as “janajati”) groups. This systemic domination has resulted in immense disparities in opportunity, representation and dignity between those who have traditionally wielded power and those who have had power wielded over them in Nepal. The narrative where the CA and the proposed federal models are discredited wholesale insidiously delegitimizes the argument that these disparities exist and must be addressed.
It may be opportune for those in power - not just political, but also power in civil society and media - to consider if they hold ethnic privilege, which may be allowing them to forget the pain in calls to address ethnicity issues. Examining the invisible knapsack – or maybe the invisible doko – of khas privilege may also contribute to a more nuanced debate of ethnicity issues. Here is a rudimentary list of some subtler benefits of khas privilege in Nepal:
1. I can enter any government office and be certain I will find a member of my ethnic group.
2. I can send my children to school knowing the language we speak at home will be encouraged and valued.
3. When I am told about our national history, there is ample recognition that people of my ethnic group helped shape Nepal.
4. On television or the front page of a newspaper, I can see people of my ethnicity widely represented.
5. I can be sure my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their ethnic group.
6. I can be certain my children will encounter at least one teacher who shares their ethnic background and can deal with any cultural issues that arise.
7. I can be sure my religious and cultural holidays are recognized in a workplace.
8. Speaking in an accent common to my ethnic group is not considered a sign of ignorance.
9. I can count on my ethnicity not to work against perceptions of my financial reliability.
10. I can succeed in my chosen field without being held up as proof of the progress my entire ethnic group has made.
11. I can remain oblivious to the language and customs of other ethnic groups without facing any penalty or disadvantage for doing so.
12. In the news, people of my ethnicity are routinely reported on in roles other than that of a victim.
13. I can be confident that in competing for a government job, I will not encounter individual or systemic discrimination due to my ethnicity.
14. My ethnicity does not result in difficulties obtaining paperwork to buy and sell land.
15. The traditional clothing of my ethnic group is respected as part of a living culture and not treated as a costume in popular media.
16. If I am arrested or detained, I can be sure I have not been singled out due to stereotypes about my ethnic group.
17. My last name does not immediately lead to assumptions of poverty, illiteracy or poor social standing.
18. I can find a political representative who understands and is committed to working on common issues faced by my ethnic group.
19. I can go home from most official meetings or organizations not feeling as though I was isolated, out of place, unheard or discounted.
20. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without assumptions being made about my competence (or lack thereof) based on my ethnicity.
21. If I live in an area where a high percentage of the population is of my ethnic group, I can be confident it will receive the same level of public services such as schools and hospitals as other areas.
22. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my ethnicity will not work against me.
23. I can be confident my citizenship or patriotic values will not be called into question based on my appearance and ethnicity.
If you can agree with most or all of the above statements, then congratulations! You hold ethnic privilege in Nepal. Want it or not, by virtue of your ethnicity you have a collection of benefits not available to Nepalis from ethnic minorities. Every day these benefits work in your favor and perpetuate a system where people of your ethnic background hold disproportionate power. Of course, this does not mean your life is ideal; our matrix of injustices is so vast that any number of other factors may be unfairly placing you at great disadvantage. However, these, specifically, are valuable cards that you hold.
McIntosh admits acknowledging her own white privilege was difficult, “for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy.” Unlike in McIntosh’s white America, the myth of a democratic meritocracy is a new one in Nepal, and one that only the most multiply privileged and deluded can pretend to believe in. However, the myth that we can hope to become a meritocracy without explicitly addressing ethnic inequality is widely embraced.
In our public discourse we confuse knowing what should be for what is; our history of democratic revolt has instilled deeply in our national psyche the admirable belief that ethnicity should not matter. ‘Awareness’ campaigns to eliminate ´jaatiya bhedbhav´, along with general social changes, means only the most regressive, reactionary individuals in the upper castes still think discrimination against janajatis is justified. It is an easy mental leap to believing that ethnic equality has become fact simply through knowledge of how desperately it is needed.
Being on the road is confused for having arrived. Many ethnically privileged people seem to believe that because they embrace the ‘enlightened’ view that janajatis should not be discriminated against, it is no longer an issue that they have any role in. This fallacy is deeply detrimental both to janajatis´ everyday experiences and to Nepal’s hopes of forming a more just nation; this entitled conviction among our most educated, influential and socially progressive individuals from privileged ethnic backgrounds that their personal belief that ethnic disparity, disadvantage and discrimination should not exist is license to ignore the insistent voices telling them it still does.
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