development as expansion and growth.
In Hindu mythologies, there is no record of language of Asuras, Danavs and Daityas. Collectively referred to as Rakshasas in post-Vedic literature, they probably spoke the language of the place where they lived. Rooted to the soil, Rakshasas had little need to invent too many symbolic Shabdas (words) that often conceal more than what they reveal. The power of Vak (combination of gesture, facial expression and intonations of sound) was sufficient for them to express, inform or exchange ideas. Devas were itinerant and needed to be daring and devious to survive in different surrounding. They invented a language where words are all that matter. In Sanskrit, the Shabda is Brahma (the Supreme) and the order of subject, verb and object doesn’t matter at all: There is no difference between Home go I, I go home, go home I, go I home, or whatever sequence one can think of.[break]
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The Western world believed that the uppercase God spoke only Hebrew. However, that didn’t exempt original speakers of the language from the wrath of European Devas (The religious thinkers of Britain, ‘secular’ intellectuals of France, and atheist philosophers of Germany) that condoned, if not connived, in their persecution for generations. Europeans dumped their sins of several centuries in the desert of West Asia. These days, gods of Washington pass their messages to Devas of Israel in the new language of the divine.
The Only God spoke to his Only Prophet in Arabic. Its holiness remains undiminished. South Asia is home to the largest number of adherents of that faith in the world. Sermons can be delivered in Bangla, Urdu, or Tamil. But recitations have to be in Arabic authenticated by properly initiated holy men – never women – of the dominant sect. Suffering of minorities in Pakistan, even though they don’t question the language of the divine, is unlikely to be addressed. In fact, the clergy has ordained that Ahmadiyas are not bona fide faithful and successive governments have endorsed their decision repeatedly. It is not known whether these decisions have been translated from Urdu into Arabic so that the one that know only the divine language would also understand.
These are religious legacies of the past and handed down to priests whose influence in most places is on the wane. The universal religion of the Brave New World is Avarice. The greenback is its god – the atheist Chinese worship it by carting away their hard-earned savings in trillions as do most countries in the planet – and bankers are the new priesthood. Like all divine orders, a global religion also needs a language of conversation between the Devas and the rest. The lingua franca of the religion called Avarice is hypocrisy: the new newspeak of neocons all over the world is duplicity in whatever language is being spoken at a given time and space.
Invention of interpreters
Media is the new town crier. It creates succinct words and phrases to pass religious messages to the laity. Walter Lippmann, credited to have coined the Cold War metaphor, emphasized the importance of manufacturing consent through selective disclosure of information. The free press of the free world continues to follow his commands with religious fervor.
In a petition to The New York Times, over a dozen professors and public intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky of MIT, Edward Herman of Wharton, Greg Grandin of NYU, and Steve Ellner of Columbia, pointed out recently how the leading newspaper of the “free world” had been demonizing Hugo Chávez, elected leader of Venezuela but idolizing Roberto Micheletti, installed by coup d’état in Honduras. Following in the footsteps of the business lobby and protectors of their vested interests, the venerable NYT had been calling Chávez names such as “autocrat”, “despot”, “authoritarian ruler”, “caudillo”, “dictator” and “strongman” while deserving rulers of such epithets in Honduras were let off with endearing terms like “interim”, “de facto” and “new”. Jimmy Carter, no communist agent despite the critics of Carter Center in Kathmandu, has praised the election process in Venezuela as the best in the world. The US government opposes Venezuela where as it supports the regime in Honduras and that has made all the difference in the attitude of global elite.
Equality used to be a desirable goal. On that count, Venezuela has the lowest Gini coefficient in South America. It has announced pension scheme for fulltime mothers. But in the neocon lexicon, such decisions are profligacy where as the most expensive private residence in the world erected amidst the sea of poverty in Mumbai is the temple of free enterprise. Newspeak, George Orwell describes, is “designed to diminish the range of thought.” Scholars have argued persuasively that Orwellian nightmares had as much to do with Soviets as the degeneration of governments as handmaidens of businesses in capitalist democracies. The Soviet Union has disintegrated, but the relevance of newspeak hasn’t diminished a bit even in countries other than the regimes of North Korea or Saudi Arabia, protégés of state and private capitalism respectively.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn went through hell to come up with descriptions of Stalin’s Gulag Archipelago. Nobody comes alive or unhinged from Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib or dozens of such CIA’s torture chambers dotting the globe to expose the underbelly of ‘democratic capitalism’. In fact, there is nothing called ‘democratic capitalism’. Cronyism is inherent to the idea of capitalism and it would wither away without the patronage of the state. Rewarding the rich is built into the structure of capitalism. Whatever else it may be, the government taxing the majority to subsidize the rich can hardly be called democratic.
Democracy once meant a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. However, if the people decide that they want Hugo Chavez or Pushpa Kamal Dahal, attempts must be made to topple or at least subvert elected governments. Liberalism used to be a term of admiration: To be a liberal implied one was broadminded, tolerant, considerate and open. A liberal these days is invariably a free-market fundamentalist advocating government benefaction sans regulation, opening of the market but control over movement of labor, and loot of state’s resources in the name of privatization. More often than not, liberals of the free-market variety these days are too bigoted to even listen to views other than those of their own kind.
Being a Marxist once implied universalism. In neocon newspeak embraced by Messrs Nepal, Khanal and Company of Balkhu Palace or Messrs Baidya, Gajuerl and Party recently divorced from the Paris Danda resort, not just Marxism, but Leninism and Maoism too stand for upper caste hubris, cultural chauvinism of mid-mountains, and xenophobic nationalism of Kathmandu valley. Incredible as it may sound, a Maoist-led government actually signed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA), knowing full well that such arrangement was unlikely to bring a paisa of new investment into a country already under the umbrella of the dominant trading partner.
Development is attainment of a more stable, which inter alia implies egalitarian, stage. The newspeak defines development as expansion and growth. The Asian Development Bank recently noted that inequality is good for growth. It means development is against the good of the majority, the ecology, the poor, the differently-abled, the marginalized, the externalized, the aged, the sick and the children. With Maoist sell out, who will speak for the masses? It seems their collective voice is not always lost in the debates of Doha Rounds, which Baburam Bhattarai decided was more important than his presence in conspiracy-ridden politics of Kathmandu.
Viva la Republic
If the republican order was tottering towards collapse, why the rightwing was so scared that it conspired for the dissolution of Constituent Assembly, indulged in defaming activists of self-rule and shared-rule, and then collaborated with authoritarian elements at home and abroad to have an extra-constitutional government installed in Singh Durbar? The World Bank, no agent of Maoists or Madheshi parties, seems to have a partial answer.
In 2004, A Gini Index of 47.3 made Nepal one of the most unequal countries in the world. By January, 2010, it was down to 32.82. Throughout this period, growth remained between four and five percent, which is not satisfactory for a stable country, but quite acceptable for a country mired in messy transition with revolving door governments. Yes, the blood and sweat of the poor toiling in West and South Asia has helped prevent economic collapse, but what has it got to do with freedom of the profit sector?
It seems a republican order works in ways that even its adherents find it hard to understand. If indeed there is a grand rightwing conspiracy to thwart elections, the lifeblood of democracy, people that have shunned every call of politicos so far would pour out on the streets once more. Benefits of republicanism, secularism, inclusion and federalism may be difficult to explain, but the high it gives to the lowly is impossible to miss.
Lal contributes to The Week with his biweekly column Reflections. He is one of the widely read poliitical analysts in Nepal
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