When the venerable newsmagazine The Economist held a readers’ poll to ascertain the Capital of the World (COW), New York appeared far ahead of London and Singapore. The headquarters of United Nations may have had something do with the choice. That, however, is only part of the story. The Big Apple has emerged as the information hub of the world. In contemporary economy, information is the power that propels engines of communication, entertainment and financial industries. The Chinese know it and have begun to invest in a big way in the city that never sleeps. Rumor in the COW town has it that the Chinese have bought several floors of the World Trade Centre.
Indians too are to be seen almost everywhere. The abbreviation IT has come to mean an Indian Techie. That is not to say that there are no Pakistanis or Nepalis in the field. However, even they seem to rather like being mistaken for the better known South Asians. After all, few Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepalis or Sri Lankan are confused for the Chinese.[break]
With the exception of Arabs—Boston blasts have done no good to the image battered irreparably in the wake of 9/11—everybody feels at ease in the COW town. Europeans find New York most agreeable among all cities in the US. The same perhaps could be said of East Asians, Africans, Caribbeans, and South Americans. This is not a city where one can dig deep roots; perhaps it can never be home to anybody. That’s precisely the reason people work insane hours. Homes are for relationships. At the work place, well, one works.
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The New York Nepali community, said to be the biggest in the US, is less visible than in smaller towns. Obsessed with politics, they fail to interest ambitious professionals trying to climb the slippery pole of success. A young IT professional confessed that attending one community meeting was enough to depress him for the whole week. “They can’t speak two straight sentences without condemning Indians. I work with them and find them competent and compassionate. Why should I worry about Kalapani and Susta here in New York? Let folks back home sort out these issues.”
The IT professional enamored with his Indian colleagues has a point. Whether it’s Susta, Kalapani, extra-constitutional government or vile politicos, those struggling in Nepal are better placed to face such challenges than the word-warriors pouring outrage at visiting Nepalis. Indignant posts in the Cyberia helps release some of the guilt that ‘nationalist’ Nepalis are acculturated to feel for having deserted their motherland. However, that too is entirely unnecessary: In the modern world, stamp on the passport is increasingly a choice rather than destiny. Nepali-Americans can do their ancestral land proud by becoming better Americans, just as Gorkhalis in Assam, West Bengal and Sikkim have learnt to be Indians in heart and spirit.
The sky neighbor
Putting India and the US in the same sentence might appear anomalous at first glance, but Americans are close neighbors of every country on the planet. That cancels out the characterization of Nepal as yam between two boulders: The boulder hanging from the sky is more powerful than the two on the ground put together. While it is true that Americans have almost always backed Indian position in Nepal, reconciliation between Beijing and New Delhi may prompt the US to better coordinate its Nepal policies with Europeans and Japan—the two other sky neighbors of the land-locked country.
The first US ambassador to Nepal Henry Stebbins stated goals of its foreign policy in no uncertain term. He had declared, somewhat grandly, that Nepal fell within US “Defense Perimeter” requiring protection against communism. The failure of US policy has been its success: It can intensify its engagement under the pretext that the “Defense Perimeter” needs better policing.
European interests in Nepal are less overt. That could be the reason Hindu fundamentalists allege that proselytization is the main purpose of European missions. However, it can be safely assumed that they are not for any form of communist regime in Nepal. The power and prosperity of Europe have come through free trade. Democracy, human rights and impunity are good instruments to keep the state enfeebled even as the market is unleashed to go on rampage. They may not say it in so many words, but most Europeans seem convinced that Nepal is too poor to afford social welfare measures and must pass through anarchic capitalism to establish market forces with an abiding interest in the stability of the system.
Befitting its status as preeminent power in the world, the US has cultivated widespread contacts in Nepal’s PEON corridors. In any case, the future of power elite in Nepal—political princes, inheritors of bureaucrats’ ill-gotten fortunes, and bright progenies of established professional—have all chosen to live and work in the New World. It is widely believed that many of them hold two passports but unless the drive to legalize their status succeeds, few are likely to own it up. The US lobby in Nepal has become so well-entrenched that now it works almost voluntarily.
Over last two decades, Europeans have made huge investments in the most flourishing of all Nepali industries: The NGO sector. It employs almost the entire English-speaking middleclass of Nepal. Many of them have begun to mature and make investments in banking, insurance and trading. The combined weight of Europe and the US, however, doesn’t match the penetration of Indian minders in Nepal. The Nehruvian doctrine of Himalayas as frontiers of Indian mainland continues to dictate policies of Nepal’s more prominent land neighbor.
What do the Chinese really want from Nepal? This question has never truly been answered. The four Ts—Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen Square and Trade—are aimed more towards the West. Emptying of Tibetans from Tibet appears to be helping Beijing colonize the water source of Asia by repopulating the place with Han Chinese.
Dragon’s breath
Mahendra tried to woo the Chinese, risking American ire and Indian displeasure. Americans had to be later placated with the complicity of Nepal in Khampa misadventures. Indians extracted their price by making Mahendra acquiesce to the occupation of Kalapani. Birendra banked upon the Chinese to extricate him out of Rajiv Gandhi’s aggressive South Asian policies. It badly backfired. Gyanendra did the Chinese bidding at SAARC only to discover that empires are under no obligation to return every favor of hard-pressed minor sovereigns. It may not have been apparent during the Cold War, but BP Koirala’s dalliance with Beijing probably alienated him from both the US and Soviet camps.
After Pushpa Kamal Dahal, every important politico from Sushil Koirala to Jhalnath Khanal to Bijaya Gachhedar is slated to visit Beijing. China probably keeps India informed of its interactions with Nepali interlocutors. Americans, however, have to depend upon Indian guarantees for the ‘good behavior’ of Nepal’s fickle political class.
Balancing interests of the US, Europe, China and India in the coming days is going to be the key challenge to peace and stability in Nepal. It is easy to say that if the country is united, no force can play spoil-sport. The elusive unity, however, is unlikely to be free of pushes and pulls of geopolitics. Nepal’s Bahun Communists—Messrs Dahal, Khanal & Co.—would do well to recognize limitations of their tripartite formulation and realize that sky neighbors are realities of the globalized world.
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