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A couple of weeks after giving birth to my first child, I took my first trip outside home. It turned into an emotional disaster. I kept thinking about her – was she crying? hungry? sad? – even though she was with her grandmother, who frankly takes better care of her than I do. My first bout of separation anxiety made me appreciate my mother and all the mothers in the world for all they accomplish each day.
When I heard about the recent series of violent protests in Nepal, the kind of disturbance this is creating reminded me of separation anxiety. A number of ethnic minority groups have been agitating, demanding preference in public-sector jobs, more cultural rights, and even a separate autonomous region.
The government led by the Maoists, however, is treading carefully around this issue. The nation’s establishment – comprised of the elite based in Kathmandu – is equally anxious, fearing the loss of privileges they have enjoyed for centuries based on their majority status.
Nepal, I believe, is actually ready for this kind of separation. Those in power are anxious – like a mother who doesn’t want her children to leave her – but in fact, it is for their own good.
For centuries Nepal was run by a few rich and powerful families from the majority ethnic and religious group. Minorities were forced to live a life of quite desperation. Their languages and cultures were ignored, often forcing them to accept the majority’s heritage as their own.
It is normal to be influenced by your neighbors or “others,” but it is an injustice when you are forced to follow the majority. Nepal’s minorities have been victims of cultural, linguistic and religious injustice.
A federal Nepal with autonomous states would be the best solution to overcome the long period of Kathmandu’s myopic rule. Unfortunately, the majority and a handful of foreign “experts” on Nepal are polluting the debate over how to establish a federal structure in Nepal, with cheap shots and severely misinformed views.
David Seddon, a self-professed Marxist and principal of South London College, said in a recent interview with the Kathmandu newspaper Kantipur that “federalism is a big mistake” for Nepal. He also remarked that federalism “is not necessary in fact to defend the interests of majorities or the interests of minorities, whether women, or Dalit or Janajatis – that can be done in other ways. The idea of a federation of broadly ethnic and caste-based autonomous regions seems to me to be enormously problematic. “
I don’t know what makes Seddon think that allowing Nepal’s minorities the right to self-government and self-determination is going to ruin the country. For generations they were oppressed and now they want to assert themselves. Why stop them?
It is true that dividing the country along ethnic lines could seriously hurt national unity and communal harmony in areas with mixed populations, but what good is national unity when the nation cannot treat all its citizens fairly? What is more important – unity or prosperity and equality?
Experts like Seddon are engaging in a very dangerous exercise by suggesting that what Nepalese want for their country is not good enough, that they are not capable of thinking for themselves and need a foreign expert to explain. Frankly speaking, all such “experts” who want Nepal to stay the way it is and ignore years of injustice should find another hobby.
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(Bhumika Ghimire is a freelance reporter. Her articles have been published at OhMyNews, NepalNews, Toward Freedom, Telegraph Nepal, Himal South Asian and ACM Ubiquity. She is also a regular contributor to News Front Weekly, in Kathmandu, and Nepal Abroad, in Washington D.C. She can be reached at bhumika_g@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Bhumika Ghimire.)
