What is that Dalits of modern Nepal want from their State?

Dr. D. P. Rasali

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Dalits of Nepal want a strong political will of their State to systematically eradicate the social evil that has made one-sixth of the country’s population suffer the exclusion from the mainstream society even in the 21st century.
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When the Nepaldalitinfo [1], an international information network for Nepali Dalits, was initiated a little more than two years ago, a few of Nepali Dalit intellectuals who were in initial contacts exchanged their views through emails on the whole gamut of Dalit issues. What came out strongly from them then was that the State of Nepal has been the key player in sustaining caste based discrimination and practice of untouchability in the Hindu dominated society in the country. From the time immemorial until towards the end of 20th century, the State had been busy guiding its policy based on Hindu mythological stories about maintaining high and low strata of different segments of the society in the name of nurturing Hindu culture and traditions. Until the time when the country re-established its parliamentary democracy through the popular movement followed by framing of democratic constitution that confirmed people’s sovereignty under a parliamentary democracy with the constitutional monarchial set up in 1990, there was no deliberate attempt by the State to address any concerns of injustices of caste discrimination and untouchability meted out by the State and the society to a significant segment of the society comprising more than 15% of the country’s total population. Up until today, the people who are now known as Dalits have been taken for granted to remain in the lowest stratum of the society for centuries, only to be socio-economically exploited, politically excluded and religiously humiliated. Despite their whole lives spent on hard work at arduously laborious and menial occupations sincerely serving the society, the living conditions of their lot has remained wretched throughout the history of modern Nepal, let alone forget the well deserved dignity of their labor.

A group of Dalit activists received an audience of the King of Nepal recently in a remote far western district of Nepal during the Royal visit supposedly to oversee the living conditions of the people under his direct rule. The activists appealed to the King to do something concrete under his direct rule to dismantle inhumane system of caste discrimination and untouchability in the Hindu society. The King in his response was reported as saying, “It is a social tradition; there exists a social law as well. So, it cannot go away at once. It will go away gradually” [1]. This was clearly an expression of the State’s apathy towards the concerns of Dalits, who deserve resolute policy and a vibrant mechanism to achieve and protect their rights to live with dignity in an egalitarian society at least from this 21st century onwards. On the other hand, the country’s 1990 constitution as the fundamental law of the land has guaranteed, in spirit, the fundamental human rights and dignity to Dalits. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent international conventions, of which Nepal is a signatory party, reassure the position of Dalits of Nepal deserving their basic rights established and protected. The Supreme Court of the country under 1990’s constitution has reaffirmed, time and again, the State’s position to go against practice of untouchability branding it a punishable crime. Though not sufficient enough, there exist today some law that can protect, to certain extent, the fundamental rights of Dalit people in Nepal. Unfortunately, the people in the ranks and files of the state machinery who are responsible to implement the law do themselves practice this age-old social evil as their traditional practices [2] , and their commitment to implement the existing law against this practice has still been a thing of day dreamers. In addition, there still exists substantial ambiguity in the legal provisions made against the practice of untouchability and caste based discrimination due to lack of strong political will to make tough laws abolishing the age-old social evil to protect the vulnerable people from it. Fundamentally, the State has still the machinery in place, which much like under any feudal rule of the medieval era, endeavors to divide the society in many fragments and rule the divided.

Dalit movement

The movement of oppressed people in Nepal against caste discrimination and untouchability meted out to them by the State and Hindu dominated society was formally started in 1940s. It is not my intention here to describe the historical development of Dalit movement in Nepal, but to outline the contemporary situation, in brief, in order to project a perspective of looking forward based on the present prevailing conditions of Dalits in the country. The readers who are interested in knowing the historical development of Dalit movement in Nepal are advised to refer a recently released book, “The Nepali Dalit Social Movement” by Yam Bahadur Nepali [2]. Despite early start of the Dalit movement in Nepal, following the line of corresponding Indian movement led by Dalit Messiah Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, it could not gain any momentum until the beginning of the last one decade. The reasons could be many; but the main ones, in my view, were as follows:

1) The State’s policy declaring itself as a Hindu Kingdom remained a hurdle on the way to creation of a modern secular society, in which all people of any race, caste, creed or color could have a respectable and dignified place;

2) There was a dearth of critical mass of conscious and educated Dalits who could lead a vibrant movement towards the right direction to force the social change against caste discrimination and untouchability;

3) There was total absence of any influential non-Dalit intellectuals or leaders, who could voice vehemently from the core of their conscience for Dalit rights even when Dalits themselves could not come forward with their rightful stance; and

4) There was absolutely no political will of any democratic political parties to understand the depth and breadth of oppression and exclusion of Dalits from the mainstream society.

Up until 1990, there had been a number of organized groups of Dalits active in their movement, but their effectiveness was dubious due to lack of resources they would need to spearhead the movement to a right direction for social change. With the exception of a few, most organizations were dependent upon the financial aid by the very apathetic Government, which considered the Dalit movement a non-starter as an agent of social change. Before 1990, the government had always ensured that there was someone from Dalit communities nominated to National Assembly under Panchayat system of governance to serve as a show-piece such that any question raised on non- representation of Dalits was proven void. Later in 1990s, most Dalit movement organizations got affiliated with one or other political parties, most of which did not originally have Dalit rights in their primary agenda (this is with the exception of one political party which has chosen not to play direct role in the mainstream politics of the country, but to remain rebellious aiming at bringing about a total change of its ideological kind). However, in the more recent time, this situation is apparently changing in favor of Dalits.

It was not until early 1990s that even the press could carry any in-depth news story of socio-economic exploitation, political exclusion and atrocities of untouchability meted out to Dalits in their everyday life throughout the nook and corner of the country. Thanks to interests of some international donors, non-governmental sector came in the fore-front of Dalit movement lately, thereby bringing tremendous achievements in Dalit movement. These achievements made largely through the active engagements of Dalit Non-Governmental organizations have been discernible in creating general awareness, bringing atrocities of caste discrimination and untouchability to the light through press or other prints, and denouncing them publicly, creating local organizations and activating them, creating solidarity among the victims of untouchability, supporting the helpless Dalits in the rural areas with income generating activities, and the like. As a result, Dalits are now recognized nationally as well as internationally as one of the most neglected, exploited, excluded and disadvantaged segments of country’s population. It is encouraging fact that in the more recent time, the caste discrimination and untouchability in Nepal have been recognized as the core part of human rights problems as well as one of the underlying causes of currently ongoing armed conflicts dogging the country, not only by the international human rights body like UN Human Rights Commission, to which Nepal has a commitment to concur with, but also by the powerful foreign governments such as European Commission and the United States, which have the ability to put significant pressure on Nepal’s government for a just social change in order to achieve what United States considers the “non-negotiable demands of human dignity” [3].

Demand for an explicit state apology

In order to move forward from the present status quo of Dalits towards the path of creating their rightful and just position in an egalitarian society, they must work out their efforts to liberate themselves. However, their State, if responsible enough to their cause, has a definite role to play, especially when they want the needed change from their prevailing conditions for their freedom by peaceful means, catching up with the the 21st century’s contemporary world they live in. If the State cannot cooperate with Dalits in their spirits and aspirations, the course of Dalits achieving their freedom from the socio-economic exploitation, political exclusion, and cultural and religious humiliation unjustifiably burdened upon them for centuries will be more arduous. It is a known fact that fighting to root-out a long standing evil of the society such as untouchability is not an easy task, but it is not impossible if the state has a political will to do so, and has a mechanism in place to follow the course of that will. Dalits of Nepal want a strong political will of their State to systematically eradicate the social evil that has made one-sixth of the country’s population suffer the exclusion from the mainstream society even in this 21st century. Where does this ‘political will’ actually begin?

Although Nepal, being a State signatory of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has officially committed to eradication of all forms of discrimination based on race, caste, color, creed or gender, the State’s political will to root-out caste discrimination and untouchability in the country has not been anywhere in the sight to date. While no one has ever heard any specific statement made by the Head of the State against rampant social equalities based on caste discrimination in Nepal, the State’s political will for abolishing the social evil of caste discrimination and untouchability must begin from an explicit expression of an apology by the King of Nepal on behalf of the State as well himself as the Head of the State, making a vow to initiate the right thing of warding off prevailing injustices and inequalities meted out particularly to most disadvantaged Dalits. This apologetic vow shall prove to be a way out for establishing full Dalit rights in the country. It is important that the King of modern Nepal regrets for the historical past, and expresses an explicit apology for the State’s injustices meted out to Dalits of Nepal especially since 1854 when the State through promulgation of a Civil Penal Code (Muluki Ain) discriminated people by caste and legalized untouchability in the country. Because, the structure and functioning of Nepali society and societal culture are largely based on traditional Hindu values of Nepali kind even today, and the King of Nepal still commands the highest position as a protector of these values. If the protector of these values himself can declare the truth that some of the practices based on these values, particularly caste discrimination and untouchability, have been indeed proven to be acts against humanity, and therefore, must be abandoned from the society, all the followers of these values shall have no ground to continue these values as worth practicing from that point forward, and shall be forced to change their traditional mindset. On the other hand, if the King of Nepal continues to regard the caste discrimination and untouchability as the practices born out of traditional Hindu values that are subject to change with time requiring no intervention from the State, then, the Hindu people of so-called high castes at large shall continue to have their pride on practicing these traditional values that are indeed a horrific blemish on the Hindu society handed down from the past. This, however, contradicts with the fact that most of the Hindu religious leaders and scholars in India have disowned and discarded the discriminatory practices from Hindu values, rather branding them as means orchestrated by Hindu feudal lords to divide and rule for their self-interests in the past. Considering that there can be no practice uglier than the caste system, the one that continues to oppress a huge chunk of population [4], it is a genuine demand that Dalits of Nepal want a State’s apology in explicit terms for the long standing injustices and inhumane treatment meted out to them by the Kingdom of Nepal.

The apologetic vow of the Head of the State shall also pave the way for the State machinery (which must be, of course, run by the legitimate representatives of the sovereign people of Nepal) to make all the necessary legislations to compensate Dalit population for their sufferings from the injustices and inequalities meted out to them, through an elaborate “reservation” policy.

The author is the founder of nepaldalitinfo and can be reached at: dpr@nepaldalitinfo.20m.com.