A many as 160 candidates of Nepal’s Constitutent Assembly election scheduled for April 10 are from Dalit communities. This is the first time in the political history of Nepal that over hundred Dalit candidates are contesting in the national general election.
The chart below shows the political parties fielding two or more candidates from Dalit candidates in the general elections for Constituent Assembly scheduled for April 10 in Nepal.
Political parties fielding two or more Dalit Candidates in April 10 CA elections
Dalit Janajati Party has fielded the largest number (30) of candidates from Dalit communities, followed by Jana Morcha Nepal and CPN (Maoists) with 20 and 13 Dalit candidates, respectively. Other political parties with three or more Dalit candidates are Rastriya Janamorch (10), CPN (Unified) (8), Rastriya Janashakti Party (8), CPN (ML) (6), Socialist Democratic Party, Nepal (5), Nepal Peasants & Workers Party (4), CPN (Unified Marxist)(3) and NSP (Anandadevi) (3). The chart also shows five political parties including CPN (UML), one of the largest parties, which have fielded two Dalit candidates each.
Nepali Congress, one of the largest party has fielded only one Dalit candidate, while other smaller parties fielding one Dalit candidate each are Socialist Party, Nepal, Peace Party Nepal, Nepali Janta Dal, Nepali Congress, Nepal Sukumbasi Party (Democratic), Nepal Rastriya Janakalyan Party, Nepal Janata Party, Nepal Dalit Sramik Morcha, National Democratic Party, Nepal, National Democratic Party, League Nepal Shanti Ekta Party, Jana Mukti PartyNepal, Hindu Democratic Party and Dalit Liberation Party.
There are 25 independent Dalit candidates contesting in the CA elections.
The list of Dalit candidates, with their age, gender and party affiliations in Nepali is given in the link below.
The list and analysis of Dalit candidates were prepared based on the data extracted from ekantipur.com, and are intended for having an general indication of Dalit representation in the CA elections. The results of analysis presented here are not official data and are not completely reliable. The basis of determining any candidate as a Dalit candidate was her or his surname that might have sounded like a known surname from Dalit communities.
Binda Sunar, a Heifer Nepal’s project participant received National WiLD (Women in Livestock Development) Award. Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Government of Nepal Mr. Chhabilal Bishwakarma presented the award over a ceremony organized in Kathmandu to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the organization on October last year.
“The wound caused by gender and caste discrimination was healed by the Cornerstones medicine,” Binda said while recounting her own experience of fighting prejudice.
In a strictly [Hindu feudal] orthodox society like ours, who would have imagined that a poor Dalit [oppressed] woman like Binda Sunar can emerge as a leader of the entire community? In fact, Binda herself had never thought that she could overcome the hurdles of stigma and discrimination and be able to climb the ladder of social order. Today, as the vice-president of a local NGO, Women for Change, Binda (National WiLD award winner) works to bring the same light of transformation to the lives of numerous other women. Her life is a story of a survivor who surpassed all odds and stood victorious in the grim battle against segregation and deprivation. In a communal feast organized by the Women’s group, Binda could not hold back her tears as she saw people enjoy the food she served. “That was the happiest moment in all my life,” she remarked. She has not forgotten the old days when she was not even allowed to touch the village tap in fear of polluting the high castes of the village. Exploitation, humiliation and ridicule that come with being a Dalit woman in Nepal are still fresh in her mind. Seeing the change in the villagers’ attitude towards her and other Dalit families, she feels all her life’s struggle and hardship have been rewarded.
All these changes have not come easy, however. Underlying them is Binda’s own experience of self transformation over the years of working with Heifer. The various trainings and aids that Binda received from Heifer not only helped her in improving her economic condition but also in developing her confidence and self esteem. Cornerstones training brought a dramatic change in her life. “The wound caused by gender and caste discrimination was healed by the Cornerstones medicine,” Binda said while recounting her own experience of fighting prejudice.
Binda Sunar holding her goat she raised
with Heifer’s assistance.
Her economic empowerment is also nothing short of remarkable. A few years ago Binda didn’t have money to buy food for family let alone send her children to school. Today she is a successful farmer earning enough to provide her family with proper health, nutrition, education and improved living standards. She is also an avid community worker who believes in sharing the knowledge and experience she has gained. With her own troubles ended, Binda has moved her attention to the betterment of the community. Her leadership skills and untiring dedication towards the community has made her the community’s undisputed leader. She envisions establishing a Goat Resource Center and providing education to the Dalit children in the village. Binda’s success is a matter of pride for her husband who used to mistreat her. He regrets his past behavior and today Binda and her husband work hand in hand to help other families bring positive changes in their lives. Binda’s success is not limited to herself. Her life is a constant reminder of how an empowered woman can lead her family and the entire community towards the goal of self reliance and sustainability.
Notes:
[1] This article has been edited for appropriateness of the material for nepaldalitinfo.
[2] The WiLD (Women in Livestock Development) is a program of Heifer International.
[3] Heifer International’s Cornerstones are explained in its website www.heifer.org.np
Posted under Focus on Saturday 29 March 2008 at 8:53 pm
THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
UN Secretary-General’s Message:
New York, 21 March 2008
By proclaiming March 21st as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the General Assembly urged action to honour of the memory of the scores of peaceful protestors who were massacred on this day in 1960 in the South African township of Sharpeville as they demonstrated against the racist apartheid “pass laws.”
There has been significant progress since then, not least through the dismantling of the apartheid system. But racism continues to plague too many individuals, communities and societies the world over.
This year, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination offers an opportunity to address the problem globally as we prepare for the 2009 review of actions taken since the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance adopted its Declaration and Programme of Action in 2001.
Racial discrimination is a concern to all peoples and countries. This review process is an opportunity to engage in an inclusive and transparent manner on an issue that demands our urgent and close attention.
I call on all countries and civil society to make constructive use of the time between now and the formal Review process to work out their
differences so that we can seize this opening to boost our collective efforts to stamp out racism. This issue is too important; we cannot fail.
Preparations for the conference will coincide with our observance this year of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights, which starts by affirming the equality of all people and calling for all to “act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ” Not only Governments but also communities and individuals bear solemn responsibility for realizing this goal.
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination serves to spotlight our collectively responsibility to end racism. By acting on the ideals of the Universal Declaration, we can uplift not only those suffering from racial discrimination but humanity as a whole.
IDERD Observed in Nepal
March 21, 2008
Dalit Civil Society in Nepal jointly marked the 21st March on the occasion of 43rd International day against all forms of Racial and Caste Discrimination. For more details >> IDERD Observed in Nepal
Posted under News on Saturday 29 March 2008 at 7:13 pm
“The Dalit Janajati Party (DJP) has made public its 16-point election manifesto. The six-paged manifesto has focused on the requirement of participation of people of all castes, race, and people from all the sectors in the state affairs. The party has envisioned president as the Head of State, and the federal structure based on the ethnicity, language and geography. The central parliament will elect the president; Prime Minister will be the chief of the central executive body. The foreign policy shall be based on the principles of Panchasheel (mutual co-existence). The State shall give social security and development priority to the landless, Kamaiyas, Badis, and all marginalized people. The party has emphasized on giving equal respect to Dalits, indigenous communities, Madheshis, Muslims and marginalized people in the textbooks. “
- Siddhi B. Ranjitkar
Most of the major political parties agreed on that Nepal shall be a federal democratic republican state, but they differ in the number of states they opt for. The Maoists have proposed 11 states; the NWPP has proposed to rename the existing 14 zones as states; and Madheshi parties want only three states based on geographical zones such as mountains, hills and Terai (plane area). It is almost sure the country will go for a parliamentary style of governance, as major political parties have decided on it. Only a few major political parties have chosen a presidential style of governance. Almost all parties have proposed to guarantee press freedom, freedom of speech, human rights, and civil liberty and rule of law. However, only a few political parties have mentioned the ending of breaking laws with impunity and finishing off the corruption.
Nepalis are going to elect their representatives to a Constituent Assembly (CA) on April 10, 2008. The CA is for crafting a new constitution as well as for acting as a parliament for two years. So, the manifestoes of the political parties reflect the two jobs of the CA. This has confused even the legal and so-called constitutional experts, as most of them have commented on the manifestoes of political parties have been the manifestoes for parliamentary elections. However, most of the political parties correctly have presented their manifestoes both for crafting a constitution and for doing various jobs if they are voted to power.
The CA is primarily for crafting a Nepalese people’s constitution but it will be a parliament for two years, as it will elect a government, a Prime Minister, and a Head of State, and pass a new constitution and endorse the declaration of Nepal a federal democratic republic made by the Interim Legislature-parliament on December 29, 2007.
The CA will have two kinds of representatives: one directly elected by adult franchise, and another elected indirectly through the political parties. So, Nepalese voters are going to vote for 240 representatives directly and 335 indirectly through the political parties to the CA. Nepalese voters are going to vote for candidates and for the political parties in the upcoming CA election. Then, the Prime Minister will nominate 26 representatives to the CA making 601-member CA.
Political parties and independent individuals have filed their candidatures for 240 seats in the CA at the Election Commission, and have submitted their sealed-list of candidates for electing their representatives proportional to the votes they will receive.
Although the primary job of the CA is to craft a new constitution for Nepal, it also acts as a parliament for two years. Naturally, the political parties have presented their election manifestoes with the mixture of the type of a constitution they want to make and the tasks they will undertake if the voters voted them to power. So, the election is the mixture of the CA election and the parliamentary election.
Voters know the candidates for the direct election, and they know whom they are going to vote for; however, they do not know who will get elected when they vote for the political party for proportional representation. Candidates for the direct election have begun a door-to-door election campaign. The political parties have held various sorts of the election campaign including the mass meeting. However, the candidates for the proportional representation can campaign for their parties rather than for the individuals. They have the constituency of all Nepalese voters. So, they can campaign for their parties throughout Nepal.
Cadres of the rival political parties have often indulged in confrontation. The Maoists’ cadres stop the cadres of other political parties from holding an election rally and a mass meeting in the areas they think they have a hold. Other cadres particularly of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) fight back whereas the Nepali Congress (NC) leaders make a lot of publicity to discredit the Maoists. The NC cadres often confront with the cadres of Madheshi People’s Rights Forum in Terai, as both claim the Terai area is their hold. Recently, the NC cadres have started fighting back the Maoists’ cadres.
The NC leaders and the CPN-UML leaders as well tend to dwell on the misdeeds of the Maoists rather than presenting their logic for the voters to vote for their candidates in their speeches delivered at the election rallies. They also tend to blame the Maoists’ cadres for any criminal activities rather than asking the Home Minister to take strong actions against the criminals. Thus, they are letting the criminals to break the laws with impunity hoping to discredit the Maoists. How much such things will benefit the NC and the CPN-UML and harm the Maoists remains to be seen.
Maoists’ Chairman Prachanda repeatedly says in the election rallies and in the press conferences that his party will accept the verdict of the electors; if the election is rigged he will launch a revolution; he does not mention who is going to rig the election. So, the devil that will rig the election may be an imaginary one. However his deputy Dr. Baburam Bhattarai enjoys telling the people that if his party does not garner a majority in a CA then his party will launch another revolution different from the previous one. What sorts of the revolution will be Dr. Bhattarai does not elaborate.
The real CA will be the one that will have representation of every community no matter how small they are for crafting a new constitution that will meet the interest of all Nepalis. However, the mixed-election system devised to ensure the representation of every political party in a CA may not ensure the representation of every community in a CA. If political parties are sincere enough to make sure the representation of every community in a CA, they can do so electing members of every community through the votes they receive for proportional representation; however, these representatives will be at the mercy of the political parties rather than the communities they represent. The Prime Minister using his/her prerogative for nominating 26 representatives to the CA may nominate some of them from among the communities that miss their representation through direct or indirect election.
Nepalis want a new constitution that will meet the interest of all communities. If it does not happen then it will be difficult to sustain a lasting peace. However, the election system adopted for the CA election clearly indicates that the representatives of political parties will craft a new constitution rather than the people’s representatives, as the majority of the CA members will be the representatives of the political parties: precisely 335 indirectly elected members out of 601 members of a to-be-elected CA.
In this context it might be good to review the election manifestoes of some political parties and what the professional association says to make out what shape our future constitution will take. Major political parties have made clear the fundamental issues such as federalism and republicanism. Major political parties except the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) have opted for making Nepal a republic. A few political parties such as Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party, National People’s Front and so on have presented their manifestoes against a federal state. However, the Interim Legislature-parliament has already declared Nepal a federal democratic republic with the provision for the first session of the CA to endorse it.
A Nepalese lawyers’ association called Nepal Bar Association (NBA) in cooperation with the Canadian Bar Association has made a study on the state structure to be made, and come to the conclusion that the Nepal’s size does not prevent it from going to a federal structure based on social, caste, linguistic or physical characteristics. The study has revealed that Nepal has not a single dominating community of people as in China, France, Italy or Indonesia that makes it necessary to implement a unitary system; so, Nepal could be made a social, caste-based, linguistic and physical-structure-based federal state. They proposed a federal structure as of the US with the state power divided between the central and the state governments, respect to the existence of both governments, and sovereignty vested in both the central and state governments. The central government and state governments respect each other’s existence and accept formal decisions, documents, and civil laws; the restructured state provides an equal opportunity to women, Dalits, Janajatis, Madheshis, and underprivileged people following the principle of inclusion.
The Nepali Congress (NC) in its manifesto has proposed to unseat the monarchy permanently and declare the nation an independent, sovereign, democratic and federal republic at the first CA meeting. The manifesto says that the monarchy has lost its justification and relevance as it has frequently violated the democratic principles and people’s rights. Other features of the NC manifesto are a multiparty democratic federal republican state, Prime Minister as the executive chief of the central government, a chief for each province and a ceremonial president as the head of the state elected through the central and provincial parliaments set up based on the linguistic, caste-cultural and religious diversity of the country. The manifesto says that people’s participation and public hearing will be ensured in the constitution-making process. The new constitution will be made by the people and for the people.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) proposes a ceremonial president elected by all three legislatures: two at the centre and one at the autonomous regions, Prime Minister with the executive power directly elected by the people’s adult franchise, and at least a minister in the central cabinet representing the federal states. The federal state will be based on the principle of self-determination and ethnic and regional autonomy. The judiciary will be a four-tiered system: federal Supreme Court, regional high court, area court and local court.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) has proposed a federal democratic republic with a bicameral legislature, eleven provinces and a directly elected president with executive power for a maximum of two terms in its manifesto called a commitment paper. One legislature will have an equal representation of all provinces and another will have the representatives directly elected by the adult franchise. Its commitment paper says that sovereignty and state power will be inherent in the people; supremacy of constitution, rule of law, multiparty competition, voting rights, free and fair periodical election among other tenets of democracy will prevail. Its foreign policy will be based on the principle of Panchasheel (mutual co-existence). It proposes dual citizenship for the non-resident Nepalis.
Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (NWPP) has proposed a directly elected president with executive powers in its election manifesto. It says that a federal democratic republican system cannot solve the problems of the working class; so, it has opted for declaring the country a socialist republic through the Constituent Assembly and enshrining the provision for the same in the new Constitution. NWPP proposes a dual citizenship: one national and another regional to curb social crimes and protect social and cultural values of a given region. It suggests turning the existing 14 zones into provinces. It envisages imposing a presidential rule in provinces suspending the provincial government and the legislature if certain activities put the national unity and territorial integrity of the nation at risk. A two-third majority of the legislatures (House of Representatives and National Assembly) at the center can impeach the president. The members of the House of Representatives and National Assembly will be lawmakers only and will not join the council of ministers.
Madheshi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) of Upendra Yadav has proposed a presidential form of government, directly elected president with executive powers of the state. Its manifesto proposes two legislative bodies: one at the center and another at each province. Each province shall be autonomous; a directly elected chief minister shall govern the province. Autonomous provinces shall be based on the factors such as population, geography and economic possibility of each province. Each province will have its own legislature, judiciary and executive. The structure and the number of provinces are left to the experts to decide. MPRF proposes three levels of courts: the Supreme Court, provincial and district court with the supremacy of the constitution. The national security, currency, and foreign policy will be under the jurisdiction of the center.
The election manifesto of Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party (TMLP) of Mahanta Thakur focused on ending the internal colonization and establishing an autonomous Terai Madhesh province. It foresees a democratic multiparty federal republican system with sovereignty and executive power vesting in the people, and fully autonomous provinces. The legislature will nominate a person for Prime Minister to work as the executive chief, and persons to run provinces, and elect a ceremonial president. The judiciary will have three tiers such as the Supreme Court, provincial courts and district courts. The guarantee of appointing people of different communities including Madheshis in the Nepali Army, corruption control, good governance, foreign policy based on Panchasheel (mutual co-existence) are other features mentioned in the election manifesto.
Chairman of the Federal Democratic National Forum DK Buddhist and president of the Federal Limbuwan State Council Kumar Lingden along with other leaders jointly released the Forum’s manifesto. The manifesto says that it foresees a five-member presidium formed based on the consensual political principle. The joint assembly of the federal parliament and the powerful Jatiya Sabha comprising one elected representative of indigenous nationalities, Terai people, Dalits, women and the Arya communities elects the presidium. An individual holds the supreme gubernatorial post of President based on the alphabetical order following the English alphabet. The person completing the term and the remaining four whose term has not come will also be considered the members of the presidium. The party has put forward the concept of election of the Prime Minister of the country with executive powers and the Chief Ministers of the autonomous federal states through the direct electoral system. The Forum has the provision for a bicameral legislature comprising the House of Representatives with directly elected members and a powerful Jatiya Sabha comprising the representatives of the autonomous federal states and every ethnic community.
The Dalit Janajati Party (DJP) has made public its 16-point election manifesto. The six-paged manifesto has focused on the requirement of participation of people of all castes, race, and people from all the sectors in the state affairs. The party has envisioned president as the Head of State, and the federal structure based on the ethnicity, language and geography. The central parliament will elect the president; Prime Minister will be the chief of the central executive body. The foreign policy shall be based on the principles of Panchasheel (mutual co-existence). The State shall give social security and development priority to the landless, Kamaiyas, Badis, and all marginalized people. The party has emphasized on giving equal respect to Dalits, indigenous communities, Madheshis, Muslims and marginalized people in the textbooks.
People’s Front Nepal (PFN) has made the provision for a president with executive power and a federal state in its election manifesto. The president will have main executive power and will be directly elected; it foresees a bicameral legislature at the centre and a unicameral one at provinces. It will end all forms of exploitation and oppression of farmers-workers, women, Dalits, ethnic groups, Madheshis-Terai dwellers, Muslim, resident of remote regions, children, disabled and helpless people.
The monarchists’ party called Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP- Nepal) has made public its election manifesto stating it stands for a constitutional monarchy. It has campaigned for a constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy that had been once the buzzwords of the so-called democrats particularly the members of the Nepali Congress Party. The RPP-Nepal has gone to the people with the slogan ‘Constitutional parliamentary monarchical democracy for independent, able and prosperous Nepal’. It has fielded 207 candidates for the direct election to a CA and submitted a sealed-list of candidates for the proportional representation.
Nepal is posed to be a federal democratic republic, as the Interim Legislature-parliament has already declared it; and the soon-to-be elected CA will endorse it. The future constitution of Nepal to be crafted by the people’s representatives will reflect the aspirations of the Nepalese people for the inclusive governance ending the 240-year monopoly of the Shah dynasty on the exclusive rule in Nepal.
Barack Obama gave what was said to be greatest speech of his life time, in Philadelphia, PA at Constitution Center on matters not just of race and recent remarks of Reverend Jeremiah Wright but of the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future.
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama, “A More Perfect Union”
Constitution Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Watch the speech on video and read the text below the video player:
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
KALAGAUDH, DIPAYA, March 9- A Dalit man, Jogidas, has been working as a priest in the famous Salamuni temple in the remote district of Doti. The priest, who belongs to the Badi community in the Mudegaon-3, leads religious ceremonies and sacrifices in the temple located 12 KM from the regional headquarters, Dipayal. Badis are considered to be in the lowest rung of the Dalit category.
“There are only five Badi families living in the village and we have been working as priests in the temple since the time of our ancestors,” Jogidas said.
There is no discrimination between Dalits and Non-dalits here, and the temple is thronged more by Non-dalits, he informed.
Worshippers from different parts of Nepal and even from India visit the temple mostly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to offer sacrifices of goats.
“Even when there is a dispute over letting Dalits in the Shaileshwori temple, it is a positive sign that Dalits are working as priests in this temple”, a Dalit leader, Kumar Singh Tailor, said.
The whole country should learn a lesson from this type of social practice.
Even DNA Certification didn’t Grant a Citizenship Certificate to a Dalit
RANAGAUN-KHALANGA (JAJARKOT), March 17- Lalitjung Shah, aged 35, son of a Non-dalit father and Dalit mother still doesn’t have a Nepalese citizenship certificate. The main reason behind is that he took birth from a Dalit mother.
Lalitjung, son of father Khambajung Shah and mother Padmakali B.K., is still not a certified Nepali citizen. He does have a DNA report prepared by National Science Laboratory, proving his relation with his Non-dalit father.
The Chief District Officer denied him with the Citizenship certificate, stating lack of his father’s citizenship certificate and recommendation letter from the Village Development Committee.
“Even DNA report didn’t provid me a citizenship certificate, it’s all because my mother represents the Dalit community,” Lalitjung said.
He filed a case four years ago at the District Court- Jajarkot seeking some part in his father’s property. The court delayed the hearing stating lack of relationship certification with his father, but later the court gave the decision on the basis of the DNA report and ordered the father to give some part of the property.
But, till today, neither he received a single rupee from his father’s property nor the Nepalese citizenship certificate.
Khambajung Shah, one of the leader of Nepali Congress, is showing no respect for the court’s decision. However, Lalitjung’s mother is married to a next man.
Moreover, Lalitjung is living in a meager condition with his two children and hoping for implementation of the court’s decision.
Khurkot (Parbat), March 10- After walking one and half hour, we can see the Khurkot -7 of Parvat, there is dwelling of Pariyar caste in northern hilly area. We may feel that this is the ancient place of Dalit community, for which, we are doing struggle against the Brahminism. The oldest of Bhatkekhaldo Mr. Dadhiram Pariyar 75, is leading the community. He is president of forest user groups too. The 24 houses of Dalit have to tolerate a kind of trouble daily by the 7/8 houses of elite castes. If youth do objection against them, they are abused as Maoist, if women do as so, they are named as bitch and if Dalit children don’t respect their order, they are bitten or thrown each day.
The people, who should have to work on elite’s stone-mine for their daily survive. If women don’t work in the field of the elite, they can’t solve their hand to mouth problem. Therefore, they haven’t any alternatives, if they are become against them. Whether they do objection, they can’t get any work in their field or stone-mine. So, they have to be always silent. Excepts district Fecofun, none organization has given interest towards them. They become far away due to the difficult street, uneducated and dirty society. The track-road has been tear from the middle of the dwelling of elites, but Dalit are restricted in the entry to the forest and elite’s dwelling throughout the main way. They have separate resource of water and where elites are, there is electricity in each houses but Dalit community doesn’t have afford to buy a liter of kerosene for the light. Lower secondary and secondary high schools are in the area of upper caste, the discussions to open the higher secondary in elites’ periphery is always held, VDC can allocate the budget to build the temple for the Brahmin, but Dalit doesn’t have a small amusing chalet for their children. And Dalit themselves can’t collect their voice by unifying too.
Social elites have divided them politically and it has created jealousness with each other splitting them into different parties. By the cause, they don’t have unity. As while, they have not unification, the stimulation is not in their community. Very low class of awareness of human being. They don’t know about the Dalit commission, women commission, Dalit development committee and other prodalit organizations, who and where the pro-dalit initiatives are done. They understand only that the election of constitutional assembly is for the new regime of Maoist. Likewise, a male gets 200 ruppes for the wages, but women get only 50-60 Rs. Women easily accept that male is the main part of the society, so they earn a lots rather than women. It means that women have not any feeling of gender equity. Other side, the Dalit male often violate to their female due to the pride of their earning. All Dalit community considers that the upper castes are the food-grain-holders and if they go against the elites, the God will be anger.
The oldest Dadhiram right now, keeping some legal charges too against the so-called upper castes. Among them, one is ongoing in the Supreme Court. We can see these kind of direct visual of their daily life-circle, if we now visit the Khurkot. However, some local organizations are interested to work for them. But privileged nature and only clawing the roast-strategy of some donors, the interest of the organization has been vanished and they have become hopeless. All the pro-dalit organization & concern people therefore, should have to keep mind towards the Dalits’ live of Khurkot.
Report by:
Saroj Dillu
Posted under News on Monday 17 March 2008 at 7:46 am
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (March 11, 2008)
The following excerpts from the report relate to Dalits:
Societal Abuses and Discrimination
“Although prohibited by law, citizens practiced caste discrimination in a wide variety of religious, professional, government, and social environments, and such discrimination strongly influenced society.”
“On March 25, teachers prevented Dalit students of Fadke Dhunga Primary School , Parvat, to participate in the practical examination for a cooking class. After they were urged to do so by the District Education Office and the court, the teachers and school administration issued a public apology, paid compensation of $550 (35,000 rupees) to all of the students and permitted the Dalit students to take the exam.”
“On October 24, 13 Dalits of rural Tallosworad (Baitadi) were beaten allegedly by local villagers because they had refused to eat buffaloes slaughtered during a Hindu religious festival. Local villagers also looted goods worth approximately $7,900 (500,000 rupees) from Dalit-owned shops. Local mediation to resolve the case was eventually successful.”
“Also in Baitadi, following advocacy by OHCHR and Dalit organizations, for the first time the NP registered a FIR under discrimination charges against higher caste individuals for allegedly assaulting 12 Dalits after they refused to participate in traditional discriminatory practices during the Dashain festival.”
Elections and Political Participation
“At year’s end the interim constitution provided that the CA would consist of 601 members, with 240 elected by a first-past-the-post system, 335 by proportional representation, with quotas for Dalits, oppressed caste/indigenous ethnic groups, Madhesis, women, and other underrepresented groups, and 26 nominated by the cabinet.”
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
“Discrimination against lower castes and some ethnic groups, particularly Madhesis and Janajatis, was especially common in the Terai and in rural areas in the western part of the country, even though the government outlawed the public shunning of Dalits and made an effort to protect the rights of the disadvantaged castes. Economic, social, and educational advancement tended to be a function of historical patterns, geographic location, and caste. Better education and higher levels of prosperity, especially in the Kathmandu valley, were slowly reducing caste distinctions and increasing opportunities for lower socioeconomic groups. Better educated, urban-oriented castes continued to dominate politics and senior administrative and military positions, and to control a disproportionate share of natural resources.”
“Caste-based discrimination, including barring access to temples, is illegal; however, Dalits were occasionally barred from entering temples. Progress in reducing discrimination was more successful in urban areas.”
My name is Suresh Singh. I’m a Nepali dalit. Among the Nepali dalits, there are three distinct types: - Hill dalit, Newar dalit, and Tarai dalit. I belong to Hill dalits who are divided into jaats (castes). These are: 1. Kami – Sunar (goldsmith), Tamta (coppersmith), Lohar (ironsmith), Chunaro (carpenter), Od (mason), and Parki (bamboo worker). 2. Sarki (leather worker). 3. Damai (musician and tailor). 4. Gaine (bard, and singer). 5. Badi (village entertainers- dancers, etc). These jaats are vertically arranged. The lowest are regarded as untouchable by the higher jaats. Unlike in Nepal, in Sikkim and Darjeeling, Damai is considered a higher jaat than a Sarki.
I belong to a Kami jaat that is divided into more than 110 clans. A thar is taken to be a sub-caste, which is flexible depending on the nature of occupation such as Sunar, Tamta, etc that a family follows or said to have followed. Here thar loses its meaning as a sub-caste while in diku jaats a thar is a sub-caste. So in my jaat, thar means a clan for some clans and to some it is associated with the nature of occupation. Clan members are regarded as brothers and no matrimonial relation is allowed among them. Seen in the historical and social context, any tagadhari (wearers of holy-thread) marrying a dalit girl is degraded to his wife’s jaat but retains his clan. In the various kingdoms of Nepal and after the Gorkha conquest in 1768 AD, a bahun (brahman) was punished with degradation of jaat for the crimes otherwise punished with a death sentence such as murder, incest, revolt or conspiracy against the state, sex or marriage with an untouchable, accepting cooked rice and pulse from the hands or from the kitchen of an untouchable and even for accepting water, etc. This resulted in the fact that the Kamis now share more than 67 clans with the Bahun, and about 6 clans with Thakuri and Khasa Chhetris (Kshatriya). These clans in Nepal are called Mijhars.
There are another group of clans numbering about 34 such as Ramdam/Ramudamu, Sunchaure or Sinchury, Gadal, Himchuri, and Lakandari, etc. They do not have sub-clans and they have one gotra called Kaushila.
In the Mijhar clans (Kairan), a sub-clan becomes a gotra, and it is important in marriage, rituals and rites. Some of the Kairans are: - Lamichhanya with gotras (sub-clans) - Lamakarmi, Lama, and Lamgadi; Pandey, Koirala, Baral (Bareli), Risyal (Rasaili\Rasali), Gahadraj, Gajmer, Khati, Singh, etc. The Mijhars have a Kaushila Sakha, which is also the gotra of the non-Mijhar clans. In eastern Nepal, some of the Kairans have a Kasi Sakha.
I’m a Sunar belonging to a Kairan of Gahadraj- Samitrika (also called Jalandhari) gotra. Gahadrajs have many gotras such as Samitrika, Jiva, Rakhsya, Medhasi, etc. I came into contact with a Gahadraj of Medhasi gotra from Siliguri (Darjeeling dist, West Bengal) Lt Col P.K.Gahadraj two months ago; he told me that in Siliguri, Gahadrajs are divided into two sections- Maure and Pipale. Maures write their clan and gotra on a paper and pipales use a Pipal leaf for this during the time of marriage.
When a person dies we mourn the death of the person for thirteen days. The family of the dead person does not take salt, oil or meat during these days. In case of death of the parents, the sons shave their head and wear a white turban called feta. All the Gahadrajs of Samitrika gotra within seven generations do not take meat if they have heard about the death of the person.
When a person dies, his/her atma- spirit remains impure for thirteen days and after the performance of rites- kriya, he/she becomes pure moving in the air- vayu and visiting the homes and lands of gotra members. A mud ball- pinda is made and a deep (lamp) is lit in the name of a death person. Shradhha ceremony is performed after one year of his/her death, burying the bones and throwing the ashes in the Ganga River. This is followed by daan or gift of land and cows to sisters or to sister’s children and giving a feast to relatives. Then the spirit acquires supernatural power and can bestow blessing and curse upon the humans, can move in any part of the world and visit members living there. It visits the aanti, the top most floor of the house, so any non-member of a gotra and a married daughter is not allowed to visit aanti. The first harvest of grain or corn is offered to the pitri. When a mutton or khaja- rice cooked in ghee is prepared in a family, first it is offered to the pitri in a plate. Wine is offered in a glass to the pitri- only to the male ancestors before being taken. Failure to offer mutton, wine, or a khaja before being taken whenever or wherever a Gahadraj might live, incurs sin-paapa.
A temple of pitri called thaan has two stones inside it, symbolizing the male and female ancestor. They believe that all the ancestors and the persons, who die in families belonging to a gotra, meet in the temple.
There is no concept of heaven or hell or the belief in transmigration of soul. The spirits live in the surroundings and the pitra’s temple, and can move anywhere in the world in vayu- air. The sins are punished in this world only and not in hell after death; the descendants also have to suffer for the sins of their ancestors, as is the saying that if the parents or baje- grandfather are dharmatiya (righteous) then their children and grandchildren will live in prosperity.
Religious rites and beliefs vary among different clans. Let us look into the religion of the Khadka Kairan, who have the gotras as- Lakain, Portel, and Kalikotya, etc, they have their kul devi (family goddess) - Mata whose varna- color is seto-white, so they believe that they should not kill goat or sheep of seto varna. A black goat (patoh) is sacrificed. In their pitri puja, which also takes place in Mungsir purnima in the same month, they sacrifice a goat or usually cocks. Unlike pitri puja, puja of kul-devi is not performed every year.
The oral tradition of Kamis is rich like any other Nepali jaat. One such tradition is that Kamis belong to the Asura jaat. Asuras are the descendants of Kashyapa Rishi through his wife Diti, the daughter of Prajapati. The Kulguru of Asuras is Shukracharya of the Bhrigu family. Varuna, the god of the sea, was the father of Bhrigu Rishi. It is believed that Asuras become powerful after sunset. Hiranya Kashyap, Bali, and Ravana were famous kings. Ravana is the most important Asura in the Kami tradition.
Ravana was instructed by his father Vishwarupa along with his brothers in Vedas, and use of arms. His father also sent him to Santa Kumara Rishi and he became a great chanter of the Samaveda, and a great devotee of Shiva, from whom he received Chandrahasa Khadka, a powerful sword. Ravana also composed the famous Shiva Tandava Stotra. Ravana married Mandodari, daughter of Asura king Maya of Mandor. He had a son by her, named Meghanaada (which means the ’sound of the clouds’). In a war with Indra, Meghanaada defeated Indra and imprisoned him, and earned the title of ‘Indrajit’.
The population of Kami jaat is higher as compared to other Nepali Dalit jaats. In the struggle against caste discrimination, most of the leaders are Kamis, and the literacy rate is high. According to the INSEC magazine Informal- June 2004, the Kamis control 75% of the dalit NGOs. Kamis have shown their talent in different fields like sports, and film and music industries, etc. International Taekwondo master Sunny Bee, Nepali film maker Tulsi Ghimire, actor- producer Shrawan Ghimire, top actress Niruta Singh, and singers Deepa Jha, Suresh Kumar, and Heera Rasaily, etc are some popular examples.
[Suresh Singh is pursuing his M. Phil in History at the Kurukshetra University, Haryana]
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