Nepal’s deposed king leaves the palace without apologizing for caste discrimination; Canada apologizes for past wrong against aboriginal children
nepaldalitinfo special report by Bhakti Nepal
July 11- Today, the people of Nepal witnessed a much awaited moment of the deposed king Gyanendra and his family leaving the Narayanhiti Palace at the end of 15-day deadline set by the Constituent Assembly (CA) while declaring Nepal as the Federal Democratic Republic ending formally a history of 240-year long monarchy rule of Shah dynasty in the country. The autocratic rule of Shah dynasty and its subordinate Rana dynasty was largely responsible for precipitating the Hindu system of caste discrimination and untouchability in the country. In 1854, the Government of Nepal under joint rule of these two dynasties headed by all powerful Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana had introduced a civil code called Muluki Ain that formalized caste discrimination and untouchability victimizing hard working occupational castes (Karmajans). The country’s statutes have now abolished caste discrimination and banned untouchability in the eyes of law. However, the practice of caste discrimination and untouchability is still rampant at all levels, and wounds of victimization inflicted to the people of artisan castes are still deep seated among the victims. A state apology from the Government of Nepal for having made statutory provision of caste discrimination and untouchability against the hard working occupational caste people was long over due. Therefore, one of the main agenda of the nepaldalitinfo network right from its inception little over five years ago was to demand this state apology. The victimized people of Nepal, who make up at least 13% of the Nepal’s total population, are asking the Government of Nepal this long over due state apology along with appropriate compensation package for them to be able to stand equal to the rest of the population. In the new era of Nepal as Federal Democratic Republic, this demand will be pursued more vigorously until the responsible government meet the demand fully.
Neither the deposed king bothered to make an apology on behalf of his ancestral monarchy nor the people of victimized castes and communities considered pressing this demand important at this juncture, depite the fact that the monarchy under the Shah dynasty of Nepal was largely responsible for the historical statutory provision leading to the current state of caste discrimination and untouchability practice still being rampant in the country even in the 21st century. Ironically, the opening sentence of the farewell statement read out by the Gyanendra Shah over a press conference attended by national and international media just prior to his departure started with “Char Varna Chhattis Jat ko Phulbari….” (the garden of four Varnas and 36 castes..- playing with the words originally used by the first King Prithvi Narayan Shah to describe the diversity of people of Nepal), but he did not relate to what were the serious consequences of delineating the castes into highly discriminatory hierarchical caste groups throughout the rule of his dynasty. This leaves behind a histroy that Nepal’s monarchy, despite being largely responsible for maintaining caste discrimination throughout the country, ended without apologizing to its victims of caste discrimination.
On the other side of the globe, today is also the day, when the Prime Minister Stephen Harper on behalf of the Government of Canada expressed a formal apology to the aboriginal peoples of Canada for its past wrong doing against more than 100,000 aboriginal children by forcefully separating them away from their families and communities to place them in the state-run Christian boarding schools in the name of assimilating them into the dominant culture. The children so separated were harmed, tormented and sexually and physically abused during their stay in the residential schools.
“Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.” The state apology says, “These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal.”
Click here for: the Canada’s state apology statement.
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