Stop all the discriminatory instincts from the heart and mind to commemorate this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination!

Earlier this week, when US President Barack Obama was sitting in a comic couch (the first ever event for a sitting US Prez) and was telling Jay Leno in his Late Night TV Show (NBC’s “Tonigtht Show with Jay Leno” to be precise) how he was doing with his sports at the White House, he slipped his tongue to make an ill-judged blunder comparing his sports (bowling and basket ball) with Special Olympics. Soon, he realized his serious mistake, and called the President of International Special Olympics expressing his due apology right from his Air Force One flight on his way back to the White House after videotaping of the show, that is, even before his words went out on air for the whole world to know as his blunder. What does this tell us? It simply tells us that humans are raised to develop their instincts to be discriminatory. Even the persons of best intent (or best caution at the least) could easily fall pray to their instincts. However, the systems in place, legal as well as social, against the discriminatory instincts can keep the people constantly warned from practicing such bad instincts.

In Nepal, the human instinct of practicing untouchability and caste discrimination is not only rampant but also deep rooted- that is, it is mixed in the people’s blood at high concentration. Nevertheless, this instinct does not originate from their genetic inheritance or by any accident; it comes from the social environment one is endowed with, right from her/her birth. When one expresses the highness of her or his caste (say Bahun or Newar), which is very common in every day life of so-called high caste people in Nepal, s/he is actually downgrading the people of other castes, especially so-called low castes. There are numerous proverbs in Nepali language, which are easily taken for granted as a part of cultural heritage, but only a few people may have realized that many of them are obnoxiously discriminatory based on so called ‘highness’ and ‘lowness’ of different castes. It is not the purpose of my writing here to highlight those discriminatory proverbs, but the readers may realize what those proverbs are at this treatise: Stop demeaning proverbs!

In Nepal as yet, there is neither a legal nor a social system in place to bar anyone to make discriminatory utterance out of her or his instincts that could hurt other people badly. In systematically curbing this behavioural instinct right from its bud, the Nepaldalitinfo International Network had been putting forward a demand to the State of Nepal, right from its inception in 2003 as the following:

“Denounce and disband all expressions, proverbs, verbatim or written works, which promote hierarchical caste discrimination and untouchability in the society. Entrust [erstwhile Royal] Nepal Academy and Legal Book Management Authority with necessary directives to review and recommend corrections to all such official documents that take Dalits and other oppressed people for granted under the age-old caste discriminatory practices, and execute appropriate measures for making such corrections in the context of modern contemporary world.”

In commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this year, the founding Moderator of Nepaldalitinfo Dr. DP Rasali urges Nepali people to stop all the discriminatory instincts from their heart and mind, while the Government of Nepal must create a necessary state mechanism for a legal and social environment that disapproves the instincts that are unacceptable to human dignity of the 21st century.

As a backgrounder, on 21 March 1960, 69 Black demonstrators were killed at a peaceful protest against apartheid laws in South Africa. As a result, 21 March was declared “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” by the UN in 1966.

Report by:

Bhakti Nepal
Moderator, Nepaldalitinfo