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Our forgotten neighbour

Sarwar Jahan Chowdhury
THE panoramic view of the snow covered mountains and the greenery in the mountain saddles and in the valleys across the Daughter of Himalaya are the epitomes of the timeless beauty of nature; whatever is left unaffected beyond the province of human engineering. Nepal is geographically so close to us and to our deltaic marshes, yet it is utterly exotic, romantic and excitingly mysterious.
There is some degree of people-to-people connectivity between Bangladeshis and the Nepalese. Nepali students have been joining Bangladeshi higher education institutes for several years now. Nowadays, many Bangladeshi tourists go on holidays to Nepal, which, a couple of decades back, was considered an inaccessible place to be visited only by western adventurers. Nepal is like a newly discovered land for middle class Bangladeshis, so much so that it has turned out to be a favourite shooting spot for Bangladeshi TV serials, dramas, and telefilms.
But beneath the veneer of pictureperfect scenery lies the reality of social and political stagnation and potential for unrest. Maoist insurgency lasted
about a decade prior to a peace accord. The peace accord spelled the demise of Nepal's century old authoritarian monarchy and turned the Himalayan country into a constitutional republic. The stoppage of conflict hasn't brought about any lasting solution as yet. The post-monarchy constitutional assembly failed to reach a consensus on a new republican constitution, and governments were formed and toppled every now and then after the election in 2008. Before the present interim one three governments were formed, led by three different prime ministers, with some periods a whisper away from plunging into chaos and violence again.
We and our media are obsessed with India, Pakistan, China, Middle East and the West. We don't see anyone else even if they are our close geographical neighbours and share some similarities socially and politically. Like us, Nepal is also stuck in a political stalemate. The nature of the stalemate is a bit different though.
In the 2008 constitutional assembly election the Maoists won a lot of votes and seats, the single largest share in fact, but not a clear majority and far off from the two-third majority necessary to write the constitution on their own. The Nepali Congress came second and
the old communist party the NCP (UML) came third with almost similar figures like the Nepali Congress.
All these parties and their leaders consider each other rivals and are often belligerent towards each other beyond political propriety. Strangely, the two communist outfits, the Unified NCP (Maoist) and the old NCP (UML), can't reach a lasting compromise either. It appears that ideology, welfare of the people etc. are overshadowed by the ego clashes among the old guards and the fresh bloods of Nepali politics.
The social, caste/ethnic dynamics behind the political topsy-turvy play is intricate and delicate. Nepal, despite its reasonable size population and not so big geographic area, is very diverse ethnically and also culturally, linguistically and even racially. The caste Hindu Bahuns (Brahmin) and Chetri (Kshatriya) constitute about one-third of Nepal’s population. They mostly live in the east-west elongated hill region between the southern Tarai plains and the uninhabited or sparsely populated mountains in the north.
The Nepali dynasties and landed aristocracy belonged to this elite group caste/ethnicity wise. This group dominated Nepal economically in terms of access to land and state resources, and also held sway politically and socially over others.
Madeshi people, who are very similar to the people of the Indian state of UP and Bihar, live in the southern Tarai Plains and are mostly low/middle caste Hindus. They are also about one-third of Nepal's population. The Janajati, who are mostly the Dalit/untouchable Hindus, form about one-fifth of Nepal's populace and live both in the south and in the hills. There are also racial groups who identify themselves as Mongoloid tribes. Within Madeshi, Janajati and the tribes there are variations. The Nepali concoction is diverse and complex. About 80 % citizens of Nepal follow Hinduism. About 44 % of Nepalese, that includes mostly the caste Hindus and some other people mostly in the hills, speak the language called Nepali. The rest speak other Indian (Maithili, Bhojpuri, Hindi etc.) and tribal languages.
The Maoist insurgency is widely considered by Nepal experts as political expression of deprived sections of Nepali society like the Madheshi,
Janajati and the tribes. Social, political and economic deprivation of these strata are already being addressed to some extent. Although there were further fragmentations in Nepali polity, in line with overt social cleavage apart from the apparent ideological ones, a precise picture is yet to show up. Things will be more crystallised after the upcoming election. We will then know whether the national parties like UNCP (Maoist), Nepali Congress or NCP (UML) can hold on to their electoral bases or will the community based parties take the forefront.
It could perhaps be assumed even now that no one party will be able to occupy centre stage in Nepali politics. Though socio-political mobilisation based on fragments of a diverse society is easier nowadays, the real challenge lies in holding together instead of plummeting into anarchical chaos. Breakups have become commonplace these days; accommodation and rebuilding after a big change is a task for farsighted. Does Nepal have enough of such leadership? That is the million dollar question now.
The writer is an Associate Research Fellow in Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies. E-mail: sarwar558@gmail.com Blog- sarwar558.blogspot.com