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| Sunday, 5 February 2006 |
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Features |  |
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Genocidal warfare: 'Prachandara' vs. King Gyanendra by Rohan L. Jayatilleke reporting from Siddhartha Nagar, Nepal The word 'Silence' grammatically in English is a noun. Etymologically 'Silence' is observed amidst variant situations in a discordant atmosphere. The Sanskrit equivalent to it is 'Muni', the Silent, an epithet used to describe the mindset of the Indian sages of time immemorial in India. The inventor of 'Natya Sastra', the science of music and drama is called Bharatha Muni, the Silent Bharatha. Herein Bharata means the ancient name of India. In the long drawn battle between Kuru and Pandava Kingdoms was derived the name Bharatha Varsa for India. Dushyantha's son being Bharata, India had the prefix in its name as Bharatha. With the intrusion of Aryans (Iranians), the nomads into India from the north-west frontiers (now Khyber Pass), India came to be known as Ariyavartha. In view of the name of the river Indus, that watered the north-west regions of India, creating a new civilisation Indus Valley civilisation, India came to be known as Hindu or Indu and then colloquially transformed into India. Tribal pluralism In fact, Gotama Buddha was called 'Sakya Muni', the Silent Sakyans' as he never used derogatory or vituperative criticism of the other fathis in India, (62 in number) and the racial groups (presently India has 448 dialects). This too would have the socio-economic structure of the Buddha during his time in the 6th Century B.C. Buddha upheld religious, racial and tribal pluralism and never engaged in divisive politics, as is being perpetrated by the modern Sri Lanka, some members of the Maha Sangha. In view of the fact Buddha's discipline hailed from various racial groups, he said that once one enters the Order, it is like the waters of the rivers, on reaching the ocean disintegrate their taste and colour and become saline in taste and composition. Hence he called his disciples the time honoured epithet the 'Sakyaputras', sons of the Sakyans, the warrior and ruling class. Great Beyond The word 'Silenced', a derivation of the noun 'Silence' has a completely another connotation, in that, the voice, ears, hearts and minds silenced by a Draconian ruler or monarch and the faultering are despatched to the Great Beyond. This is exactly the situation in the Nepal Kingdom, under the dictatorial regime of King Gyanendra, who dissolved the Parliament, consigning the Prime Minister Debra and the Cabinet and a former Prime Minister Koirala, (a Buddhist) to imprisonment. The total annihilation of all freedoms, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of movement though a coup d'etat of King Gyanendra on February 1, 2005. This writer, incidentally was in Nepal when this seizure of power was enacted by the King. On the anniversary of this seizure, this writer is back again in Nepal. In Sonali, the point of entry to Nepal from India, one could see a mass of army, police officials and customs officers ransacking the baggages of every foreign traveller, taking over portable radios, and cell phones, as no person was allowed to either listen to any broadcasts or to take photographs. After a gruelling experience at the border at Sonali, this writer walks into the dark shopping complex, where imitation wrist watches, made in Korea, Vietnam etc., manufactured smuggled into Nepal, carrying world renown brand names such as Omega, Orex etc., that becomes dysfunctional in an hour or a half. The Sri Lankan pilgrims grab these imitation watches and jewellery as the prices are so unbelievably low. At a price In the courtyard of this shopping complex, there are stalls of different wares from imitation jewellery to clothing, table covers, shawls and salwar kameez sold by modestly salwar and kameez clad-young Nepali girls, with miniature gold nose rings and earings adding to their natural beauty. Young boys gather around travellers offering shawls and table covers, sometimes at a price. I touch the nose of a little girl, beseeching for a few Indian coins and she immediately unwinds her nose ring and shows me how she puts it on. She is Ninja. The writer is now in Siddharthanagar at his hotel. Nepal, prior to the Maoist insurrection depended heavily on tourism as a foreign exchange earner. There are myriads of magnificently tourist hotels. The hotels are now resting in peace, gates, doors, windows permanently closed and rank vegetation invading the formerly well landscaped and horticulturally embellished hotel gardens. Tourism is completely dead. It is only those who with a sense of daring would attempt to reach Katmandu, the capital 29 miles away from Siddhartha Nagar, as the west of Katmandu is the killing fields of 'Prachanda', the leader of the Maoist group, this being his pseudonym, but a science graduate, I know his proper name, but will not record it, as it would mean I am throwing the gauntlet to the King Gyanendra's dictatorial rulership. 'grape wine' Freedom of the press is non-existent. Most of the media offices have put down their shutters with writers and journalists behind bars. If something critical of the King is published the editors are summoned to the police station and that is not all! Some newspapers in circulation carry only international news but not even a syllable on the local situation. Communication network is non-existent, the FM radio have ceased to function. What the inquisitive listeners could listen to were BBC newscasts, that too sketchy, as the BBC correspondent is holed in the capital at Katmandu, with no access to any other region. What filters is in just what the 'grape wine' brings in. I walk into my old rendezvous, a tiny coffee kiosk run by a 75-year-old Nepali woman. Her smiling faces and graceful conversations take wings to the distant Himalayas. She goes into mute silence to questions I pose about the life and times of Nepal. The reason is very clear, it is either life or death, if she speaks out. Ideology No NGOs operate, no trade unions, no commerce and trade chambers, or even religious activities, Buddhist or Hindu or even Islamic. There is total silence in Nepal now. King Gyanendra's explanation is as the democratically elected government failed to arrest the Maoist insurgency, as a political expedient he had nothing else do to other than dismiss the government and assume total control of the country with the police and the armed forces. There is a degree of genuineness in this version, as Maoist insurgency continues for the last decade or more, killing around 60,000 people. The democratic political parties have their own ideology but forced to coalesce with the Maoist insurgents of 'Prachandra'. The Maoists ideology is to wipe out the monarchial government and set up a Communist state, which will evolve Nepal into another neighbouring Tibet now under Communist China with no freedom whatsoever. Though, in Tibet there is now a consumer-oriented society, but spiritually, it is not what it was under the Dalai Lama, who is now in refuge with thousands of other lamas at Dharmasala in India. Tibet will continue to be a part and parcel of China and infinitum. There is no possibility of Dalai Lama ruling Tibet again. The road from the Indian border town of Nepal to Katmandu, is flat and about 80 feet white, as against what it was a year and half ago. Only a few cycle-rickshaws take the road and no other vehicles. The Army tanks with a soldier in full battle dress with a helmet on an earphones stand on the tank and such tanks are omnipresent. The soldiers too are evil-faced. I try to speak to a foot patrol soldier and tell him 'Your Nepal-made rifle is more excellent than the USA made AK 46." He says 'No, nahi Nepal' 'I repeat another question.' It is Tibet-made'. I elicit the information I require'. He says 'Yes'. I know that Tibet has no firearm factories and these are China-made and now there is a direct train service from China's capital Beijing to Lasha, the capital of Tibet. This is the route for the gun-running. The China's strategy is to engulf Nepal and make it another Tibet under their heel. India has to look sharp now that Maoism is now on their border and with insurgency in Nagaland and Bihar, it may be there is gun-running through Nepal. The Maoists are just new blood, wedded to a utopia of a Communist state. Paradoxically, this was also the mindset of the Sri Lankan insurgent of 1971 and 1988 and 1989. They want to topple an existing establishment and set up what. Not even the God in heaven knows, nor do they as all insurgents the world over a school dropout, unemployable but only with a vision Communism or socialism or promotion of indigenous resources without depending on the globalized economic scenario would them dawn a 'Paradise' but what they would generate would be only a 'Poisoned Paradise'. The language problem in Nepal is complicated not only by the large number of languages spoken but also by the fact that, in many cases, these languages do not being to the same family group. The national langauge, Nepali, stems from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. It is a derivative of Sanskrit and is similar to Hindi in basic form and vocabulary. Several Hindi dialects, viz., Maithili, Bhojopuri and Kaumaoni are spoken by a considerable sections of the population in the Terai. A second category of languages in Nepal is the Tibeto-Myanmar/Burmese languages, of which the most important are Newari, Magarkura, Gurungkura, Kiranti, Limbuani and some of the Tibetan dialects. River systems Religion-wise, Hinduism, blended with older animistic practices in certain areas, is the predominant religion of Nepal. About 10 per cent of the population located mostly in Katmandu valley and along the northern border are Buddhists both Mahayana and Theravada. A substantial Muslim minority of about two-hundred thousands is found in the eastern Terai. The mountain ranges in Nepal run from east to west but the river systems flow mostly from north to south and cut through the various ranges which divide the country. There is a three large river systems, the Karnali (Gogra), the Sapt Gandaki and the Sapt Kosi with their tributaries. These rivers orginiate in Tibet, since the watershed lies to the north of the crest of the Himalayan range, forming the frontier between Tibet and Nepal, through which military hardware reach the Nepal Maoists.
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