| Published on 22-04-2008 In National | | Viewed 1607 times | | Why cant we learn from Nepal Maoists and its people? |
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| Written by
Amit Sengupta | 
It's the struggle for memory that often resurrects the most difficult moments in history. And Nepal is poised on that threshold, even while the whole world, including big bully USA and a hesitant 'big brother' India, seems to be choosing amnesia instead of memory. So who is afraid of the Maoists anyway?
Even as red gulal moves in spirals of red slow motion on the red streets of Kathmandu and red 'Maobadis' swarm the streets with drums and red stars, it's crucial to enter the memories of early 2006 when Nepal exploded like a sudden rainbow of protest. And what was the slogan: ganatantra, ganatantra – republic… republic. Democracy … democracy. So what's wrong with this unanimous slogan even when the Maoists were leading this massive wave of human upsurge across the great rivers of Nepal – from Mahakali to Gandak?
Those were the days and let's not eliminate them from memory, lest we seem utterly biased and anti-history. In the interiors of Nepal, from the arid Nepalgunj in the Bahraich border of UP through Butawal and Nawaspari, to the terai and the 'Buddhist' landmarks of Kapilvastu and Lumbini, beyond to Bhimnagar in the Uttarkhand border, and across in the undulating hills of beautiful Nepal, from the Dangs to Rolpa and Rukum, in the poverty-stricken interiors of this landlocked nation, this wave of unrest and hope had spread like a prairie fire.
Thousands of people, especially the poorest of the poor, braved the brutish 'Royal Nepal Army' -- the king's army -- and the para military police and marched on the streets, in wave after wave, from morning till midnight, inside bylanes and village squares, from town squares to colleges and universities, on the highway to the cross roads and ring road around the palace in Kathmandu. Roads were renamed, king's statues destroyed, symbols of old revolutionary icons and farmer rebels were resurrected. And above all, even in the most interiors, every official billboard, address, landmark, statue, administrative buildings, even police posts, had one unilateral sign – the sickle and hammer in red.
And mind you, it was not only Kathmandu which was under the people's siege – the entire country was up in the 'red flames' of a new orange dawn, dreaming albeit peacefully, demanding the end to monarchy, the repressive emergency, the absolute powers of the king and his army and the super rich elite 'Ranas' who ruthlessly ran the brazenly corrupt 'Hindu kingdom'. The people were demanding an end to the appropriation of the vast riches by the king, Gyanendra, who is himself a big businessman and widely accused of engineering the palace massacre. The people hated his notorious and wayward son, Paras, the 'illegitimate' inheritor, and they had had enough of the satellite upper castes who controlled the levers of power, the army, the bureaucracy, and the parasitical economy. The people wanted a constituent assembly, a democratic republic, an end to monarchy.
They also wanted freedom from the daily oppression of the army and the king's establishment, the restoration of freedom and fundamental rights, the end to routine atrocities, encounters, custodial deaths, encounters and killings, and larger social justice, equality, economic development, education, health infrastructure, redistribution of land, the elimination of back-breaking poverty and entrenched feudalism. The mainstream parties like the Nepali Congress led by GP Koirala, old, forgetful and senile –holding onto power like a leech -- and its erstwhile splinter groups like Sher Bahadur Deuba, were widely perceived as stooges of the palace, who would succumb to Indian pressure routinely, so much so, happily giving away the basic rights of Nepali people (like in the river water treaties).
The people of Nepal have had enough of absolute pessimism, hunger and betrayal – whereby their little village girls, crushed by poverty, are picked up by pimps and forcibly sold to the brothels of India, while their little village boys would end up as slaves on Indian streets, hotels and homes --- the eternal 'Bahadurs and Chotus' of the largest democracy.
That is why the Maoists became a catalyst of hope and change. It was they who were the first to demand a constituent assembly in the 1990s, but were repeatedly betrayed and humiliated by the mainstream parties and the king's political lobbies. They were the first to demand a democratic republic, and they were ready to follow the peaceful process of politics – but they were yet again repeatedly humiliated and betrayed. That is how the process of their being underground must be located in a historical perspective. That is how they were able to work and live with the poorest of the poor in the most difficult terrains for 10 long years – facing arrests, jails, torture in military barracks and eliminations. Of the 10,000 plus figure quoted of the dead – let us not forget that more than half of them belong to the Maoists – young girls and boys mostly, but also the most ordinary folk of Nepal, vegetable vendors, landless farmers, villagers, students.
Undoubtedly, they too indulged in organised and anarchic violence – attacking police stations, doing extortions, killing 'class enemies'. But this is the paradox and trajectory of all guerilla movements – from Cuba to Latin America to China, Burma, Zimbabwe and South Africa – including in India, including during the freedom movement. Bhagat Singh was not a Gandhian. Bhagat Singh was a communist revolutionary – who clearly abhorred individual killings and violence and insisted on the 'mass line', as his young but profound writings prove. And let us not forget that even while he 'read' Lenin moments before being hanged – he and his comrades fasted for weeks in protest against the dehumanised prison conditions and for India's freedom. So fasting was not simply a Gandhian strategy, after all, isn't it?
Look at Latin America – from Venezuela to Bolivia to Equador – a wave of 'revolution through the ballot' has arrived. And this is the backyard of the US, the banana republics of imperialism – which has forged unity and belief in its own identities and reworked their memories of guerilla struggles through peaceful resistance and democracy. So why not Nepal?
That is why the resurrection of memory. The first poem, the first sacrifice, the first dream. The last outpost. The final freedom.
Now the unarmed Maoists have moved from one phase of difficult history to another, perhaps more difficult and challenging, because all the contradictions will become transparent. But their ten years of resistance and suffering has finally yielded a new rainbow of peace and hope – power has now grown from the barrel of voting boxes in distant parts of Nepal. And if the people are with you, who can stop the blooming of the hundred flowers in the youngest democracy?
Certainly, for the people of India, this is a new lesson in history and memory. That is, the vast invisible India on the margins of the so called success story mainstream -- outside the three percent sexy sensex and the nine percent growth and the .000005 percent skin and beauty and fashion industry. Let us be humble. So why not learn a few more lessons in democracy and equality from the people of Nepal?
Because, who is afraid of the Maoists anyway? Surely, not the people of Nepal.
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