Namaste, India-Nepal Relations (Satis Shroff)

NAMASTE, INDIA-NEPAL   (Satis Shroff)

It was the Nepalese king from Gorkha Prithvi Narayan Shah (1768) who described his small Himalayan country as a yam between two stones (China via Tibet and India). The Nepalese battled against the Chinese  in 1790 but in 1792 the Chinese retaliated and in the following treaty the Nepalese had to promise not to attack Tibet anymore, and pay a tribute to the Chinese emperor in former Peking. Nepal paid till 1912.

Nepal’s borders in those days of the 19^th century stretched from Kashmir to Sikkim and their expansion was a challenge to the East India Company and the Raj. Soon there were disputes over the Terai which led to a war between British India and Nepal. The war ended with the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816 after which the Raj took Sikkim and part of the Terai with the borders of Nepal remaining intact till this day. Some of the land was returned to Nepal in 1858 by the British as a reward for Nepal’s support during the Indian Mutiny.

To come to modern times, hadn't it been for the economic blockade on the part of Delhi, Nepal wouldn't have sought help for oil supplies from its other bigger neighbour China. In view of the fact that there are still Maoists in the Nepalese government who would like to have more than cordial ties with Beijing, it was unwise on the part of PM Modi not to recognise the new constitution of  Nepal, which is a sovereign state with its own rights. 

Nepal has become a federal, secular, democratic republic, much to the chagrin of the ruling Indian government which would like to see its neighbour declared as a Hindu enclave. Times are changing in the Himalayan state. Even though the majority of the population are Hindus, and the Buddhists, Animists and Christians a minority, it had decided to take the secular path, like India did after the partition for it was formerly Hindustan: the Land of the Hindus. 

Mingling: The other matter was the mingling of Delhi in the internal affairs of the Himalayan state. Nepal has a long border with India in the south and there have been cultural ties since time immemorial because Nepal was formerly a Hindu kingdom. It is only too natural that the Beharis of India and the Lowlanders from the Terai developed ties on common grounds. This was also due to the fact that the Terai (Lowland) had been ignored by the central governments based in Kathmandu for centuries.

The Maithili-speaking people of the Terai had to adapt themselves and arrange with the big southern neighbor India. When finally democracy came to the Himalayan state the different ethnic people of Nepal wanted their share of good governance that the new state promised. The talk was about federalism at the beginning, which would have been useful if it could have been genuinely be implemented like in Switzerland. But Nepal and Switzerland are worlds apart.

Migration of population: Nepal is a beautiful country with the highest peaks but lowest infrastructure. During the times of King Mahendra in 1954, a programme of drainage and spraying was introduced in the Terai area which was till then infested with malaria. This action made it possible for a mass migration of people from the northern hilly part of Nepal, as well as from the south.

The fertile soil and infrastructure let to the fast development  of Nepal’s madeshi. The lowlander are called madeshis by the highlander, who in turn are called paharis, and the terai is the country’s granary and has the same importance to Nepal as the Punjab to India. The terai produces more than half the gross product of Nepal. Development is easy in this lowland area because the territory is flat. But during the monsoon rains, from June to September, the plains are flooded. And landslides occur in the Mahabharat and Siwalik hills to the north of the country. It was the policy of the then government to let the people from the hills to migrate to the Terai, where they were allocated lands for new settlements, which is the reason why there are also hill people living in the madesh. The idea was to hope for unity in diversity, for the Terai people have always felt more attached culturally to India than formerly Tibet with its Mahayana form of Buddhism.

The indigenous people of the Terai are the Tharus and many people are related to other groups from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Although the lingua franca of Nepal is Nepal, the people in the Terai speak Maithili, Bhojpuri or even Hindi. All these people are Hindus. Bhojpuri is spoken on both sides of the Indo-Nepalese border along with Maithili.

Nepal’s new constitution includes provisions that will enable a good number of parliamentary seats elected through a proportional representation system which highlights the Himalayan state’s ethnic diversity. The basic constitutional text has been passed and can now be further refined through subsequent amendments. As a result Nepal now has a functioning parliament and government. After the tectonic earthquake there is a lot of work to be done in facilitating  reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the earthquake-affected areas. It is hoped that Nepal will stabilise its polity. Not only India, but its other neighbour China, have to help the modernization of this Himalayan country. A step in this direction has been taken in the form of a political and economic tripartite agreement.

The Nepalese have a long list of grievances against India’s big brother attitude. This attitude has to change because Nepal is a sovereign state and even though it is small in size, it cannot be compared to Bhutan, because Nepal doesn't want to be a part of India's so-called defence-system against the Chinese. Nepal and India have signed an arms agreement in 1965 in which Nepal is obliged Nepal to buy military equipment from abroad only when India is not in a position to do so.

Superpower India, it might be noted, imported US weapons in 2013 to the tune of $ 1,9 billions and is the largest buyer. During the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict Delhi under PM Nehru and Defence Minister Menon didn’t feel obliged to consult Kathmandu. Nor did India inform Nepal about the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war even though there was talk about mutual security in the 1951 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Nepal and India.

 Due to the Gorkhas in the Indian Army, Indian businessmen and their families in Nepal, the two countries have to carry on a cordial friendship, as well as maintain the cultural and commercial ties between the two countries.

Brave Gurkhas (a FB pseudonym) said: There was an article from a prominent Indian journalist highlighting that although India wants to be seen as the 'big brother,' Nepal is the actual big brother, having never fallen into foreign hands and always having remained a sovereign nation, while India was 'born' since independence in 1947.

Satis Shroff:  That's a new, amusing angle, Brave Gurkhas. The question of the Raj has been discussed very often in the British and Indians, and both have divided opinions about the pros and cons of the colonial times, especially the master-servant character of the set-up, proslytising Hindustan's masses to Christianity,which was a part of the church-and-state policy (that's why you have such a lot of Anglo-Indians in India and Britain).

Civil service: Then there was the question of what the British brought to India, namely the civil service. The British governors,tax-collectors and judges were completely incorruptible. The German administrators are also like that because 'Beamtentum' in Germany has a lot of meaning. If the administrators are corrupt then there can be no hope of justice and corruption, nepotism, afnu-manchey paves the way for the ruin of a country.

The Raj gave India British justice and education for its brown sahibs who later ran the country after the Brits left India.

Nepal was not conquered, and as such, didn't enjoy the establishment of a British civil service, no railways, no ropeways, no transport and telegraph systems. Only the rich Ranas had telephones and they kept the commoner Nepalese at bay by declaring Nepal a forbidden country. They did as they pleased and amused themselves in their palaces with their families, servants and slaves for over a century.

Britain taught Indians the meaning of democracy and patriotism. Indians were introduced to British culture through journey and studies abroad. The British gave their colonies also a common language: English. If the Indians didn’t have this common language,why, most of the would have to speak Punjabi, Gujerati, Behari (Hindi), Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali, not to speak of the Dravidian languages like Tamil, Telegu, Malayalum of Southern India if they wanted to communicate, trade or make friends with them.

The Raj also put an end to Sati, the burning of widows in the funeral pyres of their husbands. But bride-burning hasn't been stopped by the so-called modern, democratic Indian government. Nor gang rapes. Women are still regarded as commodities to be sold in the marriage market through dowries. This has long disappeared in Europe, but the Indians still stick to this obsolete custom. Although India has made amazing developments in the economic and commerce sectors, in terms of sociology, they have a long way to go. Indian physicians have ruined the scientific idea of sonographic diagnosis by making a biz out of the gender of the fetus. Girls are thrown away in a bucket, boys are taken care of, pampered and given all the love, attention and toys. The Brits managed to prevent religious wars between Hindus and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent for 200 years. But right after the partition of India and West Pakistan the mobs on both sides started slaughtering each other, sending trains full of maimed, injured and slaughtered Hindu and Muslim people to both countries. With the rise of the fanatical parties in Pakistan and India, both countries are suffering from communal and religious wars.

The sati-issue was solved by the British but they did nothing for the Untouchables of India and the caste system goes marching on in this age of globalization. Nevertheless when Indians die they are no longer separated according to their caste in the burning ghats. Till recently there were separate pyres according to the castes of the deceased. This a small, democratic step towards Equality in Death. Perhaps Nepal will follow suit and declare the former royal burning ghats free for all and sundry.

The Nepalese are a sturdy folk and don’t have the sub-servient Haltung (posture) of many Indians, portrayed by Peter Sellers in Hollywood films. The Brits undermined the self-confidence of the Indian population because they thought they had better self-confidence than the Indians. What was even worse is that the Brits wounded the pride of the Indian by refusing to interact with them socially. Dermatology played a significant role in this interaction. Even ordinary Brits had the developed the  attitude that the colour of the skin was decisive and put the Brit in the condescending role of the master and the Indian in the role of the servant.

Indian culture is awesome and has a long history but the Brits couldn’t care less about the ancient Indian culture. They exploited India and Indians by slowing the development of industries in India and used its raw cotton from the Deccan, jute, tea, produced textiles in Manchester and sold it in India. Millions of villagers in India suffered from drought, monsoon floods and famine as the Raj didn’t care about irrigation and measures to prevent erosion.

And when the Brits had to leave India the villagers were just as poor as before. Money is always necessary when you want to buy something, but the villagers and people living in the towns didn’t have money they went to landlords and money-lenders bartering land in exchange for money, with the forlorn hope of getting rich someday and acquiring the property back from the money lender or landlord. Hindu fathers who were poor were ruined due to the dowry system in marriages. If a father had daughters he’d not only lose his daughters to the bridegroom’s family but also money in terms of dowry.

 Sino-Nepalese Ties: The Chinese influence cannot be curtailed as long as the Maoists have a say in the Nepal's government. As to Nepal remaining a solid ally, it all depends on how India uses its diplomacy towards the small Himalayan country by not meddling with its neighbour's internal (Terai and Madeshi) issues. Delhi has to take into consideration that King Birendra also didn't meddle in the Gorkhaland issue, even though the people there speak Nepali and also in Sikkim.

Since Tatopani, the largest trading point between China and Nepal, has remained closed due to the severe quake damage in Zangmu port and disruption in Araniko highway, traders have viewed Kerung as their second option. Nepal and China celebrated the resumption of Kerung border port on Thursday nearly six months of halt following the April 25 massive earthquake.

The Nepalese were shown in the photo with flags of Nepal and China in which the people expressed their gratitude to the Chinese government for the assistance render to Nepal after the tectonic calamity earlier. The Himalayan country needs and welcomes help in many sectors from its two big neighbours Indian and China, because Nepal is a land-locked (no harbours), mountainous country.

Nepal has always been a sovereign country and was not conquered or annexed by the British East India Company. It has been ruled by the Shah Kings and the Rana dynasty till the last King Gyanendra was ousted by the Maoist government in Kathmandu. The king's Narayanhiti Palace, designed by an American architect, is now a museum.