A couple of years ago I was reading a book. When a reader reads any work of fiction, if the writing has any power, the reader finds himself attached to the book’s principal characters. However, if the book is a well-written work of non-fiction, the reader finds himself subconsciously occupied with the writer himself as he flips the pages.
As I turned to the last few pages of the book, I had this strong longing to meet the writer and talk to him and compliment him on his praiseworthy effort. But I was saddened to learn that the writer was not in our midst today, particularly so at a time when our country is going through widespread transformations.
As a rebellious socio-anthropologist, Professor Dor Bahadur Bista wrote valiantly. He would leave no stones unturned and spare no one while dissecting the ills of Nepali society. We need to keep in mind that when he started writing there was no freedom of expression in Nepal. Bista did not compromise with party-less system: if he saw a spade he would call it so.
Prof. Bista lulls you into his world of meticulous observation and inferences as he traverses multiple layers of Nepal’s psycho-social dynamics over different eras and regions. He was ruthless in his attack of the age-old caste system and its legacy of ‘untouchability’ in our society. Bista was perhaps the first to write openly against the insidious practices of nepotism and favoritism, which regrettably is still endemic in our administrative set up and bureaucracy.
He vehemently criticized the rotten practice of sycophancy whereby civil service and government employees were valued more on the basis of the strength of their connections with top officials than on the basis of their work.
In Fatalism and Development he has bravely taken it upon himself to denounce many wrong practices within his own community. Prof. Bista objectively pointed out the deficiencies in his own kith and kin’s faith, perceptions, beliefs, practices and value systems.
He was much pained by the hidden plight of the Dalits. The desensitized Nepali society back then was utterly without empathy for this group of marginalized people. Though such a practice was officially outlawed at the time, it was Prof. Bista who helped bring to light the caste-divide based on the 1854 ‘Muluki Ain’.
Prof. Bista steadfastly held on to the Gandhian ideology of ‘satyagraha’ or the force of truth when he dissected the social ills of Nepali society. He stood firmly for justice, equality and freedom as is evident in his writings right through his life.
He was a true scholar who roamed all over the country, scanning every terrain from plains to hills to mountains during his research work aimed at painting a realistic portrayal of Nepali society, its cultures, attitudes, values, perceptions and belief systems.
He took a hard-hitting approach in his well-researched 1991 book Fatalism and Development, condemning ‘Brahmanism’; this was much before the Maoists movement started criticizing ‘Nepali Bahunwad and its orthodox ramifications’.
Born in 1925 at Jaruwarasi village south of Patan, Prof. Bista was the first Nepali anthropologist of Nepal. He matriculated from Patan High School before joining Trichandra College. In 1952, he would take up the job of a head master at a girls’ high school in Patan. The ‘Father of Nepali Anthropology’ would start his career in anthropology in 1957 as an apprentice under Austrian Ethnologist Professor Christoph von Furer Haimendorf who was based at the University of London. The two would go on to Solu-Khumbu to study highland Sherpas. Overtime, Prof. Bista imbibed his tutor’s method of anthropological research and inference collection.
The last days of Prof. Bista is still shrouded in mystery. In 1995 he boarded a bus from Nepalgunj to Dhangadi while travelling in western Nepal. He has not been seen since.
In Nepal’s modern history, Professor Bista the anthropologist stands on the same pedestal as Laxmi Prasad Devkota the poet in that both were way ahead of their time in their thoughts and attitudes.
Here, I am reminded of an incident related to a world famous prisoner. One day, this particular prisoner was visited by his wife in the jail. The wife informed him that while he was in incarceration, one of his good friends had passed away. On hearing the news of his friend’s death, the prisoner is reported to have expressed great sadness and pain.
This prisoner at Robben Island jail was none other than Nelson Mandela, the first black President of free and democratic South Africa. Mandela’s good friend who had died outside was Bram Fischer.
Fischer was a free white man in Apartheid South Africa, belonging to a privileged and influential white Dutch South African family. He could have amassed vast wealth through his legal profession and have had all the luxuries in the world at his feet if he so desired.
Nepal’s first anthropologist was way ahead of his time in speaking against cast-and-caste-based discriminations.
Yet Fischer decided to fight the legal battle in favor of Mandela and his African National Congress party which was at the time waging a struggle against the Apartheid regime that discriminated against black South Africans. Fischer was a firm supporter of Mandela’s cause for freedom, justice and racial equality and chose to join the fight against the white-ruled Apartheid regime that sponsored racial discrimination. For his public stance against the old regime, Fisher was jailed many times in the period.
When Mandela found out that his good friend and partner Bram Fischer had died, Mandela sat down on his Robben Island prison cell and looking out from his little window at the craggy and beautiful Table mountain, he wrote on his diary that day: “Bram’s conscience forced him to reject his own heritage and be ostracized by his own people. He showed a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself. I only fought against injustice, but Bram Fischer my dear friend fought against his own people. No matter what I suffered in my pursuit for freedom, I always took strength from the fact that I was fighting with my people by my side and for my own people. But Bram Fischer was a free man who fought against his own people to ensure the freedom of others.”
Dor Bahadur Bista’s beliefs and convictions, and his withering criticism of Varna system, sycophancy and nepotism in Nepal, it might be argued, makes him Nepal’s own Bram Fischer.
chheringyonzon@gmail.com
Related story
Hero Motocorp and Gogoro form joint venture to introduce Gogoro...
