Long-distance patriotism is possible—that is what envoys, spies and soldiers serving abroad do—but risks are relatively high in comparison to likely rewards. For most people, patriotism requires an unwavering commitment to the land of their birth, adoption, or desires. Circumstances sometimes may force patriots to go into self-exile, but they work tirelessly to return back ‘home’.[break]
If love is the passion of a patriot, nationalists live by hate. Religious nationalists despise heretics. Ethno-nationalists loathe minorities. Nationalists advocating purity of race or ethnicity abhor ‘polluting’ presence and are willing to exterminate them—Hitler is merely a personification, the idea of superiority of one’s race is more widespread in the world than is admitted in civilized conversations. Given half-a-chance, it is not very difficult to imagine what Hindutvabadis would do to Muslims or how Mullahs and Ayatollahs would treat not only ‘kafirs’ but even believers in sects of Islam different from their own. Buddhist monks of Burma and Sri Lanka are not too well known for displaying excessive ‘karuna’ towards Rohangiyas and Tamils of their own countries.
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A patriotic-nationalist is a psychopath. The combination of love and hate is a dangerous mix. A nationalist-patriot is possible but unlikely. Real love, whether for a person or a country, makes fanatical hatred difficult to cultivate. That could be one of the reasons zealots of all persuasions consider songs, arts and literature effeminate and unwarlike. Nationalists of Nepal claim that they are also patriots but most of them would be ready to trade it for a more comfortable life at the first opportunity. The Nasiri Regiment, which would later become the 1st King George’s Own Gurkha Riffles, was built for hordes of Gorkhali deserters rushing to join the ‘enemy’ they had fought so valorously.
Fungible fealty
Reasons behind the weak fidelity of Gorkhalis towards their state and society are many and complex, chief among them is perhaps a complete disconnection between the ruling families and the people they have ruled over for centuries. The country has been treated as property for so long by so few families that the people left out of the charmed circle have little loyalty for the land. At best, it provides them with a platform to explore more lucrative opportunities at home or abroad.
The rich and powerful are world citizens. The poor and weak have no country. The middleclass is what makes a state exist and run. Due to closed nature of Permanent Establishment of Nepal (PEON), ambitious among the bourgeoisie feel that they have hit the glass ceiling. They want to go where they believe their talent and competence would be better compensated. Most eDV aspirants are hardly from the bottom ladder of Nepali society. Many of them actually have done quite well for themselves but believe that their country should have done more for them in lieu of what they have done for it.
The patriotism of the petty-bourgeoisie is so visible because it’s so shallow. It breaks easily. All it needs is a selection number of eDV Lottery and the prospective Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) begins to pour scorn over the country of his birth. The ones that had failed to make to the winners’ list would wait patiently for the next draw of lots.
The US government publicized the result of eDV Lottery on May Day. The choice of the date is telling: the US government and industry need more and more energetic, loyal but docile people to run their global empire. Additionally, ties with the homeland of immigrants must be sufficiently weak to break easily in order to bind them to the idea of American exceptionalism (“the greatest country ever to exist”) and attendant duties and obligations of citizens of the New World. From South Asia, Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis are not eligible for eDV draws.
Nepalis have always made excellent mercenaries and it is likely that eDV winners would serve the New World Empire as diligently as they had served the Old One, especially because the promises of rewards are higher. Implications for Nepal, however, are probably not very encouraging. Most of eDV winners have been reared either in the Mahendrabadi or Marxist traditions. They would continue to harangue the land they have deserted with long-distance sermons about advantages of assimilation, uniformity and integration over coexistence, diversity and identity. Cries will become shriller when they would have to face explicit (hate crimes) and implicit (condescension) discrimination becoming increasingly rampant in US society.
President Barack Obama declared May 2013 as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Inherent to the proclamation is a separate admission that “South Asian Americans—particularly those who are Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh—have too often faced senseless violence and suspicion due only to the color of their skin or the tenets of their faith” as is the resolve to reform immigration laws so that “America can continue to be a magnet for the best and brightest from all around the world, including Asia and the Pacific”. All eDV winners, despite their illusions, are hardly the best and brightest of the world. The country of their origin would have to bear the brunt of their frustrations and consequent implications.
Inescapable otherness
At first sight, the continued existence of racial and ethnic discrimination—whether at personal or institutional level is immaterial—appears irrational and ‘primitive’ indicating the failure of modern civilization. However, it is so widespread that it can’t be completely illogical.
Four years ago, neuroscientists of University of Toronto Scarborough discovered that there was a basic difference “in the way people’s brains react to those from other ethnic backgrounds”. Findings confirmed results of previous researches that “people were less likely to feel connected to people outside their own ethnic groups”.
Competing political ideologies of what historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) called the “short twentieth century”—starting with the First World War in 1914 and ending with the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991—refused to accommodate quest for identity and dignity. Little wonder, assertion of identity has become the most pressing form of resistance after the decomposition of capitalism into putrid plutocracy and a challenge for oligarchies that have emerged from the rubble of communism in former Soviet Union and East Europe.
Established societies prefer the identity of the political borders—even a die-hard conservative like Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) once admitted that a man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country’s flag—but cultural boundaries would be more important for people extracted from their roots and planted in alien lands. Political identity among Nepalis has always been weak; but the official cultivation of Gorkhali chauvinism is as old as the history of the ‘unified’ country. It would get a lot worse before starting to get better.
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