I do not know about the good and bad consequences of federalism. At times, the demands for federalism look valid when we experience the plights of marginal race and communities. And again, when we observe the abilities of political leadership, federalism connotes disintegration. Some say that the political center will not listen to us until we have federal states. The others say that a small nation like Nepal cannot afford to be stratified. I do not know and hence consider me out of place in regards to the debates of federalism.
I love to interact with my students and those students who are intelligent enough to take matters seriously. I learn from them and they learn from me. There are very few such people nowadays. There are good readers too around us. The fact is if we read, by the token of reading, we are good readers. All readers are good people. Our politicians do not read.
Let me return to the issue I proposed in the beginning. Forgetfulness! Amnesia! Ernest Renan, the French philosopher while lecturing on “What is a nation?” strongly proposed, “Forgetting, I would even go so far as historical error, is a crucial factor in the creation of a nation.” You have to forget many other things to construct and believe in a nation.
Nation is a negotiated construct of commonalities. We have to imagine that there are common Nepali features and that is why Nepal is a nation. Out of multiplicities, we have to come to a common point of agreement that there are some features of this country which are the common ones. The other features have to be forgotten if not completely annihilated from memory.
I think forgetfulness is not erasing the event or idea from our thoughts. Forgetfulness presupposes that the events and ideas are there in the very tiny corner of our memory. There always are traces of past even in forgetfulness. You have to consider this particular proposition to agree to me.
It is difficult to form a commonality. We have to believe in ourselves that there are some features, characteristics in this country which we all share with greater acceptance, and these features are stronger than many other features to bond the space called Nepal. We have to negotiate that there is a common medium of communication to which we all agree, that we have common symbols: An animal, a flower, a flag.
You have to forget all other flowers as the symbol of Nepaliness and come to one particular symbolism. Likewise, you have to forget other languages to construct a singular Nepali language as the most shared and representative national language. One must notice that forgetfulness is the base of believing in a nation. Forgetting does not mean that other languages or objects do not exist. But for Nepaliness other languages and objects are not common to all of us. You have to come to a point of forgetfulness in the domain of a nation and its definitions.
Other things exist but not in the domain of a nation. Forgetfulness is not complete erasure of the others, so the other things exist but you have to indulge in amnesia. Renan calls this historical error and such errors are for good to form a nation. How do I conceive a nation if I do not forget that there are some commonalities in this country which represent the nation and others are not or the others are less strong commonalities?
Nation is made when we dare to forget many other things. Outside the big political bowl called a nation, other things exist but in the bowl-nation, we have to forget that other materials, languages, symbols, foods, dresses, songs, et al do not appear. This is a strange kind of forgetfulness. Nation is built on such modes of amnesia.
Let us take a particular instance. You have to be careful about my stance because I am nowhere making value judgment. I am propositional in mode. What is a common Nepali dress which symbolizes Nepali nation? We call it Daura Surwal. Does that mean other dresses are not representative of a nation called Nepal? It does not but my point is that to form a nation, you have to forget that other dresses are representative to symbolize a nation. Other dresses do not come to form a Nepali commonality.
Others exist – they are respected, they are revered – but they have to be forgotten in the construction of a composite whole called Nepal as a nation. Forgetfulness is that fine line of keeping the rice, dal, vegetable in the bowl and forgetting others to fulfill your being.
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