On the one hand our culture observes nag panchami, kag, kukur, goru and gai tihar festivals seemingly recognizing the same consciousness pervading in all living beings and celebrate God’s creation in all its manifestations; respect the animals and birds, feed them and worship them. On the other hand, ours is the land of thousand of rituals and traditions that perpetually demand the blood of God’s creatures, in God’s name and in a joyous and festive mood.
Sacrificial rituals are not rituals of the common people; they are in fact the rituals of our erstwhile rulers and the rich and powerful feudal class. The Shah and Rana rulers upheld the practice to remain as lords and kept Nepalis ignorant.
Notwithstanding the brilliance of individual Nepalis, the general enterprising and hardworking and positive spirit that all Nepalis possess, we somehow remain frozen in time with barbaric, uncivilized and primitive rituals pervading every pore of our society, more suitable to the medieval ages. While such rituals eventually became extinct in other parts of the world, in Nepal just the opposite happened, it flourished.
If we ponder over our barbaric belief and practices we will realize that these rituals are not rituals of the common people; they are in fact the rituals of our erstwhile rulers and the rich and powerful feudal class. The Shah and the Rana rulers upheld the importance of animal sacrifice as the cornerstone of Hindu religion and culture, and actively promoted it during their reign. This ensured that they would continue to become lords and the people would remain as ignorant as ever.
Majority of Nepalis are not even aware that Nepal was a secular country during the time of the Lichchhavis and the Mallas, when Hindu and Buddhist religions and cultures flourished side by side. The bihars and stupas in the Kathmandu Valley built during the Lichchhavi and the Malla periods stand as testimony to this secularism. However, centuries of religious harmony eroded with the arrival of the pahadia Shah and Rana rulers. According to archeologist Dr Safalya Amatya (based on a recent personal correspondence; refer to his book Kathmandu Nagarayan published by Nepal Academy) the advent of the pahadia Shah and Rana rulers marked the beginning of orthodox Brahmanism in Nepal. This ended the practice of liberal Hinduism in the country.
In “1768 when King Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of the Gorkha principality” “unified Nepali territory by conquest,” he “proclaimed Nepal to be the ‘pure land of Hindus’ and ‘a garden of four varnas and thirty-six jats’.” This official patronage of Hinduism and its primitive social structure was even more rigidly enforced during the time of the Ranas who ruled from 1846 to 1951. Junga Bahadur Rana who founded the Rana regime is quoted by Krishna Hachhethu in Nepal: Confronting Hindu Identity as saying “In this era of Kali (kaliyug), this is the only country where Hindus rule”. (source: Babu Gogenei, Nepal: Birth of a secular state; http://www.iheu.org/node/2284).
In an effort to further strengthen the royal Hindu patronage over the Indian subcontinent, which would ensure continuation of his dynasty as the monarchs of the Hindus, King Mahendra through the constitution of Nepal 1962 enshrined his kingdom as a Hindu state and in effect a continuation of the primitive, inhumane, uncivilized and barbaric form of Hinduism flourished and increased with the rise of the power of the pahadia Shah and Rana rulers. Political patronage of barbaric rituals has led common Nepalis to falsely believe in the sanctity of the barbaric rituals. Alas, the Shah and Rana rulers succeeded very well. Today even educated Nepalis think that it is normal to sacrifice animals as this is “our” culture. It is not “our” culture; it is the culture of the Shah and Rana rulers ingrained into our national psyche over the years.
In their 200 plus years of rule and even when the former Shah King Gyanendra was in power, as recently as 2003, not only did he actively promote animal sacrifices reminiscent of the medieval ages, but was actively involved in sacrificing animals in the most savage manner on the smallest of occasions. He even went to India’s Kamakhya temple in Assam and broke Indian laws against animal sacrifice by offering them at the temple. He did it again at the Kali temple in Kolkata, India.
It is interesting to note that a group of people having linkage to the former ruling classes who championed pashu bali (animal scrifice) in the past has now turned into animal rights campaigners. Their supposed mission is to stop barbarism toward animals in Nepal but they appeal to the Americans and Europeans to do something about it via interviews to the international press.
How can appealing to the international press change our people? How can displaying our deep-rooted cultural issues and belief system to the whole world correct us? By their actions these nouveau animal rights activists are denigrating and humiliating all Nepalis. They are branding us all as barbaric forgetting that their forefathers were the source of the problem. They are ridiculing our democratic process because they are trying to send the message to the world that our democratic government condones these rituals. We cannot forget that whatever semblance of democracy we have, it allows us to protest – If Nepal was under Gyanendra’s rule today, nobody would have dared to protest openly nor organize press conferences against animal sacrifices. The ex-monarch himself was present at the last Gadhimai Mela, in 2004, as the patron of savage and inhuman rituals.
Thankfully there are thousands of Nepalis who are aware of this problem and many grassroots religious and non-religious organizations that can usher in real change have already started the process of changing our flawed belief systems.
Change however, cannot be imported into Nepal from outside, least of all by beckoning international press; it has to come from within – annihilating our collective ignorance is the key and that comes with education. This is a gradual process and might take a generation or two. It is a Nepali problem and only Nepalis as a society can slowly reduce the problem.
avantikaregmi@aol.com
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