GPK´s funeral pyre was set alight by his daughter. The post cremation rituals have been entrusted to priests. But these acts of not sticking to established custom pale in comparison to decisions GPK and many in the Koirala family took in their lives. [break]
Marrying a divorcee 60 years ago
In the 1950s, GPK married Sushma Koirala, a divorcee who had a son from her previous marriage.
"It was something unthinkable in Nepali society back then," says Dr Shekhar Koirala, GPK´s nephew.
Sushma´s son, Suresh, eventually adopted the Koirala surname, and is the eldest among the Koirala cousins of his generation. He was present during GPK´s cremation at Pashupati Aryaghat on Sunday.
Even before his marriage, GPK had shocked many by disregarding custom. While still a new face in trade union politics in the mid-1940s, GPK challenged the prevalent custom of the time by drinking water offered to him by Dr Khalil Miya at the latter´s residence at Bhuta VDC of Sunsari. This was the first known case of a Brahmin in Nepal engaging in such ´sacrilege´.
The Koiralas have also not been very particular about the nationality and religion of their life partners. And in the late 1950s, a member of the Koirala family married a Muslim.
GPK´s sister Vijaya Laxmi informed the Koirala family just before the 1958 election that she wished to get married to Mohammad Akram Zaki of Pakistan, who went on to become his country´s Foreign Secretary. Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, who was warned by many that marrying off a girl from the family to a Muslim man would guarantee electoral defeat, gave a go ahead nonetheless.
Several members of the Koirala family have married across nationalities. GPK´s daughter Sujata married a German, while his nephew Dr Shashank married a Thai national.
The Koirala family has also not been very particular about observing post-cremation rituals.
It so happened that the family did not at all observe such rituals after Bishweshwar Prasad´s death, though the family does not detest custom as such.
"I myself did not attend my father´s funeral as I had my exams then," Dr Shekhar said. "We are not rigid about custom. But it is not that we don´t observe them at all," he clarified.
Following GPK´s death, Dr Shekhar and several of his siblings and cousins are currently observing an abbreviated mourning ritual that has become popular in the Koirala family -- not consuming salt for three days.
GPK was not a religious man. But he wasn´t an atheist either. Probably the only time in the year he visited a temple was during Dashain. "He was usually in Biratnagar on Ashtami (in Dashain). On that day, he would visit the Kali temple there. The temple was built by his father," said Dr Shekhar.
In his final years, GPK hobnobbed quite regularly with Buddhist monks, and once said jestingly in Dr Shekhar´s presence, "These people might end up turning me into a Buddhist."
A heritage of rebellion
The Koirala family contributed to social awakening and modernization in Nepal through their rebellious ways, observed Dr Abhi Subedi, professor of English.
"GPK´s father Krishna Prasad, who had the audacity to send some torn clothes to Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher to make him realize how bad the living conditions of poor Nepalis was, planted the culture of rebellion in the Koirala family," Subedi said.
But it was Bishweshwar Prasad who institutionalized the practice of challenging the establishment, and it was he who did not allow the marriages of GPK and Vijaya Laxmi to become sources of conflict in the family, he opined.
"Had such marriages occurred in other families back then, conflict was certain. But Bishweshwar Prasad was a revolutionary, and he was therefore expected to encourage the flouting of traditions," he said.
The liberal ideas of the Koirala family, especially that of Bishweshwar, influenced many Nepalis. "Many Congress sympathizers ended up adopting these liberal values, especially in eastern Nepal," he added.
bikash@myrepublica.com
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