E-Kantipur

Tortoise-like, the country is moving again to the finish line.  The formation of the State Restructuring Commission wisely added the term “sujhaw” (Advisory) to its name and vowed to maintain its independence.  These are welcome signs.  It appears that all of a sudden with Baburam Bhattarai as the Prime Minister, parties have seen the light and processes, despite minor hiccups, have become smooth.  These augur well for the country.

The media interviews Commission members have given, too, suggest that despite all the criticism its formation invited for lack of known names, the parties have chosen wisely.  For the idea of an authoritative federal model—whether it’s four, fourteen or forty—by a commission of experts is a red herring.  And the idea of experts, too, doesn’t appear authoritative to address an essentially political problem.  In fact, expertise devoid of political acumen, multi-ethnic vision and complex moral compass can mislead, producing a Frankenstein or a Dr. Faust.  And experts have often proven to be politically biased, producing their deep-seated, culture-nurtured biases expertly.  If knowledge was the sole arbiter of heightened moral sensibility, the Hindu caste society, dominated by its knowledge-worshipping Brahmins, would have become egalitarian centuries ago.  So, I applaud Prachanda’s insistence that if there was to be a Chairman of the Commission, the person must be from the Janjati groups.

A dire trust deficit has grown between the dominant minority and the marginalised majority over the past centuries in Nepal.  As long as there was dictatorship, as in other authoritarian regimes, the marginalised and the disgruntled had to keep quiet.  But in a democracy, every group is free to voice its concerns and spread even falsehoods.  Before, many among the dominant group spread prejudices about the marginalised and took decisions and influenced policies in their favour and against the marginalised.  In a free society, the marginalised majority, if frustrated in its rightful aspirations, can spread hatred against their erstwhile oppressor.  This tit-for-tat attitude can lead to a culture of vengeance.  It was, therefore, Prachanda’s foresight to insist on a janjati chairperson for Commission. 

Now, many have charged that the formation of the Commission is an automatic endorsement of ethnic or nationality-based federalism because many among the experts on federalism who belonged to the dominant group were not included.  While a healthy skepticism about any institution that wields power to affect the course of people’s destiny is desirable, the hue and cry reveals a dearth of moderation and introspection. 

The Commission members have rightly publicised their mandate as a limited one to sort out the disagreements contained in the report of the State Restructuring Committee of the Constituent Assembly.  The Commission’s mandate, therefore, is not to create a chasm but a compromise to help forge the middle ground where justice, peace and prosperity come into an effective balance.

I want to offer just one example of how the balance can get skewed.  I recently watched a Bollywood flick called Khap made on the issue of honour killing in Haryana.  The tyrannical Khap is a caste group of people of the same gotra but even those who are not of the same gotra can belong to the same Khap.  And young men and women of the same Khap can’t marry each other.  If any one dares so because they fall in love, then the elders presided by the Chief, usually called Chaudary, subject the couple to purification (Shuddhikaran) by killing the transgressors. As proven by real events in Haryana and Delhi, a number of college educated young men and women have been murdered recently by their Khap members to save their so-called family or Khap honour.  In a federal Nepal where each of the federal states and within its nationalities or ethnicities will receive power of self-determination, who is to say that many Bishwendra Paswans won’t do everything, including honour killing, to break their daughters’ or sons’ marriage with somebody they don’t want.  If Paswan, a Dalit himself, can threaten

the free will of his daughter so can a Yadav or a Jhaor  a Janjati or a high caste hill Hindu in his Bahun or Chetri Samaj. 

So, among other challenges, the Commission needs to be clear about an individual’s rights within each group to assert his or her personal freedom.  What does nurturing, safeguarding and being proud of one’s group identity mean?  How far does it go?  And who is to do such a safeguarding?  Where justice ends and injustice begins?  Where do group rights clash with individual’s right to free will and free choice? As we know, philosophers from Plato and Aristotle down to post-Marxists have debated the issue of individuals’ rights v society’s group identity and pressures.  Greatest good of the greatest number has time and again clashed with each individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The values of Western democracies (for various reasons) that emphasise the monadic self have clashed  with those of the communitarian beliefs of (to give but two examples) communism and traditional societies, such as the Khap system of Haryana, the caste system of many parts of India and Nepal and the patriarchal dictates of Shariah in many Muslim societies. While it is always good for the village to raise a child, the same village can display village idiocy (this is Marx speaking) in many other matters when the child makes his or her independent choice as a young man or woman.

The challenge before the Commission (and the CA itself) is to effect a balance between individual’s rights and community identity; between justice for past injustice and future injustice for past justice; between the necessity, affirmation, and sustenance of group identity and the potential tyranny any group identity can unleash on individuals; and between traditional rights of ethnic groups and the modern rights of people who have migrated over the centuries for livelihood.  The task is indeed tough.  And they would need to give their all and some to achieve the delicate balance. Good luck to them.

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