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Memories as mirrors
- WORDS & ECHOES
APR 13 -
Nepal is desperately searching for texts to construct a working history today. I liken it to the recursive expression in American studies as “usable past’’, a past that has wrought a history, which can be used to carry on with the worldly business of the states that came under a star-spangled banner. However, the singular and monolith history of the Eurocentric people there has been questioned today. Whose past are you talking about and whose usability is it that occupies your mind are the major questions. People are coming up with new answers today. Nepal’s case is presented differently. Though the modern Nepal state came into existence in the later half of the 18th century, there did exist a geo-cultural and what can be said to be a geo-political space in this region for millennia. What bound the people together has become a subject of discussion among pundits, power holders and plebeians today.
Nepali scholars boast of Nepal being a very old country, perhaps one of the oldest in this region. Old history has created both thrills and problems. Skilful manipulators and rulers of this land did play with the psyche of power historicity, which involved keeping the British and other powerful rulers of what is South Asia today at a manageable distance. The problem side of the old nationhood lay in the fact that the feudal rulers and their landed gentries always controlled it.
When the institution of the monarchy was abolished in this country in 2008, the problem part loomed large. It was not because as some retired generals, obscurantist and antiquated and misguided politicians, Hindu mendicants and political mongrels claim that people want to restore the old feudal order, but because the republicans and the political leaders who led the movements for freedom could not understand the sensitivity that history always shows at moments of big transformations; and that needs careful attention. What was needed and is needed now more than ever is that the political parties should consolidate the achievements of history.
Those who want to restore the monarchy want to tap both the people’s memories and evidence of past history to build up a discourse of political power. But memories of feudal Nepal were always moving around the hegemonic power centres created by the monarchs and their henchmen. New forms of memories are awakening today. The monolith history of Nepal kept by the feudal aristocracy covered up multiple memories in this country. But a study of the surfeit of texts produced after the death of Girija Prasad Koirala alias Girija Babu on March 20 shows a somewhat different anxiety of the political leaders, social scientists and historians of this country.
The memoirs and analyses come separately, sometimes jointly. More than half of the memoirs are texts produced by journalists after conversations with the narrators. The rest of the memoirs are either analytical pieces or recollections produced by people who knew Girja Babu, and by some who worked with him. This structure opens up two modes of discussions, those related to the media and politics in Nepal and everywhere else and others related to confusions, indecisions and achievements in the field of politics, government change, peace process and power successions.
First, media connections. Media pundits and analysts agree on certain working modes of this genre. The media takes fragments of the times piecemeal and creates cogent narratives. Or it turns the ongoing events into a narration and produces usable texts. But the text producers leave their impact on them. Information arrangement is another side of it. Politicians know that if their narratives are passed on to the public through the media people’s help, they can create a situation or form a system of opinion that will work in their favour. The corpus of memory texts that I have collected since a little before or after Girija Babu’s death shows the following patterns.
The memories of Nepali Congress leaders and Girija Babu’s co-workers are surprisingly varied. Some are highly opportunistic. Those who took the greatest advantage from a long period of Girija Babu’s power position appear to be very harsh in their criticisms. They have revealed what they call some secrets in their memoirs. Their charges are serious. They present GPK as a conspirator, unreliable and selfish power manipulator. Some of his own relatives who enjoyed power for a long time with Girija Babu’s blessings have bad things to say about him. His other party colleagues show their dilemmas. Though they never supported Girija Babu’s bold decisions to open up new frontiers of political partnership and involvement of diverse political groups, they have called him an initiator of a new political climate, a great charismatic person who ended a bloody period in Nepali history. But their actions show they will not live up to their words. They are rubbing the same old political logic.
Some political leaders in their memoirs produced by the media appear to be creating what Nepali Congress leader Arjun Narsingh K.C. calls an unnecessary mysticism about leadership. K.C.’s political analysis shows that the message of Girija Babu to his party was not that of pushing the party into mysticism and indecision that has plagued this giant old democratic party for so long. Some Congress party leaders had been engaged in the bizarre act of bringing back an old freedom fighter but now a senile obscurantist K.P. Bhattarai into “active politics” with a call to restore the monarchy. They think the Nepali Congress is a Himalayan sajeevani herb that can make senile octogenarians youthful and active again. That means they never understood Girija Babu’s political strength.
Girija Babu’s legacy, if you read the glowing tributes paid to him by the Maoist leaders and the young generation Congress leaders in the media, can be taken up not by old people but only by the political leaders of the young generation. Girija Babu was not old in politics but in body. My reading of the texts shows that Girija Babu’s death has triggered the memories of those who have either been thinking very clearly about the future direction of Nepali politics or hiding their discontent with Girija Babu; but ironically, hiding in the very holes burrowed around his tall mountain.
But a careful reading shows that the texts produced by either the Nepali Congress people or the Maoists hold political significance. Interestingly, what the United Marxist Leninist (UML) leaders have to say does not appear to make much difference. Their memoirs are formal and bland. They have paid gentle tributes to Girija Babu. A careful textual reading speaks volumes, if you like.
Finally, a few questions remain unanswered. Is the media a text maker or are the politicians themselves the makers of media texts? These questions hold great significance at the time of writing this op-ed piece when the present government is in the doldrums. However, the essence of all the texts produced around Girija Babu is that nothing is lost, and it is time to work with a clear conscience and openness for all.
One positive thing that these Girija Babu texts show is that every responsible person appears to be guided by a dual anxiety of turning memory and history into hope. And these texts can confirm that active anxiety.
Abhi Subedi
abhi@mail.com.np
Posted on: 2010-04-14 07:19
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