Something about Suvash
It was exactly a month ago today that Suvash Darnal died in a car accident in Washington DC. To say that he was a household name would not be quite correct since many people did not know who he was until they read about his death in the papers. But then he really had not had the time to make that kind of impact even though what he had already achieved in his short 31 years is arguably more that what most of us will struggle to match in a whole lifetime.
Among those who knew Suvash, rare was the person who failed to be impressed either by his dynamism or the breadth of his vision. And he had the self-confidence to back it all up, and had proved time and again that he could get things done.
Starting from the humblest of backgrounds and against all odds, in less than a decade he had earned the credibility to join the ranks of better-known Kathmandu activists. He was invited to serve on the boards of a number of organisations, and I’m sure he often needed reminding how many he was part of.
There is no denying that the imperatives of post-2006 Nepal compelled many organisations to become more inclusive, and the unkind even suggested that he served the purpose of providing the ‘Dalit face’ in such groups. But it would be a travesty to suggest that Suvash was simply the token Dalit since in his person, he symbolised a changing Nepal and many were quick to recognise that. There are Dalit leaders (not in the political sense) who have a much longer history of activism, and there will certainly be more in the future, but there was something about Suvash that made him the natural choice.
Suvash’s struggle was for the rights of Dalits to be recognised as equal citizens of Nepal. And he found innovative ways to push his agenda. The highly successful TV serial, Dalan, produced by Jagaran Media Centre, which Suvash founded, was one such example.
Shepherded by Suvash, Dalan was a milestone in more ways than one. That it dealt with the issue of social injustice through a popular medium is in itself commendable, in an era when satellite TV tends to dumb down to cater to the lowest common denominator. It also challenged the normative depiction of Nepali social life, and brought the travails of life as a Dalit into Nepali living rooms. And it managed to do so without resorting to caricature or gratuitous homilies, the staple of programmes with a ‘social message’.
His was not a sophisticated intellect. Not yet, at least, for I am sure he would have gotten there. After all, he was just warming up. But he had an astute and intuitive mind that allowed him to see and understand issues from a perspective that belied his young years.
For instance, it was he who told a group of us that the caste barriers that had seemingly broken down within the Maoist party during the time of the ‘people’s war’ were being gradually resurrected. He pointed to the ‘inter-caste’ unions involving Dalits and others entered into during the conflict years, a number of which were breaking down mainly at the initiation of the non-Dalit partner. That, he said, was also emblematic of how the Maoists had forgotten their promises to Dalits, after actively courting them for more than a decade.
He was also able to resolve a conundrum that had troubled many of us for a while; namely, why Dalit CA members could not band together for rights specific to the Dalit community (a problem common to members from other marginalised groups as well, albeit to varying but lesser degrees). One would have believed that with the 50 of them working in tandem, they could get a lot done. Instead, all of them toed the party line without demur even when it went against the interests of Dalits.
The answer Suvash gave was profound in its simple logic. Barring a few exceptions, away from the party fold, Dalit CA members are absolute nobodies. Their party membership not only invests them with social and political standing, in many instances, even provides them with their daily bread and butter.
That, of course, was a function of centuries of exclusion—from social intercourse, from political power, and, most damagingly, from education. The last, Suvash felt very acutely and to address an obvious paucity of well-educated and capable Dalit scholars, Samata Foundation, of which he was the managing director, had set up a long-term fellowship programme. This would serve the double purpose of involving promising young Dalits in research and who would, in turn, also support Dalit CA members in identifying issues and providing talking points during the CA deliberations. It was for the same reason that earlier this year he organised an international conference on Nepal’s Dalits, an event that managed to attract some high-profile responses. Like I said, he was just beginning.
Unlike so many who manage donor-funded organisations, Suvash did not take a salary for running Samata Foundation. All the money that he managed to raise went into the Foundation’s programmes. As for himself, he would commonly be found pounding the Kathmandu streets as he tried to meet the many demands on his time, and seek avenues to raise concerns close to his heart.
To paraphrase John Donne, each Nepali’s subjugation diminishes us. Until we can ensure that all Nepalis can sit together as equals at the table of brotherhood, using Martin Luther King, Jr’s memorable words, all our achievements will continue to remain flawed. With a single-minded devotion and dedication, Suvash tried to rectify that and make Nepal a better place for all, particularly its most oppressed citizens, and perhaps enable us to raise our heads slightly higher.
But parochialism runs deep in our society. In his death he was mostly viewed as a Dalit activist, and no more. Despite his prominent role in founding the Collective Campaign for Peace, which played such a crucial role during the 2006 People’s Movement II to restore democracy, the various civil society organisations and actors who had worked with him remained mainly silent.
Even in the USA, where his body lay for weeks, among the hundreds of Nepali organisations there, it was only the Nepali-American Society for Oppressed Community, an organisation of Nepali Dalits, that held any function in his remembrance. It was their loss since little did the others realise that they had missed a chance to pay tribute to a true Nepali hero.
Posted on: 2011-09-15 09:17
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