Equality in mockery

This is right time, I think, we can talk about Equality in Mockery. In context of Nepal, Madheshis have been being mocked for long time in Nepali media and in Nepali society. The mainstream nepali native speakers easily make fun of Madheshis in terms of Nepali accent and they enjoy bursting, big, forceful laughter and some madheshis also show artificial laughter concealing their inner shame since they have been also mocked and have been made fun of many times esp. in pahadi society. Laughter by madheshis is a psychological attempt to prove that they are educated ones and they can speak better Nepali in comparison to illiterate Madheshis. 

            But till now no madhesh based media has ever dared to mock Nepali speaking people  in terms of Bhojpuri, Maithali, Awadhi, Hindi  or on the base of other Madheshi language accents, why? Is it because Madheshi people don't dare or is it because most of the medias are sponsored by Nepali people, and not Madheshi. ( Nowadays I feel pain to call myself Nepali because whenever I said I was easily rejected by Nepali people, though all of them didn't directly oppose me but they used "hami nepali tapai (if slightly respected) madheshi" ie.-we nepali you Madheshi, most of the time they call "timi" ie.disrespectful "you" regardless of the seniority of Madheshi in age specially when the Madheshi is in Junior post or uneducated or illiterate. One of my best friends, a Newar girl, trying not to hurt me, calls me "hami nepali ra timiharuko jaat" ie.we nepali and your race).
            The positive thing now I found in Madheshi medias is that they are at least trying to write freely and favoring Madhesh unlike the Nepali medias who are writing and speaking apparently against Madhesh. The impact of the mockery of Madheshi is so deep that they feel humiliated and many of them have lost self esteem. As a result they try to follow or imitate Nepali accent every time even with their friends and family to such an extent that they have almost forgotten their mother tongue. This is the clear evidence of their psychology that they feel shame to speak their mother tongue.
           Some Nepali people may find my logic offensive but I am sure if they think honestly they will find it logical. If they (Nepali Medias) were not meant to offend madheshi then at least original Madheshi should have been given chance to play those roles of mocking madheshi accent. This is a bitter irony that many Nepali actors achieved high respect in Nepal and became very famous TV and movie stars just because of the mockery of Madheshi language accent. But almost no Madheshi is found famous in Nepal as an actor. And it is simply because Nepalis never gave a sentimental proximity to Madheshis.

            It is perhaps practices of all over the world. In Indian Cinema some people play as mocking Englishmen, Nepali, Punjabi, Gujarati or even Chinese or Japanese people etc. In Nepali movies also the Nepali actors, as a revenge... perhaps, make fun of Madheshi. Earlier I thought big and rich people or Country only can do this against weak and small but I was wrong because India is not richer and stronger than China or Japan and England but may be it is equal in power nowadays. One may argue that it is only limited in certain locality not in international market. So OK, no problem, let madheshis do it in Madhesh based media only, can you? I solemnly believe that this would make madheshi realize big freedom.
               I am called "black sir" or "Madhishe" in my school in Kathmandu by an innocent three class newar girl. Some times she calls me "Babaa" ie."Dad" as well, in response to my address to her as "chhori" ie.”daughter". Other students of class five also try to call me black but I usually don't mind because many of the newar students are far blacker than I am. But when students of class eight call me "dhoti" I am badly infuriated.  Now the question is who taught the three class girl to call me Madhise or how did the eight class students dare to call me "dhoti"? Did their parents teach no manner? How many Madheshi students mock Nepali teachers in Madhesh? My clear answer is -Not even a single student. But now I guess Madheshi students may do it in future as a revenge and as an impact of Madheshi Movement.

        To compete with Nepali, Madheshi must be guaranteed equality in mockery too.
           A few Madhesis and almost all Nepali ask why Madheshi don't call themselves Nepali. The answer is above because of no respect, no equality, no opportunity but only mockery etc. They never provided a clean practical environment which would let Madheshi feel Nepali. Nor is it possible for a conscious Madheshi because here, certain races from Darjeeling to Bhutan are accepted as Nepali but original Madheshis are not accepted as Nepali. How can a Bhutanese or Indian from Darjeeling or Sikkim etc places despite having their Indian or Bhutanese Citizenship be Nepali? It clearly proves Nepali is racism not nationalism. Or it is ethnicity ot nationality.
       About 15/16 years ago I showed my copy to Nepali teacher /madam in nine class in my copy that was one copied style from BP Koirala. I had written  "I found myself doing something...." The teacher said my language was poor. Then I guessed she had not read that type of language in Nepali because it is English diction. But she could say that because she was a teacher and in the other hand she was native speaker of Nepali. I have found many times some Pahadi people speaking wrong Nepali which  is nothing for them but when a Madheshi commits a mistake s/he  becomes subject of redicule ( I myself became many times). Once one of my landlords tried to teach me that human feet are called "Goda" not "Khutta" that I had used but even after that I found many native speakers of Nepali use "Khutta". I only understood they tried to correct me for nothing useful only to humiliate me. Once in class in Tribhuvan University in MA our a so-called scholar used "Dhoti" word which reflects the mentality of Some Nepali scholars. And the Madheshi students did little to oppose it.

    It seems mockery to Madheshi from Nepali is almost impossible to stop but we can start mockery to Pahadi to balance like the weighing machine to make each other feel all are equal.

       Even in Madhesh, Madheshis are made fun of in terms of Nepali accents not in only media but in your face in society they can ridicule you and you have to laugh out of shame. But reversely you are not expected to speak and mock them for their bad Maithali, Bhojpuri , Awadhi, Hindi etc. The day Madheshi will start to mock them back that day Madheshi will come out with inferior complexity and would live happily.

-PAVAN KUMAR SUSIL

http://www.hulakinews.com/blog-equality-in-mockery/

Hindi in Nepal

Hindi has become a big controversial issue for decades among so-called Nepali nationalist. One of my best teachers in my life was a person from Upadhyay Brahmin he often used to speak Hindi and predicted that Hindi would soon be the second largest spoken language in the world. We witnessed Dr.Baburam Bhattarai speaking Hindi when he addressed agitators in Janakpur. Not only this, I have heard Girija Prasad Koirala speaking Hindi informally with some Madheshi leaders in Chandranigahpur when Manisha Koirala had also gone door to door asking for vote for her father Prakash Koirala in south and mid Rautahat 1999 AD . I heard many Congress leaders speaking Hindi in that period of time. And the biggest example is KP Oli whom the world heard and witnessed speaking Hindi in media. Similarly Prachanda spoke Hindi in response of an Indian report's questions in English in an interview just after he became Prime minister second time. 

      We know many Nepali scholars have got better knowledge in Banaras India and they definitely have learnt and used it. Some Nepali poets like Bhupi Sherchan wrote some poems in Hindi and became proud to hear his admiration from Indian and Nepali fellow students that time  but when the matter of Hindi as an official language comes into ground in Madhesh why does it irk the self declared Nepali Nationalists? 

    It is reported that even Laxmi Prasad Devkota had made a physical attack on one of the then scholars and Hindi supporter high profile from Dixit family for advocating to declare Hindi a national language in Nepal.

 Using Nepali or declaration of Nepali as national language of Nepal is one thing but unnecessary obstruction of the use of Hindi in Nepal is a part of hatred politics issue. 

Terai/Madhesh has different history. And Madhesh shares almost all north Indian cultures, costumes, rituals, lanuage, caste, religion and sentiments. Madhesh still recognises India as our dearer than Kathmandu and other part of Nepal because of its proximity to India and Indian culture and marital bonds across border too. Even after Madhesh was given to Nepal by British colonial government in 1816 and in 1860 A.D. Madheshi people used Hindi language as a lingua franca or as Link language in Madhesh till now. But there have been many conspiracies against hindi in Nepal especially after the then King Mahendra. When he imposed one language Nepali and one costume Daura- Suruwal and Dhaka Topi as Nepali National recognition. 

    But it is very difficult to claim that they don't like Hindi because even in Kathmandu the native Newars and other Kathmanduists try to speak somehow Hindi. They mostly use it either with vendors of vegetable or with other uneducated Madheshi and Bihari persons. In this case Hindi has become lingua franka between Pahad and Madesh as well. The Kathmanduists mostly watch Hindi movies, Hindi tele-serials, and they often listen to Hindi songs. Once I was surprised to see two pahadi people practicing Hindi proudly in Kathmandu in bus. And the whole world knows that Gorkha armies in India serves proudly.

            Sometimes it makes me feel that they feel jealous finding Madheshis have better Hindi accent than these nationalists and that's why they try to oppose Hindi. In eastern Madhesh mostly maithali is spoken, in mid-Terai Bhojpuri and in West Awadhi, Thaaru and other languages are spoken and they can't understand each others' language every time so easily. In this case Hindi has become our Lingua Franka. But here, the so-called nationalists try to impose Nepali as lingua franka but majority of old madheshi- tharu and madheshi- tharu women do not understand Nepali so still they find Hindi more feasible than Nepali. Some people directly oppose Hindi but some other of them pretending to be too generous, say, "why don't you use your mother tongue like Maithali, Bhojpuri, Awadhi etc rather than using Hindi as Lingua Franka."  They start reasoning that Hindi is mother tongue of less than 1% of Nepali people. And my question to them is -what is the percentage of native speaker of English then? Despite that English is compulsory in Nepali Academia.  First Vice President had to face big controversy and harsh trouble only because of swearing oath in Hindi. 

            In Nepal the Madheshis are targeted in the name of Indians. They also blame Madheshi for supporting Indians but Madheshis don't take them to be different any more. Lots of relationship lie across the border. Madeshi people have better relationship with north Indians than that of Nepali nor did the Nepali people create an environment which can securely make Madheshi feel as own people. And nor do they still want. We have been living in a known country but like alien for more than 200 years. 

           The general concept of Nepali people is that those who speak Nepali with Hindi accent should be misbehaved, insulted and made fun of with some stereotype name like Bhaiya, Dhoti, Bhele, Chana tatpati, Forum etc. So the question is how long should Madheshis suffer social, political, psychological discrimination in Nepal. As we know some poor Indians esp. from Bihar have also been working in Kathmandu. But what is the matter to insult them either? Are not millions of Nepali working in India? Nepali politicians have a paranoia that a lot of Indians will enter in Nepal and try to get Nepali citizenship. But thinking it logically may make you feel pity on intellectual bankruptcy of Nepali politicians. In India almost all the goods are cheaper than in Nepal, fuel and even cars and other vehicles are far cheaper. The salary that Indian job holders get is also twice as much or even more than in Nepal and not only this but also value of Indian currency is higher in Nepal ie. Rs.100/- IC ( Indian Currency) is Rs. 160/- NC (Nepali Currency). Now tell me why would Indian citizen try to be Nepali? Once I asked a vendor who runs a small business on four cycle wheeler cart who sells chana chatpati, paanipuri etc. He replied that he is from Motihari, Bihar he is here because Delhi, and Mumbai is too far away from his home in comparison to Kathmandu and he needs to go home frequently in gap of ) few months. In Kathmandu in these business there is high number of Motihari people. But does it prove that they want to be Nepali citizen and even if some want, what is wrong if they go lawfully? Why don't you compare the number of Nepali Citizen to officially become Indian Citizen with them? 

     These types of discriminations have caused many youngsters in Madhesh to think about secession and these types of thoughts are natural. This is root cause of emergence of CK Raut. All the so called nationalists are running against Dr. CK Raut unjudicial way. Some raise voice for keeping him behind bars others opine to punish badly while some other pseudonationalists advocate to hang or kill him. But no single nationalist says to ignore him and concentrate on equality among all Nepali people which will end the discrimination among all Nepalese. If every person will get equal rights and opportunities why would they follow CK Raut? And I bet CK Raut would no more advocate secession either. But if this doesn't happen then the State will be responsible for that as we know there is rule of nature too which science names Newton's third law of motion that says "every action has equal and opposite reaction". 

 Nepali language is in the eighth schedule in constitution of India but this so-called new born Republican country is still suffering from superstition. If it can't tolerate Hindi then why even English be taught as compulsory subjects? India has declared English as an official language and there is nothing like in Nepal there. 

     Once Nepal won a football game against India and all so-called nationalists started singing slogan that they won Dhoti. Nepali nationalism is to criticize India without any reason. And thus they try to prove their nationality as if they have greatly contributed for nation. Even if Nepal doesn't declare Hindi official language of Madhesh it still will take form and shape as water that takes shape according to the shape of tub. 

   So my humble suggestion to those nationalist public and politicians is that let Madheshi feel that you respect their sentiment, culture, custom, costume, language etc.,  you behave well, let them believe you honestly, the proximity to you will be even in your favour, many madheshis hate Indian policy and behavior upon Madhesh, thus they don't like Indian politics on Nepal either so think well. But don't try to harm their relationship with India on public level which you have already witnessed what counter effect it makes.