OMG Will,
Thanks for correcting my naïve assertion. Indeed, I was characterizing the country as post-royal rulers, but the few correspondents I have there don’t speak of the picture you present; probably it’s just too uncomfortable. Not reassuring-- instead a dose of reality.
How do the Newars fare with all of this Hindutva-type activity?
Best wishes,
Joanna
From: Tuladhar-douglas, Dr William B. [mailto:w.t.douglas@abdn.ac.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 9:06 PM
To: Jo
Cc: INDOLOGY@liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Re: Vivaha Panchami (Nov 29) (in Nepal)
On 29 Nov 2011, at 20:55, Joanna Kirkpatrick wrote:
Nepal doesn’t function under the sign of Hindutva
That's not necessarily true. The history of Nepalese royal Hinduism, its deployment as a national ideology by the Shah and Rana court, and resistance to that hegemony in the 18th – 20th centuries has been well debated elsewhere.
More recently, during the civil war, support for the royalist faction came in no small part from Hindutva activists concerned to protect the ‘last Hindu kingdom’—and several tens of thousands of people died during the war. Since the end of the war, the situation has re-polarised as a result of the move towards ethnic federalism, but Hindutva activists are active. The Shiv Sena has held demonstrations in the capital and the Terai calling for a return to state Hinduism, and the RSS runs a few schools. The question is whether, in a post-Hindu Nepal, Hindutva will become a coherent political force apart from simple anti-Maoism. Tensions between the Terai (where Janakpur is) and Kathmandu (where the government is) play into that development.
It's not just the saffron squad pushing religious politics; there are an astonishing number of Protestant missionary NGOs active in Nepal. Clashes happen. The office of the United Mission to Nepal was bombed this month, and a youth leader of a Muslim party was shot dead outside the main mosque in Kathmandu about two months ago.
Eden it ain't, but the threat of religious or ethnic sectarian violence—especially given the history of such violence around South Asia—is a key concern for the lawmakers trying to draft Nepal's new constitution. We learned today that the supreme court and the constituent assembly have extended that process for another six months…
-WBTD.
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Will Tuladhar-Douglas
Anthropology of Environment and Religions
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.