My tribute to Prithvi Narayan Shah The making of a nation A nation is made not just of a geographical territory but of people’s emotions that hold, nurture and help it grow as a nation-state. What this means is forming a continuity that emanates from a blend where diversity in terms of habitat, topography, language, religion, ethnicity and host of others converses onto a heritage integrating the people and the land they belong to. This is how aspirations become common for the well being of their country. It is this emotion, when deeply embedded, that forms individual collectiveness. Its expression of we the nation streams out forming a country’s nationalism. Though nationalism started shaping after the middle ages, on many occasions, for the convenience of the rulers, its content flowed out into a powerful mould when feudalism was tearing itself apart because of religiously sanctioned dehumanization of the masses. Its most powerful expression was the French Revolution when people demanded their fatherland so that they can have ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. But elusive they became when in about 13 years, Napoleon took control for another round of feudal continuity. The emotional contours of nationalism were united by the German Romantic poets who in the late 18th century experienced a powerful surge of national identity out of a Germany fragmented into many principalities. Bismarck, answered the question of the day, that is German unification, fulfilling this surge in the 19th century. Colonialism followed by two World Wars and the post war emergence of independent states including the new ones after the debacle of the Soviet Union in 1991 has only reinforced this sense of belonging. This is how nationalism became not just uniting fragmented land but uniting the emotion of the people into a stream or belonging of we, the nation. This is exactly where I remember Prithvi Narayan Shah not just because his 280th birth anniversary was last Friday but because he had the great vision and set in motion the process of Nepalese nationalism. The way our geography is, this country is more India locked than land locked. Gaining height from the flat low lands, its topographical personality increases to the highest in the world. Those who migrated here many centuries ago from Tibet and North India constitute a population blend of Mongolian and Indo-Aryan ethnic formations. Centuries of rigid isolation from the outside world, rugged and inaccessible mountain terrain and immobility due to lack of communication became the perfect setting to make Nepal like a country behind the clouds, with unique ethno-cultural peculiarities. This is how we are multiethnic and multilingual, in tune with our geographical diversity, which is great for a country of our size. And, before unification, the way it was fragmented into many principalities was ground enough for feuds and wars between the rulers, primarily for land. This is how principality grew into nation-state. The quest for land set in trail the process of political development. The whole centre of activity was land, not money. The state was run with land revenue and those rendering services to the state were paid in land, sustaining a feudal property relationship. So, each small principality in the hills had to protect its land. Likewise, each was always looking for an opportunity to acquire land from a weaker one and would retreat if it could not hold on to the same. It was basically this need for land and the psyche so formed that propelled the unification in the hills when the Malla Kings in the far west extended their territory even up to Tibet and southern Kumaun as early as the 12th century. However, they could not hold it. Likewise, the Sen Kings from Makwanpur in central Nepal in the 14th century had built up what was known as the Sen Kingdom of Palpa but only to be fragmented about two hundred years later into many principalities. The Malla Kings inside Kathmandu valley had their own extended territories. This way much before Prithvi Narayan Shah started out from Gorkha, unification was initiated, but was never completed, to form the identity of a nation. So each such unification attempt rolled back into fragmentation. At the age of 24 in 1744, Prithvi Narayan Shah moved out from Gorkha. His unification campaign too was propelled like earlier unification drives, by among other things, the desire for land in terms of jagirs for all those involved in the campaign. His activity too revolved around land as property, a mode of politics, and an incentive for expansion. As we have already mentioned, the state was managed with revenue from land. The army was supported by land as jagirs. In 1769 when Bhaktapur was added on the Kingdom of Nepal was unified 25 years after he began his journey from Gorkha. The next six years that he survived until January 1775 was the period when he transcended from a conqueror to a nation builder. It was within this time that he was able to show vision, magnanimity, and skill to blend the emotional surge of the people of the conquered territories into a nationhood that was to remain as solid as rock. His vision of a beaming Nepal is well reflected in his Dibyaupadesh, the great sayings. In a major departure from earlier kings who had unified their kingdoms but ruled by dividing the territory among them, Prithvi Narayan Shah, describing the nation as a rock, refused even to let his brothers rule over parts of the newly acquired territories. He believed that a split rock loses the strength for forming a nation. His whole thrust after unification was totally on emotional in integration for building Nepal as a nation-state. If we examine his great sayings, each and every word is directed towards this end. His theme remained the people and his actions clustered around increasing the nation’s strength both emotionally and economically so that Nepal could continue as an economically viable nation. To this end, he abided by the decisions of the people, ensured justice to be impartial, worked towards opportunities for the people and considered Nepal as a garden of four classes and thirty two castes, a symbolic overtone of harmonization into an individual collectiveness within the setting that was then prevalent. He was anxious to live in peace with his neighbours - China and East India Company - but was very careful not to lose the indigenous strength in the name of either friendship or economy. Here we are now after 232 years still in the process of forming a nation-state in terms of full-blend emotional integration. We have had democracy since 1990 so that this process becomes complete over time. The constitution of 1990 has made the people sovereign. Only in democracy can people have all round expression in terms of equality before the law, economic opportunities and participation in nation building. Are we, at least, moving towards that direction as contained in the constitution? Let all of us seek the answer within ourselves. More so those who have constantly promised us a better day and led us over this decade to this stage where we are today? I do not intend to go further now but we all know history remains incorruptible irrespective of how corruptible the Marcos, Estrada or Suharto were, just to cite a few contemporary names. If our diversity turns into the breeding of inequality the way it is happening whereby 10 percent has now monopolized the national wealth, we are surely headed towards a major conflict. It is precisely here that I remember four persons as leaders and revolutionaries who have shaped and influenced the history of Nepal. And, Prithvi Narayan Shah the Great is where we began to move past BP Koirala. The nation always continues for a visionary who can deliver a better day. I once more salute the great man who remained true to his greatness. The Kathmandu Post of Tuesday, January 15, 2002 Magh 02, 2058
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 03:12:13 +0000
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