December 6th, 2009
Following the adoption of the long-awaited Constituent Assembly Members Elections Act, the on-going discourse on ‘deconstruction’ and ‘reconstruction’ has taken a new turn in Nepali consciousness. As per the Act, it is expected that Nepali society will be six-sector-divided ‘inclusive’. As such, Nepali people’s representation in the Constituent Assembly will, on the basis of the 2001 population census, be Madhesis-31.2%, Dalits-13%, Janajatis-37.8%, Backward Areas-4% and Others- 30.2 % for the 240 seats set aside for proportional representation.
With this arrangement the Nepali people, living for long in a state of identity loss and social oppression, have now had an opportunity to directly participate in debates and actions about state restructuring. It has provided them with a space in which they can present their agenda. So those victimised by patriarchal domination (on grounds of gender), by tagadhari domination (on grounds of caste), Caucasoid domination (on grounds of ethnicity/race), linguistic domination (on grounds of the use of Nepali language) and hill-dweller domination (on grounds of Geo-politics) can now present their alternative proposals.
However, this arrangement has failed to address the other side of the multidimensional conflict in Nepali society. This has overshadowed the pending contradiction resulting from the ongoing economic oppression in which those ‘who have always to eat’ oppress those ‘who eat only when available.’ It has seriously questioned the politico-ideological commitment of political parties who carry the strategy of creating ‘ram rajya’ (just and equitable society) whether through a revolutionary or an evolutionary path.
Class Disparity and Representation in Constituent Assembly
To be poor is to be low-income, be unable to fulfil basic needs and be deprived of the basic right to education and health. To be poor is also to be marginalised from access to socio-political processes and resources and be socially and politically incapacitated. According to latest statistics, some 31 percent of the total population lives below the line of absolute poverty. Non-governmental data sources put the percent of the poor as high as 40. Worse still if seen in the light of the international standard of ‘1 dollar a day’ income in which case nearly half of Nepal people are poor in absolute terms.
According the 2001 population census, more than one million Nepali people are landless. Some 19 districts, excluding the districts in the Kathmandu Valley where employment opportunities are relatively better, more than 20 households per every 100 households are landless. Some 635,000 families have no land in their ownership. Some 15 households per every 100 households do not own a piece of land on which to construct a hut. These people are solely land-based wage dependent.
Political parties that concluded that without special provision on grounds of gender, caste, ethnicity and regionalism certain groups couldn’t represent in Constituent Assembly have however failed to make special arrangements to ensure representation of this large mass of people. This has left ground to doubt that the expected Constituent Assembly will be an assembly of the historically oppressed and marginalised groups of people. Many have started to fear whether the Constituent Assembly too would end up in a coterie of the elites of various groups.
Progressive lyricist Manjul has written the following song championing equitable society-
Brahmin deceives a Brahmin
Newar deceives a Newar
A love that pretends to bind a caste-group together
Turns charade in reality
One who speaks Nepali cheats the Nepali speaking
One who speaks Tamang cheats the Tamang speaking
A love that aims to unite a particular linguistic community
Turns charade in reality
A follower of Hinduism deceives a Hindu
A follower of Buddhism deceives a Buddhist
A feudal of Bhojpur oppresses a Bhojpure
Elite of Pokhara exploits a Pokhareli
A love that is said to bind a discrete group together
Turns hollow in reality
The Constituent Assembly Members Election Act has brought the old song into reminiscence.
Caste/Ethnicity, Class Inequality and Constituent Assembly
Differentiating between the rich and poor, free- market thinker Adam Smith wrote in his famous volume The Wealth of Nation –”He must be rich or poor according to the quantity of that labour which he can command or which he can afford to purchase”. To see the Nepali society from this angle, the balance of equality is found to be alarmingly imbalanced. On one side is a handful of Nepali people ‘sucking milk’ and ‘throwing food’, on the other side is striking majority not only unable to buy other’s labour but are forced to sale their labour for a nominal price. This later group is going poorer every day with the rate of diminishing purchasing power. Seen in the light of labour and purchasing power, to buy a tablet of paracetamol, a Nepali worker has to spend five-minute worth of their wage. And they should spend a wage of 33 hours and 33 minutes to buy a shroud to wrap a dead body.
This is not a scenario specific to a group or community. Poverty cuts across all groups and communities under Nepal’s caste structure. According to 1998 Human Development Report of Nepal, nearly half of total population of eight caste/ethnic groups (Limbu 71%, Kami 68%, Damai 67%, Sarki 65%, Tamang 59%, Magar 58%, Rai 56% and Kshetri 50%) is poor. Even the Newar community, which is said to be the richest of all groups, has a quarter of its member below the poverty line.
If all multi-caste and multi-lingual groups can be maintained in a proportional balance, Nepal can be, sociologists hope, a beautiful ‘mosaic’. To see from a class perspective, however, this ‘mosaic’ has already taken two forms – a mosaic of the rich and another of the poor – in each group. To put in perspective the ‘six sectors’ divided for proportional representation in Constituent Assembly from a class point of view, there is no cause to rejoice. One cannot be assured that elites from each sector will not happen to occupy the Constituent Assembly in the name of the representatives of the oppressed and marginalised in each group. Unless a mechanism is put in place to ensure proper representation of the large mass of the working class people, any attempt at caste-, ethnicity- and regionalism-based inclusiveness will not bear any significance. Such efforts will remain far short of ending existing patterns and trenches of social inequality.
Class, Inclusiveness and New State Structure
In Nepal social oppression is as high as economic exploitation. Currently the issue of social oppression has been a central issue in socio-political debates. The conflict in Nepali society is not confined to the boundary of class struggle. Rather it has gone multi-dimensional engaging all castes and groups, and peoples oppressed in terms of gender, religion, level of development and discrimination based on regionalism. The traditional notion that with the end of class struggle results in an equity-oriented state has lost sense. It is particularly with the failure of the states established after socialist revolution to address a number of issues related to social oppression.
The lesson from history is this – the struggle against class exploitation and social oppression should go simultaneously and hand in hand.
But the increasing tendency to focus on caste/ethnicity and regionalism has overshadowed the class aspect. Class is an ‘ideological-theoretical’ issue; caste, regionalism and gender are ‘identity’ issues. Class has a national focus; it links the whole nation in a single unit. Caste, ethnicity and regionalism demarcate amongst groups of people in the name of identity. Identity based responses do not address class issues whether they are designed along unitary or federal model of governance. Therefore, all those who are committed to the freedom and emancipation of the oppressed must follow the class-based approach if they are genuinely committed what they say. Manjul’s line is relevant here as well.
A poor gets a pure love from the poor
An oppressed gets a true love from the oppressed
A love based on the identity of class lasts long and turns real
In a class-based society class-based love remains pure and warm.