Dispatches: Report from the People's War in Nepal
Part 16: Magar Liberation
By Li Onesto
Revolutionary Worker #1034, December 12, 1999
On February 13, 1996, a new People's War was launched in Nepal, led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), aimed at sweeping away imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Thousands of men and women participated in coordinated armed raids and attacks throughout the country. And for over three years now, the revolution in Nepal has continued to spread, sink roots and accomplish a lot. All this is a truly inspiring and significant development in the world and for the international proletariat. But it has remained a hidden story for most people in the United States and around the world. And for those of us who have been following the People's War in Nepal, there has been precious, but far too little news of this important struggle.
Now, the Revolutionary Worker has an exclusive story. RW reporter Li Onesto recently returned from several months in Nepal, where she traveled throughout the country with the people's army, meeting and talking with party leaders, guerrillas, activists in mass organizations and villagers--those waging this genuine Maoist People's War and beginning to exercise new people's power. The RW would like to give a "lal Salaam" (red salute) to all the people in Nepal who made this trip possible.
This is the sixteenth article of a new series of dispatches from this exciting trip. (See RW #1014 through #1020, #1022-1024, #1027-1029, 1032 and 1033 for Parts 1 through 15.)
We travel a lot at night. But in more secure areas we are able to journey during the day. Most of the time, we go for hours and hours, on and off well-worn trails, without running into other people. But once in a while, we find ourselves sharing the path with local villagers going about their daily routine.
One day we hit the road early in the morning, going uphill. For a couple of hours we wind our way on this trail by ourselves. But then we begin to encounter a steady stream of peasants going downhill. Men and women carrying huge loads on their backs nod at us as we cross paths. Others pass in silence with their heads down, eyes focused on the ground before them. There are even small children trudging down the road, carrying heavy plastic jugs.
I ask Pravat, my translator, what they are carrying. But he doesn't know, so he asks one of the comrades who is more familiar with the local area. We find out that many peasants around here collect pine tar from trees high up in these mountains. Then they lug it down the hill and sell it to a middle-man, who then sells it to some big business. I can see that it is tremendously hard, back-breaking work--and yet another example of how peasants in Nepal must constantly search for ways to supplement their income because they cannot survive just by farming the land.
We have been in Rukum now for about a week and our traveling has gotten more intense. It is almost "election day," and the government is determined to pull off these nationwide parliamentary elections. Voting is being done in two phases--so the government can deploy enough police to protect polling sites. And the districts picked for the first round of voting are all the areas where the People's War is the strongest. The Party has called for a total boycott of the elections and has been mobilizing all the mass organizations to spread this boycott campaign.
Thousands of police have flooded into the Western Region, especially Rolpa and Rukum. And military encounters between the people's army and police have really escalated over the last month. Last night we got to a shelter around 9:00 at night and after eating a meal, it seemed like we were settled in for the night. But then, just after midnight, we suddenly had to leave and travel for a couple more hours through rugged terrain. Later I found out that we had been only a couple of miles away from one of the areas being set up as a polling station and the guerrillas had received information that a lot of police were patrolling the area. So we had to get away quickly--and in the cover of night.
Fighting for the New Democratic Revolution
One of the aspects of the People's War that I'm very anxious to learn more about is the relationship between the New Democratic Revolution and the struggle of the different oppressed nationalities in Nepal.
Ethnically and culturally, Nepal is a very diverse country with some 30 major ethnic groups and 100 different languages. The different nationalities in Nepal each have their own territorial base, culture and language.
The national question is one of the most important components of the New Democratic Revolution in Nepal. And during my visits to other parts of Nepal, I had already gotten a glimpse of how the struggle of different ethnic groups is fueling the People's War.
In Kathmandu I talked with the chairman of Newa Khala--the organization which had just successfully led the first bandh (strike) around demands of the Newar People. And in the east, I interviewed guerrillas who were members of the Tamang oppressed nationality. They said one of the main reasons they have joined the People's War is because they want to fight against the whole way the government oppresses ethnic groups which are considered "lower-caste."
One 22-year-old man told me: "I come from a simple farm family, from a lower caste. I have been oppressed in two ways--oppressed generally as a poor peasant and oppressed in a racial way...When the People's War started, I became excited and thought this was the way to be free from the reactionary Hindi state."
Another member of this squad said: "The main reason I joined the people's army is because there is discrimination by Hindu chauvinism, by the reactionary ruling class against the indigenous people. I belong to the Tamang people, one of the oppressed nationalities in Nepal. This group doesn't have any opportunities in the government and the ruling sectors, and we have been oppressed by the reactionary Hindu state. I came to understand that, in order to get free from this kind of oppression, we cannot do this without picking up the gun, because the reactionary state power rules over us with the gun. This is why I joined the people's army."
An older guerrilla, a 40-year-old man from Bethan said: "The main reason I joined the people's army was not only economic repression, but as an indigenous people we can't speak our language, read our mother tongue and we are repressed by the Hindu government. So now I have great hope and determination that we will be able to establish a New Democratic system that is for equality and will wipe out all the discrimination that is being done by reactionaries."
Here in the west, the Magar people are the largest ethnic minority group. And in Rolpa and Rukum, they make up a majority of the forces fighting the revolution. In fact, the strong unity between the struggle of the oppressed Magar people and the revolution is one of the reasons these districts have become strongholds of the People's War.
The Magar people here look distinctly different than other people in Nepal--they look more like Chinese people and some of them do not speak any Nepali. Some of the families of martyrs I have interviewed only speak their native language--Kham. So I had to have two translators--one to translate from Kham into Nepali and another to translate from Nepali into English.
Revolutionary Magars
Nepal was established in the second half of the 18th century through the forcible annexation of nearly 60 different tribal and ancient states, which were scattered along the mountainous terrain south of the Himalayas. Before this, the land which now makes up Nepal--about 500 miles by 100 miles in size--had been a mixture of migrating groups of people from the Indian plains and the Tibetan plateau for about 3,000 years.
People with Tibeto-Burman or East Asian roots inhabited the eastern and central parts, while people with mostly Indonesian-Aryan roots occupied the western part of the countryside. Then, after the 12th century A.D., in the wake of Moslem invasions in India, there was a great influx of Hindu migrants into the areas that would eventually become Nepal.
By the 14th century petty feudal kingdoms had been established through gradual assimilation of indigenous tribal communities in most of the central and western hill regions. And out of this situation people with Indonesian-Aryan roots, particularly the upper caste strata of Brahmins and Chhetris, came to dominate over other ethnic groups. From this time on, the Khas nationality, the Hindu religion, and the Nepalese language have been imposed throughout the country. And for centuries, the Nepalese ruling class has exercised discrimination, exploitation and oppression against other religions, languages and nationalities.
During my travel in the West I have the opportunity to meet with Narenda Buda, a Central Committee member of the Nepal Magar Association and a member of the All Nepal Nationality Association. He tells me:
"In Rolpa, 80 percent of the people are Magar. In Rukum it's about 65 percent. In Jarjarkot about 40 percent. Solyan is about 40 percent Magar. In the west, as a whole, it's about 40 to 50 percent Magar. Almost all the Magar here are poor peasants. They mainly practice natural shamanism with local priests [Jhankri]. But religion is not that strongly practiced among the Magar people. They have been dominated by the Hindu religion which has suppressed the Magar's indigenous religion and enforced the practice of Hinduism. For example, Magars used to eat beef but the government banned this.
"The Magars have demanded to study in their own languages--Kham, Magar and Kaikec. But the government won't allow this. Most Magars are bilingual, speaking their native language and Nepali. The government teaches Sanskrit in the schools, which is a dead language. And this makes it even harder for Magars. Most of them fail in this subject, and there is strong opposition to this language. There have been processions, the burning of Sanskrit books, and boycotts of Sanskrit exams. Still the government doesn't listen to this demand."
Narenda explains that there are many supporters of the People's War in the Nepal Magar Association. But he says there are also many other political forces in the group, including Magars who are associated with reactionary and revisionist groups like the UML [Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist)] and ML [Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist)]. He says:
"The aim of the Nepal Magar Association is to promote and advance the culture, language and advance economic standards. It is mainly a social and cultural group. There are indigenous Magars who have a long cultural history and live in particular areas. Some indigenous Magars have been assimilated and have lost much of their culture. Some ethnics (or tribes) are not indigenous and are dominated by other castes and live in primitive social and economic conditions."
On the other hand, he tells me, the Magarot Liberation Front, is a much more political organization that openly promotes the People's War. Narenda says:
"The Magarot Liberation Front agrees with the Maoist position and demands to participate in the revolutionary united front. MLF demands self-determination from the reactionary government which oppressed them economically, politically and socially. If a new democratic government comes to power and oppresses the Magars this demand would remain. But if a New Democratic government gives Magars equality and opportunity in every aspect, they will not demand a separate autonomy, but will participate in the New Democratic government. They are hopeful that the Maoists will give the Magar people equality in all aspects of society and will not be compelled to make a separate nation."
When I interview Anuman, a Central Committee member of the Nepal Magarot Liberation Front, he tells me:
"In Magar society there is a primitive kind of communistic/collective way of living. Some farms are worked collectively, and at harvest time things are divided up. In the forest the people look after the grassland as communal property to be used by everyone. People live very closely together, sometimes many generations in one house. And among the Magar there is more equality between women and men. When the MLF goes to the masses we first give priority to the indigenous culture and language and problems of social and economic conditions, exposing how the Magars are dominated by Hinduism. We have to prevent our culture and language from disappearing."
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has a policy on self-determination and autonomy for the oppressed nationalities in Nepal. And the program of the CPN (Maoist) is to establish a New Democratic state, with the joint participation of all nationalities, the ending of all forms of oppression and exploitation based on nationality, language, religion, etc. and equal treatment and opportunity for all ethnic groups and languages.
Anuman says, "We say we should be united to seize power and put power in the hands of the lower caste people. And in our area we should manage all the different aspects of society--construction, schools, etc. From a social point of view, Magars are very backward and high castes ignore us. National politics are in the hands of other castes and give no power to the Magars.
"We are oppressed by Hindu chauvinism, but our view is not to establish Magar chauvinism. We are for the equality of all castes and respect all religions and cultures. Our view is for equal rights of all human beings in all aspects. But we are not getting equality now so we should unite and get equality. At the same time we promote the political line of the Maoists.
The reactionary government oppresses the lower castes, and communists are internationalists. We promote the communist view and vision. We say, in Nepal the Maoists are the true communists and the CPN (Maoist) are bringing the correct line to the Magars on self-determination and autonomy. So we should support the Maoists."
*****
After we finish our meeting, I think about how the People's War is giving the masses a whole new vision of how the people can live, work and struggle together. Centuries of feudalism have created an extremely hierarchical society in Nepal. Certain castes are considered to have "god-given" rights to rule over others--while other castes and ethnic groups are deemed "untouchable" and fit to only do all the dirty jobs in society. This kind of discrimination and national oppression here has its own history and uniqueness. But at the same time I can't help but think about how it is not all that different from how things are in many other parts of the world, including the United States.
Traveling with the people's army is giving me a glimpse of the new future these comrades are fighting for. Men and women. Young and old. Veterans and new recruits. All different nationalities. Struggling together with a common revolutionary vision--and a burning desire to put an end to a system which oppresses the people in a thousand different ways.
In traditional Nepalese society it is considered sacrilegious and totally unacceptable to marry outside of your caste or ethnic group. And upper castes are certainly not supposed to marry someone from a lower caste. But the People's War is bringing into being whole new and liberating customs and attitudes among the people. Many comrades have introduced me to their wives or husbands--proudly saying, we are an "inter-caste" marriage. And when young guerrillas tell me they are from a poor peasant family, from a lower caste--they hold their heads up high, proud to be in the people's army, fighting for a liberated world.
To be continued.
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