Cultural Biases & Prejudices still prevails in Nepal
16th September 2015,
Birgunj, Parsa, Nepal
Human civilization has come a long way from the Stone Age to the age of computers. In the present scenario, people have entered the age of digitalization. But some people or groups of people are still stuck in the cultural biases and prejudices. Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one’s own culture. The bases of such biases may be linguistic, illogical validity, taboos and so on. Prejudice is the prejudgment or unfavorable preconceived judgment toward people on the basis of social class, age, religion, sexuality, race, language.
This cultural bias and prejudices can be generally seen for Marwaris of Nepal. But I don’t get their concept. Just because the origin of Marwaris’ has been Indian, doesn’t mean that we are Indian all the time. I am a Nepali born from the parents who are both the Nepali. So how can I be an Indian? I have a heart which is completely devoted to Nepal and I take Nepal as my country, not India. If we logically see, Buddhism originated in Nepal. So should we call all the Buddhists, Nepali? If not, then why Marwaris?
Many of you know that I wrote an article “Demand of some, pain for all” condition of Madhesh a couple of days ago which was posted by The State daily at their online website and Facebook fan page and I am very grateful to them they shared my feelings so that people can know that what’s going on in the mind of a genuine Nepali at present. And after the publication of the article, I got a lot of messages which thanked me for highlighting the feelings of Nepalese people.
I would like to thank them. But at the same time, I got a message from a person and the message is like this “About ur article. A marwadi can never think beyond profit and loss, and moreover when he/ she’s a migrant from another country. If u just don’t know about Nepali politics, then keep ur both lips glued.” The message further added that I don’t dare to call myself a Nepali and keep my mouth shut and don’t wear the fake mask of Nepalipan. Moreover, it said that I better shut my mouth when it comes to Nepal’s politics, nationality, and sovereignty. And I have been given a piece of card to show fake patriotism, I better be content with it.
I would also like to thank this person who sent me these messages because you showed me, I would rather say inspired me that there are various changes left to be brought to Nepal and I would love to be a part in bringing these changes. If anyone is thinking that I want to make Nepal like India then I want to make myself clear that I will never try to make Nepal like any other country either it be India or America. It is so because our country has those values which can’t be insulted by comparing it with any of the country in any part of the world. Nepal is the only country which was never ruled by any foreign country and we will never let it happen.
Administrative people and some political leaders have been saying that these strikes are conducted by Indian people. But can someone tell me how it is possible that Indian are conducting the strike and the people who are shot to death and injured by the armies, police force and APF are Nepali? I would like to request them to give some valid arguments and points at least.
Yes, I am a marwadi. But before that I am a Nepali. That Nepali who is proud to be the citizen of Nepal. It wasn’t my fault that I am marwadi. I am trying to represent the feelings of the younger generation. As a genuine Nepali, I can just share the feelings and I will try my best to make people aware that please get out of this bias and prejudice zone. It’s one of the reasons we are not able to focus towards the development of our country as we are busy in pointing out Marwaris as non-Nepalese. Please guys show some logic and let’s march towards the development of our country rather than starting home war.
At last, I only want our country Nepal to be as peaceful as it used to be a few decades ago. And I believe that if we all join hands despite our differences, no one could ever defeat us and stop our country from taking her to the destination which every Nepali would wish to see. We just need to be aware and think wisely.
This is one of my retracted article published in the local media portal during the Madhesh Movement 2015
