Some of the standard reactions White people have to statements about or discussions on their racists ancestors and conversations about present-day racism, the hill so-called called high caste Hindus in Nepal also have when it comes to their ancestors and casteism. Here are the most common ones and their alternative!
Dr. Ambedkar argues that reason and religion (Hinduism) will not help break down the caste system. Furthermore, that the Untouchables cannot hope for the high castes and the privileged classes to fight alongside them to help break down the system, forget about going on a crusade themselves to break it down. Dr. Ambedkar argues that the Untouchables, instead, should strive for education and spread of knowledge, and for power to break the hold the system has on them and holding them back from realizing their true human potential.
An argument that most likely patriots or (ultra)nationalists have made, calling for all Nepalis to rally around "unity in diversity" for "national unity" and "harmony," (unwittingly?) supports the maintenance of the caste system. Turns out, the source of those concepts is our very own constitutions!
When a hill so-called high caste Hindu counters a member of another caste describing the challenges in their lives because of the caste they are born into by saying that they too struggle and have had to work hard to get as far as they have gotten in life, they are basically making a false-equivalence argument. What is a false-equivalence argument anyway? I go into the details by using an analogy -- that of climbing Mount Everest.
The story of two young Nepali adults in love but struggling with a dilemma that many like them do: they are from different castes and their parents don't approve of their desire to get married and start a family. But the comments under their story on Facebook, where I found it, fills me with hope!
Last January I decided to drastically cut down on my social media activism in Nepal. Additionally, I also decided to cull my Facebook friend list and make my Facebook posts viewable only by friends. Four months later, I came across yet another reason to do that.
A Grade 8 Social Studies textbook has nothing on the one system that has defined and shaped our society and is responsible for, directly or indirectly, many -- if not most or even ALL -- of the social, economic, and political problems our country faces, hindering its progress: the caste system! And the reason? It's a "small" issue!
Why do most of the contestants and winners of Miss Nepal beauty pageant belong to BCN (Bahun Chhetri Newar) trio of ethnicities?
My tentative answer is that they are the most privileged groups in the country, and the pageant is of the BCN, by the BCN, for the BCN!
This section from Unleashing Nepal describes how the Birta and Jagir systems implemented by Prithvi Narayan Shah created cultural practices and values and shaped some of the attitudes of the upper caste males of the Brahmin, Chhettri and some Newar castes, which, still prevalent in one form or another, has been and continues to also be an impediment to social, economic and political progress. (Another consequence of the systems were to impoverish and marginalize the indigenous population of the country.)
Since 1990, little by little, my people from the little village of Tangbe in Mustang District have been reclaiming their identity. Here's one of the ways they are doing that.