When it comes to identity, most formal and informal education system around the world focus on and elevate the person's nationality, religion, class, sex/gender, official position/profession, age, race, caste, sexuality etc. What is most important, however, is to teach a person to think of themself as a human being first and to value humanity above all.
The more you see of and learn about the world, and its people, the more you realize there must be more to see and learn.
So, travel!
I am NOT surprised by the fact that so many of the systems in Nepal are so thoroughly corrupt. Reason? Select ethnic/caste groups(s) monopolizing State structures continuously for centuries, as had been the case in this country, is itself one of the root causes -- if not THE root cause -- as well as evidence of corruption.
The judiciary is no exception.
A primary school poetry textbook contains 108 poems by 66 poets representing only 44 surnames. All but three were male poets. A vast majority (88%) of the poets were Bahun/Brahmin, hill so-called high Hindu, men who make up 6% of the population. And that's not even the worst.
Regardless, that makes one wonder, among other things, what the accomplishment of seventy or so years of education for the public has been. Who has the State been educating?
Nepal is NOT a knowledge-based economy. As a matter of fact, the aim of those in positions of power and influence--for whom power and money trumps everything--has always been to keep the population poorly education in order to control and manipulate them. So, view towers are prioritized over schools and libraries.
Studies in the US have demonstrated differential treatment of black students by white teachers affecting their learning outcomes as well as, in the long-term, their lives. 80% of public school teachers in the US are white.
In Nepal, disproportionately high percent of school teachers are Khas-aryas, the hill so-called high caste Hindu. How do they treat students belonging to other castes? Likely not the same way they do their caste and that likely has affected the educational achievements of students of other castes, as well as their lives later on.
Two of the many questions I had when contemplating returning to Nepal: "Will Nepal have me?" and "Am I even for Nepal?"
Having lived in as many countries outside as I had, I felt I could be accepted by any place and people. But will I be accepted in Nepal and by the Nepalis?
Closed and inward-looking people are "offended" or "hurt" by anything they perceive as an attack on anything even remotely connected to or part of their identity. Many even go on the offensive in reaction instead of introspecting.
Closed and inward-looking Nepalis are no different. This is an example of their reaction to protests by indigenous population against Dassain, the biggest national festival of the country, which, to many of them, is a symbol of oppression and suppression.
Dassain, a Hindu festival, is recognized and celebrated by many in Nepal as the biggest and most important national festival. As per the historian Bhagiraj Ingnam the festival has a dark history -- a history of past regimes wielding it as a tool to subjugate and control the indigenous population. As such, to many the festival is actually a symbol of oppression and suppression.
One of the many legacies of the long casteist history of the country is the major structural issues Nepal continues to face. Evidences abound! But I keep coming across hill so-called High caste Hindus who can't see or refuse to see the evidences for what they are.
This is about one such man, a professor at a medical college no less!