{"id":22982,"date":"2022-06-11T11:17:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-11T05:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=22982"},"modified":"2024-05-12T13:59:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T08:14:32","slug":"thou-dost-protest-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/thou-dost-protest-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"About Dassain…”Methinks thou dost protest too much”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The identity of a people from closed and inward-looking societies are severely limited. Products of such societies are also inward-looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to be closed and inward-looking? Here’s a reproduction from the blog post Open Societies Use Information & Knowledge To Free Their People; Closed Ones to Control<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Being closed as an individual means having \u2014 and believing in \u2014 a narrowly defined identity mostly for lack of knowledge and understanding about not just other people of different culture, nationality, etc. but also for lack of knowledge and understanding about themselves as human beings. Closed people have an unhealthily strong and intimate attachments to \u2014 and invest a lot of time and energy in \u201cprotecting\u201d \u2014 that which is associated with their limited identity, notably their ethnicity, caste, race, gender, sex, or sexuality, culture, religion, or nationality etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacking in any significant knowledge and understanding of and experience with others \u2014 people of different culture, religion, sexuality, nationality etc. \u2014\u00a0 closed people are inward-looking. They over-inflate the value their culture, their religion, their beliefs, their practices etc. They rely on them \u2014 or use them \u2014 to explain life and the world. They use them to guide not only their practices but also major life choices and decisions. Science does NOT play anywhere near as big a role as religion does in them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Many societies around the world produce closed and inward-looking people. As a matter of fact, every society, because of its very nature, produces such individuals — the difference between societies being in the level and extent, and the percentage of such individuals they produce. Truly open and outward-looking societies, those at the other end of the spectrum, are in the minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepal is a closed and inward-looking society and therefore produces a majority of such individuals. Most Nepalis define themselves by their Nepali nationality and symbols associated with the country — such as triangular flag, the national animal (the cow), the national language (Nepali) etc. They define themselves by their religion (Hinduism and to some extent Buddhism). The history of the brave of warriors and rulers of the past, mostly belonging to the Hill so-called High Caste, are also part of their identity. A majority display, demonstrate, and express intimate ties with and connections to those elements of their identity, and the elements, in turn, to themselves, as if inalienable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high level of religiosity and the low level — of poor quality — of education of the population, among other things, reinforce, sustain, and perpetuate that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse, they are raised and educated to be — and are — proud of the elements of their identity! I know because I was when I was a student. Glorified and elevated by the education in schools, by traditional culture, and society at large, they are proud of fact about the country. One such fact is Buddha being born here. They are also proud of Nepal being the country of Mount Everest. There are those who are even proud of their caste, proud of their religion and being a follower of it, proud of their festivals, proud of the country’s history, and even proud of their gender etc. Not surprisingly, you don’t often come across many who question any of that — even as adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few are taught and fewer even learn that those elements of their identity are things that they were just born into. They are also NOT taught that all of them are external to them, and, most importantly, just social constructs. That is, they are not taught that their values and meanings are based on things outside of their person, or are based — or depends — on sufficient people collectively recognizing, accepting, and believing in them. Those values and meanings do NOT exist independently of the people who accept — or believe in — them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s the worst however is that, being proud of the narrow and exclusive (as opposed to broad or expansive and inclusive) identity, they feel the need to “defend” and “protect” it. I suppose, they likely believe that, if they don’t, their person-hood will be reduced to something much smaller than their own over-inflated perception of it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So naturally, to begin with, they are “offended” or “hurt” by anything they perceive as an attack on or a criticism of their identity, or aspects thereof. When they come across that, their knee-jerk reaction is to lash out, to go on the offensive. The sensible reaction would be to take a few steps back and introspect but they don’t — in most cases likely because they are incapable of doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the many things many Nepalis are “hurt” by is any perceived attack on — or an aspect of — Hinduism<\/a>, for example. Another one Nepalis struggle to swallow readily is a critical analysis of our “glorious” (casteist!) history! Still another is the biggest (Hindu) national festival: Dassain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival, however, has a dark side to it, one of which I detailed in part one<\/a> of this series. The blog was based on the content of the article Setopati<\/em> attached in the tweet below. The article details the history of what Dassain symbolized for the Limbus, an ethnic group indigenous to the North-Eastern Nepal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0932\u093f\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0942 \u0930 \u0915\u093f\u0930\u093e\u0901\u0924\u0940\u0939\u0930\u0942\u0932\u093e\u0908 \u092f\u0938\u0930\u0940 \u092c\u093e\u0927\u094d\u092f \u092a\u093e\u0930\u093f\u092f\u094b \u0926\u0938\u0948\u0902 \u092e\u0928\u093e\u0909\u0928
By-@prachin03<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/vVm1N35s1l<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Setopati (@setopati) October 13, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>