Remember Kathmandu

There is then, say analysts, another, more urgently telling comparison: between the King of Nepal 2006 and the Shah of Iran 1979. The point of similarity presumably is the last stand of a desperate, beleaguered autocrat and an assemblage of disparate opposition forces threatening to sweep him away by mustering chaos.

But is that really the case? The people8217;s movement, which has already altered the political geography of Kathmandu, is drawing inspiration from the protest of 1990 that yielded democracy8217;s fragile return to the country. The indigenous roots of the protests make comparisons particularly odious.

With Tuesday coming upon claims by the Seven-Party Alliance that they will rally more than a million protesters to encircle Kathmandu, finding 8212; let alone understanding 8212; the heart of this flux in Nepal is becoming ever more difficult.

Clues, however, come in the form of a collection of short stories from Samrat Upadhyay, one of the most exciting new writers on the subcontinent. Just published in India, The Royal Ghosts places its narratives within the clash of political forces pulling Nepal in different directions: the dismantling of major democratic freedoms under the emergency declarations by the monarch, the inability of the political parties to respond to popular aspirations, and the Maobaadi intrusions in the countryside.

At a time when governments 8212; in India and in other countries concerned about the implications of Nepal8217;s political crises slipping out of control 8212; are rewriting each day their next steps of choice for diplomatic intervention, Upadhyay has a talisman. Declare fidelity not so much to an institution or individual or organisation but to a principle: liberty

Upadhyay lives mostly in the United States, but each of the nine stories in The Royal Ghosts is insistently political. At a time when democracy is kept is abeyance, each story is suffused by the strife to gain elements of liberty. Upadhyay8217;s characters tend to be salaried people, often just barely able to earn enough for their aspirations. They also feel the political situation wreaking distortions in their personal lives. But the political-personal dilemmas are resolved at the individual level. At a time when the institutions of democracy are not operative, personal peace for them lies in finding individual adherence to the very principles those institutions would have upheld.

Relationships once crafted by tradition are taken apart and then put together once again, this time in accordance with modern notions of individuality and freedom. A man who once took on patriarchy must confront his final hangover, caste. A woman widowed after Maobaadi excesses flees to Kathmandu, finds refuge with a middle-class family and learns to be self-reliant. A political activist, in contrast, places faith in the political situation to stabilise his private life. 8220;Things will change here pretty soon,8221; he tells his significant other. 8220;This government can8217;t last, then we can start planning our lives together.8221; That wait will rob him of his opportunities. A taxi driver wakes to news of the royal killings and finds that he can only make sense of the development by accepting his own sibling8217;s choices.

What Upadhyay8217;s characters seek, above all else, is demystification of their lives and their country. It is a sadness that drove Manjushree Thapa8217;s astonishingly prescient memoir Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy. In that book, published last year just before King Gyanendra assumed absolute power, Thapa articulated the unease that had been spreading through Kathmandu since the Narayanhiti assassination and with the spread of Maoist insurgency in the countryside. In the days after the palace killings, she found a disturbing disconnect as the international media rushed to cover the story: 8220;As they saw it, the massacre had taken place against a romantic medieval background. But for the Nepali people, it had taken place in a field charged with politics.8221;

Even as the current spell of the people8217;s demonstrations enters its 20th consecutive day, it is interesting to revisit Thapa8217;s reminder of the importance of street protest in Nepal8217;s chequered history of civil rights: 8220;Whether it was in relation to women8217;s rights or the rights of ethnic nationalities or the rights of Dalits 8212; or a variety of social movements that were gathering force 8212; the government made only late, hollow gestures. Those in power would do something for people, and that too half-heartedly, only if they formed unions, staged protests, went on strike, took to the streets8230; The lesson that people learned was that if they wanted anything from the government, they would have to get militant, because the leaders of the political parties would not listen to anyone who asked for anything nicely.8221;

Now as the Seven-Party Alliance heeds the voices on the street for a meaningful reinstatement of democracy, isn8217;t it time for the international community 8212; so fearful of the spectre of failed states 8212; to veer to the right side of history?

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