Why, What and Whom for Secularism in Nepal?

Revive the ancient Hindu Rashtra in present Nepal immediately.

By Dirgha Raj Prasai.

Nepal was bigger during the ancient time. ‘Himwatkhanda-Nepal’ extended from Bramhaputra in the East to Hindukush in the west, Kailash Mansovar in the North and Ganga in the South. In time the ‘Himwatkhanda Nepal’ disintegrated into many smaller nations. The fact is mentioned in the Prayaga archive of Samudra Gupta, the son of Bikramaditya, that ‘Nepal’ is a place lying in between Kamrup (current Assam) and Karkarpur (current Kumau). We can infer from these facts that Himwatkhanda Nepal in the ancient times was bigger than what is today. This area of the Himwatkhanda is the golden land. A veteran Rishi (Hindu’s ascetic Guru) in a special Vedic scripture has mentioned about Himwatkhanda, “Bharatkhande Utarayane Himalaya Tate Swarnabhumi, Swarnabhumi,” meaning ‘the northern part of Bharatkhande, the Himalayan mountains is the golden land and just haven’. We can draw inference as to the greatness of this land. Kalidash in his ‘Kumaar Sambhav’ has mentioned, “The land from Eastern Himalayas to the Western Himalayas is the Arya land.” Before the Muslim and English regime, Bharatbarsha had comprised 25 nations. After the unification of India by East India Company, then India was called Hindustan. But, before the King, the creator of greater Nepal- Prithvi Narayan Shah 1800 B.S (Bikram Sambat era) had said- ‘Nepal is the real ‘Hindusthana‘ at 1800 Bs (1753, AD)

During the time when Himwatkhanda Nepal remained a unified country the current powerful nations were divided into many smaller nations. Bismark had unified Germany, which had existed in the façade of many smaller nations, a hundred years after Nepal’s unification. Italy was also divided into many smaller nations a hundred years before Nepal’s unification, which was transformed into a greater Italy by good sons as Kabur and Gyalibhardi. Japan came out of the dark-age under the leadership of its King after Mehiji restoration hundred years after Nepal’s unification. Two decades before the unification of Nepal the now superpower America was a British colony. Prithvinarayan Shah had already unfurled the flag depicting the Sun and the Moon and unified the small kingdoms into a Himwatkhanda Nepal to save the tradition of this area. The Sanskrit language was the popular language of ancient Nepal and India. A famous Scholar Max Mucller has written in his book- ‘India-What Can it teach us’-’ Sanskrit no doubt has an immense advantage over all other ancient language of the East. In a certain Sense we are still speaking and thinking Sanskrit or more correctly Sanskrit is like a dear aunt to use and she takes the place of a mother who is no more. Let us take a brief look at additional evidence to help verify the ides that Sanskrit was the original language of the world, and that it is connected with numerous countries and cultures. Latin and Persian are dialects of Sanskrit. Greek has borrowed a lot from Sanskrit. French & English are full Sanskrit words, roots and speech forms.

So, the identification of Himwatkhanda Nepal is associated with the ancient Vedic Hindu religion. May all be happy in the world and let no one suffer from disease and be sad. May no one keep ill will towards another being? May all be liberal and compassionate? ‘Basudhaiv Kutumbakam’. All humans of the world are our relatives. May all receive equal amount of food, relation and shelter. Let us become a liberal character of compassion and be active for omnipresent. May all worlds be well? ‘OM- Shanti’  is Vedic Hindu customs cleansed indicative. The welfare and happiness of all is the supreme system which is the belief of the Vedic Hindu society. Dr. Basudev Krishna Shastri writes, “Hindus worship the Sun. The light that emanates from Sun is common for all. Without water no living being can survive. This is everyone’s right. Such things are beyond divisions, and consumed by all as per their necessity. For the prosperity of human life there must remain equal right and prerogative among us. No one should be hindered from contributing to their nation. So it is mentioned in the Veda, ‘Let us all rise for national awareness.’” This shows that Hindu religion is the vehicle that would show path to all human societies. Bramha- Bishnu-Maheshwor (the three Lords) is the guidance of Vedic Hindu life. In the ancient, Vedic Hindu religions the supreme is the ocean where anyone can swim anyhow.

Among all religions of the world Hindu religion is considered as the most liberal. According to renowned philosopher Voltaire, Hinduism is the best gift of the East to the West. Similarly, George Bernard Shaw, Irish litterateur also said ‘Hindu religion is the most important and the most liberal religion in the world. According to Encyclopedia of Religions and Ethics, signs of Hindu religion are even found in the present Islamic country like Iran. A stone scripture of 486 BC found in Iran contains the words Hindu and Hindus. Even an ancient Parsi scripture ‘Shatir’ has lifted a word of Ved Vyas ‘I am a true Hindu born in a Hindu country’. Another Hindu philosopher Manu has taken the area between Bindhya in south India and the Himalayas in the north as Aryabrata, the land of Aryans. Even outside travelers like Megasthaniz and Fai Han have written in their travel memoirs after their visit of the Kingdom of Chandra Gupta Maurya that Hindus have tall figure, long life, healthy, who avoid narcotics, simple, intelligent, truthful, who do not keep witness in transactions, do not lock their houses and there is no theft. So, in the evolutionary process of the world’s civilization, Hindu philosophy is taken as liberal, simple and tolerant.

The declaration of Nepal as a Hindu Kingdom does not signify just its religion rather it is taken as the source of Nepalese nationalism and an inseparable part of Nepal. So, the party leaders made a grave mistake by declaring Nepal as a secular state. If instead of declaring Nepal as solely a Hindu country, it would have made sense if it were declared both Hindu and Buddhist country. But it is a matter of serious concern for whose interest Nepal was declared a secular state. Nepal is a small country and on the south there is a big country with open border. There are about 800 million Hindus and Indian Hindus respect Nepal as a Hindu kingdom. This should be taken as a matter of pride for us. For security reasons also, Nepal has a big advantage by being a Hindu country. If the Maoists are for Nepal’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, all Nepalese request them to change their idea about secularism. Even if one is a Christian or a Muslim, they should support to keep Nepal a Hindu country. But the seven political parties have made a great mistake by announcing Nepal as a secular state.

Even if one talks about secularism, the census 2001 AD can be taken as referendum. That time those who call them intellectuals, leaders of ethnic communities and communists and those who call themselves Christians had made campaign not to write anything in the column for religion or not to write Hindu as their religion. But the Hindus never confronted them or made it an issue. Despite the campaign against Hinduism, the number of Hindus in Nepal was found to be 82 per cent. If one keeps the Buddhists out the number of Hindus before the 2001 census was 83 per cent. Half of the diminished numbers were increased in Buddhism and Kiratis and there was half percentage point increment in Christians. The rise in Buddhism and Kiratis do not make much of a difference because Buddhism and Hinduism are complementary to each other and Kiratis also worship the same gods such as Shiva and Bhagawati like the Hindus.

Therefore, if instead of declaring Nepal as solely a Hindu country, it would have made sense if it were declared both Hindu and Buddhist country. But it is a matter of serious concern for whose interest Nepal was declared a secular state. No one has right to trample believe and conviction of more than two-thirds majority of the people. Even if there is a referendum, more than 85 percent Nepalese will vote for a Hindu country. More than that Hindus have the freedom to pursue their own way of observing the religion. Therefore, if Nepal is to be declared a secular country, all countries, which call themselves as Christian or Muslim countries should also be declared secular countries. If they want Nepal to become a secular country, they should also be willing to shun their ‘Cross’ of the Christians, ‘sign of David’ of the Jews and ‘Kaba’ of Muslims. Actually, Kaba shrine is a pre-Islamic Shiva temple where the Hindu practice of perambulation is still meticulously observed and strictly followed. However, it needs to be pondered that even if Nepal was a Hindu Kingdom, its nature was  a defacto secular country as Hindus have never done anything that would harass or trouble other religions. (So, the abolition of an only official  Hindu Rashtra (Nation-State) in Nepal in 2008 was actually a clear violation of secularism as public realize it now generally. At least Maoists are not secular any way. They are the bloody Communists against Humanity in all sense. Ed. Hindu Existence).

It is shameful to write that in Nepal there are some existing international non-governmental organization (INGO) who are talking to develop Nepal but they were and has been involving in spreading the Christian religion with money and giving the fallacious assurance. The Nepalese religious people always regard the other religions. Nepal and the monarch never show the religious intolerance. From the very beginning, there are two Mosques in front of the Royal palace, near Clock Tower, have never faced intolerance. But, the so-called big party leaders and some civil society’ and INGO conveners who are the puppets Christian Mission are active to destroy the indigenous culture and identities. We should remember the quotation of Voltaire: “Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.”

Despite knowing this fact it is intriguing on whose interest the so-called big parties including Maoist declared Nepal a secular state. They had directly hurt the feeling of the majority of the Hindus in the country and more than 1 billion Hindus all over the world. Political leaders must rethink its decision. What they should have done is to remove the anomalies such as untouchables and other caste-based and social discriminations. This would have been the real tribute and service to the country and to the religion. Apart from some social anomalies there is nothing in Hindu religion that should be opposed. By declaring republic and Nepal a secular country; they are only serving the interest of a narrow group. Otherwise, if one thinks of the liberalism and tolerance, Hinduism comes first and foremost of all other religions.

If we want to understand the reality about the secularism we can study the national history of India. A world renowned Hindutva analyst Stephen Knapp says- India is slowly losing the Vedic culture (Hinduism) is through the process of secular or Christian education. In public schools all Vedic books have been removed from the curriculum. There are no possibilities to study the ancient Hindu literature or art in such institutions. The Hindu population is slowly forgetting the unique history and lofty culture of their home land. 5th Feb. 2008- Peoples Review). In fact the Christian saints order to destroy the huts where they keep the idols of Hindu’s God & Goddess and to break the statues of Hindus idols into tiny pieces. That was there goal to destroy Hindu & Buddha culture and make the country a Christian nation. The most dangerous steps is that the Indian Congress I- leadership groups are all Christians.

The Cultural Analyst Stephen Knnap writes- India is a predominantly Hindu nation.  83% of the Indian population is Hindu.  But it is a matter of great regret that India is the only country in the world where the Hindu majority population is being ruled by the other 17% minority communities. Sonia Gandhi, the President of the ruling Congress Party is a practicing Catholic Christian. Her son Rahul Gandhi who is being groomed as the next Prime Minister of India is also a Christian.  Sonia’s daughter Priyanka Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra are also Christians.  India’s Defense Minister is A K Anthony, a Christian. Sonia’s closest advisers are Christains:  Margaret Alva (resigned recently), Oscar Fernandez,  Ambika Soni, all are Christians. (yes, despite Ambika’s big Hindu sounding  name, she is a Christian).

It is a matter of grief that the nonsense foreigners (both the Evangelic and Arabic Groups – Ed. Hindu Existence) who want to destroy the Nepalese identities, sovereignty had and have been supporting the Maoist groups. A Nepalese  political analyst Prakash A. Raj  writes-’The end of monarchy in Nepal and the declaration of republic would not have been possible without the support of Government of India as the Indian brokerage of ’12 Point Accord’ played the most important role in the success of Jana Andolan-2 (public agitation)  in 2006. Thus. India,  the secular country (actually anti-Hindu and run by an Italian lady – Ed. Hindu Existence) having the largest Hindu population in the world unfortunately played a dominant role in abolishing the only Hindu kingdom in the world. The stand taken by two European countries, Norway and Switzerland in supporting the Maoists after King Gyanendra took over power in February 2005 and before April 2006 is very revealing as it helped to gather support against the monarchy. Norway has shown a lot of interest in Nepal and was one of the few countries to welcome the first Maoist Prime Minister (Prachanda) of Nepal-2008. Now, all the foreigners are suffering by their mistakes.

Therefore, the question is why and how could they throw away the oldest and the most liberal of all religion just to serve the interest of another religion (Christian). The most important thing is that no religion and at the moment Hinduism must not be made a political issue. But by declaring republic & Nepal a secular state, they have made mixed religion with politics, which could be very dangerous and detrimental to the whole Nepalese society.  Now it is a high time Nepal should be careful to save her indigenous culture. So, let all Nepalese unite and raise voice to revert the irresponsible party’s decision and again declare the constitutional monarchy as well as Hindu Rashtra in Nepal as a fortified and flourishing land of traditional Hindus & Buddhists as a resource of Global Peace and Humanity.

(This revival of ancient Hindu Rashtra in Nepal mostly depends upon the tie-up of Nepal Monarchy and Public in a coherent good-faith, welfare of public by the existing Hindu dynasty in Nepal and Hindu Sentiment in general. But, the role of Bharat is the main factor which must be a pro-Hindu form from all sides. Unless and until Bharat is declared as a Hindu State within 2025, the revival of a Hindu State in Nepal is remote. Revival of Hindu Rashtra in Nepal is now connected with the Establishment of a Hindu Rashtra in Bharat. So, the adherent Hindus of Nepal and Bharat (India) must fight jointly for the Hindu States both in Bharat and Nepal. Jayatu Jayatu Hindu Rashtram! Jai Bharat Hindu Rashtra !! Jai Nepal Hindu Rashtra !!! – Ed. Hindu Existence).