FIGHT FOR THE GURKHAS NOW (Satis Shroff)

Prince Harry has received his coveted curved knife, the Khukri, after a four-day stint with the Gurkha Brigade in the UK, and according to a close source, he is seriously thinking of joining the Gurkhas, which comes at a time when the Gurkhas are battling for their pensions, stay-permits, and civil rights.

It was a magnificent scenario: the proud Royal Scouts led British cadets, Territorial Army and Gurkhas over Waverly Bridge and along Princes Street. The Gurkhas were led by a man in spotted leopard cloak beating a drum, followed by vehicles with armed Gurkhas.

Who are these Gurkhas? You might ask. They are Britain's 3,500 elite soldiers from the small Himalayan country Nepal. These Gurkhas have fought and died with the British Armed Forces for two centuries. This year, according to the Scotsman (news.scotsman.com), Gurkhas have been dumped back in Nepal with a stipend by the thousand. This, after two centuries of fighting your wars for you.They are not, never have been, paid the same as a British soldier.

When it comes to money-matters, the Brits have always regarded the Gurkhas as cheap labourers and mercinaries that you can recruit in a matter of months, or even weeks. There are always 28,000 young Nepalese who want to join the Royal Gurkha Brigade. Only 200 are chosen annually. What happens to the others? Do they join the Maoists to get battle experience? I knew one named Kunjo Lama who didn't make it at the recruiting depot in Dharan (Eastern Nepal) and worked as a teacher in a Nepalese village in the hills rather than face the ignominy of returning home as the laughing stock of the hamlet dwellers. Losing one's face is something serious in the Nepalese world, and for the Nepalese psyche. But Kunjo made it at the next admissions and even took part in the Falkland War at Port Stanley against the Argentinians.He showed me a photograph from his wallet of himself and his fellow Gurkhas in front of a helicopter, armed to the teeth during the war at the Malvinas.

Sometime later during a trip to London I saw how the South Asian people were living in London's East End, where the Cockneys use to live earlier, with its brick-houses (Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane'). Nay, the Gurkhas didn't even enjoy the same status as the asylum-seekers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Jamaica and other former colonies, settled in London's East End or Southhall. The Gurkhas are based in Church Crookham, Hampshire, but they are lucky if they can return to their home country after fighting Britain's wars and police missions in the British Rhine Army, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo, Cyprus, Falklands, Lebanon, Croatia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

To think that so many ethnic Nepalese mothers have lost their sons, and so many children have lost their fathers and sisters their dear brothers fighting for the Glory of Britain, is indeed worth contemplating and discussing about in the London Parliament by the new government.The Gurkhas, who are ruthless warriors at war, have always been obedient, loyal, disciplined and subordinate to their British officers for 200 years. Their loyalty and bravery have always been unfaltering. Had Indira Gandhi taken the Gurkhas as her personal bodyguards like the Queen of England, instead of the Sikhs, at a time when when the storming of the Golden Temple of Amritsar was a big issue in Punjab and India, I'm sure she would have lived longer.
But most South Asians think: that's kismat. It was written that she had to die a violent death. Schicksalsdenken.

A Gurkha serves in the Army a minimum of fifteen and a maximum of thirty years after which they are discharged and obliged to leave Britain for Nepal. No, they aren't allowed to stay on, settle down and enjoy the English countryside with their meagre pensions, as far as English lifestyles and pays-scales are concerned. This speaks for the British government's nefarious 'special treaty' with the Gurkhas and the Royal Narayanhiti Palace in Kathmandu (Nepal). Nepal is on its way to becoming a democratic state and the government will have to make positive ammendments or scrap the treaty and draw a new one with human rights and dual citizenships for the Gurkhas.

The British government always uses Nepal's government pay-scales as a yardstick to pay off their loyal Gurkhas. There are so many British citizens working all over the world but what would happen if they were paid according to the laws existing under the rule of Queen Victoria and receiving the same pay scale as in those days. The Gurkhas are not living in the past but in the present and the cost of living is high everywhere and their families need food, clothing and education. Gurkhas aren't social cases for the men have been enlisted by Her Majesty's officers at Dharan (Nepal) to serve in the Gurkha Brigades, which officers like to emphasise as an integral part of the British Army. The British government realised soon enough that the India of the former Raj were being qualified and were clever at Oxford and Cambridge and they wouldn't tolerate the master-and-servant relationship which the burra sahibs had propagated during the Raj.

But Nepal is another matter. The Ranas and Shahs have exploited the country and its manpower resource for longer than two centuries and were to blame for the bad manpower management deals with the then British government. Another factor that is Nepal's disadvantage is the fact that Nepal wasn't really conquered by the East India Company and has thus never belonged to the British Commonwealth. That explains why the wealth and equality hasn't reached Nepal's Himalayan boundaries as yet, for the targets of equality are always specific and comprise aristocratic privilege, capitalist wealth, bureaucratic power, racial or sexual supremacy, and the desire of a group of people to dominate their fellows.
Today, we have the possibility of doing away with these discriminations and injustices. Under Gordon Brown we have the chance to give the Gurkhas a helping hand of real friendship, and not only lip-service, and make good.

Prior to the EU-membership of East Bloc countries, when a Polish worker came to help pluck the strawberries in the vicinity of Freiburg (Germany), they weren't paid the actual rate for west workers in Germany either. Now that the Poles have no zlotys, and are paid in Euros in their own countries, it doesn't seem to be lucrative to go all the way to Germany, with the result that the strawberries get overripe and go kaputt. Ethnic Germans are reluctant to do this back-breaking job under the blazing sun.

The British Army onced sacked 111 Gurkhas, and as a result the Gurkhas wrote a petition to the Queen of England to help the men who had been sent to Nepal, and to improve the treatment of the Gurkhas (who had after all fought for Britain in the Falklands) throughout the Army. The petition to Queen Elizabeth II was signed: Your Majesty's most obedient servants. The all (sic) ranks of SP 1/7th Gurkha Rifles.

A question that vexed me is why the Gurkha children have to do the SLC (School Leaving Certificate) exams of Nepal, instead of the GCE 'A' levels, like all school-kids in England? The British government and the Nepalese monarchs never appreciated the importance of better, higher education for the offsprings of the Gurkhas. With British educational certificates and degrees thousands of sons and daughters of the Gurkhas would have had better chances in their lives and would be much better off than their soldiering Dads and brothers. The idea from the start was to put the Gurkhas and their families in ghettos alias barracks or lines, and no attempts were made to integrate them and their families in the British society.

If a Gurkha would join France's Foreign Legion, they'd be taught the French language and would get a much better status in the French society than the British give to the Gurkhas. I don't want to say alas, but Nepal just wasn't a French colony, though the French managed to come up to an enclave named Pondicherry in India. Nepal has no special relationships with the French but with the British. Moreover, what would happen if the Gurkhas started joining the US Army as regulars? Then they'd be getting better pay, US-passports and they could fulfil their civil wishes in the land of 'unbegrente Möglichkeiten.' No country in the world has made such a fuss and such a bad deal with its fighting forces, the Gurkhas, as the British government. The British people love the Gurkhas, but the British government doesn't, and has been giving the Gurkhas an extremely bad deal since two centuries. We can forget about the Victorian times but after the World War II, it was high time that the British gave the Gurkhas equal rights. But far from it. It has started haggling with the Gurkhas about their pensions.

There have been isolated instances of Gurkhas involved in recent courtroom skirmishes with the British Ministry of Defence to receive the same pension and conditions as other British soldiers. Whereas an ex-Gurkha received 40,000 English pounds payment from Britain after a court ruling, which was an isolated instance, another Gurkhas claim was rejected by a Nepal court. 'Better to die than be a coward' is the motto of the Gurkha warriors who are an integral part of the British Army. It should run 'better to fight a battle with a good lawyer against the Ministry of Defence than against Britains foes, as we say in Germany: bis die Fronten geklärt sind.

Britain and its admirable people still have to do a bit of soul-searching on the question of their best friends-in-arms. The officers in the administration and the Defence Ministry think of the Gurkhas still as cannon-fodder and not as humans, at eye-level with the same rights and equality. They still play the game of the Raj: masters and servants. This must not be tolerated and must be put to an end by the new government at 10 Downing Street, for they have gone too far. It is hoped that the impeccable British people will rally around and support the brave but legally weak Gurkhas by giving them a helping hand. I know that the British people do give a helping hand when necessary and that I appeal to their fairness.

What is the difference between an asylum-seeker and a Gurkha in Britain? In the long run the asylum-seeker gets a British passport, British pay (if he or she's qualified) and British rights and his or her children kindergartens,schools, colleges and universities in Britain, and become a part of the British mainstream. Not so the Gurkhas and their families.

Due to questionable 'special relations' between Britain and Nepal that haven't been ratified yet, the poor Gurkha and his family have to say goodbye to Britain and head for the barren hills of Nepal. That's the plight of what Sir Ralph Turner MC, 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, 1931 said, „ Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you.“

When you think of how true, loyal friends are treated for their faithfulness in even present-day Britain, you can only shake your head or hide in shame.

During the Falklands War out in the Malvinas under Margret Thatcher's primiership, the British were put in an embarassing situation by Argentina's UN- representative for he accused the British of having deployed 'Gurkha mercinary' troops. The British government demented that and said it had special relationsships with Nepal and that the Gurkhas were its own troops, belonging to and integrated in the British Army.

But the sad reality is: when a British leutenant saunters by, a Gurkha-Major is obliged to salute him! And not the other way around. This still means that all soldiers are equal in the British or Gurkha army, but some solders are more equal than the others, George Orwell's Animal Farm, which Gurkha school children learn in good English schools in India's Darjeeling and Nepal. In this context it must be mentioned that 45,000 Gurkhas died in the two World Wars under the Union Jack and another thousand since then, even though the Gurkhas were reduced and demobilised to Brigade strength in the British and Regiment strength in the Indian Army. This was after the partition of India in 1947 after an agreement between Nepal, India and Britain, whereby four regiments from the Indian Army were transferred to the British Army, which then became the Gurkha Brigade.

It's still the white sahib commanding the natives, despite the so-called handsome pensions that the Gurkhas receive, according to Nepalese standards. When I lecture in Switzerland I earn almost 100 Swiss Francs per hour, like all Swiss and German lecturers, without discrimination about my origin and descent. I think that it's high time that the Gurkhas received the same wages as their British fellow soldiers. Please don't come up with the Sugauli Treaty or 'special relations crap' that dates to the times of Queen Victoria and Junga Bahadur Rana. We are living in modern times and democracy exists in England since a long time. The world has learned from the British what fairness is not only in sport but in everyday life.

I think it's high time that the Gurkhas went to an international court in Strassburg, Belgium UN(NY) and received Flankenschutz from Human Rights Organisations in Britain, Britain Watch, NGOs and whatever. Sally and rally around and give the Gurkhas a helping hand so that they can also have equal rights and their sons can receive education in Britain and when they are qualified they can work and live there. They are not exotic creatures, they are human beings who also ought to have human rights.Britain still has the chance to repair the damage it has done towards the Gurkhas by giving their children a decent English education, for education is the best gift we can give to children. Give education to a Gurkha child and you have given him or her something very valuable and priceless and they will be thankful all their lives.

If you don't know the impact that the death of a Gurkha can have on his near and dear-ones, then please read the following lyric, which is dedicated to all Gurkha-mothers, past and present, and think of the plight of the Gurkha mother:

A GURKHA MOTHER (Satis Shroff)
Death of a Precious Jewel)

The gurkha with a khukri
But no enemy
Works for the British Gurkhas
And yet gets shot at
In missions he doesn't comprehend.
Order is hukum,
Hukum is life
Johnny Gurkha still dies under foreign skies.
He never asks why
Politics isn't his style
He's fought against all and sundry:
Turks, Tibetans, Italians and Indians
Germans, Japanese, Chinese
Argentinians and Vietnamese.
Indonesians and Iraqis.
Loyalty to the utmost
Never fearing a loss.
The loss of a mother's son
From the mountains of Nepal.
Her grandpa died in Burma
For the glory of the British.
Her husband in Mesopotemia
She knows not against whom
No one did tell her.
Her brother fell in France,
Against the Teutonic hordes.
She prays to Shiva of the Snows for peace
And her son's safety.
Her joy and her hope
Farming on a terraced slope.
A son who helped wipe her tears
And ease the pain in her mother's heart.
A frugal mother who lives by the seasons
And peers down to the valleys
Year in and year out
In expectation of her soldier son.
A smart Gurkha is underway
Heard from across the hill with a shout
'It’s an officer from his battalion.
A letter with a seal and a poker-face
"Your son died on duty," he says,
"Keeping peace for Her Majesty
The Queen of England."
A world crumbles down
The Nepalese mother cannot utter a word
Gone is her son,
Her precious jewel.
Her only insurance and sunshine
In the craggy hills of Nepal.
And with him her dreams
A spartan life that kills.
Glossary:
gurkha: soldier from Nepal
khukri: curved knife used in hand-to-hand combat
hukum: Befehl/command/order
shiva: a god in Hinduism

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British PA pension remains £6,624

Gurkha AFPS PA pension £1625
1. Gurkha pensions are converted from Sterling to Indian Currency and converted again to Nepalese currency. The exchange rate as at 26/03/07 is £1.00 = IC 85.0939. The Nepalese Rupee is pegged to the IC at NR 1.60 approx.

2. The above comparison is based on the 2006/07 pension scales for both servicemen (AS IF BOTH SERVICEMENT WERE RECEIVING THEIR ‘CURRENT’ RESPECTIVE RANK SERVICE PENSIONS) because if the “1997 Gurkha Pension Rates” was used to calculate the above “% disparity” between British & Gurkha Pension, the disparity would be unbelieveable!!

GURKHA PLEA: Gurkhas are not seeking the full 22 years service pension of his British counterpart’ pension but merely the equivalent proportionate rate for their rank and service because no Gurkha; with the exception of the Regimental Sergeant Major and Queen’s Gurkha Officers, are permitted to serve for 22 years. Gurkhas are further penalised harshly by the Government/MOD with the introduction of:

a. The “Pre & Post 1997” Gurkha Service Demarcation Line. The simple MOD explanation that the change of “Gurkha Home Base” from Hong Kong to UK to effect this change is bullying of her own troops.

b. The massive service reduction of “Pre 1997” Gurkha service for “Post-1997” Gurkhas at 3:1 ratio for conversion to the AFPS service is discriminatory. If this is the case then no Gurkha soldier is eligible to don his Falklands Medals, LSGC, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc campaign medals awarded “before” 1997 because they do not quality under the 3:1 reduction of Gurkha service into British service.

c. The GOTT’s unfair “AFPS 22 year service” rule to determine the award of “immediate monthly pensions to Post-1997 Gurkhas” when their “Pre-1997” service had already been reduced by almost 30% toward the AFPS scheme is disgraceful.
Will not one of our “senior” British Gurkha Officers rise to the challenge and “protect” us?

Compiled by G. Limbu
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Dear Satish Ji,

Namaskar! I am a retired Gurkha soldier, currently residing in Nottingham. I read your recent article “The British and the Gurkhas: Worlds Apart”. Many thanks for this and I really appreciate your article which is very informative. I have several contacts and will certainly pass this article to them.

I served 20 years under the flagship of the Union Jack in the Gurkha Regiment, but never had a chance to deploy in active war. During my 20 years experience, there were so many discriminations being laid in between British and Gurkha soldiers. I always asked myself, why they are treating us like this even when we deploy in the war alongside British counterparts, the enemy never spare us because of our cheap status. But we were sought to keep remaining quiet. Our Senior Officers were British, trained at Sandhurst Academy and the way they were treating us very painful in terms of comparing the way of life in Britain and Nepal.

As you had written 111 Gurkha soldiers were sent home without pension from Hawaii incident. The main cause was their Company Commander, the British Major (no name). He was so cruel and always been treated the Gurkha soldiers as slaves and he gave a speech to the American soldiers highlighting that the Gurkha soldiers are very poor in Nepal, uncivilized etc…. Although we were taught hard and respect our seniors, 111 soldiers could not bear this humiliation and the incident took place.

After having been fighting against with the British Government by the series of Ex-Gurkha Servicemen Organisation more than a decade, finally the British Government has given green light to settle the Gurkhas in the UK, but setting the magic cut off date of 1997. Those who are retired before 1997 are not allowed to settle in UK. Now, the British Government has reviewed the new terms and conditions of the Gurkhas after much pressure delivered by the some Ex-Gurkha Servicemen Organisations. The British Government reviewed and this special news of treating same footage of British counterparts been spread all over the world via media, but they did not review as per British soldiers.

Tul Bahadur Pun, VC, 84 arrived in UK on 5 July for his medical treatment. He was barred by the British Embassy to grant settlement visa a month ago. His application was rejected by saying” He has no close tie with Britain”, what a shame! This was the man who was awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II saving the Gurkhas and British soldiers in the battle field and he was fighting for Britain, not for Nepal or other countries. He was later granted a settlement visa after much pressure created by the British public. We have many widows, orphans and Gurkha veterans without pension. This is how we do not understand that the BritishGovernment can move the gaol post at any place and at any time he wishes, negating the human rights and delivering injustice to the Gurkhas who have fought for Britain and given their lives by the thousands.

Satisji, again. Thank you very much for your article.


GopalKumar Rai
From : Nottingham

Gewalt erzeugt Gewalt: Towards a Culture of Tolerance in Nepal (Satis Shroff)

Charles Haviland of the BBC was extensively quoted when he interviewed the Maoist’s reclusive chairman Prachandra, who emerged after 25 underground years and said that it was time for King Gyanendra Shah to go on exile or to face trial. Unlike what the cartoon figure says, the King has been obliged to keep himself in the background, as the political parties don't want him in active politics. However, the recent demonstrations show that there are still pro-monarchy elements in the capital who want to see the king reinstated as a Machtfaktor, a power figure, in Nepal. Wherether thy can pull this one is another question, for there is a growing protest against this movement. Let us see what happens and drink tea in the meantime, as we say in Germany.

What Nepal needs today is a culture of tolerance in this Himalayan conflict. Only then will it be possible for a coexistence in harmony between the warring political parties, cultures and religions in Nepal. This culture of tolerance and a civilisation of peace is only possible if the Nepalese work courageously and decisively towards non-violence. As a German saying goes: Gewalt erzeugt Gewalt. Aggression creates more aggression.

An open dialogue carried out with respect for each other’s opinions leads to a fruitful solution. After years of battling with each other, the Maoists, democratic parties and the monarch should realise that what all in the end desire is peace. There is better path than the path of violence. Aggressive behaviour in this Nepali context will lead to destruction of all involved in this struggle. A further escalation can lead to an irreversible national tragedy.

It is important in Nepal’s case to use a hermaneutic method in which we try to understand all involved sides: the King, the Maoists and the members of the different political parties.
What does the King want? The Nepalese King Gyanendra Shah said in his first Badadasain speech, that he wanted to uphold the Nepalese constitution and nationalism and mentioned “The institution of monarchy, as in the past, will remain steadfast in the commitment to the unity and welfare of the Nepalese people. It remains unwavering in safeguarding the constitution and upholding nationalism.” One can’t speak of unity when a civil war has been raging since a decade, and the people are divided between loyalty to the Royals and the Maoists, who have been in the past intimidating and indoctrinating the previous landlords and intellectuals.

A horrific drama was staged in Nepal. A drama of mothers, who will never see their sons, men, and children who killed other children, men and women, youths who believed, and still do, in aggression, instead of love. We merely have to see the press photos of Nepalese women, children and misled youth who have changed sides to don camouflage battle dresses instead of the dawra suruwal and topi attire in civil, peaceful times. Oh, the horror and shame of it, to have turned a tolerant, peaceful country through boundless egoism and brutal aggression into killing fields under the shadow of the Himalayas.

The search for quick, aggressive solutions by humans armed with imported weapons in the Himalayas, as in other societies of the world, is due to the pride of belonging to a pure, super race, a higher culture, better ideology, religion, and caste or class in society. This leads to a monopolistic line of thought in which one’s ideology, class, caste, race is regarded as dominant and superior to others. We have seen such instances in Auschwitz, Pol Pot’s massacres, in Iraq and elsewhere.

In order to have peace in the Himalayas, the Nepalese have to develop a heart that is ready to change, and try to resist the temptation of making serfs out of the vanquished. The human factor is missing, and the society is helpless and paralysed in this tragedy. And the arsenal of death has been growing, the many deaths and executions due to bullets and mines. Only tolerance can lead to a culture of peace and tranquillity. We have no alternative but to regard each other as humans, and not as objects, and try together to carry out fruitful dialogues that are open for tolerance and respect for the lives of each other.

The Maoists, alias Maobadis, dream of Mao Zedong’s ideology, use his strategy and are determined to establish a socialist republic in Nepal, which naturally means a humanitarian disaster, with reluctant Nepalese fleeing across the border seeking asylum and refuge from the brutal Maoists, in democratic and friendly countries in the neighbourhood and elsewhere. According to some organisations at least 200,000 Nepalese have left their homes and another 1,8 million have sought refuge in other countries. Among them are Nepal’s intellectuals: politicians, civil servants, teachers, medical doctors, male and female nurses. Between 1996 and 2005 the Maoists killed 4,500 Nepalese and the Royal Nepalese Army and police killed 8,200 Nepalese.

In the past, the Maoists gathered money for their battle operations through donations forced at gun-point. For a long period the Maoists gave the impression that they had no intention of doing away with the monarchy, because they knew that the uneducated subjects of the kingdom worshipped the King as an incarnation of Vishnu. So they wanted to carry out talks with the King and not the bickering, power-drunk leaders of the different political parties. Monarchy is at the moment down, but not out, but lying low.

Nepal’s Maoists have to learn that their faith in Maoism, namely that theirs is the only true ideology suitable for Nepal, has its limits. The Maoists of Nepal have yet to develop a tolerant, civilised behaviour in the positive meaning of the word, for at the moment they are in the brutal and aggressive phase of the conflict. They have to be allowed a re-entry into politics through an amnesty under the condition that they approve of laying down their weapons. This hasn’t happened as yet, for the Maoists have grown fond of their weapons.

Then comes the retreat in which they will show a passive behaviour and thirdly a dialogue-phase, during which they have to recognise the values and norms set by the democratic constitution of Nepal.

This dialogue can take place only through a realistic and rational analysis by Nepal’s Maoists, the King and the other political parties involved in this struggle for power in the Nepalese political landscape. Only this path leads to solidarity between the different holders of power in the country.

Even the Panchayat democrats had to realise that the ancient Hindu idea of a Panchayat rule, derived from the model of five village elders at the national assembly level, was a system and religious ideology that did not go with modern times. It must be mentioned that the Panchayat politicians were more or less marionettes of the Royal Narayanhiti Palace, who were sacked and others appointed, when they made mistakes in decision-making or were used as scapegoats during political upheavals.

The political parties have had their share of power after the declaration of democracy in 1990, and they had to solve the problems of a rising population, a shortage of food, degeneration of the ecology, the rising number of jobless Nepalese. The social tension was also getting worse. In January 2004 senior leaders of democratic political parties edged towards the students’ and the Maoists’ point of view, which was indeed a critical and disturbing development in Nepal, for it included the political centrists who had helped negotiate Nepal’s transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy after the riots of 1990 for democracy.

Since then, the farmers of Nepal have seen eight governments and seven prime ministers. The leaders of the political parties were hungry for power, corrupt and unable to give the country the necessary boost. The Nepalese have an average income of 200 euros per person. 31 % of Nepal’s 27 million people live under the poverty line.

There is no doubt that the Rana and Shah families, which have ruled Nepal for 250 years, have profited immensely since the days of Prithvi Narayan Shah. In the Kathmandu Valley of yore, there were three independent kingdoms with kings ruling the Newari subjects. In 1768 the ninth Shah King Prithvi Narayan conquered Kathmandu Valley and moved his capital from Gorkha to Kathmandu and founded what we know as Nepal today. The Shah dynasty was established and Prithvi Narayan Shah’s successors ruled till 1846. The Kot massacre took place near Kathmandu’s Durbar Square whereby Jung Bahadur Rana emerged as Nepal’s prime minister, and later became the maharaja of Nepal, a hereditary title which the Ranas held for 104 years. The successors of King Tribhuvan were King Mahendra, King Birendra and the present King Gyanendra Shah.

But the economic curve of this country has rapidly sunk in the past years. Nepal’s carpet industry, which gave work to 550,000 workers in 1992 has shrunk to less than half. The textile industry which had previously 70,000 workers has gone down to 20,000 workers. Tourists have also been advised by their respective embassies to avoid Nepal because of the Maoist struggle and has sunk to 38% since 1998. And the agricultural sector is also in bad shape.
Globalisation has shown that the world is becoming a global village with trade and commence based on mutual respect of laws and rules, tolerance and a policy of give-and-take. The former East Bloc countries are competing with each other to become members of the European Union and Nato, provided they embrace and introduce democratic values and norms. In this sense, the Maoists of Nepal cannot hope to create a communist enclave in the Himalayas for long, because Nepal is important as a bulwark and buffer-state between China and India, two military super-powers and economic giants. Nepal is like a hinge between China and India, and possesses geopolitical importance and the Himalayan vacuum, which is feared to develop, is of interest to the USA and other countries.

King Gyanendra Shah is on record as saying to his countrymen, “We should be pragmatic in the analysis of our geo-political sensitivities, socio-cultural systems and economic realities, ensuring a just and equitable share for all.” King Gyanendra dismissed the admittedly corrupt and incompetent government of PM Sher Bahadur Deuba in October 2002. Soon after King Gyanendra assumed executive authority himself. The King picked two governments but they could not resolve Nepal’s problems.

A new development is rather disturbing, for the political parties and the Maoists have joined together and pulled a fast one on King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shahdeva. I dread to think about the consequences of this unholy alliance. In the past the political parties of Nepal have said that they would not enter into any formal relationship with the Maoists, unless and until the Maoists renounce violence. The latter have yet to put down their weapons and commit to supporting the democratic process. Abduction and extortion is still the order of the day beneath the shadow of the Himalayas.

The goal of my words for tolerance is to make the Nepalese realise that tolerance is of universal value and is necessary for the development of peace and solidarity. If we are tolerant, we can seek peaceful solutions in the case of conflict between the King, the Maoists and the political parties. There cannot be a progressive dialogue between the quarrelling parties involved in this poor Himalayan country. The longer the dialogue is blocked by aggressive means, the longer will be the suffering of the average Nepalese in the Terai and the hills of Nepal. It is only through tolerance, solidarity and brotherhood that the peoples of Nepal can achieve their goals of a better life, good governance and a livelihood in peace. We are all seeking a common goal, though the means are different at the moment.

I wish Nepal a new era of democracy, peace and tolerance, generosity and broadmindedness in the Nepalese society, above the narrow-minded, illiberal, bigoted, prejudiced caste and ideology thinking in the past. It is hoped that we Nepalese will preserve our rich culture, ethnic diversity and great religions, and still go with the rest of the world towards an enlightened, peaceful and tolerant society in the Himalayas, by laying down the weapons of death, and beginning anew to respect human values and norms that have helped the Nepalese people ever since this nation was established.
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My Nepal, Quo vadis? (Satis Shroff)

My Nepal, what has become of you?
Your features have changed with time.
The innocent face of the Kumari
Has changed to the blood-thirsty countenance
Of Kal Bhairab,
From development to destruction,
From bikas to binas.
A crown prince fell in love,
But couldn’t assert himself,
In a palace where ancient traditions still prevail.
Despite Eton college and a liberal education,
He chose guns instead of rhetoric,
And ended his young life,
As well as those of his parents and other royal members.
An aunt from London aptly remarked,
‘He was like the terminator.’
Another bloodshed in a Gorkha palace,
Recalling the Kot massacre under Jung Bahadur Rana.
You’re no longer the same
There’s insurrection and turmoil
Against the government and the police.
Your sons and daughters are at war,
With the Gurkhas again.
Maobadis with revolutionary flair,
With ideologies from across the Tibetan Plateau and Peru.
Ideologies that have been discredited elsewhere,
Flourish in the Himalayas.
Demanding a revolutionary-tax from tourists and Nepalis
With brazen, bloody attacks
Fighting for their own rights
And the rights of the bewildered common man.
Well-trained government troops at the orders
Of politicians safe in Kathmandu.
Leaders who despise talks and compromises,
Flex their tongues and muscles,
And let the imported automatic salves speak their deaths.
Ill-armed guerrillas against well-armed Royal Gurkhas
In the foothills of the Himalayas.
Nepali children have no chance, but to take sides
To take to arms not knowing the reason and against whom.
The child-soldier gets orders from grown-ups
And the hapless souls open fire.
Hukum is order, the child-soldier cannot reason why.
Shedding precious human blood,
For causes they both hold high.
Ach, this massacre in the shadow of the Himalayas.
Nepalis look out of their ornate windows,
In the west, east, north and south Nepal
And think:
How long will this krieg go on?
How much do we have to suffer?
How many money-lenders, businessmen, civil servants,
Policemen and gurkhas do the Maobadis want to kill
Or be killed?
How many men, women, boys and girls have to be mortally injured
Till Kal Bhairab is pacified by the Sleeping Vishnu?
How many towns and villages in the seventy five districts
Do the Maobadis want to free from capitalism?
When the missionaries close their schools,
Must the Hindus and Buddhists shut their temples and shrines?
Shall atheism be the order of the day?
Not in Nepal.
It breaks my heart, as I hear over the radio:
Nepal’s not safe for visitors.
Visitors who leave their money behind,
In the pockets of travel agencies, rug dealers, currency and drug dealers,
And hordes of ill-paid honest Sherpas and Tamang porters.
Sweat beads trickling from their sun-burnt faces,
In the dizzy heights of the Dolpo, Annapurna ranges
And the Khumbu glaciers.
Eking out a living and facing the treacherous
Icy crevasses, snow-outs, precipices
And a thousand deaths.
Beyond the beaten trekking paths
Live the poorer families of Nepal.
No roads, no schools,
Sans drinking water and sans hospitals,
Where aids and children’s work prevail.
Lichhavis, Thakuris and Mallas have made you eternal
Man Deva inscribed his title on the pillar of Changu,
After great victories over neighbouring states.
Amshu Verma was a warrior and mastered the Lichavi Code.
He gave his daughter in marriage to Srong Beean Sgam Po,
The ruler of Tibet, who also married a Chinese princess.
Jayastathi Malla ruled long and introduced the system of the caste,
A system based on the family occupation,
That became rigid with the tide of time.
Yaksha Malla the ruler of Kathmandu Valley,
Divided it into Kathmandu, Patan and Bhadgaon for his three sons.
It was Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha,
Who brought you together,
As a melting pot of ethnic diversities.
With Gorkha conquests that cost the motherland
Thousands of ears, noses and Nepali blood
The Ranas usurped the royal throne
And put a prime minister after the other for 104 years.
104 years of a country in poverty and medieval existence.
It was King Tribhuvan’s proclamation and the blood of the Nepalis,
Who fought against the Gorkhas under the command of the Ranas,
That ended the Rana autocracy.
His son King Mahendra saw to it that he held the septre
When Nepal entered the UNO.
The multiparty system along with the Congress party was banned.
Then came thirty years of Panchayat promises of a Hindu rule
With a system based on the five village elders,
Like the proverbial five fingers in one’s hand,
That are not alike and yet functioned in harmony.
The Panchayat government was indeed an old system,
Packed and sold as a new and traditional one.
A system is just as good as the people who run it.
And Nepal didn’t run.
It revived the age-old chakary,
Feudalism with its countless spies and yes-men,
Middle-men who held out their hands
For bribes, perks and amenities.
Poverty, caste-system with its divisions and conflicts,
Discrimination, injustice, bad governance
Became the nature of the day.
A big chasm appeared between the haves-and-have-nots.
The social inequality, frustrated expectations of the poor
Led to a search for an alternative pole.
The farmers were ignored, the forests and land confiscated,
Corruption and inefficiency became the rule of the day.
Even His Majesty’s servants went so far as to say:
Raja ko kam, kahiley jahla gham.
The birthplace of Buddha
And the Land of Pashupati,
A land which King Birendra declared a Zone of Peace,
Through signatures of the world’s leaders
Is at war today.
Bush’s government paid 24 million dollars for development aid,
Another 14 million dollars for insurgency relevant spendings
5,000 M-16 rifles from the USA
5,500 maschine guns from Belgium.
Guns that are aimed at Nepali men, women and children,
In the mountains of Nepal.
Alas, under the shade of the Himalayas,
This corner of the world has become volatile again.
My academic friends have changed sides,
From Mandalay to Congress
From Congress to the Maobadis.
The students from Dolpo and Silgadi,
Made unforgettable by Peter Mathiessen in his quest for his inner self
And his friend George Schaller’s search for the snow leopard,
Wrote Marxist verses and acquired volumes
From the embassies in Kathmandu:
Kim Il Sung’s writings, Mao’s red booklet,
Marx’s Das Kapital and Lenin’s works,
And defended socialist ideas
At His Majesty’s Central Hostel in Tahachal.
I see their earnest faces, with guns in their arms
Instead of books,
Boisterous and ready to fight to the end
For a cause they cherish in their frustrated and fiery hearts.
But aren’t these sons of Nepal misguided and blinded
By the seemingly victories of socialism?
Even Gorbachov pleaded for Peristroika,
And Putin admires Germany, its culture and commerce.
Look at the old Soviet Union, and other East Bloc nations.
They have all swapped sides and are EU and Nato members.
Globalisation has changed the world fast,
But in Nepal time stands still.
After King Gyanendra’s coup on February 1, 2005
Nepalis aren’t allowed to assemble, even peacefully,
The right to assemble has been scrapped,
Preventive detention has become the law of the day.
Rights to property and privacy are denied at will.
The subjects of Nepal enjoy no free press.
The blind beggar at the New Road gate sings:
Lata ko desh ma, gaddha tandheri.
In a land where the tongue-tied live,
The deaf desire to rule.
Oh my Nepal, quo vadis?
The only way to peace and harmony is
By laying aside the arms.
Can Nepal afford to be the bastion of a movement and a government
That rides rough-shod over the lives and rights of fellow Nepalis?
Can’t we learn from the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq?
The Maobadis have been given a chance at the polls,
Like all other democratic parties.
Even the Maobadi warlords are Gurungs, Tamangs,
Rais, Subbas and Bahuns and Chettris,
Be they Prachanda or Baburam Bhattrai,
Leaders who prefer to retain their power in Nepal,
With weapons still.

Glossary:
Maobadis: Maoist communists who have been fighting for a communist-ruled Nepal since 1996.
Raja ko kam: the King’s Service
Kahiley jala gham: when is it going to be sunset
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About the Author: Satis Shroff is a writer and poet based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) who also writes on ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Science in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and Manchester. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize for 1998.
Satis Shroff writes with intelligence, wit and grace. (Bruce Dobler, Associate Professor in Creative Writing MFA, University of Iowa)

Satis Shroff writes political poetry in his anthology of poems and prose Between Two Worlds (http://www.lulu.com/). He writes about the war in Nepal, the sad fate of the Nepalese people, the emergence of neo-fascism in Germany. His bicultural perspective makes his poems rich, full of awe and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. In writing ‘home,’ he not only returns to his country of origin time and again, he also carries the fate of his people to readers in the West, and his task of writing thus is also a very important one in political terms. His true gift is to invent Nepalese metaphors and make them accessible to the West through his poetry.

„Die Schilderungen von Satis Shroff in ‘Through Nepalese Eyes’ sind faszinierend und geben uns die Möglichkeit, unsere Welt mit neuen Augen zu sehen.“ (Alice Grünfelder von Unionsverlag / Limmat Verlag, Zürich).

Since 1974 I have been living on and off in Nepal, writing articles and publishing books about Nepal-- this beautiful Himalayan country. Even before I knew Satis Shroff personally (later) I was deeply impressed by his articles, which helped me very much to deepen my knowledge about Nepal. Satis Shroff is one of the very few Nepalese writers being able to compare ecology, development and modernisation in the ‘Third’ and ‘First’ World. He is doing this with great enthusiasm, competence and intelligence, showing his great concern for the development of his own country. (Ludmilla Tüting, journalist and publisher, Berlin).

Writing experience: Satis Shroff has written two language books on the Nepali language for DSE (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst) & Horlemannverlag. He has written three feature articles in the Munich-based Nelles Verlag’s ‘Nepal’ on the Himalayan Kingdom’s Gurkhas, sacred mountains and Nepalese symbols and on Hinduism in ‘Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India) and his poem ‘Mental Molotovs’ was published in epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt). He has written many articles in The Rising Nepal, The Christian Science Monitor, the Independent, the Fryburger, Swatantra Biswa (USIS publication, Himal Asia, 3Journal Freiburg, top ten rated poems in http://www.nepalforum.com/ (I dream, Oleron, an Unforgettable Isle, A Flight to the Himalayas, Which Witch in Germany?, Fatal Decision, Santa Fe, Nirmala, Between Terror and Ecstasy, The Broken Poet, Himalaya: Menschen und Mythen, A Gurkha Mother, Kathmandu is Nepal, My Nepal, Quo vadis?). Articles, book-reviews and poems in, http://www.isj.com/, http://www.inso.org/. See also http://www.google/ & http://www.yahoo/ under search: Satis Shroff.