On June 4, I visited the Gurkha village of Dhampus in the Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality, close to the town of Pokhara. I was invited there to address a gathering of Dalits to celebrate the Day for the Elimination of Untouchability and Caste Discrimination. What I saw there was not just the persistent exclusion and humiliation of Dalits, but also a great mismatch between the aspirations of the Dalit community in Dhampus (and beyond) and the narratives of the Dalit movement.

The Dhampus story

The village of Dhampus is about 60 km north-west of Pokhara. The beautiful Gurung village atop a massive hill lies on the trekking route to Mardi peak and has itself transformed into a tourist destination. Long a hub of Gurkha recruitment, the village has been twinned with the Welsh town of Brecon.

Thanks to the 2009 change of Gurkha immigration policy, many former soldiers and their families have emigrated to England. A few of their relatives remain back home. Indian Gurkhas and their families, as well as many civilians, have shifted to Pokhara and beyond.

Once a vibrant community boasting of Gurung culture, of folk songs, dances and of traditional rites and rituals, Dhampus is now being rapidly emptied. Indeed, a dwindling population is characteristic of most parts of the Himalayan foothills, but the process seems faster in Gurkha villages.

Some Dalits of Dhampus, too, have made money and moved down to Pokhara. Many, however, cannot afford to leave the village. Yet, their lives are not the same.

Thanks to the employment opportunities in the Gulf countries and Malaysia, fewer Dalits now rely on the mercy of the upper castes. Their traditional economic dependence on the dominant castes has largely ended. Extreme poverty is rare; most Dalit children go to school. A few Dalits of Dhampus have become medical doctors and engineers.

Behind the upward social mobility, the practice of untouchability persists. Caste still bites Dalits hard. They continue being publicly humiliated and excluded in the name of keeping the tradition, appeasing the lineage deities and preserving the ancestral traditions.

Dalits are not allowed to enter many temples and homes. They must eat and drink separately in communal feasts; they must wash their own dishes when they eat. Exclusion is such that there have been instances where local Gurungs have refused to ride the jeeps operated by blacksmiths on their pilgrimage to the Muktinath temple.

In other rural areas such as Kaskikot, Lwang Ghalel and Puranchaur, the situation is similar. Needless to say, this is a typical scenario across rural Nepal. Freedom from untouchability remains a mirage.

Unlike the claims of many scholars, class does not trump caste. Economic advancement and educational progress make Dalit lives slightly more acceptable in society. But, even after twenty years of Nepal's declaration as free from untouchability, there’s no sign of achieving that aim. Who is to blame?

A new narrative

It is largely the failure of the state, of course. The country has never been eager to end caste discrimination in practice, and, unfortunately, the Balen regime is no different.

But, I also lay blame on the Dalit movement. It has not been able to fathom the changes in recent years, come up with powerful narratives and launch effective campaigns for genuine change in the lives of ordinary Dalits.

A reason for this failure is that they have always been controlled and guided by upper-caste politicians. The established parties themselves have greatly lost credibility and have run out of an effective agenda for expected economic progress and social transformation.

Dalits are stuck with the same old and tired narratives, framed while fighting for democracy prior to 1990. Still, Dalit leaders and intellectuals emphasise economic advancement, economic progress, employment opportunities and better representation in state authorities.

They mostly fight to win a seat in the parliament and the government. The same is true, sadly, of some of the well-known activists aligned with the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party! They used to make loud noises from the streets, but now, they have gone silent.

Ending poverty, educating children and having many more ministers and MPs are important for Dalit freedom. But these agendas have not been adequate, as evident in the village of Dhampus. Even the Dalits owning big houses in Pokhara are excluded once they return to their original place (there’s a degree of exclusion in the town too, of course).

How do we overcome the problem of persistent exclusion and humiliation of Dalits? I suggest we now need a new vision and new narratives.

In 2011, Gopal Guru, a former political science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, published an edited volume, aptly named Humiliation: Claims and Context. Nepali activists and academics would do well to read this book and use the notion of ‘humiliation’ as a powerful new narrative.

Professor Guru states, “Humiliation is not so much a physical or corporeal injury; in fact, it is more a mental/psychological injury that leaves a permanent scar on the heart.” This theorisation of infernal feelings deserves more attention.

Humiliation has long been our almost-daily experience. It transcends the rural-urban divide—it transcends class and education. Caste-based humiliation transcends national borders.

In this digital era, people can dominate and humiliate Dalits at any time from virtually anywhere on Earth! Living in Kathmandu, I am not as exposed to offensive behaviour as in places like Dhampus.

But, people easily humiliate me online—some of the comments on my Facebook and Twitter posts are very offensive and illegal. But there’s no way to punish the criminals who may be residing abroad.

As I have long argued, Dalits have made the mistake of treating untouchability as a purely legal issue. Far from it! It is also a great psychological problem.

Many Dalits experience humiliation. Often, mental violence hurts more than physical violence. Humiliation is more open and widespread in rural areas like Dhampus, but it also exists in towns. More so on social media. And there’s hardly any legal recourse, especially when the perpetrators live in America, Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

So, we must drastically reform the Dalit agenda. Let’s not continue to repeat the same old mantra of economic progress, educational achievement and access to political power. Let’s also think of resolving the problem of, for example, Dalit ministers and parliamentarians struggling to rent properties!