Nepal’s Hindu society is presently in need of a religious reformation. But how is that going to happen? Who are going to be the agents of such a change? As a sense of helplessness pervades the air, we turn to the state for help. But Nepal, as a secular, modern country, hesitates to enter the domain of religious reformation. It did not bother to bring such a reformation while it was still a Hindu kingdom. Why should it do it now? Nepali intellectuals seem to believe that rituals and religions are out of their league. They hesitate to play with rituals. Intellectuals trained in the Sanskrit language and the Shastras make up the least impressive intellectual force in Nepal today. 

Political parties in Nepal are donation-savvy. They seem to prefer getting into what appears to be proselytisation instead of engaging in the hard task of creating any reformative movement. Social scientists seem to believe that a big flow of capital is taking place to create a new social order in Nepal, and that the caste hierarchy is sure to become outdated. Hardliners seem to harp on the belief that their religion must not change at all. Donors do not have any interest in the reformation of the Hindu religion. Activists from the Dalit and other marginalised communities are critical of the Hindu-dominated socio-political culture of this country. Since the Brahmins have not created any major force that can implement religious reformation, they are being blamed for the caste discrimination that exists in Nepal.

Being a Brahmin

My impression is that the Brahmins in Nepal too want to get rid of the burden of being superior. They too want to be free from misconceptions about themselves and other castes in society. Deep down they know that the psycho-social condition—they are Brahmins, therefore, superior—has hampered their and their children’s actions very badly. They realise that the very epistemic and social values promulgated to establish the Brahmins as superior citizens through laws have humiliated millions. The values put forward by the priests and elite on sex and marriage have come to misguide and fool their own children. As a Brahmin, I find that the youths of Brahmin families in Nepal live in two different worlds—one that is getting liberal and global, the other that is still closed and conservative. They too do not know how to free themselves.

Brah-mins, a heterogeneous group consisting of Jaisi, Kumai and Upadhyay categories, do not form any force that could be termed as superior. Their being Brahmins does not guarantee that they will hold the power of interpreting nature, society and themselves in a new social and cultural context. Forces other than the one they represent have come to dominate the world of knowledge and creativity. Many educated Brahmins do not want their children feeling superior because they know that it will not lead them anywhere. Many Brahmin children prefer to migrate abroad for greater freedom and a liberal lifestyle. Those remaining in their ancestral regions, like JM Coetzee’s white characters from post-colonial Africa, realise that they are going to have to bear the brunt of the consequences of the actions of their forefathers against the ‘untouchables’ in the past. A Dalit boy or girl walking with their arms akimbo through a Brahmin neighbourhood has already become more than a mere anecdote. A Dalit youth standing with a raised finger to ask a question in public is a moment of epiphany for historians and creative writers. 

Time to reformulate

As a university teacher, I meet students from the Dalit community everyday in my class. Possessed as they were with a greater power of humility and creative concentration, they seem to look at the horizon that is much friendlier to them. On the other hand, Brahmin youths find themselves fighting against themselves. They want to embody a newer self, but find themselves speaking several politically incorrect words. They too look at the horizon for a change that could help them carve out a liberal and safer self.

As a Brahmin and a researcher of the performance culture of this part of the world, I have come to realise that rituals need to be redefined and reformulated in Nepal. Rituals should not be left just like that. Instead, we should make everyone, no matter what caste and clan they may come from, feel that they have every right to perform rituals and claim a new identity thereby. People, as part of their human rights, have a right to play with rituals. They should be encouraged to develop rituals which can solve the problems created by rituals of the past. In other words, rituals can interact with rituals; they can repair each other. Moreover, one can claim equal status with Brahmins on the ground that they know how to conduct rituals, which Brahmins have always considered to be their domain. 

Social hierarchy

We need to look at the very trajectory through which the social hierarchy got formulated in Hindu society in this part of the world. The rituals that the Brahmins lived on played a major role in creating the caste-based hierarchy. Rituals should be given another chance. Instead of confining rituals to history, we should use them to create a more egalitarian Hindu society. Rituals were not mere pujas in the past. They were sources of political and social power. Therefore, why should one particular class of a particular historical time benefit from them? 

My point is that if any Dalit claims to know how to perform Hindu rituals, he or she has every right to call himself or herself a Brahmin. He or she can have every right to have a new identity. Moreover, most Dalits in Nepal are descendants of Brahmins. They were given the ‘lower’ status on the basis of rituals. I believe that rituals should be provided a chance to correct the mistakes of the past. This requires people to embrace rituals. All rituals, even those designated by the Vedas, are human constructs. They were rational acts carried out in the name of law and order. Therefore, they need to be made the subject of studies and performance. Gone are the days when only a few could play with rituals. Therefore, instead of de-Hinduising Nepali society, the wiser thing would be to enter the very sphere of rituals and repair them to provide our civilisation a new dynamism. 

Rijal is a senior lecturer at Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University