for me the basic ideas are these vis-a-vis india: 1) no denying it is a bully and wants a great deal of influence over all its neighboring countries, especially neutral countries, i.e. ones they have not engaged in war with. this comes from many things, insecurity (in all senses of the word), chief among them. 2) it would like to turn nepal into another bhutan if it can. 3) but the way to deal with that is not to cultivate this shrill, irrational reaction to it. 4) king mahendra was pissed at the indians because he was involved in a lot of smuggling activities and the indian authorities busted his goods more than once. 5) his whole vision of panchayati system, built to perpetuate his legacy and his clan, centered on this hysterical cry of nationalism. 6) this nationalism chiefly derived from anti-india ideology. 7) the same line of thought was perpetuated, through propaganda, during panchayat. 8) many of us fail to see beyond that. 9) nepali nationalism, as defined by mahendra and his panches, is fake because it does not come from within - it confuses, heck even equates, a nationalistic stance with an anti-indian stance. 10) in the long run, if we don't have confidence in ourselves, how can we hope to deal with our neighbors? if there has to be nationalism, i think it has to be inside out. let the brotherhood and sisterhood among nepali people flourish before we even think of railing against other people. if we cannot deal with the inequalities in our society, how can we collectively deal with something that is outside our society? its a game we have to play with india. sure. but its not life and death. its more like who scores more points. i think...