Posted by: BABAL Khate April 16, 2011
Culturally, Nepal and India are more similar than different
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Dimag Kharab,

The solution to the problem you are mentioning is to encourage more Nepalese to follow in the footsteps of these people:
Prabal Gurung, Tara Devi, Narayan Gopal, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, B.P Koirala, Manjushree Thapa, Parijat, various Nepali visual artists, painters, Hari Bansa and Madhan Krishna, Samrat Upadhyaya, Santosh Pant and others who have produced Nepali television serials and movies, etc

We all need to take responsibility and do our little part to promote Nepali culture. It is not the Indians responsibility to promote Nepali culture. It is ours.

From what you are saying, it seems that you are afraid of being culturally absorbed by India and losing your individuality as a Nepali. It seems that this is what you're fighting against.

It is Nepali cultural values that is destroying Nepali culture, not the Indians.

If Nepal is today threatened by Indian culture, it is not India's fault. It is because not enough Nepalese are putting their energy in the right direction. Not enough Nepalese are creatively expressing and inspiring other Nepalese. There are not enough Nepalese who are taking what is good and beautiful and wonderful about Nepal and promoting it all over the world the way Indians are.

We Nepalese encourage the most brilliant and creative minds in our culture to build their careers by being doctors and engineers so that they can stand independently. We think it is only when someone is rich that they have become a great man, worthy of respect by all other Nepalese. These are the cultural values that we promote amongst each other. The Indians did not promote these values in Nepal, we Nepalese did.

What is our Nepali cultural logic?
We say that everybody with a good mind should study the sciences. If you aren't hard working and sharp enough to make it in the sciences, then study business. And, if you don't have enough ability for hard work and intelligence to even study business (in other words, you are that useless), then study arts. Of course, if you study the arts, most Nepalese will look down on you.

So basically, we encourage the most brilliant minds in our country to study the sciences so that they can look out for their own careers. And we make fun of and look down on all the people and careers that could promote creativity and communication (arts). And then us Nepalese sit around crying to each other saying that our culture is being lost, and we blame the Indians. How convenient. 

Why haven't more Nepalese been able to promote Nepali culture? Could it be because we Nepalese have put so much emphasis on our children being doctors, engineers, and bankers that we have discouraged them from pursuing the arts? Could it be because as a culture, we have actively discouraged our children from pursuing movie production, writing, as careers? Perhaps, that is why, unlike Bollywood, we don't have as sophisticated as an industry that communicates Nepali culture to the world the way the Indians do?

So why blame the Indians? When are people like you and I going to admit our own responsibility in all of this?

Let's talk about what you and I can do today. Blaming India does not solve Nepal's problems. It just makes Nepalese seem like we are weak and powerless. Many of the Nepalese I mentioned up top have shown how we are strong, creative and capable.

Last edited: 16-Apr-11 12:55 PM
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