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Home , Girija Prasad Koirala, Maithili language, Matrika Prasad Koirala, Nepali language, Ram Baran Yadav

Vice President ’s Oath in : Response to Hindi in

- Alaka Atreya Chudal

उपरापित परमानद झाले अतरम संवधान, २०६३ Vice President Paramananda Jha had taken the oath ूित बफादार रहने र ूचिलत कानुनको अधीनमा रह of office for being obedient to the interim मुलुक र जनताको सोझो िचताई काम गन शपथ constitution 2063 and working for the benefit of the िलँदा हद भाषामा िलनभयोु तर जुन बदबाटु people in Hindi; however from the very time he took शपथ िलन शु गनुभयो यहंबाट संवधान उलंघन the oath he has violated the constitution. गन काय भएको छ ।

- Madhav Kumar Basnet1

Paramananda Jha is the first ever Vice President of the Republic of Nepal and a retired judge of the supreme court of Nepal. He is affiliated to the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum. The forum, which had decided to promote the languages of Tarai under its linguistic strategy2 had surprised audiences who were watching the live broadcast in television, when their leader took the oath of office and secrecy in Hindi language in July 2008 by spontaneously translating the words of the president . According to the interim constitution of Nepal (which was in force at the time ), the President and Vice President could only take the oath in the . Taking oath in languages other than Nepali was said to be a violation of the constitution, on which basis some Nepalese had pressed charges against him in the courts. When the Supreme Court asked him for an explanation, he told the press that he had no knowledge of Nepali. The Supreme Court did not recognize the oath of office and asked VP Jha to take the oath again in Nepali within a week, however Paramamanda Jha did not agree to do so and consequently the post of Vice President was vacant for six months. When a meeting of the Constituent Assembly approved mother tongues and national languages as the official languages for the President and Vice President to take the oath, in February 2009 Jha finally took the oath of office in his mother tongue Maithili and in Nepali.

1 http://www.kantipuronline.com/konepalinews.php?nid=154902 (accessed on 1/5/20 0 9 04:16 PM) Unless otherwise stated, all the from Nepali to English are mine. 2 It is stated in the election manifesto of Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum (signed on 2nd Chaitra 2064 B.S.) that Madhes is the land of Hindi, , Bangla, Marvadi and Panjabi language speakers. And in terms of , it declares a demand for a three-language policy in Tarai a) Mother Tongue b) Nepali and Hindi and c) English as the constitutional language of Nepal, which has to be used in both administration and education. 1

VP Jha’s oath taking raised the question of linguistic rights, however, only Nepali, Maithili and Hindi languages where the subject of this discourse. Nepali, being the long-time national or official language of Nepal obviously stood in the front line of the debate. Maithili was also in focus as the mother tongue of VP Jha and the language spoken by the second largest sector of the population after Nepali in the country. Hindi in this discourse appeared in the role of opposition. VP Jha and his party argued for the recognition of Hindi because in their opinion Hindi is the appropriate link language in Tarai, yet with its strong Indian identity, Hindi could not win the battle and VP Jha had to take the oath for a second time. This paper presents the background to the linguistic struggle focusing on Hindi and presents the response to it in Nepal, which will be followed by an analysis of media discourse relating to the issue of VP Jha’s oath in Hindi. The study will show the reasons for taking the oath in Hindi as stemming from Madheshi regional politics since Madheshi leaders have chosen this language to unite the different linguistic and ethnic groups of Tarai and also to give Tarai a distinct identity.

Introduction Every society in the world is characterized by at least some degree of diversity. During the past century, language and religion have been among the major symbols of group identity in . Language and religion have been used to broaden the identities of people in south Asian countries and to challenge the power of existing political units (Brass1974:3). Taking the perspective of Nepal, its linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity is remarkable; despite its small size, Nepal accommodates an amazing cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. Nepal’s ethnic and religious diversity is coupled with its linguistic plurality (Yadava 2003). On the Nepali political scene, the ethnic groups as minorities and their language as the subject of development have formed the agenda of political argument but religious discrimination in Nepali society has not been the critical issue in political discourse. During the Panchayat system, linguistic and cultural diversity was controlled by declaring a single ‘Nepali’ and national religion ‘Hindu’, as Nepal was announced to be the only Hindu kingdom in the world according to the 1962 constitution (Whelpton 2005(b):184); however, the restoration of democracy has changed the face of Nepal since 1990 when the new constitution defined the country as “Bahujatiya” (multiethnic) and “Bahubhashik” (multilingual). With this announcement other languages than Nepali were given due attention nationwide for the first time in the history of modern Nepal. (Nawa: 2004:261). Moreover the announcement that recognized minority languages as ‘national languages’ (Rastriya Bhasha) and the right given to communities to operate primary schools in their own languages was a positive step, however the government did not have any obligation to provide funding for such education (Whelpton 2005 (b):117). 2

According to these developments, languages spoken as the mother tongues by communities in various parts of Nepal also achieved high status in the country as national languages for the first time in 1990. Furthermore, the announcement that all the mother tongues spoken in Nepal were the “Rastra Bhasha” by the interim constitution (2063 B. S.) has given equal status to every native language spoken in Nepal, whereas previously Nepali was the only “Rastra Bhasha” or national language 3. Though local languages were already recognized for use by the local administrative offices according to the interim constitution, the backlash against VP Jha’s taking the oath of office and secrecy in Hindi has once again strengthened the position of the mother tongues, as all have now gained the status of official oath-taking languages for both the President and Vice President. The result might have proved supportive for the 92 languages identified as being spoken as mother tongues in Nepal according to the 2001 census (Yadav 2003), however nationalistic sentiments are raised by the fear of a possible increase in the Hindi mother tongue population in the ongoing (at the time of writing this paper) population census. This paper aims to outline and study the discourse on language issues in the various newspapers and online blogs published since the first oath of office taken in Hindi by Paramananda Jha. The media discourse has raised questions such as: why has Hindi been targeted by the public? What motivated Vice President Jha to take his oath of office in Hindi? Why do Tarai leaders always raise objections where Hindi is concerned? This paper will try to answer these questions, which will illuminate the concept of Madheshi regionalism as the motivating factor behind the politics of Hindi language in Nepal. Furthermore the Nepali (linguistic) nationalism created during the movement against Ranas as the symbol of Nepali nationalism has a strong influence among the Nepalese (mainly hill-dwelling) who cannot tolerate the idea of any other language taking over the dominant position of Nepali. The 2001 census has figures for 92 languages and a number of unnamed languages. The Tarai contains significant language groups including Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi and , whereas hilly regions also accommodate languages such as Rai, Limbu, Magar, Newari, etc. Nepali has been developed as the of Nepal as a whole, however the leaders of the Tarai region have been trying to develop Hindi in Tarai for the same role as Nepali in Nepal. Although Nepali is the dominant language in the government, the Tarai languages Maithili, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Tharu compete with Nepali to be the dominant vernacular. Cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity has endured in Nepal for many centuries but the demand for rights on the basis of culture, ethnic group and linguistic affiliation is very recent. The success of the ‘People’s Movement’ in 1990 led to a great increase in ethnic activism in the

3 Interim constitution 2063 B.S. 3 country as different groups arose assuming the right to speak for their own language, culture and a greater share in economic resources. The studies of ethnic groups in Nepal reveals that people identify themselves not only by their racial origin and religion, but also as separate ethnic groups on the basis of language and region. Different ethnic organizations were already established and intellectuals from the different ethnic communities had also set up the Nepal Mother-Tongue Council (Nepali Matribhasa Parishad) in 1985 to press for education in their own languages. Nevertheless, the Panchayat system had controlled it since the outset.4 In the case of Tarai, the people of Tarai have united on a regional basis to protest the discrimination against them by high-caste Hindus5 of the hill regions who dominate the power structures of Nepal (Dastider1995:23). Dastider (1995) further states that the Tarai people who have greater affinity with Indian customs and culture, due to the region’s geographical contiguity and contradistinction to the mountainous region are known as Madhesis and constitute the majority of Tarai inhabitants, speaking languages spoken elsewhere in the Gangetic Plain. The Madheshi leaders have been advocating and using Hindi as the lingua franca of region, pretending its dissimilarity from linguistic aspects of the rest of Nepal. Census-taking in Nepal was first introduced in 1911 to carry out a survey of the population and its related aspects such as growth, migration and social structure; however only since 1952/54 have censuses regularly reported on languages. Moreover, the 2001 census has recorded the largest number of languages spoken in Nepal: 92 languages spoken as mother tongue and a further number of languages which are reported as ‘unknown’. This increase is due to the fact that since the restoration of democracy there has been a continual increase in awareness among linguistic minorities about their distinct culture and linguistic identity, in the context of the 2001 census, which also represents ethno-linguistic communities. Linguistic diversity in Nepal has created a situation of monolingualism, bilingualism and multilingualism. Nepali-speaking people who hardly need to learn other languages for communication and older, illiterate or rural populations from remote areas6 with minimal contact to people speaking other languages than Nepali /any other mother tongue can be identified in monolingual group. In most cases, the bilingual population includes ethnic groups which speak Nepali together with their own mother tongue and vice versa. The Indo- languages spoken

4 See Whelpton 2005 for details. 5 believe the Tarai people who in recent times have asserted themselves as Madhesi and are also have the caste system. Therefore I would suggest that the Madheshi protest is mainly targeted at the language issue or at Nepali‐speaking people from the hill region. 6 Not only remote rural areas are included, as my personal experience with the Newars and Tamangs (mainly women) residing in , Lalitpur and Panauti which is not far from the capital show that they also do not understand other languages except their mother tongue. 4 in Tarai such as Rajbansi, Maithili, Bhojpuri Awadhi and Tharu constitute a special case, being seamlessly linked from the view point of intelligibility. Therefore it is difficult to notice where one language ends and another begins (Yadav 2003). In such cases, people adopted Hindi in Tarai as the link language, fulfilling the same role as Nepali did among speakers of other languages in the hill. (Yadava 2003, Whelpton(b) 2005) Beside this situation, the extremely widespread use of Hindi as the medium of entertainment in Nepali-speaking communities has made Hindi more familiar. As a consequence, Nepali-speaking people without knowledge of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the Tarai and vice versa have adopted Hindi as the link language. The two main link languages, Hindi and Nepali, have had a controversial impact upon linguistic nationalism in Nepal. Besides the multilingual character of the country to date, Nepal has developed two distinct kind of linguistic nationalism. The hill-dwelling people and ethnic group having Nepali and different ethnic languages as their mother tongue regard Nepali as the symbol of Nepali nationalism, whereas Tarai people see the efforts to remove Hindi’s public role as an attack on the Tarai inhabitants’ cultural identity (Whelpton 2005 (b). To clarify the situation of linguistic nationalism related to Hindi and Nepali language, it is relevant to start with a brief review of the history of Hindi in Nepal.

History of Hindi in Nepal: background, rise and development of ethnic, regional and linguistic politics in Nepal Language is one of the elements of nationalism. However, Tarai or Madhesh being the most valuable part of the country was not so highly populated as today before 2007 B. S. During the Rana regime, anyone from valley wishing to visit Tarai or vice versa had to obtain a visa to do so. The tax officers were appointed from outside the valley. Tax officers in hill regions were called Subba and in Tarai Chaudhari. Much of the land in Tarai had also been gifted as Birta. Madhesis were completely absent from the political scene (F. Gage 1975, quoted in Chaudhari 2065). Only after 2007 B.S. was the proposal for delineating a new Nepal mooted, but the unstable political situation in Nepal and the further establishment of Panchayat system changed the scenario and strengthened Nepali nationalism based on a concept of monolingualism.

From the time of the movement against Ranas, the issue of Nepali language as the symbol of Nepali nationalism was raised. A literary movement was aimed towards strengthening ; while the movement was also mainly supported by the hilly people. The

5 demand to make Hindi the national language and commitment of Indian literary writers in neighboring to the cause had also motivated those Nepalese visiting India, mainly Banaras and Calcutta for education, religious and some other purposes.7 Moreover the members of different hill-region ethnic communities sent to the British Army as soldiers had also devoted efforts to make Nepali the national language of Nepal. Having different mother tongues meant that Nepali could bind them together in a single national identity. They improved their Nepali skills through interaction with colleagues from diverse other ethnic groups. The issue of Tarai came to prominence in the 1950s, when Bedananda Jha established the Nepal Tarai Congress in Siraha which was the first to raise the issue of Madhesi. Among many demands the Tarai Congress had also demanded that Hindi be crowned the national language (Rajakiya Bhasha) of Nepal. Even this committee had established Hindi Rakshya Samiti to protect Hindi as Hindi was not supported by the government (Gautam: 2064). When in 1957 K.I. ’s government decided to end the use of Hindi as the medium of instruction in local schools, Hindi text books were replaced by Nepali in the government schools. The central government’s efforts to end Hindi’s public role in Nepal was seen as an attack on the Tarai inhabitant’s cultural identity and the politicians from the region were mobilized in protest against the policy of the government. The citizenship issue between hill and plain regions emerged more divisively in 1980 regarding citizenship and immigration. Citizenship certificates remained hard to obtain for the Tarai people who had a similarity in language, culture and race with neighboring India, where the government suspected migration from the other side of the border and instituted strict border controls (Whelpton 2005 (b):186-7). Nevertheless, the Madhesi issue was only focused on the Hindi language agenda and Madheshi leaders were unable to make any concrete strategy (Chaudhari 2065:19), consequently Madheshi regional politics did not see any further sign of progress. The Butch Commission formed by Prime Minister Matrika Prasad also suggested in its report presented in 2009 Paush that the government should include the Hindi speaking people in the Nepali government (Nepal: 2009). Not only the commission but also himself had raised the issue, which was strongly objected by the writers. Among others, Nepal rastra bhasha ko prashna was published in 2010 B.S. by Janaklal Sharma demonstrating his disagreement with this conclusion. This language issue then cooled down for some years until Matrika Prasad Koirala again spoke on the issue of accepting Hindi as the national language while addressing a mass meeting in in June 6, 1956. Not only giving his own opinion, he had also presented his brother as his supporter.

7 For detailed information, see Amatya: 2004 6

Later, however, Girija Prasad Koirala denied support for it but at the same time demonstrated support for the importance of Nepali and Hindi which was again seen as a controversial opinion as it supported both the languages parallel. After a week on 12 June 1956 Dilliraman Regmi raised the issue of Hindi language again and suggested that Hindi should be used as the medium of instruction in the schools in Tarai and as the official language of Tarai if the people so wished. After the statement of Matrika Prasad Koirala was objected so strongly, he again clarified the issue on 22 June 1956 by recalling that it was the responsibility of the Constituent Assembly to reach a decision upon the language issue but further added the importance of recognizing the status of Hindi in parallel to Nepali. Supporting the statement of Matrika Prasad Koirala, Girija Prasad Koirala had given an example of Switzerland having four national languages. This language conflict was not only the subject of debate among political leaders but also among literary writers. Lakshmi Prasad Devkota, Janaklal Sharma and Narayan Baskota were the strongest public supporters of Nepali language against Hindi. Finally the situation placed Hindi language in a weak position, Matrika Prasad Koirala was forced to rescind his words and he eventually blamed the Indian media, saying that they had created this scandal. Following the publication of this statement, the Hindi language issue cooled down for some time but rose to prominence again when, on 17 October 1957, Kashi Prasad Shrivastav of the Samyukta Prajatantra Party demanded that Hindi be used as the official language of the government and upheld Hindi as the language of the Tarai. This echoed the objection to the report published by the K .I . Singh government on 12 October 1957, which had stressed the importance of the Nepali language and had suggested that Nepali should be the only language used in public examinations even though teaching could be carried out in any of the regional languages. The political leaders and workers were divided into two groups Pahades for Nepali speakers and Madhesi for Hindi speakers. To calm down the situation the government again produced a declaration giving similar importance to the regional and ethnic (Gautam). The nationalism later developed by King Mahendra had blocked the way for other languages under the slogan eutai bhasha eutai bhesh (one language and one dress) and his anti- Indian nationalism was also successful in creating anti-Hindi nationalist sentiment in the country. In this situation, the movement in support of Hindi cooled down when Nepali was crowned the national language in 2014. The impact of Panchayat rule also affected the census of 1971 and 1981. We can see that the population speaking Hindi as their mother tongue in 1952/54 is recorded as 80,181(0.97% of the total population), in 1961 it had decreased to 2867 (0.03% of the total population) and in 1971 and 1981 the number of Hindi speakers is recorded as zero although after the restoration of democracy the number of Hindi-speaking people appeared again, numbering 170,997 (0.92% of the total population) and in 2001 it appears as 105,765

7

(0.47% of the total population).8 We can see that Hindi disappeared from the list for two decades under Panchayat rule, which is indicative of the strong Nepali nationalism developed by King Mahendra. The commitment to the Nepali language movement started by Motiram Bhatta, which was already strong, took stronger hold in the country during the Panchayat era. In the June 1991 general election the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (founded in 1985) demanded the formation of a federal government at the centre together with five provincial governments; the recognition of Hindi, the language spoken by Madhesis, as an official language with the same status as Nepali; and the delimitation of election constituencies on the basis of population in both the hill region and Tarai. However, the party only won six seats out of 205 (Dastider1995:29). The history of Hindi language in Nepal explained above shows that the struggle for recognition of Hindi is not a new topic in Nepali politics. But this political struggle entered a new phase with the furor surrounding the oath of office and secrecy taken by VP Jha. As the demand for recognition of Hindi language comes only from the Madheshis who represent the Tarai region this demand can be perceived as motivated by Madheshi regionalism and as a symbol of regional identity of Tarai. Hindi has also been used in the parliament over many years by the leaders of the Tarai region. In 1991, the leader of the Sadbhavana Party, Gajendra Narayan Singh, entered the parliament wearing the Dhoti Kurta in defiance of the slogan of Nepali hill nationalism ‘Hamro Bhasha Hamro Bhesh, Pran Bhanda Pyaro ’ (our language (Nepali) and our uniform (daura surval) are more important to us than our life’) and took the oath in Hindi. He delivered his first speech in Hindi, which was strongly opposed by the media and the other party and parliamentary members, meanwhile the members of the Sadbhavana Party have continued to raise the issue of Hindi language.9 Furthermore, in B.S. 2051 Minister Padma Ratna took his oath of the office in Nepal (Newari) language and later in 2008 Matrika Yadav of the Maoist party took the oath in Maithili. Moreover the members of the Constituent Assembly also took the oath in their own respective mother tongues including many Tarai leaders who took the oath in Hindi and who were representing Madheshi parties. Therefore, clearly taking the oath in other languages than Nepali (in the case of Vice President Jha) is not an entirely new practice in democratic Nepal.10

Since the political changes of 1990, ethnic politics have become a permanent fixture in Nepal’s multi-party democracy (Sharma 2005:484).The ethnic/regional has developed with three different facets. There is a group known as the Gorkhali nationalists, which

8 This data is quoted from Yadav:2003 9 http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=181963971821446 (accessed on 04.07.2011 at 13:59) 10 Kantipur 27.07.2008 readers comments (commented by Bindukanta ) 8 believes in the ongoing system of democratic governance and would not accept ethnic diversity as its main agenda instead arguing for a united Nepal and uniformity in the language, culture and religion. It can be considered as the traditional politics as represented by the Congress party, the Nepal Communist Party UML and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, etc. Such parties see the other two kinds of parties as causing fractures in the country’s political life. The second represents the ethnic politics of the hill region, demanding that federal provinces be established along ethnic lines with defined boundaries on the basis of ethnicity, language, and the region. The parties or associations in this group include those such as Nepal Janajati Mahasangh, Limbuwan Mukti Morcha, the Khumbuwan Mukti Morcha, the Mongol National Organization and the Rastriya Janamukti Party. Communist party of Nepal (Maoist) is also observed supportive to the policy of these parties. The third facet of Nepal’s ethnic/regional politics consist of Tarai-based parties known as the Madhesi parties. The first Madheshi party was the Sadbhavana Party but at present there are many other prominent parties such as the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum Lokatantrik (MJF-L), the Tarai Madhesh Lokatantrik Party (TMLP), the Tarai Madhesh Lokatantrik Party Nepal and Janatantrik Mukti Morcha, which have become established and are known as fighting for the issue of Madhesh. While the other ethnic hill-region parties are anti-Hindu and anti- Bhrahman in sentiment (Sharma 2005:485), the Madheshi parties are anti-Pahade and oppose the domination of the Tarai region by the hill peoples in the major issues like discrimination in the distribution of citizenship, discrimination against the recruitment of Tarai people into the Nepal Army, the recognition of Hindi and other mother tongues and finally demanding a separate federal province of Madhesh. In conclusion, the first group is the specific political group for both the second ethnic and third (ethnic/regional) Madheshi groups. The latter two groups come together on two of their demands, strengthening the mother tongue as the determining characteristic of a person’s ethnic identity and blaming the traditional politics for naming it Bahunvad. But in the case of separate federal provincial demands, the Madheshi party addresses the whole Tarai region,whereas other ethnic groups from the hill region do not address the whole hilly region. Moreover recently the () and Kshtirya (Chetri) have also started to protest in the country.11 The newly established organizations are Khas Chetri Ekata Samaj, Chetri Samaj Nepal and Brahman Samaj.

Hindi: the language of controversy

Hindi being a newly-developed language (not as old as other South Asian languages spoken in Tarai, such as Maithili, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, etc.), not related to any particular ethnic

11 http://www.kiratisaathi.com/photo.php?id=1085 (accessed on 06.07.2011) 9 group, mostly spoken as a second language and its history representing Indian nationalism during the Indian independence movement has given Hindi the identity of a foreign language for Nepalese and it has been the main reason making Hindi the issue of debate. There was a long history of struggle in India to achieve the crown of a national language for Hindi. It has become the symbol of Hinduism, Indian culture and Indian nationalism. Hindi has developed as the lingua franca in India as it has been in Nepalese Tarai. The struggle of Hindi which started in India since the 19th century has not yet totally ended. In Nepal this language is seen as a foreign language or as the national language of India and in India it is the language of the elite. It has also been blamed for overshadowing other languages in India such as Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Braj etc. that have lost their importance, a situation which does not bode well for these other important languages which have an older history than Hindi. The next argument is that languages such as Braj, Awadhi and Maithili etc. are described as dialects of Hindi, which has been the focus of dissatisfaction. Not only is Hindi perceived as a foreign language in Nepal but it is also seen as a challenge to the regional identity of other non-Hindi speaking states in India itself, which has Hindi as its official language. In November 2009 in India when Samajvadi Party MP Abu Azmi took the oath of office in Hindi the parliament was instantly face with chaos as the members of the Maharastra Navanirman Sena started attacking Azmi for speaking in Hindi. Although the oath taking of Vice President Jha went ahead smoothly without any disturbance, the country was later face with unrest, bandh and there was a flood of public opinion pieces in the Nepali media, newspapers and online blogs. Despite these objections, the Tarai Madhesh Loktantrik Party and the Madheshi Jan Adhikar Forum welcomed the oath taking in Hindi and also organized a rally in its support.

Analysis The spontaneous discourse seen in the Nepali media and internet blogs which arose after the Vice President Jha took the oath of office in Hindi has developed the political discourse on the subject in two main directions. The first emphasizes the importance of mother tongue and puts stress on Maithili as the second language of Nepal in terms of the number of speakers after Nepali and also as the mother tongue of VP Jha, and the second emphasizes the importance of Nepali as the national language Nepali and has blamed Jha for using Hindi as a foreign language coming from India. Whelpton (2005) has stated that the Tarai region, containing around 50% of the population, has two crucial differences which distinguish the Madhesis from the Pahade population in the hilly region, such as the common culture linking many Tarai communities with the other side of Indian border and the parallel movement of people and goods in which Hindi plays the crucial role of link language and the next reason is the demand to establish Hindi as

10 the official language of Madhesh. Cultural similarity and other forms of social exchange including marital relations are also practiced in the border area of eastern Nepal such as and but the similarity of the language means that nationalistic sentiment has failed to overcome its usage. The media discourse influenced by Nepali nationalism has also compared VP Jha with Nepali-speaking Indian Idol winner Prashanta Tamang, an Indian citizen of Darjeeling who sang a Nepali song after winning the Indian Idol television show12 and who wore the Dhaka topi in contrast to VP Jha as a Nepali citizen who wore the dhoti kurta and spoke Hindi. 13

Anti Hindi agitation, Mother tongue issues and Maithili: Burkert (2005) has quoted a Maithil Kayastha introducing himself as – “First I am a Maithil, then the Madhesi and thirdly Nepali” and had explained that in terms of residence people are Nepali, for political reasons they are Madhesi and culturally they are Maithili. The sentiment of this introduction can also be found in the discourse taking place after VP Jha’s oath. The aggressive speak out against Hindi and see it as the great mistake of a person having Maithili as their mother tongue. One of the Maithili nationalists Dhirendra Premarshi (2008) in his entitled Bhasha ko Rajniti (The Politics of Language) even blames political entities such as the Sadbhavana Party which he suggests was established to destroy the identity and importance of Tarai by connecting it with Hindi. Pramershi also argues that the Sadbhavana Party had lost the sympathy of the people because of its uninteresting agenda. He had further alleged that:

The Madheshi leaders speak fluent Nepali in the interview for TV or radio, they speak in their mother tongue while requesting that people vote for them and at times of formal ceremony they just switch to the Hindi. And this has reached every rank of oath taking. (Premershi 2008)

Jitendra Shah had said, emphasizing the importance of mother tongue, that:

In spite of Hindi if VP Jha had taken the oath in Maithili it could have created a situation of respect for every mother tongue of Nepal and everyone could have been proud of it. (Shah: 2008)

The titles of articles such as “Maithili Bhasha ko apaman”14 (an insult to the ), “Maithili Dosro Rastra Bhasha”15 (Maithili, the second national language),”Maithili Shrasta

12 Singing competition organized by Indian TV channel Sony. 13 Kantipur readers comments ( Kishor ) on 04.08.2008 14.Dev, Deepak Kumar. (Reader’s comments). Kantipur28.07.2008 15 Dev, Ram Narayan. (Reader’s comments). Kantipur 07.08.2008 11

Apahelit”16 (Maithili writer insulted), “Hindi Moha”17(The Adoration for Hindi) etc. are some of the examples which show the strong dissatisfaction felt by Maithili speaking Madheshis regarding VP Jha’s oath in Hindi.

Use of Hindi as a provocation for Nepali (linguistic) nationalism

Nepali is the lingua franca for any Nepalese residing in or outside Nepal. It is not only the mother tongue of a certain caste. Our national pride is attached with it. Therefore we should not let it be needlessly targeted by any of the languages. (Khanal: 2010)

Deeply-rooted Nepali nationalism among Nepali-speaking people meant that Hindi usage alarmed the nationalists who see Hindi as a foreign national language. The anti-Indian nationalism which had become established among the Ranas after the powerful Indian intervention to break the Rana regime was further strengthened during the Panchayat system. This deeply-rooted anti-Indian nationalism could not tolerate the oath taken in Hindi by VP Jha. The impact of anti-Indian or anti-Hindi nationalism can also be seen in the census of 1971 and 1981 where the population of Hindi speaking people is zero, which would come as a surprise to anyone, however it can be surmised that this arose from the influence or instruction of the anti- Hindi Panchayat system.

Two Madhesis, Ram Baran Yadav and Paramananda Jha, though representing different parties took their oath of office from the same stage but in two different languages, Nepali and Hindi in an event that was another focus of nationalistic discourse. Taking to the airwaves on BBC Nepali sewa, VP Jha argued that the Tarai people would not understand Nepali therefore he had to take the oath in Hindi but when the question was put to him as to whether President Yadav’s oath in Nepali was not understood by the people of Tarai, he was unable to give the satisfactory answer (Mishra:2067 B.S.: 75). Mishra further writes that Nepalese politics is created in fear of India which in turn has created a fearful attitude in the Nepali mentality:

A person doubts where he has fear. We are always afraid of India from the point of view of nationalism. We are afraid of India’s increasing role in Nepali politics. Therefore despite having our own mother tongue and national language understood by everyone, when Paramanada Jha takes oath of the office in Hindi and the leaders like

16 Laal, Revatiraman.. (Reader’s comments). Kantipur 03.08.2008 17 Shah. Jitendra. Kantipur 26.07.2008 12

Upendra Yadav, Bijaya Gachchadar and J.P. Gupta speak in Hindi in the parliament and advocate Hindi, their nationalism come under question. (Mishra 2067 B.S.: 76)

A Hongkong-based Nepali, Chura , writes in his internet blog under the title Paramananda Jha, (Paramananda Jha, go to Bihar) :

We the Nepalese residing in Hongkong suggest Paramananda Jha that – “you to go to Bihar and live there being the chief minister. There is no place for you in the heart of Nepalese”18

Vice President Jha’s opinion: Bharat damad hu ghar me chala jata hu As Whelpton (2005) has stated, there is a common cultural linking of many Tarai communities with the other side of Indian border and the parallel movement of people and goods, which is not only related to the occasional movement for business or any other purpose but also includes many marriages arranged in both of the countries, taking advantage of the similarity in the language and culture. VP Jha is also an example of this. He was married in the Badharwa village in Champaran district of Bihar. In an interview given to the online newspaper Live Hindustan.com, which is published under the title Bharat ka damad hu ghar me chala jata hu (I am a son-in-law of India but I get cheated (in Nepal) at home).19 In the interview, VP Jha clarified that the charge against him (the oath of office taken in Hindi) was just the result of being Madheshi because this kind of discrimination has existed there for a long time and the oath taking in Hindi was merely an excuse for it.20 There was a great degree of unrest all over the country against VP Jha’s oath in Hindi, in which effigies were burned, highways were blocked, a book of Nepali alphabets and exercise book were sent as a gift to VP Jha from and bandh were organized in many places of the country and some also demanded his resignation (Kantipur 27.07.2008). Public opinion was so aggressive that people were soon creating obstacles on the route to prevent the VP from attending his office or any other function. Soon after the oath taking in Hindi,VP Jha appeared at the Bhoto Jatra ceremony in traditional Daura Surwal which came just three days after the oath taking ceremony. This might have been a signal to calm down the situation but he himself never accepted his actions as a mistake although there was great public demand for an apology from

18 http://chura‐thapa.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog‐post.html?zx=8eaacf8ba1daf6ae (accessed on 06.07.2011)

19 If not otherwise stated all the from Hindi to English are mine. 20 http://livehindustan.com/news/editorial/rubaru/article1‐story‐57‐61‐96178.html (accessed on 05.07.2011) 13 the VP. On the contrary, he declared that he had not committed any mistakes and therefore had not also considered correcting it:

“Hindi language has become a necessity for us. To respect the region I represent and to follow the party policy, I have taken the oath in Hindi.” ( Jha: Kantipur 27.07.2008)

VP Jha has declared that taking the oath in Hindi was an act in line with the party policy, however public opinion did not agree with this assessment. The argument was that he is not the VP of Tarai as all the members, representing every region of the country, had elected him as Vice President and therefore he was no longer representing only the Tarai Madhesh Loktantrik Party.

Conclusion: The episode concerning Vice President Jha’s oath has supported the awakening and strengthening of ethno-linguistic and mother tongue issues in the country. Ethnic and linguistic nationalism has become more prominent and as a result VP Jha subsequently took the oath of office in Maithili and Nepali for the second time. However the demand for trilingual policy (see the Memorandum of the Madheshi Jana Adhikar Forum, fn. 2) produced by the Madheshi parties also suggests a move towards following the language policy of neighbouring India. The demand for equal status for Hindi made by the Madheshi parties seems to be motivated by Madheshi regionalism. The Madheshi parties are neither fighting for any specific ethnic group nor for any special language but for the entire Madhesh, which accommodates diverse Indo-Aryan languages, ethnic groups, and culture. Therefore the demand for a common language might have been adopted by them to unite the disparate communities of Madhesh in a political unit; although they could also adopt Nepali, their thinking is derived from Madheshi regionalism and this would not meet their criteria that assumes such policy has to differ from the opposition hill region politics. Gellner (2005: 59) also describes the Sadbhavana Party as the regional party, given that its working area is the Tarai region. In the case of Nepali Tarai, the parties however advocate that Hindi be used as the link language but the supporters of mother tongues such as Maithili and other language do not feel proud of this fact. They have also argued that there is an Indian interest in exploring Hindi instead of Maithili as, if the Maithili language gets stronger in Nepal, the people in Bihar may become motivated to support demands for a separate Maithili- speaking state, as they will not want to be subsumed into the Hindi-speaking population (see

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Brass 1974). In an interview with Kantipur21 Ramchandra Jha also agrees that the policy of suppressing Maithili language pursued by the Indian government is reflected in the oath taking of VP Jha. Solving linguistic problems in a multi-lingual country is not an easy task. The ethnic communities are getting more and more divided, aware, and stronger in demanding and fighting for their linguistic and other communal rights. The ethnic communities and organizations push people towards protecting their own ethnic identity by defending their language. On the eve of data collection for the census 2011, many organizations have hosted rallies and awareness programmes. On one hand it has shown the possibility of enhancement of the number of languages and its speakers as it has been observed in the census after 1990 and on the other hand the high present danger that the Nepali-speaking population will decrease. In the light of these facts, the problems of language have remained a very delicate and crucial issue in Nepal that has still to be solved.

References: Amatya, Shaplhalya. 2004. Rana Rule in Nepal. New : Nirala Publication. Brass, Paul. 1974. Languge and politics in .Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chaudhari, Deepak. 2065 B.S. Nepal ko Madheshi Samaj. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar. Dastider, Mollica. 1995. Religious Minorities in Nepal. New Delhi: Nirala Publiction. Dastider, Mollica. 2007. Understanding Nepal, Muslim in a Plural Society. New Delhi: Har- anand publications Pvt. Ltd. Gautam, Bhaskar. 2008. Madhes Bidrohako Nalibeli. Kathmandu: Martin Chautari. Gautam, Rajesh. Nepal ko Rashra Bhasha Sambandhi Rajnaitik Vivaad. Sambodhan .(information incomplete) Page- 30-45. Gellner, David. 2005. Introduction: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the world’s Only Hindu State. In Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom. David Gellner, Joanna Pfaff-Czarbecka and John Whelpton, eds, pp 3-31. London: Routledge. Jha, Navin. Matribhasha ko Chinta. HImal Khabar Patrika. 21(4).

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Maddox, Bryan. 2003. Language policy, Modernist Ambvalence and Social Exclusion: A Case Study of in Nepal’s Tarai. Studies in Nepali History and Society 8 (2): 205- 224. Mishra, Rabindra.2067 B.S. Bhumadhya Rekha.Lalitpur: Fine Print IANC. Nawa, Katsuo. 2004. Language Situation and “Mother Tongue” in Byans, Far Western Nepal. Studies in Nepali History and Society 9 (2). Nepal, Gyanmani. 2009.Hindi Bhasha ko Auchitya. Kantipur: 05.08.2009 Nibha, Viamal. 2008. Putladahan Kina. Kantipur: 02.08.2008. Premarshi. Dhirendra. Bhasha ko Rajniti. Kantipur: 28.07.2008 Shah, Jitendra. 2008. Hindi Moha. Kantipur: 26.07.2008 Sharma, Janaklal. 2010 B.S. Nepal ma Rashra Bhasha ko Prashna. Nepal Sanskritik Parishad Patrika 2(2): 10-20. Sharma, Prayag Raj. 2005. Nation-Building, Multi-Ethnicity, and the Hindu State. David Gellner, Joanna Pfaff-Czarbecka and John Whelpton, eds,pp 471-493. London: Routledge Whelpton, John. 2005(a). Political Identity in Nepal: State Nation and community In Nationalism and Ethnicity in Hindu Kingdom. David Gellner, Joanna Pfaff-Czarbecka and John Whelpton, eds,pp 39-78. London: Routledge Whelpton, John.2005(b). A . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yadava. Yogendra P. 2003. Langauge. Population Monograph Volume 1. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics and UNFPA

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