This morning as my wife and I were returning from our daily shopping, she noticed I had bought a book on Maoism. “Why have you bought that” she asked. “I am trying hard to understand what these people stand for” I said. “You don’t need that book” she said to me, “remember the Rana, that’s what they are like” and then proceeded to tell me a story about her grandfather, a time before Mahendra, before the first revolution, a time when the people of Nepal had had enough. This is her story to me:
“My father was only 5 years old and his father was a rich and honest merchant in Kathmandu dealing mainly in foodstuffs and cooking materials. He had a contract with the government but one day he made the mistake of refusing to pay the government officials’ required a bribe. Shortly afterwards his business was seized by the government, he was thrown out of his house along with his wife, five sons and two daughters. Within one week he was dead, he commited suicide, he could not live with his shame. From that day the brothers and sisters were separated and the wife was treated as an outcast. One brother, my wife’s father, started to educate himself, and ten years later left for Lhasa to try to earn a living and start a business dealing in salt and grain. He was successful, and eventually came back to Kathmandu to establish himself again and his family in Kathmandu. Then, one day, guess what happened?”
Well, I needn’t finish the story, it continues in the same way under the corrupt, autocratic, inhuman way of the Rana. But what of my book on Maoism? Well, next month I will write a review of the history and policies of Maoists, especially their policy of seizing posessions, land, businesses, in fact anything they do not have for themselves.
This is what Mao Tse Tung did, this is Maoism, this is the Maoist way. So, let’s not fall into the trap of believing that any Maoist Federal Republic will be fair to the people. History shows us that they are no different from the Rana!
Dr. Brian Metters writes about Nepal at The Nepal Freedom Centre, a virtual organisation for everyone concerned for democracy in Nepal.
