Anti-corruption Crusade in India and Its Impact

Govinda Neupane

(This is part of my email reply to my two friends, one in India and another one in Sri lanka.)

 I believe that the goals of Anna Hazare movement are good and awareness has been raised to a large extent against corruption. However, a Lokpal cleanses corruption in India is too simple to expect. By utilizing the institution of Lokpal, several other people will accumulate wealth and grab opportunities unjustly. Hence, the final achievement will be not more or less than a BIG ZERO in tangible terms. Even in this movement, some of the corrupt persons and personalities have got a very good mask to cover their corrupt faces and have become anticorruption crusaders.

Hazare himself has no vision that makes him possible to see the larger picture of India regarding corruption. It is not only an issue but also the integral part of culture. Hence, it needs to be treated also as cultural reformation movement rather than just a law breaking issue.

I think the BIG TAMASHA will be over sooner than later. Hazare will be regarded as NEW Mahatma from Indian and international NGO communities, retired bureaucrats and opposition politicians for their own benefits. Tactically, the governing party will be at loss. However, the collective memory of people use to be too short and in a year, his influence will fizzle out. During election time it will have marginal effect, if any.

Corruption in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Sri Lanka could be controlled only when people will be free from fatalistic cultural values, belief systems and practices. Moreover, it should be supported by qualitatively different education system that promotes excellence in understanding, knowledge and practice; more equitable development and transparent law enforcement. It is a long process and the primary focus should be on education that promotes ethics, transparency, accountability and availability of clean earning opportunities.

In essence, the synergy generated by cultural reformation, appropriate development intervention and law enforcement could control corruption. Therefore, we need integrated strategy to control corruption that too on the long run. I think eliminating corruption by bringing an institution like LOKPAL is simply childish wish for Hazare, cleansing opportunities for several hundreds of 'anti-corruption crusaders' and past time for many others.

A Brief Overview on South Asian Languages and Nepal

- Govinda Neupane



The major languages in Pakistan include Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balooch and Pashto. Also, several local languages are in existence in the northern areas such as Hunza, Gilgit and Skardu and federally administered areas such as Waziristan and Dir. It is quite strange that Pakistan's official language is English, national language is Urdu and major languages spoken are Punjabi, Sindhi, Balooch and Pashto. But, there is no war cry over any specific language.



In Bangladesh, a large majority speaks Bengali whereas English is the second most understood language. In the past there was dispute over the language and that was resolved through separation from Pakistan.



Sri Lanka has been in a situation of civil war since 1983. The Sinhalese and Tamils are still fighting against each other. The war started over the issue of language and culture. The dominant Singhalese majority treated their fellow Tamil citizens as second class declaring that only Sinhalese would be official language. Thousands of precious lives have been lost but the war is still on, though it is in a state of serious set back after the death of Prabhakaran.



The tiny islands state of Maldives has Dhivehi as the official language. The language is a good mix of Sinhalese, Arabic and Hindi. Also, these languages are present in the island nation though in limited areas and population.



Afghanistan has Dari and Pashto, both the official languages. Beside, there are tribal dialects. One good thing is that though Afghanistan is continuously at war but not on the issue of language.



In Bhutan, Nepali is the language of majority. But Dzongkha is the language of the state. The minority Druk nationality has been bulldozing both Sharchop and Nepali nationalities by using the violent means. The state terrorism has been unleashed for years and more than a hundred thousand refugees have been staying in Nepal for over a decade.



India is a museum of languages and cultures. By incorporating in the 8th schedule of its constitution, it has provided official recognition to 21 languages other than the national language, which is Hindi. The other official languages are Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannad, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Similarly, English enjoys almost the status of associate national language.



Nepal also is diverse in terms of languages and cultures. More than 100 languages are still in existence. The Khas rulers imposed their Khasakura as the language of the state. The Khasakura is now known as Nepali which also was known as Gorkhabhasa in between. The state not only declared Nepali as one and only language as the medium of teaching/learning in the formal education system but also made it compulsory in all sphere of official works. Therefore, it has become the prominent language, though even today it is the mother tongue of less than 50% people.



Some times ago, there were ugly scenes of tire burning, stone pelting and arsons in several parts of the country as the Vice President had taken oath of office in Hindi. The Bhutanese Druk government thrown out a large number of Nepali speaking people on so-called issue of nationalism manifested in the form of culture, language and dress. If we go by the logic of the tire burning people in Kathmandu, the Druk government was right as Nepali is a national language of a neighboring country. India recognized Nepali, a national language of a neighboring country as one of its official languages. By going through the mentality of the tire burning crowd of Kathmandu valley and outside, India did wrong. But, this crowd was happy that India had recognized Nepali and the same crowd was unhappy that Bhutan had discriminated against Nepali language. More over, the crowd had expressed sympathy about mother tongue. In Nepal, though a small number, a little less than 1% has stated through census that Hindi is their mother tongue. The Vice President had and has the right to determine his mother tongue - Hindi, Maithili or Nepali or any other language. May be, the mother of the Vice President had been speaking in Hindi when he just had started to pronounce words. Now, many mothers in Newar families in Kathmandu speak in Nepali from day one with their infants. The mother tongue of these infant is Newari or Nepali? Hence, which is his or her mother tongue is the sole right of the person concerned to decide. But, the Vice President was compelled to take oath of office in Nepali, though amending the interim constitution. In Nepal, the pseudo-democracy has hundreds of limitations. Even the representatives of the bourgeoisie class are not free to exercise their rights.



May 15, 2010

Goals and Needs: The Motivators and Invigorators

- Govinda Neupane

(This is my reply to my two friends. I had sent the email on 29 July 2009. I have taken out some personal references.)

It was wonderful to read your perceptions/analysis on independence. In my opinion, goals and needs are the two driving factors, which help/compel our intellectual as well physical energy to flow continuosly and ensure our endeavors to accelerate progress by formulating certain patterns.

The goals are related to ideals, visions, aspirations, wishes and anticipations. The goals are more subjective and spiritual elements. And, they guide us. They could be a mix of imagery and imaginations in essence and elastic in nature. They are the soul of our physical being. They drive us continuously. Some people place faith on supernatural command and control system. Thus, they believe in God(s), Allah or Almighty and their thought processes get aligned with what good things the God (s) or Allah or Almighty has asked them to accomplish in life for the good of the larger humanity. They are traditionally put in a basket labeled as "religious people". One most important characteristic of these people is that they refrain from bad things and at least try always to deliver something good. Here, I like to add that those Hindus who offer kilos of gold to Ganapati Bappa at Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai and turn head to opposite direction while confronting with a suffering humanity are not "religious people", at all. The same applies to just ritualistic Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. I respect the "religious peoples" who have a spiritual goal of loving the God (s) or Allah or Almighty and they try with devotion to serve the suffering humanity so as to serve Him.

My friend, you have rightly said about my faith that I started with revolutionary atheism and turned to something different. I narrate the story of Abu Ben Adam (or Adhem? I forgot the exact last name. The story I had read in my 10th standard in the form of a poem.) The story is like this:

One dark night, an angel entered into the room, where Abu was sleeping deep. There was the glittering light as if 100s of light bulbs were switched on at one go. Due to this flooding light, Abu woke up. He was surprised seeing the angel in front of him. He asked the angel about the reason of his coming. The angel replied that he is in this village to prepare a list of people who love the God. Abu asked if his name was there. The angel replied in negative. Abu told that the angel should have another list too, which could have the names of people who love their neighbors and serve them with devotion. The angel disappeared after saying Abu that he will convey his message to the God. Abu was known for his devoted service to his neighbors and any other person suffering. The next night the angel again came to see Abu. Abu asked him if the God agreed to his proposal. The angel told that though the God did not agree to his proposal but he said that Abu's name was on the top of the list whom the God loves. Abu surprisingly told the angel that he had never remembered the God at any moment since he had been in this world. The angel replied that the God was everywhere spread and by loving, caring and serving suffering humanity; Abu served and loved the God. The angel told that the God was very happy with Abu and had asked him to convey his message that the God loves Abu very much. Abu neither agreed, nor disagreed. He was simply astonished.

So, my ideal is Abu and I appreciate his way of doing things. I don't know this is being religious or not, but when I see a suffering humanity, I cry. May be, I could not do much physically or financially, but my mind and heart share their sufferings intellectually and emotionally.

Now, I will share my understanding on hardware - the needs. These are the foundations from where we could move forward to address our goals. So, they are important, valuable and first in the chain of physical as well as intellectual sustainability. Attending to our needs is immediate, tangible and worthwhile. If we like to help cleaning a dirty neighborhood, we should eat to generate physical energy. I simply discard many prescriptions of some of the Hindu Saints who consider these worldly behaviors as inferior. That is not right. A person is doing great when he/she attends office and chanalizes his/her intellectual energy to help others including the organizations. Also, by that work, they could be contributing in the growth process of their own near and dear. This is a great job. Therefore, I think, it would be a marvelous situation when we could align both our goals and need-related actions in the same direction. Success is there when we align them better, difficulties are there where alignment is not well balanced and failures are there where there is no alignment at all.

Now, I will add a few sentences regarding independence. My friend, neither you are independent nor I am. Independence is, now, an inapplicable term in practical sense. All of us are interdependent. Our situations are no different than that the situation of any other person. Even we could not plan independently. Now, encompassing family, community and organizations; interdependence has penetrated individuals too. We are compelled to balance between competing needs and goals. So, when we select a course, we have to go through an analytical process that helps us to select the particular one giving enough reasons. So, independence is a relative term and reflects a very temporary phenomenon, whereas interdependence is all pervading and permanent. The goals and needs drive us and we move forward or backward in relation to the situations we are in. So, we are fundamentally interdependent.

My friend, you have said that you may not do that good if you would be a freelancer. I think that it is just your perception and not the expression of self-realization. For a person like you, who is so compassionate, disciplined and unpretending; it is quite possible that you could very well live meaningfully and productively given such situation arises.

July 29, 2009