Adi-kabi’s Unifying Role in “Greater Nepal”

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Adi-kabi's Unifying Role in "Greater Nepal"

 

http://www.kantipuronline.com/artha.php?&nid=48259

 

For ethnic Nepalis in India, there's no celebrated and well-defined

community hero. "Adi-kabi" Bhanu Bhakta Acharya appears to be filling

that void.

 

BY SURENDRA PHUYAL IN NEW DELHI

 

Commodore K. S. Rai, 62, spent 35 years in the Indian Navy. So he got

very few opportunities to mingle and socialize with fellow ethnic

Nepalis; most of them hail from northern and north-eastern India.

"Just like my father, I spent most of my time as a fauji [military-

man] travelling to places," Rai, whose father hailed from the north-

eastern Indian state of Meghalaya, said to a group of New Delhi-based

ethnic Nepalis some days ago.

 

In a hybrid language that was a cocktail of Hindi, English and

Nepali, he confessed: "We would converse in English or Hindi all the

time – so my Nepali is bad." The occasion: 191st Bhanu Jayanti (the

birthday of "Adi-kabi" Bhanu Bhakta Acharya), belatedly observed on

July 29, 2005. The ceremony was organized by "Dilli Nepali Sahitya

Sanskriti Manch," a Nepali literary forum; it brought together over

200 Nepalis living in the Indian capital.

 

"We are extremely thankful to Bhanu-jyu," said Munish Tamang, the

General Secretary of the Manch. Originally from Darjeeling, Tamang is

a teacher at a college in the capital. "It is because of him that all

of us scattered around this city have been able to converge here," he

added.

 

New Delhi is home to tens of thousands of India's ethnic Nepalis. Add

to them the hundreds of thousands of recent Nepali migrants, who have

fled the bloody Maoist insurgency for safety and income generation to

support their families back home.

 

Their nationalities may be different, as Mahendra Lama – a professor

of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – pointed out, but

Nepalis from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar or Thailand share a common

language, culture and heritage.

 

>From the hills to the plains, they also share a common ethnic

spectrum, wherein Bahuns, Chhetris, Damais, Thakuris, Magars, Rais,

Limbus, Gurungs, Tamangs, Madhesiyas live together in perfect

harmony.

 

Yet the biggest concern for India's ethnic Nepalis, as Lama

pinpointed, is this: "Nepalis in Nepal have everything – nationality,

sovereignty, history etc. But we, ethnic Nepalis in India, still

don't have a written history for younger and future generations."

 

Moreover, India's Nepali, or Gorkha, community does not have an

ethnic hero, who could unify the people together. That's in sharp

contrast to other communities – the Bengalis have Rabindranath

Tagore; the Punjabis have Bhagat Singh; the Tamils have Subramanyan

Bharati.

 

There are martyrs like Major Durga Malla, of Doiwala, Dehradun, who

was sentenced to death on August 25, 1944 by the British rulers. As a

tribute to the freedom fighter, his statue was unveiled by the Indian

President in the Parliament House Complex on December 17, 2004. Yet

for ethnic Nepalis in India, there's no such personality as a

celebrated and well-defined community hero. "Adi-kabi" Bhanu Bhakta

Acharya appears to be filling that void. "Yes, Bhanu Bhakta is our

hero, he has brought us Nepalis together here tonight," said L. B.

Rai, a Manch member and the editor of "Diyalo" (a literary magazine).

 

Interestingly, he added, "When Bhanu was giving finishing touches to

his epic work – the Ramayana – in Nepali, around 1814 A.D., Nepal was

a bigger country [with "Greater

 

Nepal" extending from the Sutlej river in the west to Teesta in the

east]. The same year, the British rulers were preparing to get Rana

rulers in Kathmandu to sign the Sugauli Treaty [which had "Greater

Nepal" reduced to smaller, modern-day Nepal]."

 

That's precisely the reason why ethnic Nepalis in India feel that

Bhanu Bhakta knows no boundaries.

 

Many decades after Bhanu Bhakta wrote the "Bhanu Bhaktiya

Ramayan,Yuba-kabi" Motiram Bhatta dusted off the literary

masterpiece from Bhanu's house at Ramgha, Tanahun. He had it

published from Varanashi, India. The epic, written in simple Nepali,

was an instant hit. In the 1890s, it reached homes in Darjeeling and

other Nepali towns in India. A hundred and fifteen years later, the

glory of that Nepali literary masterpiece – plus other stanzas penned

by Bhanu – persists among India's ethnic Nepali community.