“In the Nepali case,” writes David N. Gellner, “it would be anachronistic to speak of a diaspora before the modern period and the age of nationalism.” This quote is borrowed from ‘Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture and Community in a New and Old Diaspora’, a new book Gellner, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oxford and an old Nepal hand, co-edits with Sondra L. Hausner, a professor of anthropology at the same university. There has always been small-scale migration to and out of the Himalayas since time immemorial. Yet there was no Nepali diaspora to speak of because there was no entity called Nepal with a well-defined boundary.Even today, old people from outside the capital refer to Kathmandu, where the country’s seat of power lies, as Nepal, complicating their sense of belongingness.
This, however, has not stopped scholars from systematically studying the out-migration of people from the areas that now are part of the nation-state called Nepal. As the Rana rulers had cut off the country’s contact with the outside world until the political changes in 1950, what little migration was there was limited to India in the south and Tibet in the north. This helped create small pockets of the Nepali diaspora in these two places.
While interaction with the rest of the world was limited, starting in 1815, members of some hill communities began serving in the British Army, which took them as far afield as the Indo-China, the UK, and Europe. Still, before the reinstatement of democracy in 1990, only a few Nepalis had travelled beyond India. But slowly less educated Nepalis started migrating to the Gulf countries in search of blue-collar work.
Those with better means went to the US, the UK and Australia to study; many of them never returned. The outbound trickle quickly turned into a flood and today there are people of Nepali origin in 112 of the 138 countries with which Nepal has diplomatic relations, with Nepali diaspora organizations present in such unlikely places as Zambia, Lesotho and Mozambique.
‘Global Nepalis’ is the first book of its kind to study the Nepali diaspora in one volume, and what an enriching read it is. Comprising 18 detailed case studies from 21 authors, the book explores the always-unfolding phenomena of Nepali diaspora formation, the influence of this process on Nepalis living abroad and the ways they relate to the country of their origin. The case studies are from around the world: the UK, the US, India, Southeast Asia, the Gulf countries, and even Fiji (where Nepalis first landed as indentured laborers starting in 1879).
Identity is a difficult concept. Whether you identify yourself primarily as a Nepali or a Madhesi or a Gorkhali is your choice. Or is it? In a brilliant case study from the UK, Mitra Pariyar writes about how the Nepali Dalits continue to be discriminated against by the broader Nepali diaspora in England even though many of them would have migrated precisely to escape the ‘casteism’ back home. Willy-nilly, the Dalits carry the ‘untouchable’ tag wherever they go. The book is packed with many other rich articles. It is a must read for those who want to understand the Nepali diaspora’s evolution over the past two centuries. Even for casual readers, it offers plenty of insights into what it means to be a Nepali in the 21st century.
Contributors to ‘Global Nepalis’: Krishna P. Adhikari, Radha Adhikari, Tristan Bruslé, Sienna R. Craig, Florence Gurung, Nawang Tsering Gurung, Susan Hangen, Sushma Joshi, Chandra K. Laksamba, Kelvin E.Y. Low, Kathryn March, Mitra Pariyar, Anil Sakya, Bhimsen Sapkota, Jeevan Raj Sharma, Bal Gopal Shrestha, Bandita Sijapati, Anna Stirr and Mélanie Vandenhelsken.
Book: GLOBAL NEPALIS Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Disapora (Hardcover)
Genre: Non-Fiction
Edited by: David N. Gellner and Sondra L. Hausner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Price: Rs 2,392
Pages: 580
