January 2012

 

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A New and Multilingual Nepal

Shree Ram Chaudhari


All of the committees have now submitted their reports to the Constitutional Assembly. At least the State Reconstruction Commission has been formed at the 11th hour. It is unfortunate though that there are few highly regarded intellectual figures on the commission. It indicates that Nepal’s political parties are not serious, committed and clear about the importance and need of the commission. Moreover, there has not been enough time allotted for the work of the commission to be completed. For these reasons, it is necessary to give the commission more power and more time.

One issue that will be difficult for the commission to decide is the language policy for a federal system in Nepal. The committee responsible for formulating this policy has not submitted its reports, which is why the Reconstruction Commission has to make recommendations about the best plan. It is in this context that I would like to facilitate debate and offer arguments through this article on this important topic for the country.

Recently, the State Restructuring Commission has named Nepali as the only official language. It still has not decided which languages will be the official languages in the federal states. For this purpose, there is only an agreement to form a linguistic commission. The use and protection of the official language is the responsibility of the national government, according to the report of the State Restructuring Commission. The report is silent, however, about the rights of the federal states to chose and use an official language and the role of the federal government in doing so.

Nepal’s political parties, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 have accepted that Nepal is a multilingual country. The latest official survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2001 indicated that there are 92 languages in Nepal. However, 20 languages are foreign to the country, such as English, Chinese and Assami that is spoken in part of India, etc. Therefore, there are 72 native languages currently spoken in Nepal. The Nepalese people used to introduce Nepal as a “garden of many flowers” to others, but the State has been seeking to make Nepal merely a “garden of marigolds” by declaring Nepali as the only official language.

Meanwhile, the ethnic people of Nepal have been fighting for their linguistic rights for many decades, and the demands of these movements must be addressed in the country’s new Constitution. Otherwise, the new Constitution cannot establish sustainable peace, and Nepal’s ethnic population cannot feel that they are truly citizens of the country.

If a federal Nepal implements a multilingual official language policy, Nepali speakers should not be afraid because 49 percent of the Nepalese people still speak the Nepali language; there are still a majority of Nepali speakers in 55 districts of the country’s 75 districts.

Nepal is naturally not the only country in the world facing this issue as many countries throughout the world have implemented multilingual policies. There are four official languages in Switzerland, for example, with Roman as an official language even though less than 1 percent of the people speak this language. In South Africa, there are 11 languages spoken, both mother tongues and official languages. In Canada, both English and French are official languages. Lastly, our close neighbor China has 55 languages listed as official languages even though 93 percent of the population are Han Chinese.

Among the 72 languages spoken in Nepal, there are 11 languages which are spoken by less than 1 percent of the people—Khas, Tharu, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Tamang, Newari, Magar, Abadi, Bantaba Rai, Gurung and Rai. These languages must be given recognition as official languages in the country’s new Constitution. People should have the constitutional right to use the oral and written forms of these languages in the legislature and courts and in interacting with the various departments of the executive branch of government.

The remainder of the ethnic languages that are spoken by less than 1 percent of the population must moreover be given status as official languages in the local bodies of the state governments. These languages should be used as official languages in the legislature, courts and administration of state governments.

These suggestions, if incorporated in the country’s new federal Constitution, reflect respect for each of Nepal’s numerous ethnic identities and acceptance of the beauty of the cultural diversity of the country.


* Shree Ram Chaudhari attended the first School of Peace (SOP) that Interfaith Cooperation Forum (ICF) held in Bangalore, India, in 2006.