Gautam Banerjee

The Tundikhel maidan located in the centre of Kathmandu was unusually crowded on that bleak, foggy morning of 28th November 1924.

The Ranas of all clans, businesspersons, civil servants and the commoners from Kathmandu plus Patan and Bhaktapur, who had walked all the way to Kathmandu, awaited eagerly for the important announcement.
From the Khari ko Bot, located in the centre of Tundikhel, flanked by senior Ranas, the British ambassador, the embassy doctor and Mr Kilburn, the engineer representing the only foreign face amongst the crowd of Nepalese, an old and frail Maharaja, Chandra Sumshere, attired in padded labeda suruwal, knee-length Chesterfield coat and a red forage cap, declared his decision to abolish slavery.

Incessant coughing did not allow the weak Maharaja to read more than a few sentences. The speech, 57 pages, was read out in turn by Guruju Hemraj Pande first in Nepali and then in English by Bada Kaji Marichman Singh. They incidentally were the writers of the speech as well.

The English version was read out in public for the benefit of three Britishers only since Chandra Sumshere did not want to take any risk of misunderstanding of words later and create a foreign policy fiasco.

As was the custom during the Rana administration, all government decisions affecting the public directly or indirectly were always logically defended by the administration. This speech was no exception. It used a variety of logic to convince the people that slavery was bad and needed to be abolished.

The first emphasis was on world order. Many countries have removed this system and Nepal, an independent sovereign country should follow suit to maintain its prestige in the world.
Second, Maharaja Chandra touched on public sentiments by quoting religious orders. A variety of Hindu holy books, including the Vedas, were quoted along with several Shlokas and mythological stories, including that of Harish Chandra, to prove that slavery was a sin.

Chandra Sumshere also tried to convince the public on economic grounds. He stressed that the upkeep of a slave for 16 years would cost Rs 400. The money, which the government is offering as alimony for the liberation, could be utilised as a loan and the interest alone could generate more income in 16 years than the expense of upkeeping slaves. It would still be cheaper to hire people on pay than the expense of keeping a slave for life.

History

While the exact history of the beginning of slavery in Nepal is unknown, it was not that attempts were not made to stop or curb it.
In 1845, King Rajendra Bikram Shah signed a law that said no Nepali were allowed to keep slaves. The law, however, could not be implemented due to the political uncertainty of the time.

In 1867, North India, especially the region of modern UP and Bihar, suffered from famine and the Terai belt of Nepal did not remain untouched. Jung Bahadur Rana issued an amount of Rs 2.5 lakh per district of Terai for food. A lot of hungry Indians landed up in Nepal for food and some of them sold their children and some were forcibly enslaved.

To curb this menace of a sudden increase of the slave population, Jung Bahadur had enacted a law that any escapee who settled in Morang or Naya Muluk would be regarded as free. He cannot be recaptured and enslaved. He also made a law that no Nepali was allowed to keep Indian slaves, especially women and children. He also kept a strong vigil on the Indo Nepal border.

Dev Sumshere also planned to draft a law stating that any escapee for 10 years could not be redeemed into slavery. This would be the first step followed by complete abolition, but then he was thrown out in a coup within 3 months before any concrete steps could be taken.

All laws had failed to curb slavery so far due to a half-hearted attempt of implementation and now a very determined Chandra Sumshere decided to do away with this evil forever.

Homework

In February 1924, Chandra Sumshere called Bhardari Sabha (assembly of senior Ranas and civil servants) to seek their advice on the matter. He was already a sick person and knew his days were limited. He had no more desire for wealth, power and fame. He had enough of those and now just wanted to be ensured a sizable space in history.

He was advised on liberating the slaves, which would immortalise his name forever. The Maharaj accepted the suggestion immediately without any second thought. Earlier, his abolition of Sati in 1920AD was widely praised and he now decided to go ahead with the abolition of slavery as well.

His rapidly deteriorating health condition ensured a speedy action and a nationwide census was immediately ordered. The findings of the census were as follows- the total population of Nepal was 55,73,788, the total slave owners were 15,719 and total slaves were 51,419.

It was not that he was advised against the idea but Chandra, despite all odds wanted to go ahead as he had no personal interest or gain. Rs. 14 lakhs was taken out of the treasury of Pashupatinath to pay for the slaves from unwilling owners. The government intended to buy them back. Ranas, civil servants and those close to the Maharaja freed their slaves voluntarily to remain in Chandra's good book. Other owners in the hills were paid a price of between Rs. 120 and Rs. 390 per slave.

Inhuman Treatment

Slaves were a status symbol in Nepal during those days and a prestige issue for the wealthy. The number of slaves one owned was a mark of his wealth and standing in society. They were given as dowry to the daughter in marriage. The market price as denoted by the government was minimum Rs.120 and maximum Rs. 390. A beautiful young woman slave could cost more. A woman was much in demand as an investment, as her children would also be a slave and thus be a property of the owner, increasing his assets.

Slaves could be purchased openly from a village market and, at times, an auction would be held in case there was more than one buyer for a single slave. Young strong muscular men and young pretty women were much in demand and cost the highest. Children were cheap and old slaves had no value at all.

The slave-owning document was called Parambata (similar to the land-owning document Lal Purja) by which an owner could sell, transfer ownership rights or inherit slaves. After the death of the owner, the slaves were also divided amongst the rightful inheritors along with the property.

A slave had no rights. His or her working time could start from 3 am and continue till late at night. The first thing that an owner did after purchasing a woman slave was to get her pregnant as her children also would be slaves, which would be an increase in his assets.

She would be forced to cohabit with male slaves and if this did not result in pregnancy, her partner changed frequently till she got pregnant.

Many owners rejoiced more at the news of their slaves being pregnant than their wives or daughter. Unscrupulous owners sometimes denied their fatherhood of the children born through slave women and these unfortunate children were designated to a life of bondage. There was no way that the hapless women could prove the fatherhood of the owner as a court of law sided with the owner.

Not all owners were heartless. On the contrary, there were kind-hearted owners as well. They got the women slaves married with their male slaves and the couple was treated well. They were given money on occasions of festivities, which was a part of their savings.

A slave could never go against the will of his or her owner. Besides physical punishment, the owner could sell the husband and wife separately to different owners from a different area so that they could never meet or sell off their children as an act of revenge.

Many male slaves escaped to India and their destination was Lahur or (Lahore) as known in Nepal, where they joined the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Known as The Lion of Punjab, the king had several escaped Nepali slaves in his army. They were enrolled despite knowing fully well that they were escapee slaves from Nepal.

Ranjit Singh thought that a desperate man gives his best and these men never failed him in a battle. They were treated at par with other soldiers and maintained their dignity. The unlucky ones fell in the hands of Indian touts and landed up in places like Surinam or Mauritius to work as forced labour in sugarcane fields, which turned out to be another kind of slavery.

This, in a nutshell, was the scene of an evil, which the Prime Minister decided to eradicate. In an effort to have the slaves lead a dignified life after freedom, Chandra Shumshere allocated a huge tract of land in Bichakhori to rehabilitate the liberated slaves and renamed it Amlekhgunj. Chandra Shumshere did not call it 'The End' after liberation. He thought of their future too.

Aftermath

While the announcement of the abolition was made in 1924, actual work started in April 1925 probably to commemorate the silver jubilee of Chandra's reign.

A total of 4,650 slaves were freed by their owners voluntarily, which included Ranas, high officials and those close to the Prime Minister. About 110 slaves paid their owners their own alimony and bought their freedom. The rest were freed by the government by paying a sum between Rs 120 and 390 per slave to the owners.

Despite the promise of land allocation in Amlekhgunj, no slaves took the offer.

It was difficult for the freed slaves from West and East Nepal to reach Amlekhgunj looking at the difficulties of travelling in Nepal in those days. Secondly, the Terai was a den of malaria and nobody wanted a permanent settlement there. Most of them settled in the same village where they lived.

Only the most persecuted slaves left the village for good.Starting an independent life requires money. Many unfortunate ones had none. They took a loan from the village moneylender and had to pay it back through labour. They landed up in another kind of bondage.

The government had decided on the title of Shiv Bhakta for the liberated slaves as the alimony finance came from the treasury of Pashupatinath but no one used it.

Life went on as usual. Those who raised a hue and cry that without slave labour the economy would be in the doldrums were proved wrong. Life and economy continued without slavery. Chandra Sumshere's valiant efforts to wipe the tears of those unfortunate souls did not go unnoticed, thus fulfilling one of his final wishes- immortality in history.

(A travel and tour entrepreneur, Banerjee has a keen interest in Nepali history)