Legacy Of Janamat Sangraha

Nobel Laureate author Orhan Pamuk once said, “I rewrite the past as if it lives today.” It seems this quote is relevant to the under-reviewed 684-page book entitled “Janamat Sangraha Darpan”. In fact, the author of this book, Giri Raj Acharya, has appropriately written event-by-event stories of the first-ever political event of the country, known as “The Referendum of 2036 BS.

Though the then-political system Panchayat won that referendum with a thin margin, the influence of this historic democratic exercise to awaken the people in Nepal for their rights as sovereign citizens was vehement. The points, thus, to ask in the context of this book are: Can this event be forgotten? Or, if that event was important for all time, what legacy did it leave to keep the flame of socio-political awakening burning?

These points need to be seen in the perspective of the referendum of 2036 BS. Author Giri Raj Acharya’s this freshly published voluminous book helps to explore some answers to these curiosities for readers.

So, let’s see the structure of the book first. It starts with the preface authored by senior litterateur Dr Tulasi Bhattarai, where he talks about the numerous political and administrative hassles the author went through for the publication of the first edition of this book. However, the second edition, which has been published freshly after a three-decade-long interval, appears smoothly with seven chapters and an annexe of 42 pages.

Thus, in the first chapter, Acharya has discussed various kinds of protests, including the then-historic student protest. This chapter provides insight to readers for knowing the background of the historic referendum of 2036 BS.

The second chapter is about the proclamation of a referendum by King Birendra in which two choices – the multi-party system of governance or the existing Panchayat with reforms – were given to the Nepali people to select freely and fearlessly. The size of the book, altogether seventeen chapters and 684 pages, also shows how important the event of Janamat Sangraha of 2036 BS is for the socio-political awakening in the country.

Author Giri Raj Acharya has clearly put up his views in his preface, page 6: Nepal, a long time after the referendum, has become a republic country. But in this political course, the making of the democratic history of the country will not be complete if the study of the referendum is left.

In fact, the Janamat Sangraha Darpan by Acharya is a book where we do not expect artistic imagination and polished presentation like in the literary work; rather, it requires date-by-date collection of facts, skills to interpret history correctly and broader understanding at a political level. Furthermore, even if one has all such qualities for writing, the risk of inviting anger from anti-democratic rulers then was always there for Acharya.

So, in the case of the under-reviewed “Janamat Sangraha Darpan”, author Acharya, who on one hand was meticulously working to write this book, and on the other hand, he also had been jailed for participating in the democratic activities in the country. Yet, the author did not feel discouraged in the aim of publishing this book.

The author writes about the first edition printing of the book in 2042 BS. His words are: ‘I was in jail that time. Somehow, I sent this book to Banaras for printing. The constraint of resources to meet printing costs, too, was enormous. The other obstacle, then, was to face border point enquiries of the administration to bring the book to the Nepali readers.

Amidst all these troubles, the happy things, too, are there for Acharya. The book’s first edition passed hard customs enquiries at the border, and the responses for the book from readers in the country were overwhelming.

However, coming to the second edition of the book now, there is a sea change in the politics of the country. The country is in a republican setup, and the pursuance of political pluralism is the prime norm of governance. Also, a good thing is quality press at affordable costs is available inside the country. In this condition, the second edition of the “Janamat Sangraha Darpan” has come out from Oriental Publication in Kathmandu with hopes of getting enthusiastic responses from the new generation of readers.

In fact, the Nepali people’s clear verdict in favour of multi-party democracy and the other verdict of thin majority status for the then Panchayat had left even Panchas (the supporters of Panchayat) touched. They started to seek opposition voices through the medium of the then parliament known as Rastriya Panchayat, sometimes creating problems even for the king in the parliamentary management.

On the other side, the impact of “Janamat Sangraha” on the democratic camp in Nepali politics remained enthusiastic for all time. Upbeat B.P. Koirala, the then towering leader who was known as “Jananeta”, had even said, ‘The undemocratic Panchayat system is existing only technically; it now can’t survive democratic pressure and will fall soon.’

Man lives in the present. No doubt, it must be the values. But man enthusiastically looks at the future, too. This is also a prudent approach. But there are some wrongs, which societies repeat, just because they don’t read history or learn lessons from history. Author Giri Raj Acharya has rightly added the word Darpan (Mirror) as a suffix in the book title Janamat Sangraha because it is really a mirror to look at all time aspirations of democratic freedom that we always want to achieve and enjoy.

 (Kafle is a former Deputy Executive Editor of this daily.)