A TURBULENT TRIANGLE

There is no argument in India that Nepal is a part of the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, though, the defining issue is of identity vis-à-vis India, with Nepali nationalism basically being anti-Indianism.

- Manjeev Singh Puri

ALL ROADS LEAD NORTH

by Amish Raj Mulmi CONTEXT

The Nepali intelligentsia longs for alternate geographies, no matter the overwhelming reality. Amish Raj Mulmi’s All Roads Lead North is a serious contemporary contribution in that direction with nearly 45 pages of footnotes following 222 pages of closeset text. It is also timely with much of the news from Nepal last year having been about the Chinese ascendance in that country.

Mulmi, who is from Nepal but lived for years in India, has strongly grounded his work in the historical and societal dynamics around Nepal’s northern areas, with the de-emphasising of India being intrinsic to the construct, even though he himself notes that “the modern history of Nepal-China relations is equally a story about the triangle between Nepal, India and China”. He is incensed that “binary and outlandish views dominate and because of India’s overwhelming global influence in shaping the South Asian narrative, the Nepali perspective is lost amidst the cacophony of Indian news channels and the assumption of quasi-imperial notions on how the rest of the subcontinent should respond to India”. On the other hand, the role and, indeed, significant place of the US, particularly vis-à-vis Tibet related activities, in Nepal stands foregrounded.