Roads, Development and Destruction

The movie ‘gaun ayeko bato’, reminded me the flurry of past memories. I remembered the song ‘Gaun gaun bata utha, basti basti bata utha…” a revolutionary song sung by Jhapalis during 1970s when they were fighting against the monarchy. Today we have done away with monarchy but our gaun (village) is getting empty with no one to sing the song “gaun gaun bata utha…”!

The movie also reminded me of 'Shahid Marg (91 km)’ which was built by the Maoist during People's War when I was working there. When I became a Minister of Physical Planning and Works (2007) after the PW I had allotted budget to that road. In the movie I had seen how building a motorable road had affected the Rai culture and economy adversely. I worried if the present metalled Shahid Marg had affected adversely to the Magars' way of life?

I being a janjati architect, I am aware how careless development can jeopardize indigenous way of life affecting their 'gaans bas kapas'. I am not against development but it should be inclusive development.

During PW some efforts to integrate development with indigenous way of life were practiced in Thawang village. Magars in Rolpa eat pork heavily, salad was introduced to digest and prevent constipation. Similarly, within their home they reared pigs feeding faeces of human directly. They made them separate pig breeding from their home. Earlier they were selling the hemp, Maoist helped them make rucksacks much in demand during PW.

In the movie one could see how local brewery was being replaced by coca cola culture. How the indigenous roof top was being replaced by synthetic building material. And how indigenous underwears were being replaced by flashy synthetic lingerie.

I had seen how Karnali region was left out of development during monarchy era. On the positive side of development I am also aware how that region after the country became republic and federal, is now flourishing as a separate province, getting basic amenities such as hospitals, university, road net works. It is also welcoming signs to see marshi rice, kodo (millet), honey, sishnu, from Karnali finding market in Kathmandu malls. Seeing how fast indigenous 'gaans, bas kapas' was being replaced by consumerism I started worrying about the fate of Karnali province if the government did not protect their products.

Coincidently, 2/3 days after seeing the movie, I got to see photo exhibition launched by Rashtriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) on the occasion of Republic day displaying major infrastructure development works throughout the country. The first thing that struck me was the economic viability of these projects, secondly the participation and ownership of the projects by the local people and thirdly, whether they will benefit the local people. If that was not taken into consideration then I was afraid Indian goods will flood the villages, with which we share almost 2\3 rd of our open border and has nearly 80 times bigger market than of Nepal.
While seeing the photos exhibition I got reminded of my 30 days trip from Chiwa Bhanjyang, Ilam district adjoining Sikkim, India to Jhulaghat, Baitadi district bordering Uttaranchal, India (Jan 29-Feb27, 2019) covering 28 districts in Pushpalal Marg, a mid hill highway. The salient feature of this road was that it covered all the janjati and khas community of the country.

The road is so strategic that, had the government given it first priority before the construction of Mahendra Rajmarg, migration from hills to Tarai would have been checked. After seeing the movie I became acutely curious during my recent 10 days trip from Ilam to Kanchanpur (June 27- July 7, 2024) covering 18 districts.
While travelling I saw almost no economic activities throughout the highway accept seeing children waiting for their school buses to reach private schools in the mornings and evenings. Suddenly it reminded me how remittance money has accelerated the flow of population from villages to small towns, cities near high ways. How it has flourished private English boarding schools in these cities. I remembered in the movie, ‘Papa’ being called again and again by the little son and how proud the father felt hearing English word from his son!

Lastly, would I say I was lucky to come back safely in Kathmandu, after 10 days of harrowing trip? I saw trails of destructions of roads, houses and paddy fields due to flooding and landslide killing people, animals and destroying goods behind while returning back. At one point we became stuck in the middle of road when we found huge landslide blocking the road ahead and flooding of road behind us. We had to back track the road after rain stopped. Once again I was reminded how in Thawang re-forestation was taken up and check dams were built to save Thawang village from surrounding rivers during PW.

Unfortunately the same Maoist force who has been continuously in the government for the last 9 years have hardly been effective in implementing sustainable development work, instead they have been busy running after the power.

The writer is a politician and architect.