Liberating history

Yes, we have decided to put Jung Bahadur Rana on the cover of Himal. Yes, Jung Bahadur is the archetypal symbol of the Nepali feudocracy; and, yes, he does wear a bird-of-paradise crown similar to that given up by the just-deposed Gyanendra Shah, erstwhile king of Nepal. We are indeed trying to liberate the figure of Jung Bahadur at exactly the same time as the feudal rulers and their lineages are together being relegated to the dustbin of time in Kathmandu. In doing so, we simply want to emphasise the reality of history in all its subjectivities. History is our past, whether we like it or not. Terrible people, and rapacious dynasties, too are a part of the Southasian heritage. There is a need to excavate the history from below, as highlighted by several articles in this issue of Himal, but desecration of statues does not obliterate a distasteful past.

Every day the writing, and codification, of history continues apace, seeking to define where people have come from and what they have done. The agency is first utilised by the daily reporter, then the commentator, later by the book-writer, then the textbook-writer, the professor, the historian … and then by the next generation, with the process repeated. As the writers in this issue propose, the very act of history-writing involves an act of power, and is one that must be challenged, in order to allow for crucial reinterpretations of the past.

So it is with Bir Narsingh Kunwar, better known as Jung Bahadur. He was the soldier of fortune responsible for imposing what would be the century of Rana autocracy that ended as late as 1950, which was responsible for gutting the Nepali state and creating the poverty and exclusion that drags the country down to this day. Jung Bahadur was a creature of his times, and his contributions back in the mid-19th century can be condemned for organising the castes and ethnicities into the Hindu straitjacket, and he can yet be credited for diplomatic guile and consolidation of state administration. In doing our bit to re-animate this important figure, Himal hopes simultaneously that the history of all of Southasia will be better-written, and its writing challenged more tomorrow than it is today.

The cover image is based on the equestrian statue of Jung Bahadur at the Tudikhel parade ground in Kathmandu, backed by a letter from Jung Bahadur to the British diplomat Brian Houghton Hodgson (courtesy the British Library). The artwork is by Bilash Rai.