Waiting for Ded Moroz in Kathmandu

In 1951, Nepal was still largely a mystery to the world. Other than the occasional mountaineering expedition or diplomatic mission, life in the kingdom – with all its complex politics and court intrigues as King Tribhuvan manoeuvred to wrest power from the Rana autocracy – continued behind closed borders. And so it might have continued for quite a while longer, had it not been for a royal visit to Calcutta when King Tribhuvan, impressed with the famed 300 Club where he was a regular guest, invited the club's owner to his son Mahendra's wedding. The owner, Boris Lissanevitch, gladly accepted and in 1951 visited Nepal for the first time. Boris was captivated by what he saw, and would spend the rest of his eventful life in Nepal, working to open the country to tourism and thus leaving an indelible mark on how the world saw the Himalayan country – and how Nepal came to see itself. Besides bringing tourism to Nepal, though, Boris would also leave another legacy in his adopted homeland, becoming the pioneer of a seemingly improbable Russian diaspora that still exists in Nepal today.

This certainly is not the kind of thing that first comes to the Southasian mind when thinking of diaspora. In today's age of globalised migration and increasingly acrid immigration politics, Southasians are justifiably focused on the fortunes of their own compatriots abroad, especially so as our countries' political and economic fortunes continue to lead many of us to look beyond our own borders. The history of Southasian diasporas predates even the Subcontinent's current configuration of national borders; but more recently our diasporas have swelled in number, spreading across the globe to an unprecedented degree. As extensive as our own diasporic history might be, we should remember that we have played host to foreign diasporas for as long as we ourselves have been migrants. And just as we advocate fair treatment of our fellows in foreign lands, we must also be mindful of how we receive those foreigners who, even if in small numbers, have come to build their lives in our countries. The story of the Russian diaspora in Nepal is just one example of the diasporas we often forget exist within our own societies.