The Gurkhas Pioneer

Save the common spirit

Bhopinder Singh  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invoked a “special relationship”, based on shared culture, language and religion, with Nepal during his first official visit to Kathmandu in 2014. He had said, “This is the land of Sita and Janak; Nepal-India relations are as old as the Himalayas and the Ganga.” Given his proclivity for abbreviations, Modi had coined HIT (Highways, I-Ways and Transways) as the transformational formula to strengthen age-old ties between the two nations. Much water has flown down the rivers Kosi, Gandaki and Karnali (the three big rivers that flow from Nepal to India) and Nepal has instead vested its trust in the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to usher in the much-needed transformation.

Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s speech in New Delhi in 2018 was less flowery and presciently loaded. Repeatedly, he stressed on a “balanced outlook” in external relations, an unmistakable euphemism to “correct” the pro-India tilt. Nepal had just emerged from the perceived wounds of India’s braggadocio during the 2015 earthquake relief operations and the supposed interferences in the framing of a new Constitution. Agitation over this issue had led to a crippling “blockade.” In an age of social media, the hurt felt by a proud nation, which has never been ruled by outsiders, was palpable. Murmurs of India’s “big brotherly” attitude being unacceptable gained credence in the streets of Nepal.

Oli had alluded to that overarching trust deficit and sinking sentiment. “Good neighbourliness demands harmonious co-existence forever. And trust is the key cementing factor. It derives its strength from the observance of such fundamental principles as equality, justice, mutual respect and benefit as well as non-interference,” said Oli. He added that for impact, “it is natural to expect similar assurance from India.” Clearly, the healing process never kicked off and today, ties between India and Nepal have reached an unprecedented low due to border violence, cartographical disputes and trust eroding measures like Nepal’s decision to ban the Indian media.

Undoubtedly, there are layered complexities of missteps that were taken by both sides in equal measure. Both nations were driven by their own domestic political considerations, short-termism and geo-political churns that widened the faultlines, which always existed but never flared up to this extent. The crests and troughs of bilateral relations were always handled politically, without any unnecessary attribution to the societal-ethnicity of the people involved. Today, that venerated “Gurkha” stands to be dangerously demonised as collateral damage. The delinking of “politics” and “people” has not been the strength of the current dispensation. Deliberate contextualisation and binarisation of circumstances may still yield electoral gratification but this will come at the cost of alienating almost all neighbouring countries, well beyond Pakistan and China.

The intermingling and intermeshing of the Indo-Nepalese people are not just historical, cultural, spiritual, religious or even transactional; it is unparalleled in terms of the faith, trust and reverence that is afforded on the “Gurkha” in the Indian consciousness. Nearly 40 dedicated Gurkha Regiment battalions with approximately 40,000 Indian and Nepali Gurkha soldiers defend India’s sovereignty. Another one lakh veterans reside in Nepal and the annals of Indian Army’s valour testify to the raw gallantry of the likes of Lt Col Dhan Singh Thapa, Param Vir Chakra (PVC), among others, who ironically fought the Chinese in the same area around the Pangong Lake.

His citation read, “Major Thapa got out of his trench and killed several enemies in hand-to-hand fighting before he was finally overpowered by Chinese soldiers.” The proud Gurkha had stared death in the eye and returned. Indeed, he was born in Dharamshala as many other Gurkhas in the region of Darjeeling Hills or Dehradun but he was as synonymously a Gurkha and an Indian as Mahavir Chakra (MVC) awardees like Tika Bahadur Thapa, Pati Ram Gurung or a Prem Bahadur Gurung.

This unparalleled tradition and saga of sacrifice for India is reciprocated in a similar spirit by all those who chose to identify themselves as Gurkhas. In a deeply moving sight, a 11-year-old girl shouted the Gurkha war-cry on her father’s cremation “Tiger 9 GR Ko! Ho Ki Hoina?” (Col MN Rai, the Tiger of 9 Gurkha Regiment, he was or wasn’t he?) and it was responded by a resounding “Ho Ho Ho” (he was, he was, he was). The daughter and the nation mourned his loss and yet another name got etched to the list of the illustrious Gurkha glories. The inexplicable bond of the Indo-Nepalese reality underwrote that sacred spirit.

The “Gurkha” cannot and should not be sacrificed at the altar of partisan politics or the smallness of spirit that besets the times that be. Sadly, the over simplistic narrative of the day can easily affix the slant of “anti-national” on anyone owing to their ethnicities or religion as the basest instincts are easily aroused, tolerated and stoked by the powers-that-be.

Equally, the Nepalese dispensation cannot forget history and independent India’s contributions or the essential implications that are imminent in choosing a China over India as its “bargaining tool.” The people-to-people connect with some other neighbouring countries has already been ruptured and irreversibly damaged with the context of politico-religiosity. This has done an extreme disservice to some of our own, who axiomatically got associated as “anti-nationals” owing to their co-religiosity. Ironically, such an ethnic pejoration onto the identity of the “Gurkha” would be a unique failure. This despite the supposed commonalities of the two realms.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw identified himself as a proud Gurkha as does the current Chief of Defence Staff or the Chief of Indian Army Staff prior to him. In a reciprocal dignity, the chiefs of both armies also bestow Honorary “Generalship” of their Armies, mutually. The national leadership has to make a concerted effort to ensure that no untoward or over-excitable taint is implied on the loyalty, fidelity and character of the people of Nepal. Governmental or ideological differences have to be handled separately without galvanising societal emotions as it did with other neighbouring countries. India must always protect its sovereign interests firmly. It must also recognise the dignity of the “other”, especially one who has bled for India unflinchingly.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands)

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in the Article above are Bhopinder Singh’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.

Courtesy: Pioneer: 16th July, 2020