READING TIME: 5 minutes

It might not be a stretch to say that every Nepali takes pride in proclaiming, “Buddha was born in Nepal.” Nothing wrong with that. What, however, is shameful is that we are very very short on compassion, something the historical Buddha introduced to the world. For the record, Buddha was also against the caste system, the Hindu social system, that highly corrupting system.

In the system, Dalits (see image below) are slotted into the so-called “lowest caste”, and viewed, and treated, as “untouchables” — defiled and defilers.

The Caste System

So, throughout the three-centuries or so long casteist modern history of the country, nowhere near as long as since Buddha’s birth mind you, they have been dehumanized. Consequently, even in the 21st century, Dalit Nepalis (and others) live out — or suffer from — the legacy of that, which, I am confident, led to Rupa Sunar, a Dalit, to make her tweet.

In the tweet she she proclaims, “I don’t have the patience anymore to wait for the gradual change you keep saying is coming. I desire to live as a human being today.” In the video itself she says, “I want to reiterate, in the question of my desire to live as a human being, no one should be allowed to tell me ‘There will be gradual change.’ I desire to be a human being from today, and members of my social group should be able to live life as a human being from today itself.”

The responses of Nepalis to the tweet, however, firstly, demonstrate the existence of those so poorly educated that they appear to have no clue about the caste system. Secondly, they also comfirm something I have discovered in the last several years: many Nepalis live in complete denial of our casteist history. Thirdly, the sentiments expressed demonstrate how the caste system has corrupted the minds of many.

In other words, forget acknowledge her desire, forget display some compassion and empathy for her and her community’s plight stretching generations and lasting centuries, forget recognize the urgency in her desire — most of the responses are everything from just petty to shameful to, in many cases, horrendously dreadful.

Here’s the first three. The first one asks, “What change [do you seek]?” The second one says, “Dollar-farming dogs who talk about caste and religion to destroy society have no right to live in this society nor to be alive.” The third one says, “Dalit word and the mentality should be removed. The rest my new generation don’t care about.”

resp to RupaSumar 3 dollar farmer dalit mentality

Here’s two more. The first user casts aspersions on her intention by saying, “Looks like the opportunity for you to earn dollars has opened up.” The second one makes a veiled but vile and dreadful characterization of Sunar and others from her social group. “@ManaviPoudel received her answer. After behaving like an animal for 2000 years, all of a sudden ‘Let’s all think like a human being’ said Manavi sister, apparently.” She adds, “I guess Manavi sister should also provide medication for this contagious disease of depression that has been passed down from generation to generation for generations[.]”

resp to RupaSumar 1st dollar farmer 2nd not clear

The first one below, again, accuses her of being a “dollar-farmer” and says, “Illegitimate Children of dollar-farmers can never be a human being; give up dollars little girl. Then you’ll become a human.” The second one provides a completely irrelevant response: “And members of your social group should be allowed to continue benefiting from affirmative action (reservation) as a Dalit.” The third one calls on her to “make it possible for a tailor [one of the Dalits] to eat at a cobbler’s [another Dalit] and free yourself from the belief that you are a Dalit.”

resp to RupaSunar dollare reservation dalit discrimination

In the set below, the first user curses out Sunar, calling her a “whore.” “Who has told this whore that she is NOT human[?]” The second user says,”Today you made me laugh a lot. Some time ago, you made a landlady cry.” (The reference is to Sunar filing a cases against a landlady, accusing her of reneging on her rental agreement on discovering that she was a Dalit.) The third user says,”This dollar-farming little girl’s brain is corrupt.” I bet the irony is lost on the user!

resp to RupaSunar small caste small mind made me laugh dollare

Here’s another set, none much different.

I find it amusing and sad that some of these people are telling her to be/act like a human being first!

RupaSunar4 wont be human dont be dalit minded cow
resp to RupaSunar dog to human why not be one
resp to RupaSumar mentality small minded taitor
resp to RupaSunar learn to be human brokern cohesion

Have you had enough yet? Here’s some more and, again, because they are pretty much more of the same, I am NOT translating them. There is ONE outlier however. I challenge you to find it!

resp to RupaSunar human from today payout what
resp to RupaSunar change is slow need to change belief
resp to RupaSunar animal until now christian
resp to RupaSunar eat cow must wait
resp to RupaSunar looks like human look in the mirror
resp to RupaSunar not human who called you animal
resp to RupaSunar who called you a dog may she be an animal
resp to RupaSunar which lanlord will you attack
resp to RupaSunar4 recommeds violence fundit polluted mind
resp to RupaSunar might be charged dollor ko kamal
resp to RupaSunar4 100 m vs marathon set duration of runner
resp to RupaSunar4 you are human 600K christians
resp to RupaSunar kami to sunar mentally gone
resp to RupaSunar amanchhe sungur

You might be surprised to learn that the responses shared above aren’t all!

The following are reproductions of some of the retweets quoting the original tweet. And, again, they are incredibly shameful!

The highly patronizing and crude retweet below is accompanied by the following text: “Barking on the streets like so makes you a dog more than human little sister. So be a human first.”

resp to RupaSumar you become a dog

Here’s some more of the same.

resp to RupaSunar no one giving you a fuck
resp to RupaSunar who is distributing certificate
resp to RupaSumar drink and be roudy complain of discrimination
resp to RupaSunar cant change the old
resp to RupaSunar easy way to make money as a female
resp to RupaSunar lady mukunde in town
resp to RupaSunar rental scandal planned
resp to RupaSunar i want tobe a dollar earner
resp to RupaSunar who is stopping you

The utter lack of compassion and humanity in many of those reactions to what on the surface appears to be a simple request from Sunar, but actually reveals the profoundly flawed nature of our caste-based society, reconfirms that very nature! In other words, such callous and compassionless reactions to a Dalit’s tweet is to our deeply flawed and hollow caste-based society as casual sexism is to rape culture.

And finally, to be sure, they didn’t come across Sunar’s tweet and, just out of the blue, decide to react with those words. The evident caste system-corrupted minds of those users — denigrating her, hurling wanton, vile personal attacks, questioning her character and intention etc. — is a legacy of the casteist social, cultural, economic, and political history of the country, assisted by the abysmally poor education system.

Since returning to Nepal, I keep coming across reasons to feel ashamed to be — or to call myself — a Nepali. This is one of them.

What do you think?

Additional Materials

To begin with, this blog post used materials from this twitter thread. Additionally, I have written a great deal about the caste system and, if you are interested in the details I have alluded to in this blog, follow the links below.

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