The Culture of Tolerance and Peace Building in Nepal

Dr. Khadga K.C. and Netra Acharya1

1. Background

When a person, society or a nation wants peace, it may not always be for the same
reason. However, peace is the basic condition where prosperity, happiness, coexistence or
anything desired can flourish. Since time immemorial scholars, philosopher, social
scientists or spiritual teachers throughout the world are striving to discover the ways how
a peaceful society can be maintained. Surely, there may not be a formula which can work
like a magic wind for the making of peace. Nevertheless, this article attempts to explore
the possibilities of the same in the blending of two basically different schools of thoughts:
social and spiritual aspects of peace building.

To begin with, it would be practical to ponder on why there is intolerance among

individuals and why there is violence or conflict in society as Leland R. Beaumont says,
"Lasting peace will come only from a profound understanding of violence." 2 By only
exploring the true nature of human being, we may be able to trace out the logical
resolution of the conflict further ahead.

2. The Basic Nature of Mankind

From the beginning of western philosophy until the end of 18th century, it was believed
that reason was the essence of man, reason made man different from the rest of the
animal world which is solely guided by passion. Philosophers from Socrates to Kant said
that man had a rational soul. Man should listen to his rational soul, not to his animal
passion. Man should let his rational part rule his animal part.

Arthur Schopenhauer thoroughly denied the propositions of his predecessors. He said,

“most human actions are prompted by the unconscious, the will. Thus, he reduced the
importance of the rational soul. Everywhere in nature, there is strife, competition, conflict
and a suicidal alternation of victory and defeat. "Every species," said Schopenhauer,
"fights for the matter, space and time of the other and we find homo homini lupus.3

Friedrich Nietzsche replaced Schopenhauer's theory of will to life and Charles Darwin's
will to existence by a theory of the will to power. Whatever man does it is because of his
deep driving desire to overpower his fellow beings. Nietzsche speculates, whether a
person is giving gifts, claiming to be in love with someone, praising or harming someone,
the psychological motive is the same: to enforce one’s will over the other. "Even in love
1
Dr. Khadga K.C. did MS and PhD in International Affairs at Nagasaki University, Japan, teaches at the
Central Department of Political Science, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Mr. Netra Acharya, did MA in English Literature and Buddhist Philosophy at Tribhuvan University and
Nepal Sanskrit University, Nepal, edits books and works as a freelance writer.
2
http://www.religioustolerance.org/peace.htm
3
Quoted in Durant (Man is a wolf to man. p.325).

1
of truth is the desire to posses it, perhaps to be its first possessor, to find it virginal." 4
Power exercise is the only thing human mind is interested into, so concludes Nietzsche.

After Nietzsche, Freud postulated mankind's dualistic nature further ahead. He said,
human instincts are of two kinds; erotic or creative instinct and destructive or death
instinct. These are the well known opposites, love and hate, transformed into the oriental
entities. They may also be another aspect of those eternal polarities, attraction and
repulsion. While asked by Albert Einstein, what are the ways for the prevention of war,
Freud said, "Mankind's destructive instinct is seldom given the attention that its
importance warrants with the least of speculative efforts we are led to conclude that this
instinct functions in every living being, striving to work its ruins and reduce life to its
primal state of inert matter. Indeed, it might well be called the death instinct."5 So, Freud
said that the diversion of the destructive impulse towards the external world must have
beneficial effects. This is the biological justification, as Freud explained, for all these
vile, pernicious propensities which we know are combating.

Most of the thinkers agree that there are dualistic instincts inherent in mankind: rational
soul or animal passion, will to life or will to power, creative instinct or destructive
instinct. The conflict within a human mind goes on and on. Sometimes it breeds violence,
at other times it leads towards peace and prosperity.

3. Conflict and Violence

When a government completely ignores its people's needs and rights and goes on ruling
through despotic and arbitrary polices, then it is people's right to alter or abolish it and to
institute a new government. As a government goes on becoming irresponsible towards its
citizens, or when the people are suppressed of their due rights, sooner or later, the society
gradually becomes restless. As John Locke says, a government is legitimate only so long
as it continues to secure its people's inalienable rights (life, liberty and property). When
the government becomes destructive of these ends Locke says, "It is the right of the
people to alter or abolish it."6
Whatever the popular opinion, the ruler and despots around the world are waging war
against the rebellions. The history of the previous century shows to what extent humans
have become expert in the craft of violence. Today's rulers are never tired of repeating the
words such as peace and democracy. But we usually see them shamelessly doubling their
military force and accumulating destructive weapons from all over the world just to
prolong their reign.

So, it is not violence per se which is to be condemned but the ultimate goal which
determines its character, as good and desirable, or evil and detestable. The use of
violence is thus can only be sanctified for the liberation of the oppressed. All the major
religions of the world have had their sojourn with violence. All the religions do preach
and practice nonviolence, but they take nonviolence only at its extreme to restore order in

4
Quoted in Duran. P. 421
5
Freud, Sigmund. 1932. Quoted in Essays on Creation of Knowledge.
6
Quoted in A History of Knowledge 225

2
society and grant justice to the suffering people. The radical Christianity's 'just war',
Islam's famous 'jihad' and Hindus and Sikh's 'dharmayuddha' reflect the same.

4. Conflict and Peace

The significance of violence is justified as a means to an end that is the welfare of all.
Even the greatest apostle of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi in the twentieth
century had also permitted violence for the sake of one's honor, justice, freedom and
dignity. That is why Birindar Pal Singh says: 'Gandhi's approval for certain type of
violence is without ambiguity.7

While observing the history of mankind, one can see that there were considerable number
of personalities who loved peace, rationality and civilization. It is owing to them that
today, war is hardly favored. At least publicly, war is never praised. War is no longer
widely viewed as natural, instinctive, glorious or noble. The force of prevailing
circumstances and the greater possibility of their incessant perpetuation only compelled
some reasonable people to use the means of violence temporarily. The thinkers and
policy makers now agree that conflict is one of the ingredients of development and
civilization. Observing the widely prevalent nature of conflict now they seem to be
attempting the resolution of conflict and not the elimination of it. Shivaram Neupane in
an article agrees, "Conflict is an indispensable reality of human society… Conflict creates
fundamental necessities for peace and prosperity."8 As conflict is one of the ingredients
of life, attempts should be made to turn it into the peace and prosperity of the society.
The history of mankind reflects that most of the countries achieved lasting peace and
prosperity after wars. We have seen clearly that the peace, stability and prosperity
achieved by the countries which were badly affected by the World War II.

So the only challenge is how to turn conflict into peace and prosperity. As conflict is the
basic ingredient of human mind, we may have to begin the transformation from that very
beginning point: the human mind itself. Developing tolerance can be one of the
alternatives for the conflict resolution.

5. Tolerance

Tolerance is the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or
practices of other people. In other words, it is willingness to accept behavior and beliefs
which are different from one's own, although he might not agree with or approve of them.
The more we become tolerant the more we contribute in the making of a peaceful society.
For the same, we need to develop such a mindset that is caring about diversity, equal
opportunity and respect for differences in society. Tolerance is one of the basic
ingredients in the tradition of eastern spirituality. The scriptures of Buddhism and
Hinduism or the common practice of these religious traditions reveal much of it.
Religious harmony which we can see here in Nepal is simply a proof of it. However,

7
The Problem of Violence. p.177
8
Neupane, Shivram, Shanti. 2068 BS. Kathmandu: Ministry for Peace and Reconstruction. Ashadh, Year
2, Number 2.

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same kind of harmony is yet to prevail in social, political and all other sectors. As we
have a very long tradition of maintaining harmony in our society and as our basic guiding
principles are certainly nothing other than our ancient scriptures, we need to explore them
to find the threads that may connect us in a bond once again. Before exploring the
scriptures, let's examine the basic grounds where tolerance would be preferable and more
convincing to us.

From the previous analysis, it has become obvious that we have dualistic nature. Either
we think of creation or destruction, in terms of tolerance or intolerance. And another
obvious thing is if mankind had not cultivated creativity or tolerance and get rid of the
feelings of destruction or intolerance, human civilization would never have developed to
this state. Majority of people felt their responsibility to humanity and its civilization,
that's why we could enjoy life in peace and be superior being in the animal world. As
Nepal is in a transitional period since five years, it is high time the country people should
choose tolerance or intolerance.

There is a lot of discussion about tolerance and peace today. Patricia A Szczerba had
narrated an anecdote in The DePaul University's School for New Learning which gives us
all a lot to think about: "It is an American Indian folk tale about a boy's conversation with
his grandfather, who tells of the two wolves that live in his heart-one is angry and
militaristic, the other peaceful and loving. The boy asks which wolf wins the war in the
grandfather's heart, and the older man simply answers, 'the one I feed'." 9 The choice is
our own; whether to feed out militaristic instinct or peaceful and loving instinct.

While urging that we should feed only the positive instincts for developing tolerance and
thereby peace and prosperity would prevail everywhere, we should be aware that only
information or knowledge of this won't help much. Negative instincts are deeply rooted
in human mind, so we need a deeper level of understanding to uproot them. The
complexities of living conditions and the lawless environment everywhere compels even
a good person think or act accordingly. The education system should be able to educate
him the value of coexistence, harmony and love. He should be enlightened in these
values, and then only he can be genuinely moral as well as a person with good nature.
Some of the people seem to be only technically moral or having good nature which
would be leading nowhere. And the amazing thing is we are not much aware of the
significance of having genuine moral living and thinking or acting positive. Doing so is a
wonderful reward in itself! Only a person whose mind is in rest, whose mind is calm and
contented, can realize this. To acquire metal serenity the spiritual teacher of has
developed meditation methods.

6. Cultivating Concern for Peace building

As things stand now, no matter what our preferences might be, our mind is often filled
with worries and troubles. We spend a great deal of time consumed by painful thoughts,
plagued by anxiety or anger, licking the wounds we receive from other people's harsh
words. When we experience these kinds of difficult moments, we wish we could manage
9
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_1_41/ai_n6363893/

4
our emotions; we wish we could master our mind to the point where we could be free of
these afflicting emotions. It would be such a relief. However, since we don't know how to
achieve this kind of control, we take the point of view that, after all, this way of living is
'normal' or 'natural', and that it is 'human nature'. Even if it ware natural, that would not
make it desirable. We can very well control our mind and our spiritual tradition has
discovered a way for that: meditation. Meditation is a proven way to discipline oneself.
And "to discipline one's self is the highest thing."10

Meditation practitioners achieve peace of mind which is the most sought after thing in
contemporary world. Peaceful individuals create a peaceful society. However, this simple
and unique technique of meditation is still neither neither widely known nor practiced. In
today's world human mind has become the most polluted thing mostly by information
overflow and craving for individual happiness and meditation would be the wonderful
way to purify one's mind. Meditation practitioners will be peaceful and loving people in
the society where they will further inspire other people for meditation and gradually,
formation of a peaceful society will be on the way.

Meditation paths try to find a synthesis between the inner life and the outer life. It is
important to stand with both feet in life and not to shun work or society. At the same
time, the highest goals are not only in the outer world, in outer power, position or
material wealth, but in the growth of inner wealth, inner peace and inner satisfaction.
Modern meditation methods are also founded on tolerance. One's own path is never the
only one or even the best one for everybody. All real paths look for truth and are right for
certain people. Different religions and philosophies are not so important; important is
mutual acceptance and mutual respect as a basis for a peaceful coexistence.

It is with deep understanding that Emerson said that, "Nothing can bring you peace but
yourself."11 We have to cultivate peacefulness ourselves. We have to indoctrinate
ourselves with the values of coexistence. Can't we all just get along as Veda says since
time immemorial? Sahanavabatu, sahanau bhunaktu, sahaveeryam karavabahai,
tejsvinabadheetamastu, ma biddwishabahai…Sangachchhaddhwam…which means:
"Let's all just get along…let's get victory over our unruly drives and develop along, let's
never hate each other."12  Let us prosper together without any unfair competition,
whatever I know is ours and whatever you know is ours too. This is the common ground
our ancestors had developed for coexistence.

The ultimate goal of meditation is to cultivate in our hearts the concern a dedicated
mother feels for her child, and then focus it on more and more people and living beings
all around the world. This is a heartfelt, powerful love. Such feelings give us a true
understanding of human rights that is not grounded just in legal terms, but rooted deeply
in the heart. Finally we have to come to the understanding that there is no way to peace;
peace is the way.

10
Quoted in Durant. P. 427
11
Lights from Many Lamps XV
12
Bharatiya Darshan P. 39

5
In this regard, various socio-economic and political impacts have been observed since the
armed conflict in Nepal began on February 13, 1996. The decade long armed conflict has
national and international dimensions, impacts on internal security and gender issues.
Positive side of the conflict includes the peace accord signed among the warring parties
without third party mediation and by and large major violation of the accord has not been
reported. In the process of uprooting the remnants of feudalism, monarchy has been
abolished, the comprehensive peace agreement between the government and the rebel
Maoist, the successful elections of Constituent Assembly and federal democratic republic
proclaimed. The mixed election system used for the election of the Constituent Assembly
ensured in inclusion of women, dalits, and persons from backward, remote areas, various
ethnic groups including downtrodden and ostracized section of the society. In the front of
women’s liberation, the conflict established a landmark, “when the armed struggle started
in 1996, it was like the opening of a prison gate with thousand of women rushing forward
to call an equal place in the war.” 13Recruitment of women in and security forces and
representation of fair sex from lower clusters of community in the Constituent Assembly
are ocular proofs the conflict.

Similarly, historical inequality among classes, castes, genders etc are identified as roots
of conflict, but it was only the Maoists who brought these issues to the fore. Although
high-intensity conflict has ended, significant levels of communal and political tension are
still to be found throughout society due to the limited presence of the state and weak law
enforcement apparatuses. In the aftermath of violent conflict and authoritarianism, the
people of Nepal were granted freedoms they had never enjoyed before, but with those
freedoms, came new civic responsibilities for which the public was unprepared. In the
meantime, splinter groups and newly formed armed groups active primarily in the Terai
seem to be freely operating along the open border with India, abducting people for
money, targeting civilian groups based on identity or religion, and carrying out other
criminal activities such as smuggling and theft. As a consequence, civilian security is
compromised on a daily basis. Much of the public also has to deal with long-standing
issues of discrimination, marginalization, and economic disparity. The Terai alone is
believed to have more than one hundred armed outfits. Sporadic armed assaults are
reported primarily to obtain ransom from individuals. Sectarian feelings are reflected in
such incidents where people of hill origin are involved. The psychology of madhes vs.
pahade, Limbu vs Brahman Chettri are coming up as serious threats to keep out inherited
culture of tolerance and religious and cultural harmony.

7. Discussion

Undoubtedly, when injustice prevails in a society, when the government system treats its
citizens unequally and discrimination prevails everywhere, conflict creeps in society.
Conflict jeopardizes the law and order of a nation and life becomes difficult to live to
each and everybody. The poor governance, centralization of authority, a weakened
central government, exclusive politics, demoralized, divided, indecisive security
situation, identity politics, and unresolved societal issues, inter alias escalated conflict

13
Onesto, Li, 2003. “Reports from the People’s War in Nepal” in Deepak Thapa (ed.) Understanding the
Maoist Movement in Nepal , Kathmandu: Center for Social Research and Development.

6
and furthermore incepted the culture of violence in the community. Therefore, to mitigate
the adverse impacts of upcoming ethnic, cultural, religious conflicts, state needs to
broaden the space of intercommunity, civil society, and state of dialogue. The broad-
based dialogue will open more opportunities for engaging political and ethnic and
sectarian leaders. This can be achieved by secularization of state, rationalization of
leadership behaviors with governmental policies and their effective implementation. The
parliamentary committees and governmental institutions can be more open to public
consultations, by requiring that major policy matters be subjected to public consultations,
and by enabling civic groups to make submissions on major policy issues to the
parliamentary committees. In the longer term, conflict resolution and peace building will
only be sustainable if government of Nepal move away from short-term and populist
affirmative action measures and adopt a vigorous developmental framework. Domestic
political stability, a sustained policy environment and a selective development of sectors
that fully utilize Nepal’s human capital and best combination of local and international
private-sector skills are necessary to create meaningful jobs in the urban sector and linked
opportunities for those in the rural sector. Despite, the cultural of tolerance and religious
and cultural harmony what we have been inherited from the time immemorial should be
preserved and kept in tact for peaceful, harmonious and tolerant future of Nepal.

References

1. Birindar Pal Singh. 1999. The Problem of Violence Manohar: Indian Institute of
Advanced Study, RastrapatiBhavan Simla.
2. Doren, Charles Van. 1991. A History of Knowledge. New York: Ballantine.
3. Durant, Will. 1961. The Story of Philosophy. New York: Washington Square
Press.
4. Freud, Sigmund. 1932. Quoted in Essays on Creation of Knowledge. Kathmandu:
Ratna Pustak Bhandar.
5. http://www.religioustolerance.org/peace.htm
6. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_1_41/ai_n6363893/
7. Li Onesto, 2003. “Reports from the People’s War in Nepal” in Deepak Thapa (ed.)
Understanding the Maoist Movement in Nepal, Kathmandu: Center for Social Research
and Development.
8. Shanti. 2068 BS. Kathmandu: Ministry for Peace and Reconstruction. Ashadh, Year 2,
Number 2.
9. Upadhaya, Baladev. (Date not available) Bharatiya Darshan. Varanasi: Sasta Sahitya
Mandal.
10. Watson, LE. (Editor). 1951. Lights from Many Lamps. New York: A Fireside
Book.