1. LECTURE – 8 Fossilstate
MA 2nd Year (English) “Activities in a ‘Fossil State’: Balkrishna Sama and the Improvisation of Nepali Identity” Pratyoush Onta
Min Pun, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
Tribhuvan University, PN Campus

2. THE AUTHOR: Pratyoush Onta
Pratyoush Onta has a PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania (1996).
He has written about Nepali nationalism, Gurkha history, institutions, area studies, knowledge production, and media.
He has written, edited or co-edited several books including Nepal Studies in the UK (2004), Social History of Radio Nepal (2004, in Nepali), Radio Journalism: News and Talk Programs in FM Radio (2005, in Nepali), Growing up with Radio (2005, in Nepali), Mass Media in Post-1990 Nepal (2006), and Autocratic Monarchy: Politics in Panchayat Nepal (by L.S. Baral, 2012).

3. Onta has also published more than 50 articles in various journals and edited volumes and written extensively for Nepal's newspapers and magazines.
He is the founding editor of the journals Studies in Nepali History and Society (est. 1996) and Media Adhyayan (est. 2006, in Nepali).
He has been associated with the research institute and public forum Martin Chautari in Kathmandu since 1995 and is currently its chair.

4. THE Essay: Activities in a ‘Fossil State’: Balkrishna Sama and the Improvisation of Nepali Identity
This essay by Onta was published in Studies in Nepali History and Society in June 1997.
The essay is a revised version of a chapter from his Ph.D. dissertation.
The title of his dissertation was “The Politics of Bravery: A History of Nepali Nationalism”, which was submitted to the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.

5. The essay is about how Nepali language and literature contributed to the development of Nepali identity and nationalism.
As Roderick Chalmers’ essay “Pundits and Pulp Fiction” says that it is the language (Nepali print capitalism in Benaras) that helped build a modern Nepal, Onta’s essay also discusses the formation of Nepali identity and Nepali nationalism by promoting Nepali language and literature.
In this essay, Onta focuses on the early life and works of Balkrishna Sama ( ), one of the founding fathers of modern Nepali language and literature after Bhanubhakta and Motiram Bhatta.

6. The essay is divided in five sections:
The first section presents a brief review of the historical literature on a century-long Rana regime.
The second section discusses Sama’s early experiments with the Nepali language.
The third section discusses Sama’s bintipatra (petition) he wrote that deals with his thoughts on the overall progress of Nepal and Nepali culture.
The fourth discusses some of Sama’s plays, which deal with the purity of Nepali land and the elaboration of bir history of Nepal.
The fifth section concludes with some thoughts on Nepali literary history and the history of nationalism in Nepal.

7. NEPAL UNDER THE RANAS: FROM ‘FOSSILIZED LAND’ TO ‘POLITICAL AWAKENING’
Ranas ruled Nepal more than 100 years from 1846 to 1951.
First, their strategy of state control was to isolate Nepal by not allowing both Nepalis and foreigners to travel inside and outside.
Secondly, public education in Nepal was not available to all (only confined to Ranas, royal families and a few others).
As Nepal was deliberately kept inaccessible for foreigners, Nepal came to be seen as a ‘fossil land’ by outsiders.

8. Historians and scholars continued to see the image of an isolated (fossilized) Nepal even during the Panchayat era. Since Nepal was not included inside the colonial borders of British India, its history should not be considered as part of South Asian history.
But Nepal had ‘political awakening’ inside Nepal at the end of the Rana regime and it had connections outside Nepal with the Indian Nationalist Movement.
Despite the political history that helped develop nationalism in Nepal, Onta discusses how Nepali language and literature have contributed the development of nationalism in Nepal. He discusses this in relation to Balkrishna Sama.

9. DEFECTIVE NEPAL: SAMA’S REALIZATION
Balkrishna Sama ( AD) was born in a Rana family in Kathmandu.
Sama was the son of Samar Shamsher, a Rana army man.
Sama was also the grandson of Dambar Shamsher who was among the seventeenth son of Dhir Shamsher. Dambar was excluded from the succession of prime ministership because he was born to non-marital union.

10. To compensate this, Damabar Shamsher was provided with all kinds of luxurious facilities. Among these facilities, he had a theatre at home and plays (nataks) were performed which were imported from colonial India. This was the first family environment in which Sama had grown up, observing nataks and listening to theatrical music.
Secondly, Sama did not study Nepali history, geography and culture in Darbar School because Ranas did not include these subjects in the curriculum. Even Nepali language was not given more attention. In such a cultural milieu of absences, Sama was grown up.

11. As Bhim B. Pandey who was a student of Darbar School writes about this situation:
Nepal’s history and geography were not taught. The textbooks necessary for that purpose had not been written. I do not know whether this was because it was assumed that students could learn things related to Nepal on their own or because the Ranas feared that if they knew the real history and geography of Nepal, their rule would come to an end. We were taught the history of India and Britain thoroughly in the school. Darbar school students knew world geography by heart.
(Pandey 2039 BS: 148)

12. Thirdly, Sama was influenced by his teacher Tilmadhav Devkota (father of LP Devkota), Ishworidutta Ratori, and Rudraraj Pandey, who taught him to be nationalistic.
In 1921, Sama married to Mandakini Thapa and started writing a play Tansenko Jhari and an epic Aryaghat. He went to Calcutta to appear in the final tenth grade exam of Calcutta University, leaving behind his pregnant wife. Two days after his exams were over, he received a letter from his brother Pushkar Shamsher about his son’s death due to the wrong injection given by the doctor. Sama was greatly distressed by this death of his son, which is described in his autobiography:

13. My country! If this baby had been born in Calcutta, it would have lived. My country’s misery even in this century killed my son …. This event brought a big change in my life. Revolution began to simmer inside me. (2023 BS: 308)
The above events in Sama’s life were his personal journey of discovery of a defective Nepal.
Starting with poetry composition, Sama slowly turned to writing plays in the Nepali language. Shakespeare became his inspiration for his theatrical imagination. He also got opportunity to watch theatrical performances in Calcutta that captured his mind.

14. In 1922, Sama returned to Kathmandu and passed his exam, he joined the Trichandra College as a science student. He passed the first year exam and continued to write poetry and completed Tansenko Jhari.
In 1924, he was in the second year preparing for the exam, his father took him to Premier Chandra Shamsher for darshan who heard about Sama’s writing. To stop Sama’s writing career, Chandra Shamsher made him a captain of the army and sent him to Dehradun for training.
When he was in Dehradun, Sama came to know about Nalapani war, Balbhadra, and the Treaty of Sugauli. He realized the fighting spirit of Balbhadra and wanted to fight for the country.

15. Sama wrote in his autobiography, describing his feeling of nationalism:
Not only the Gurkhas in the British army but also the Nepali army, which was trained in the English language and wore English uniforms, was designed to assist the Biritsh. We had become their blind followers. Supporting one premier’s (Chandra Shamsher’s) selfish goals, decorating his chest with various medals, the Biritsh had managed to dance on top of the chest and head of all Nepalis. Revolt stirred its head up inside me. (2029 BS: 33-34)
This moment of realization was an important episode in the life of Sama, which can be seen in his later works.

16. Sama wrote a new play Mutuko Byatha (The Anguish of the Heart) in order to express his feeling of loss.
When he heard about his college friends who had had passed the MA exams (his classmates at the time he had become a captain of the army), a sense of regret rose in him and continued to express in this play that he completed in 1928

17. DEVELOPING NEPAL: SAMA’S BINTIPATRA
In the 1930s, he began to teach Nepali language and literature both at the Tri-Chandra College and the Darbar School.
He found 3 problems while teaching:
Lack of standard grammar of Nepali language.
Nepali language was not yet a lingua franca (a common language) in Nepal.
The dominance of Hindi and Urdu in the theatres of the elite Ranas.

18. In order to resolve these problems, Sama prescribed his students to follow his grammar book Chandrika (published by Hemraj Sharma) and argued that Nepali language should be the unifying language of all Nepalis.
He also argued that nataks should be used as a medium of education:
The easiest means of education is through stage performances of nataks. The way education is made enjoyable.
(2029 BS: 112)

19. Among others, Sama has argued some important things in bintipatra:
Sama has celebrated Nepal as a sovereign Hindu kingdom.
Sama has argued that Nepal is losing its independence by copying the Islamic civilization and culture previously and the English civilization and culture now. He suggested to correct this.
Sama also argued that Nepali art and systems of design have been neglected and criticized the architecture of the buildings built by Ranas.

20. He also argued that Nepal should adopt the Nepali language based education system both at school and college levels. He said that Nepali history, literature and culture should be taught to the students.
Sama was also in favour of the theatre (natak), which should be the medium of education. In order to purify Nepal, he suggested that Nepali language should be the means of education at schools and colleges and the medium for nataks.

21. ELABORATING BIR NEPAL: SAMA’S PLAYS
Sama is best known for his nataks that made him “Natyasiromani” of Nepal.
In his plays, Sama has celebrated Nepal as an independent Hindu Kingdom and the birthplace of hundreds of brave sons. He has imagined the pure Nepali nation and portrayed Calcutta as an ‘impure’ colonial India.

22. Some of his famous plays of this kind that elaborate bir Nepal and celebrate Nepalis as the sons of heroes are:
Mukunda Indira (1937)
Bhakta Bhanubhakta (1943)
Amar Simha (1954)
Nalapanima (1960)

23. Even in one of his essays, Sama has praised Nepali language and national Nepali culture:
We are members of the Nepali jati of Nepal. We are of a freedom-loving nature; we are one. We want the Nepali language, dress and culture to spread in Nepal and amongst members of the Nepali jati. We first want the progress of Nepal. For this project we will spend our lives’ resources – as sweat during moments of success, as tears during moments of defeat, and as blood when it is necessary.
(Sama2010 BS: 14)

24. CONCLUSION
In the first place, Sama has contributed a lot to build the Nepali nation by writing a corpus of literature (especially plays) in the Nepali language. So Nepali language and literature became the dominant markers of the Nepali identity and nationalism.
Secondly, Sama has developed the bir (brave) history of Nepal by writing plays about heroes of Nepal who have contributed to build Nepal as an independent Nepal.

25. Thirdly, Sama has elaborated the history of Nepali nationalism that celebrates Nepal’s non-colonial history.
In this way, Sama has contributed to mention Nepal as ‘pure’ Nepal against a colonially ‘impure’ Calcultta (India); Nepal as unique and untouched by the colonial presence in South Asia.

26. Dr. Min Pun Associate Professor, Department of English
Tribhuvan University, PN Campus, Pokhara