Janak Raj Sapkota

Saroj GC : 

Janak Raj Sapkota’s new book is a solid attempt at understanding Nepali migratory patterns, but much of it relies on probability rather than empirical facts—leaving many issues up for debate.

Recording history is a task reserved for historians, and there is a concept that history—on any subject—should be a crude representation of objective facts. This assumption, however, has undergone gradual deconstruction over the years. And Janak Raj Sapkota's book, Nepali Upanyasma Basaisarai: Dukha Dekhi Dukha Samma (Migration in Nepali Novels: From Hardship to Hardship), is an instance of such undertaking. The book debunks traditionally established notions between history and literature, of one being objective and the other subjective, respectively. Both of them are textual and vulnerable to interpretation and (mis)representation. Could fiction written at different periods of time be helpful in understanding the dynamics of migration in the "history" of migration? This is the basic contention of the book, and it gives an overall view on the issue of migration of Nepalis.

The book delves into the issue of Nepalis’ migration that situate within a time span of 80 years—from 1993 BS to 2073 BS. On the basis of the expressions and the experiences of the book’s characters, it tries to explore the history and causes of migration, the dislocation of emotions, anxiety and affliction of leaving home (land), and the suffering of the migrated people.

With the book, Sapkota has tried to trace the history of migration through his characters’ experiences. This attempt is applaudable because Sapkota has tried to present this imperative issue from an anthropological and ethnographic perspective. However, readers who are accustomed to empirical knowledge might find the history of migration more authentic with well-researched facts and documents.

All things rest on power, and by the same token, Sapkota also explores that ab(use) of power is the main source of migration. At different historical junctures, the forms and agents that exercised power may have been different, but power has always been a driving force nonetheless. And Sapkota explores this trajectory of power dynamics that has historically compelled Nepalis to migrate. From a vicious circle of oppression from landlords and the feudal Panchayat system to rulers of democratic republic—all are held responsible for migration, external or internal. The character of political structure of contemporary societies is also equally responsible, Sapkota concludes.

Besides those factors, economic depravity, socially disturbed caste-harmony, power struggle and structure, sexual misconduct, and social morality are also perennial causes for the mobility of Nepalis. Broadly, all these factors are associated with power. In the book, Sapkota also tries to show us how pivotal a role the Maoist insurgency and the Madhes movements played for internal or external migration.

Though migration often takes place with optimism—the pursuit of happiness and comfort; it invites more dismal consequences, the book explores. The affliction of migration ranges from physical suffering and mental anguish to effects on family members and relatives. The book primarily concludes that the journey of Nepalis’ migration starts with hardship and ends also in hardship.

Janak Raj Sapkota should be commended for his venture to explore the hitherto unexplored issue of migration in a different way—through literary texts. However, the author fails to impart a clear sense of methodology. Methodology, while talking about research, holds a crucial place and also influences the conclusions and findings of the research besides giving a succinct roadmap to the researcher as well as to the readers. Much of the information that Sapkota tries to refer to and analyse relies on probability rather than on certainty or empirical endorsement. It is so because the information mentioned in the book is implicated rather than empirically researched. Because of this, the readers can encounter a problem in situating this book under a precise category, whether it is just an analysis or a researched analysis. Sapkota should have mentioned the secondary sources too, as that would have helped him clearly prove many of the points he is trying to make in the book.

There are also a few problems with facts: for one, the Anglo-Nepal war took place between 1814-16, instead of 1914-16; next, Rana Bahadur Shah was not a Rana ruler but a Shah monarch (p. 26). Similarly, there are some contradictions in Sapkota's own analysis. For one, the author, on Dharabashi's Sharanaarthi, says the characters migrate because of political reasons, but right on the next page he mentions that the major reason behind the characters’ suffering was economic hardship.

This book nonetheless does announce the need of developing an approach or methodology to view crucial and culturally important issues such as migration through literary devices; however, understanding such grave issues only through literary texts pose a critical problem.

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Nepali Upanyasma Basaisarai: Dukha Dekhi Dukha Samma

Author: Janak Raj Sapkota

Publisher: Himal Books

Originally published  in: https://kathmandupost.com/books/2019/09/07/deciphering-the-history-of-migration-through-literature 

जनकराज सापकोटा 

रेलसग जोडिएका कति धेरै गीतहरु नेपाली समाजमा प्रचलनमा छन् । कहिल्यै रेल नदेखेकाहरुले पनि, रेल चढदै नचढेकाहरुले पनि कति मज्जाले रेलको गीत गाएको सुनेको छु । लाहुरे परम्परा र त्यसैमा आश्रित नेपाली समाजका निम्ती रेलका गीत नया होईनन् । दाई त कालो रेलको धुवाले ... होस कि पहाडको छुक छुके रेल गयो हजुर रोक्दै नरोकी ... होस । रेलसंग जोडिएका अनेकन गीत नेपाली गायन परम्परामा एउटा हिस्सा बनेर बसेको छ । 

यतिविधी रेलको कुरा गर्नुर्का कारण हो, हालैका दिनमा मैले गरेको दिल्ली–गोरखपुरको आठ सय तीस किलोमिटर दुरीको रेल यात्रा । झण्डै दस बर्ष अघि रिपोर्टिङ सकेर संखुवासभाबाट  फर्किएको थिए । चर्किदो मधेश आन्दोलका कारण म कैयन दिन बिराटनगरमा अडकिए । त्यतिबेला म कान्तिपुरसंग जोडिईसकेको थिईन् । तर कान्तिपुरकर्मीसंग चिनाजानी थियो । यही चिनाजानीको फेरो समातेकै कारण बिराटनगरका रैथाने पत्रकार भिम घिमिरेले मलाई बिराटनगरबाट जोगवनी हुदै कटिहार जाने र त्यहांबाट रेल चढेर गोरखपुर हुदै सुनौली भएर काठमाडौं फर्किने चांजो मिलाईदिनुभएको थियो । त्यो मेरो पहिलो रेल यात्रा थियो । 

म हदै केटौले थिए । त्यसैले पहिलो रेल यात्रा डरै डरमा सकिएको थियो । पैसा चोरिदिन्छन भन्ने डर, स्टेशनमा झर्न बिर्सिएर अन्तै पुगिएला भन्ने डर, रेलभीत्र अपरिचितले केही सुघाईदिएर लुटिदेलान भन्ने डर । यस्तै डरै डरका माझ मैले कटिहार–गोरखपुर यात्रा आम्रपाली रेल सेवाबाट गरेको थियो । त्यतिबेला आफन्त र अन्य चिनारुले रेल यात्रका अनेकन किस्सा सुनाएर मेरो मनमा डर भरिदिएका थिए । कसैले सुतेका बेला के हो के सुघाएर लुटने किस्सा सुनाएका थिए । कसैले किन्नरहरु नाच्दै आउने र तिनीहरुलाई पैसा नदिई धर नपाईने कुरा सुनाएका थिए । कसैले छेवैमा बस्ने यात्रुप्रति सचेत हुन सुझाएका थिए । कसैले पैसा पर्समा नराखेर अन्यत्र राख्न सुझाएका थिए । अनेकन सल्लाह सुनेर म यति डराएको थिए कि भनी साध्धे छैन् । नाढटी भन्दा मैले भारु ५ सयको दुई नोट दांया र बांया खुट्टाको प्लास्टिकमा बेरेर तलुवामुनी लुकाएको थिए । 

दसकपछिको रेल यात्रा फरक थियो । म संग हराईन्न, लुटिईन्न र यात्राको मज्जा चाख्नुपर्छ भन्ने आत्मविश्वास थियो । सन्र्दभ थियो, दिल्लीस्थित साउथ एसियन युर्निभर्सिटीले आयोजना गरेको 'Work, Identity and Livelihood in 'new' Nepal: Conversation within South Asia' शिर्षकको सम्मेलन । यो कार्यक्रममा मैले साथी सिपी अर्यालसंग मिलेर एउटा बैदेशिक रोजगारीबाट कसरी दलितहरुले मुल्य चुकाईरहेका छन भन्ने विषयमा माथी एउटा अनुसन्धानपत्र बारे छलफल गरेका थियौं । 

कार्यक्रम पछिका दुई दिन दिल्लीको धुप खांदा खांदै म आत्तिसकेको थिए । लामो रेल यात्रा गर्दै छु भन्ने भावले म पुलकित चाही औधी थिए । ५ साउनको राती आठ बजे म बैशाली एक्सप्रेसको रेल चढे । लम्मेतान रेलको मुख कता हो पुच्छर कता हो ? कहां नेर मेरो डब्बा छ, कहांनेर मेरो सिट पर्छ ? सुरुमा त आपतै पर्यो । एक जनालाई हैन, दुई जनालाई सोधेर मैले कन्र्फम गरे । दस बर्ष अघिको यात्रा जस्तो म धेरै हडबडाएको थिईन् । हतारो त मेरो स्वभावमै गासिएको छ । तर म दस बर्ष अघि जस्तो आत्तिएको थिईन् । के होला कसो होला भन्ने पिरले पनि मलाई गांजेको थिएन । 

सजिलै म मेरो कोठामा पुगे । चार वटा बेड थिए । मेरो सामुन्नेको बेडमा गोरखपुर निवासी आंखाका डाक्टर थिए । मेरो बेड माथीको बेडमा अर्का एक यात्रु थिए । डाक्टरको बेड माथिको बेडमा एक महिला यात्रु । महिला यात्रुले आफुलाई माथील्लो बेडमा सुत्न अप्ठ्यारो पर्ने बतँएपछि मैले बेड साटे । अर्थात म डाक्टरको बेड माथीको बेडमा पुगे । ति महिलाले बडो मायालु स्वरमा मलाई छोराजस्तै मानेर धन्यवाद मात्रै दिईनन, एक बोतल पानी किनेर दिईन् । डाक्टरको मोबाईलमा ब्याट्री सकिनै आटेको थियो । रेलको प्लकमा उनको चार्जर घुसेन । अनि मैले पावर बैंक दिए । बदलामा भलाद्मी डाक्टरले पनि मलाई एक कप मिठो चिया पिलाए । भलै ति दुवै सहयोग मैले केही अपेक्षाले गरेको थिइन् । 

रेलको बेड काईदाको थियो । सेतो तन्ना, सानो तौलिया, पातलो कम्मल सबै सफा थिए । दस बर्ष अघि यस्तो थिएन् । रेलभीत्र औधी फोहोर थियो अनि चर्को हल्ला पनि । तर यसपाला फरक थियो । मेरो दिमागमा दसक पुरानो यात्राका स्मृतीहरु ओहोरदोहोर गरिरहेका थिए । जसै रेल जोल्ठिङमा पथ्र्यो त्यतिबेला स्मृतीको लय गिजोलिन्थ्यो । जसै विपरित दिशाबाट आएको रेलको सिठ्ठी मेरो कानमा पथ्र्यो, तसै स्मृतीबाट म बौरिएजस्तो हुन्थे । 

हाम्रो डब्बाभीत्रका अर्का यात्रु त पल्टिने बित्तिकै निदाईसकेको थिए । तिनी बेला–बेला बाघ झै घुर्थे । निदाउंन नसकेर म किताब पढदै समय कटाउंथे । रेलको खाना कस्तो होला भन्ने कौतुकताले पनि मैले भेज खाना अर्डर गरे । भात त मोटा चामलको जस्तो पो थियो । दालमा पनि चिल्लो धेरै । पनिर र तरकारीमा चिल्लोको त के कुरा । आलु र परवरको भुजिया भने तै विसेक थियो । तीन वटा चपाती र दाल खाएर मैले बांकी खाना खेरा फाले । खाना फालेकोमा थकथकी त लाग्यो नै ।

राती कुन बेला निदाएछु पत्तो भएन । बिहान नौ बजेर ५५ मिनेटमा गोरखपुर स्टेशनमा उत्रिनुपर्ने थियो । रातभरको यात्रामा हाम्रो कम्र्पाटमेन्ट सुनसान रह्यो ।

  

बिहान नहुंदै म शौचालय गए । पानी थियो, तर हात धुने साबन थिएन । मैले जेनतेन काम चलाए । धारामा सिक्रीले बाधेर राखीएको स्टिलको मग थियो । चोरेर लैजान्छन भनेर सायद कुकुरलाई जस्तै सिक्रीले बाधीएको होला । सायद त्यो भारतिय समाजको सभ्यता जांच्ने लिटमस टेस्ट थियो । 

एकछिन पछि म फेरी टुथपेस्ट र ब्रस बोकेर आए । त्यतिबेला मेरो आंखा अघिको शौचालयको विपरित दिशामा रहेको शौचालयको ढोकामा पर्यो । त्यहां लेखिएको थियो, पाश्चात्य शैली । के पो रछ भन्ने खुल्दुलीले ढोका खोलेपछि देखे, त्यो कमोट सहितको शौचालय रहेछ । अघिल्लो भन्दा थोरै सफा । त्यहां हेन्ड वास पनि रहेछ । मैले कुरो बुझे र काम तमाम गरे । 

गोरखपुर आउन एक घन्टा जति बांकी रहेका बेला मेरो विपरित तख्तामा घुर्दै सुतेका यात्रु ब्युझिए । उनीसंग बल्ल संवाद भयो । संवादको बहाना अनौठोसंग जुरेको थियो । गुट्खाका अम्मली उनी अघिल्लो रातीबाटै गुट्खा खान नपाएर रन्थन्निएका रहेछन् । म संग गुट्खा छ कि भनेर उनले कुरा सुरु गरे । गुट्खा नभएपनि  हामीबिच कुराकानी सुरु भयो । 

उनी त दार्जलिङ मुल घर भएका मोहम्मद जैनुद रहेछ । नेपाली भाषा मज्जाले बोल्ने रैछन । दुई बर्षको साउदीको रोजगारीबाट फर्केका । उनले साउदीको रोजगारीको अनुभवहरु सुनाए । उनले नेपाली र भारतिय कामदारको स्थान अफ्रिकी कामदारहरुले ओगटदै गएको बताए । अनि अर्को रमाईलो कुरा पनि सुनाए, गुट्खाको । 

साउदीमा गुटखा किन्न पाईदो रहेनछ । अनि भारत र नेपालबाट जाने कामदारहरुले लुकाएर लैजादा रहेछन र चर्को दाममा बेच्दा रहेछन् । उनले भारतमा ५ मा पाईले गुट्खा साउदी पुग्दा तीस रुपैया भारु सम्म पर्ने सुनँए । उनी गुट्खाको तलतलमा छटपटाईरहेका थिए । उनीसंगको कुराकानीले मलाई नेपालबाट गुटखा र सुर्तीजन्य सामाग्री बोकेर खाडी जाने कामदारको रिपोर्टिङ गर्ने आईडिया फुर्यो  (हेर्नुस  रिर्पोट https://www.kantipurdaily.com/news/2019/07/26/156410680318612065.html?author=1) । 

झण्डै दस बजे गोरखपुर उत्रिदा चर्को घाम थियो । तालु छेडला जस्तो घामले भन्दा यात्रुको हातै समातेर लर्तालान जस्तो गर्ने चालकहरुले मलाई रिस उठेको थियो । गोरखपुर–सुनौली यात्रा कार, जिप र बस जे बाट गरेपनि हुन्छ । कारको भाडा भन्न चाही साढे तीन सय भन्दा रैछन । तर मोलतोलमा साढे दुई सयमा सजिलै मिल्दो रैछ । जिप चाही दुई सय जतिमा पाईदो रैछ । अनि बसको भाडा चाही असी । एउटा जीपवालाले मलाई औधी पछ्यायो । कस्तो जिप हो ? मेरो प्रश्नमा उसले जस्तो उत्तर दियो त्यसले मलाई अचम्ममा पार्यो । 

उसले भन्यो, एसीवाला । प्रेसको जीप हो । 

म छक्क परे । उसकै पछि लागेर गाडीकोे छेउ पुगेपछि थाह भयो, उ बचनको पक्का रहेछ । हो त, टाटा सुमो जस्तै गाडीमा चालक बस्ने सिट अगाडीको सिसामा ठुलो अंग्रेजी अक्षरमा प्रेस लेखिएको थियो । कस्तो अचम्म । म पत्रकार भन्ने था पाएर त्यो मान्छेले मलाई यही गाडीमा यात्रा गराउन खोजेको त हैन । मनमनै कुरा खेलाए र मनमनै हासे । दुई सय भाडा भन्दै थियो । मैले आलटाल गरेपछि एक सय पचास भारुमै लैजान तयार भयो । 

प्रेसको गाडीको अघिल्लो सिटमा बसे । गाडी ट्राफिक नियम विपरित सडक छेउ ओगटेर बसेको थियो । सहचालक सकडमा हिडने प्रत्येक यात्रुको हात तानेर घिसारौला झै गरीरहेको थियो । झण्डै बीस मिनेटपछि उसले गाडी भर्यो । हिडने बेला हुन लागेको थियो, गाडी अगाडी सरकारी मोटरसाईकलमा आएका दुई प्रहरी देखिए । तिनीहरु गाडी अगाडी रोकिए । मोटरसाईकलको पछाडी बस्ने प्रहरी दबंग शैलीको थियो । बाक्लो र कालो जुंगा अनि कालो चश्मा उसलाई खुबै सुहाईरहेको थियो । मैले सोचे, प्रेसको गाडीमा यात्रु बोकेको छ । फेरी सडक छेउमा गाडी रोकीराखेको छ । अब पक्कै कार्वाही हुने भयो । मनमनै सोचे, हेर्दैमा यस्तो दबंग प्रहरी छ । यसले पक्कै के बांकी राख्ला  । 

तर म एकैछिनमा गलत सावित भए । चालकले चर्को स्वरमा कराउंदै सह चालकलाई बोलायो । हातमा केही राखिदियो । सहचालक खुरुरु दौडदै मोटरसाईकल छेउमा पुग्यो र प्रहरीसग हात मिलाएजस्तो गरेर केही राखिदियो । पछि थाह पाए त्यो पचासको नोट थियो । पैसा हातमा परेको खुशीमा होला कि काम फत्ते पारेको अवसरमा त्यो प्रहरी मुसुक्क हासेर आफ्नो बाटो लाग्यो । त्यसको दबंग छबी मेरो आंखै अगाडी धुलीसात भयो । 

Top Bahadur GC was from the same district—Dang—and the same village as Basnet’s mother, Maya Sen Oli. So when Basnet and Oli heard what GC was offering, they trusted him. 

“You’re already a learned man. You should grab this opportunity,” GC told the 19-year-old Basnet. 

If Basnet so desired, GC would arrange everything to send him off to the United States. 

“Once there, you can earn as much as 5,000 dollars a month and can easily get a green card,” GC told Basnet. “Now is the best time because once the wall across the Mexico border is erected, entering the US will be impossible.” 

It sounded like a good idea, and Basnet and Oli both agreed to GC’s proposal. In return for his help, GC demanded Rs 70 lakhs in total (about 63,000 US dollars), an amount that they could pay in installments. It wouldn’t be an illegal trip, he assured Oli. It would be easy—straight to Mexico and then on to the US.

Oli sold her jewellery and raised Rs 15 lakh 97 thousand for GC’s first payment. Then, they paid him another Rs 5 lakh. Before even leaving the country, the family had already paid GC nearly Rs 20 lakh.

Neither mother nor son knew of the perilous journey that awaited Basnet, a journey that would take him across the world to three continents and nearly a dozen countries, through dense jungles and mafia-controlled territories. Basnet would get embroiled in a human trafficking network spread out across the world, one of hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking entrance to the US. Most don’t make it to America unscathed—or even alive. 

***

In November 2016, Basnet left Tulsipur with Tek Bahadur Bhandari, also from Dang, who’d heard the same offer from GC. Their first stop was Delhi—the Hotel Milan Continental in Paharganj.

“We were assured that the [paper]work would be completed soon,” Basnet recalled in an interview with the Post earlier this month. “Many weeks passed but nothing happened.”

In Delhi, Basnet fell sick and began to lose hope. He told GC that if there was any more delay he would rather go back home. But GC insisted that they stay and wait it out—they’d soon be making the trip to the US. 

After four months, GC managed to get both Basnet and Bhandari a tourist visa to Bolivia. They left duly, transiting through Russia and Spain before arriving in the South American country. At the airport in Bolivia, a Bengali man came to pick them up and took them to a house. He ushered them into a room and locked the door from the outside.

“We were completely oblivious of where we were,” said Basnet. 

Inside this locked room in Bolivia, there was no running water. Agents would sometimes arrive with cooked food, other times with rice and vegetables that they had to cook in a tiny kitchenette. There was not enough drinking water and the toilet often didn’t work. 

“We spent weeks without taking a shower. We stank of sweat,” said Basnet.

After a month, the Bengali agent took them on a 20-hour-long bus ride to Lima, the capital city of Peru. From Lima, they boarded another bus for an 11-hour ride to Sullana, a Peruvian city near the border with Ecuador. They stayed in a cottage in that city for a day.

The next day, a “microbus-like” vehicle took them overnight to the Ecuadorian border, Basnet recalled. With the help of another agent, they crossed the Ecuadorian border and drove through Quito to Colombia. 

“After we gave them some dollars, agents took us through a river on a horse across the Ecuador-Colombia border,” Basnet said. The agents kept them at a house in Colombia’s Cali, famed for its salsa dance. According to Basnet, the house had about 25 men, half of them Nepalis and others from India, Bangladesh and parts of Africa.

The migrants lived in Cali for around a month and a half. They weren’t allowed to leave the room, as they risked being detained by police. Basnet recalls several other Nepalis coming and going in the time he lived in Cali. The house was a hotspot for people aspiring to get into the US.

From Cali, an agent took Basnet and Bhandari to Medellin, another Colombian city. But they didn’t stay there long. From Medellin, they left for the port city of Turbo, about 340km away.

The route from Turbo to the US border is one well-travelled by migrants. From Turbo, migrants travel through the rural, coastal village of Capurgana, 90km away. From Capurgana, the route gets rougher as they hike through the dense forests of the Darien Gap, which borders Colombia and Panama. It is in the Darien Gap that most migrants burn their passports and identifying documents, so it is more difficult for them to be deported if caught. 

After a three-hour boat ride, Bhandari and Basnet came to the Darien Gap, where they too burned their passports and documents on the orders of agents. 

“The agents told us it was imperative to burn our passports. If not, we would run the risk of being misused by other agents,” said Basnet. 

To help illegal migrants cross the Darien Gap, the agents take help from local agents, who are colloquially called “donkers”. Basnet and Bhandari too got mixed into the crowd of people aspiring to enter the US.

It was after this that the most arduous portion of their journey began, said Basnet.

“Since we were travelling through the forest, the agent had prepared for us a 25 kg bag with boots, a raincoat, food and pots to cook in,” he said. There were 10 to 15 other Nepalis with them during this leg of the trip. 

The Darien Gap trail is considered one of the most dangerous in the world due to the risk of wild snakes and armed guerillas.

But human traffickers have been using this trail to get people from across the world, including Cuba, Somalia, Syria, Bangladesh and Nepal, to the US, according to the 2016 report Migration and Migrants: A Global Overview by the International Organization for Migration. The report calls this arduous trail the “Ghost Trail” as “Hundreds of migrants enter each year; many never emerge, killed or abandoned by coyotes (migrant smugglers) on ghost trails,” the report reads.

Basnet and Bhandari completed this trail in six days. The forests were ridden with leeches as they had to cross dozens of rivers and wetlands, Basnet recalls.  

“It felt like I crossed the same river over a thousand times,” said Basnet.

Sometimes they walked all night, sometimes all day. It all depended on the whim of the agents, as they tried to get by armed rebels known for patrolling the jungles. 

After crossing the jungle, they reached Panama City where they were placed into one of three camps for illegal migrants overseen by Panama’s government. Under a policy known as “controlled flow”, the government of Panama believes that it is easier to process migrants and transport them safely to other countries so that they don’t become a burden. In these camps, migrants are provided with a wristband with a number code, and they are able to sleep on the floor for just a dollar a night. Every few days, migrants are taken on a bus ride in instalments of about a hundred to the border with Costa Rica.

Basnet and Bhandari spent three days in one camp and two in another. Then, they paid $39 to board a bus for the Costa Rican border. With the help of more agents, the duo entered Costa Rica and again, ended up in a refugee camp. There were already 15 Nepalis there, in addition to the eight or so Nepalis their group brought with them. 

Like Panama, the government of Costa Rica has the same policy regarding illegal immigrants. Basnet and Bhandari spent another three days in a Costa Rican camp, and then crossed into Nicaragua after a two-day walk through a jungle. 

They were picked up by the police almost immediately upon entering Nicaragua. After interrogation, they were turned back to Costa Rica. But Bhandari and Basnet had not come this far to give up. They managed to pay another agent to help them sneak back into Nicaragua. But their troubles were only beginning, as they were robbed by local gangsters, who took all of their possessions—bags, shoes, trousers and a total of $50.

Without any money, Basnet was forced to turn to his family. He called his mother back in Tulsipur and asked her to arrange more money so he could continue paying off agents to help him cross borders. Basnet’s father Narendra, who worked in Saudi Arabia, managed some money to send to their son.  

Since Basnet had already burned his documents, the money his father sent would come to the hotel he was staying at, which would take a sizeable cut before passing it on to Basnet. 

“He would cry on the phone, saying the agents are demanding more money,” Oli recalled while speaking with the Post earlier this month. “I would manage some money and pay the agent.” 

Oli ended up leasing out two patches of family land in Tulsipur for Rs 25 lakhs and Rs 15 lakhs each, as per ‘chhinuwa’—a local practice wherein land is lent out in exchange for money; the land is returned once the borrowed sum is paid back.

Oli would pay GC, who would in turn forward payment to agents from the trafficking network placed across South and Central America. Usually, along with the payment, a photo of the migrant would be sent on WhatsApp. That’s how migrants like Basnet were recognised by their traffickers.  

Basnet and Bhandari’s next destination was Honduras, where they reached after a two-day walk and an eight-hour ride on a lorry.

In Honduras, they were arrested again, after police found them without documents. They were held in custody for 15 days, after which they were released. Basnet said they were let go once they said that their destination was the US, as asylum seekers. Once freed, they took a trip to their next destination—Guatemala.

The intrepid duo managed to cross into Guatemala without trouble and stayed in a hotel alongside three or four other Nepalis aspiring to enter the US. Agents assured them that they would be able to cross the Mexico border from Guatemala, and from there, on to the US. So far, Basnet had already spent about Rs 50 lakh. 

In Guatemala, Basnet called up GC, asking for help, but after GC demanded more money, they ended up arguing. Basnet was now determined to not trust GC anymore and make it on his own. 

Basnet and Bhandari spent a month in a dilapidated cottage near the border-crossing in Malacatan, Guatemala. A local agent helped them cross into Mexico on a rickety raft made up of old tyres. By the time they made it to the coastal Mexican city of Tapachula, they had no money left and had not eaten in several days. 

The duo’s next stop was through Mexico City to Tijuana, a city bordering the US. They needed at least $500 to make the trip but Basnet had run out of cash. He asked his family but there was no more money to be had. Bhandari, his partner so far, received a loan from relatives in the US, and abandoned Basnet to go his own way. 

Basnet was stranded and alone in a distant land. He asked for more loans from relatives and finally, they managed to gather together $400. Using ‘out-papers’ provided by Mexican officials in Tapachula, Basnet boarded a plane from Mexico City to the border city of Tijuana. Basnet had nothing with him anymore, except for the clothes on his back. He had lost a lot of weight. 

In Tijuana, he was picked up by the police who interrogated him. He told them he had come to Tijuana for an “excursion”.

“But they didn’t believe me, probably because of the state I was in,” said Basnet. 

He was kept in jail for four days, but as he didn’t have any documents with him, he was eventually let go. 

Alone and on his own, Basnet didn’t know how to get to the US. As his luck would have it, while he was walking the streets, local gangs came upon him and captured him. He had nothing on him that they could take, so they held him for three days, torturing him, he said. 

“These are cigarette burns,” said Basnet, displaying the scars on his hands.

Eventually, the gangsters let him go and locals helped him reach the Mexico-US border. 

“I had heard many people enter the US by climbing a wall,” said Basnet. “But I headed straight to the gate of the immigration office.” If he could cross the gate, he would end up in San Diego, the US, he thought. 

Immigration officials at the border held him and asked him where he was from. When Basnet replied that he was from Nepal, the officials didn’t believe him. After standing in the scorching heat for four hours, one border official asked him to sing Nepal’s national anthem. Basnet remembers the day he sang the national anthem. It was November 27, 2017, over a year since he had left his home in Tulsipur. 

For the four months he was in Mexico, he had lost contact with his family. 

“We didn’t know whether he was alive or dead,” said Oli. “We were absolutely heartbroken. I cried for days.”

She even reached out to Top Bahadur GC, the agent who had initially approached the family, to learn of her son’s whereabouts. 

“The agent asked me for Rs 5 lakh to locate my missing son,” said Oli. “I paid him.” 

Then, GC demanded Rs 20 lakh, telling her that the money would help free her son from immigration. Oli duly sent the money to the US.

Immigration officials took Basnet to a detention centre, from where he finally called home, letting the family know he was safe. Then, he started legal procedures to obtain a refugee certificate. Again, Oli sent her son Rs 5 lakh to find lawyers and obtain sponsorship.

***

Basnet had hoped that he would be let go while his refugee status was being processed. What he didn’t know was that he had arrived at a time when American officials, acting on the Donald Trump administration’s new measures, were clamping down on immigrants, persecuting them at every turn. Earlier, during the Barack Obama administration, he might’ve been allowed to go free while his application was under consideration. No longer. 

He was held in detention for over a year. There, he learned that Bhandari, his travel companion, had managed to enter the US.

Then, he was informed that his refugee certificate had been denied. More than a year after he’d set foot on US soil, he was going to be deported. Basnet reached out to the Nepali Embassy, and on January 8, 2019, the Embassy prepared travel documents for Basnet to return home. 

“It feels strange that I was 19 when I left the country and 21 when I returned,” said Basnet.

The long journey to the US had cost Basnet Rs 75 lakh 97 thousand (Rs 7.59 million or $68,000). And he had nothing to show for it except for the scars on his arms and a lifetime of psychological pain.

“Sometimes, I felt like there was no limit to the pain a person could feel,” said Basnet. 

Upon his return, Basnet filed a complaint against Top Bahadur GC at the Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau. GC was taken into custody and during interrogation, GC implicated the now-deceased member of the provincial assembly Uttam Kumar Oli as his partner-in-crime. 

The police registered a case against GC at the Kathmandu District Court, as per the Human Trafficking Act, on June 10, 2019.

But after a hearing on June 20, GC was released on Rs 15 lakh bail. An official involved in the investigation said he was “surprised” by the court’s decision.

“I might eventually forget the trip I took, but my scars will never heal,” said Basnet. “I feel like I died and came back to life.” 

Published: 29-06-2019 06:00

Orginally published in : http://bit.ly/2NgUzi7

For Janak Raj Sapkota, notion of dukhha is engrained in entiremobility process and migrants are in a Catch-22 situation as they can neither return to their village nor live in their new set-up

The trend of popular history writing is on the rise in Nepal. Leaving the professional academicians behind, the publications from journalists is showing up one after another. These publications provide a kaleidoscopic view in understanding the myriad aspects of the past and present of Nepali society. Janak Raj Sapkota’s book Nepali Upanysma Basaisarai: Dukha Dekhi Dukha Samma (“Migration in Nepali Novels: From Hardship to Hardship”) historically unfolds the issue of Nepalis mobility which has been captured in published Nepali literary texts. Sapkota has emerged as a seasoned journalist covering the issue of migration—especially out-bound. In the work under review, Sapkota has taken an ‘unusual’ step of engaging in charting the trajectory and history of Nepali migration through these literary texts. 

Published jointly by Himal Kitab and Center for the Study of Labor and Mobility (CESLAM) the book covers the Nepali literary account spanning the period of 80 years—beginning with the Bhramar by Rup Narayan Singh, published in 1993 BS to Min Raj Basanta’s Mudir published in 2073 BS.  These selected 20 literary texts amply provide the trajectory of both out-migration and in-migration from and within Nepal. Sapkota in his book makes good use of the excerpts from these texts as it is and then quickly interweaves those imaginaries at the ideation level by reinforcing the plight of the Nepali migrants. These include extreme poverty, feudal practices, and political struggles including the decade-long Maoist conflict.

Mostly, the excerpts are the narratives of the character based in these texts. The people or a character depicted in these writings represent the temporary or permanent migrants moving toward various destinations— North East India (Darjeeling, Sikkim, Guhati, Meghalya, Assam), Burma, Tibet, Bhutan and the Gulf region during various time span. All the characters presented in the text are trapped in their own dukhha both within and outside home. This provides a nuanced reading of the patterns and plights of Nepali mobility. 

Documenting Dukhha

 The book is divided into eight chapters and each of them focuses on particular novels and thereby creates their respective motifs. The first chapter, which is an introduction, sheds light on what the author intends to find by posing several questions based on the record-keeping of the history, experiences, recollections, pains and emotions of both mobility and migrants. The second chapter outlines Nepali migratory history where the author hints that the majority of the literary texts are tacit in locating the actual date of migration. 

By focusing on Krishna Dharabashi’s novel Saranarthi, Sapkota provides us a larger picture of those Nepalis who were domiciled in Bhutan during the seventeenth century and in Burma by late eighteenth century. As time went by, the Bhutanese and Burmese governments considered Nepalis as outsiders and forced them to return to their country of origin. Dharbasi in his work emphasizes the dilemma of the family of those Nepalis who were compelled to leave Burma after 1945. For the purpose, Dharabasi refers to a story ‘Jayamaya Aafu Matra Likhapani Aaipugi’ written by Indra Bahadur Rai. Similarly, Indra Bahdaur Rai’s novel Aaja Ramita Cha and Rupnarayn Singh’s Bhramar detail the miserable struggles of those Nepalis who were domiciled in Darjeeling. Apart from the Southern migration—the book also mentions the story of migration to North. Dor Bahadur Bista’s novel Sotala sketches the agonies of Nepali wayfarer tradesmen to Tibet. 

In understanding the mobility, one of the difficult aspects is to trace the triggering factors or reasons behind the migration. There might be multiple causes.  The third chapter sheds some light on the primary causes by charting and reinforcing the cases of multiple dukhha.  People belonging to any caste, creed and geography were compelled to leave their village to escape from the abuse and oppression of village landlords. People also migrated just to wander off without having any stated motives. Many left their place of origins for Kamauna (to earn) whereas others had no option than to migrate owing to the wrath of the ruling class. By contextualizing the Rana rule, Jagdish Ghimire, in his novel Sakash and Bista in Sotala enunciate the grief of those migrants who left Nepal involuntarily. Likewise, two of the works Basai and Bramhaputrako Tirai Tir by Lil Bahadur Chetri map the migration from the eastern hill of Nepal to Tarai and beyond to present day North East India. These works offer a case where the protagonist is compelled to leave the village with his family members as he cannot repay the loan borrowed from the village landlords.  

Sapkota argues that among those whose plights are the worst include ones who are both poor and unskilled. He points to the novel Aaja Ramita Cha by Indra Bahadur Rai to substantiate his point on this. Political differences form another motif of Sapkota’s book. For instance, Narayan Dhakal’s Durvichha provides a mobility of those people whose perceptions or ideologies were different than what the Panchayati politics had inculcated. One of the characters who is forced to leave village including his family finally settles somewhere in Dhobidhara, Kathmandu. This happened because of his conflicting relationship with Pradhanpancha—the local headmen. 

The works written after 2053 BS deal with various dimensions of migration in Nepali society. Most of the works revolve around the decade-long civil war where people were forced to flee the village to the nearby cities, and further to the national capital Kathmandu. The people who were caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the state forces found it untenable to live in Kathmandu either and eventually made their way abroad. 

The fourth chapter is on the belongingness—to home, village, family and friends. It deals with the issue of pain and separation. This is reflected in almost all the works presented in the book. The migration might be of permanent or temporary nature but, the migrant’s memory and emotions are always associated with the idea of home.

The fifth chapter is about the suffering. The collected works stresses the difficulties, inconsistencies, risks and unexpected tragedies within the process of mobility both in the country of origin and destination. This suffering is reflected on the individual’s mental, physical and social aspects. One cannot forget one’s birthplace and the socialization received during the childhood and youth. It’s all imprinted in the mind and reoccurs in the memories.

Binding glue of Nepaliness

In that state of mind, what is the connector between the two fellow migrants abroad? According to Sapkota, the binding glue is the Nepaliness, which forms the common thread of chapter six. Nepaliness is manifested through various cultural traits such as celebrating festivals, eating Nepali delicacies, organizing gatherings and constructing temples among others. Identifying a fellow Nepali in foreign land is another important way of forming Nepaliness.  

Sapkota not only sheds light on the formation of Nepaliness. He also highlights the changing nature of Nepaliness and migrants’ lifestyle. He elaborates this in Uma Subedis work Toda— a case of Nepali migrant women who find mobility itself as an opportunity to enjoy freedom which was not possible back home. In this novel, two of the women characters find freedom in being able to shed their clothes in public in order to enjoy sunbath. Through such an example, Sapkota posits the changing and contradictory attitudes on gender relations at the country of destination and origin. 

For Sapkota, the notion of dukhha is engrained in the entire mobility process and the migrants are in a Catch-22 situation as they can neither return to their village nor live in their new set-up. No matter what they do and where they go, dukhha is part and parcel of their lived experiences. Even though, the migrants want to run away from dukkha, it is like their own shadow which refuses to give up on them. Nonetheless, mobility continues. 

To Conclude

Janak Raj Sapkota should be commended for undertaking a very important task of deciphering migration through literary texts. In fact, the work is worthy addition to the list of literatures on migration studies of Nepal. However, there are rooms for improvements. Both the author and publishers have failed to do some fact checking. For instance, on page nine, it is mentioned that the Anglo-Nepal war took place between 1914-16, it was between 1814-16. Similarly, on page 26, Rana Bahadur Shah is mentioned as Rana ruler, whereas he was the ruling Shah monarch. The author also makes no mention of the reason for selecting these 20 texts. If one reads the acknowledgement section, one realizes that these texts were suggested to Sapkota by leading Nepali literati. Also, one finds no mention of the bibliographies for the works cited in the book. There must have been reviews or commentaries published on some of the works cited. However, there is no mention of them. These points of criticism are also directed toward the publishers as they are seasoned in their respective tasks of research and publications. 

The authors are assistant professors at Kathmandu School of Law

First appeared in:https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/dukhhas-of-nepali-migration/?categoryId=opinion&fbclid=IwAR26qnZ6U7Oaai_vkCtRvWHOETSjKEh6sFEJ9oyUMiu-I-X78w-P3hDx8Ak