| TIME IN | TIME OUT | VO/TEXT/INT | TEXT |
| 10:00:03:00 | 10:00:08:06 | Text card | Born Polluted |
| 10:00:35:11 | 10:00:37:11 | subtitle | Are you just going to have vegetables? |
| 10:00:38.19 | 10:00:43:13 | subtitle | NO, not this one but this one. |
| 10:00:44:21 | 10:00:47:13 | “ | You must eat spinach, too. |
| 10:00:53:11 | 10:01:31:02 | Voice over 1 | Dipendra is a journalist who has moved from West Nepal to Kathmandu. He is setting off on a journey close to his home region, the mountainous Kalikot district, in order to carry out research for an article on the dalits. The term Dalit derives from the caste system typical to Hindu societies and refers to the people lowest on the hierarchical ladder. Dalits are therefore regarded as polluted. Dipendra himself belongs to one of the discriminated ethnic minorities of Nepal. |
| 10:01:34:14 | 10:01:37:06 | subtitle | I have to go to Kalikot today. |
| 10:01:39:05 | 10:01:41:22 | “ | No, you don’t have to go. |
| 10:01:46:06 | 10:01:49:11 | “ | Yes, I am going to Kalikot and it is very cold there. |
| 10:01:50:20 | 10:01:54:13 | “ | Tell daddy to take a jumper and a sleeping bag. |
| 10:01:55:05 | 10:01:57:02 | “ | I have to take a jumper. |
| 10:01:58:13 | 10:02:00:10 | “ | I have to take the airplane;- |
| 10:02:01:00 | 10:02:03:22 | “ | And also walk a lot up and down hill, you know? |
| 10:02:11:03 | 10:02:23:20 | Voice over 2 | Dipendra writes for the Maoist communist daily newspaper. The district of Kalikot he is heading to has been the core area of the Maoist movement since the civil war.
|
| 10:02:23.24 | 10:02:26:17 | Subtitle | The dalits there have gone up to the leadership level:- |
| 10:02:27:06 | 10:02:29:13 | “ | And they are aos in the People’s Liberation Army. |
| 10:02:30:02 | 10:02:32:22 | “ | But it is important to understand what their situation is now;- |
| 10:02:33:16 | 10:02:36:11 | “ | As the Maoists have entered the peace process. |
| 10:02:37:01 | 10:02:40:20 | “ | This is the right time to find out the truth about them. |
| 10:02:41:06 | 10:02:43:14 | “ | Reporting on this issue will mean;- |
| 10:02:44:01 | 10:02:46:08 | “ | That people will be informed:- |
| 10:02:46:23 | 10:02:50:16 | “ | And this is the reason I want to go to Kalikot. |
| 10:03:02:21 | 10:03:06:15 | “ | How are you little boy? I am going now. |
| 10:03:10:08 | 10:03:20:20 | Voice over 3 | The over 200-year-old Hindu monarchy ended as a result of the civil war in 2008, after which the Maoists got into power democratically. |
| 10:03:06:15 | 10:03:24:01 | ARCHIVE |
|
| 10:03:23:01 | 10:03:39:05 | Voice over 3b | The peace process is, however, on shaky grounds and policy making suffers from quarrels between political parties. Therefore, the new constitution that was supposed to be enacted in May 2010, has still not been finalized.
|
| 10:03:40:23 | 10:03:44:00 | Subtitle | It’s just clothes, what shall I do? Open it? |
| 10:03:45:08 | 10:03:49:23 | “ | Can I go now? We are in a hurry. |
| 10:03:53:07 | 10.04.00.22 | Voiceover4 | Dipendra travels to Kalikot with the maoist politician Khadka Bahadur Biswakarma, who is a poliburo member. |
| 10.04.00.22 | 10:04:03:03 | subtitle | Are you well? –Yes, I a fine. |
| 10:04:03:14 | 10:04:05:20 | “ | Ok, let’s go. |
| 10:04:06:17 | 10:04:12:08 | Voice over 4b | He is also a dalit and a native of Kalikot.
|
| 10:04:13:16 | 10:04:17:00 | subtitle | That’s where the PLA fighters fought, where the training camp was. |
| 10:10:04:17:14 | 10:04:20:00 | “ | Were they were trained to fight |
| 10:04:20:16 | 10:04:23:02 | “ | From there they planned to attack many places |
| 10:04:23:13 | 10:04:26:04 | “ | And to liberate the Bheri/Karnali region. |
| 10:04:25:10 | 10:04:29:01 | Screen text | Dipendra Rokaya- journalist |
| 10:04:26:16 | 10:04:31:05 | subtitle | As well as the whole country |
| 10:04:32:10 | 10:04:35:07 | “ | That was their dream |
| 10:04:42:19 | 10:05:06:00 | Voice over 5 | The traditional caste system used to be functioning in Bishwakarma’s home region. It meant that your societal status and profession were defined by your birth. The low caste were obliged to work on the fields of the high caste and many were imprisoned for their debts towards the landowners. The low caste were not allowed to eat or marry with the high caste. |
| 10:05:11:00 | 10:05::44:12 | Interview english | The caste system exists in Nepal as the principle of untouchability. There are two types of people in Nepal. There are the touchable and then there are the dalits, the untouchables. The high caste practice untouchabilty towards the lowcaste. According to law the lowcaste are no more untouchable but in practice they are still de facto untouchable |
| 10:05:19:08 | 10:05:24:24 | Screen text | Yam Bahadur Kisan – Dalit scholar |
| 10:05:57:08 | 10:06:00:00 | subtitle | Hail to the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist! |
| 10:06:00:03 | 10:06:02:01 | “ | Hail! |
| 10:06:02:08 | 10:06:05:20 | “ | Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, hail! |
| 10:06:06:10 | 10:06:27:14 | Voiceover 6 | Revolutionary leftist ideology is still popular in Kalikot. During the war many discriminated by the caste system were persuaded to join the People’s Liberation Army. As a result some of areas of land were taken away from the high caste and given over to the landless dalits, who had been working them.
|
| 10:06:27:23 | 10:06:31:05 | subtitle | We were fighting for 10 years. |
| 10:06:31:21 | 10:06:36:18 | “ | And for the past 5 and a half years we have been in the peace process |
| 10:06:37:12 | 10:06:42:09 | “ | You have been sacrificing a lot for the 10 year war and the peace process. |
| 10:06:43:04 | 10:06:47:16 |
| You must have the illusion that your sons and daughters were just wasted for nothing. |
| 10:06:49:12 | 10:06:52:21 |
| Gender, dalit and regional issues are important |
| 10:06:53:06 | 10:06:56:07 |
| And they are tied into the class struggle. |
| 10:06:56:07 | 10:07:01:02 | Screen text | Khadka Bahadur Bishwakarma – Maoist Politician |
| 10:06:56:22 | 10:07:01:02 | subtitle | But working to solves just these issues will not bring a full solution |
| 10:07:02:23 | 10:07:06:06 | “ | This can only be reached by competing the class struggle |
| 10:07:21:03 | 10:07:31:19 | Voice over 7 | In the evening Dipendra goes visit Bishwakarma’s parents, who remember caste discrimination well from the times before the arrival of the Maoists. |
| 10:07:32:23 | 10:07:36:06 | subtitle | What kind of injustices were there? |
| 10:07:36:23 | 10:07:40:06 | “ | How was the injustice taking place? |
| 10:07:41:11 | 10.07.44.19 | “ | Injustice means they didn’t allow us to eat. |
| 10.07.47.11 | 10:07:53:07 |
| They would say “do your work”, and we could not do our work. |
| 10:07:55:19 | 10:08:02:10 |
| This is how the feudalist system worked. |
| 10:08:04:20 | 10:08:08:20 |
| Khadka could not tolerate this. |
| 10:08:09:13 | 10:08:15:05 |
| He left his teaching job and became a Maoist. |
| 10:08:21:03 | 10:08:24:03 |
| The people have come to know themselves |
| 10:08:24:19 | 10:08:28:23 |
| Before the Dalits of Karnali didn’t think of themselves as human beings. |
| 10:08:29:08 | 10:08:32:24 |
| The environment was such that they couldn’t think of themselves as humans. |
| 10:08:33:16 | 10:08:40:02 |
| But they don’t have any concrete things with which to illustrate that there has been change. |
| 10:08:40:13 | 10:08:46:01 |
| As the Maoist people’s war has not been completed, the dalit movement has not yet been completed. |
| 10:08:56:07 | 10:09:27:20 | Voice over 9 | Bishnu Nepali is herself a dalit and works in an organization aiming at improving dalit's rights. She is going on a fieldtrip to Sarlahi where the rat eating Musars live. Here in the southern plains of Nepal, the groups in the lower lever of the caste system still live in utter misery compared with the low caste in the mountains. The caste system’s hierarchy is very obvious here. |
| 10:09:34:18 | 10:09:38:03 | subtitle | Within the dalits there is also a hierarchy:- |
| 10:09:38:17 | 10:09:42:02 | “ | And the Musars are in the lowest category. |
| 10:09:42:24 | 10:09:50:14 | “ | They Musars are very poor and they are backward in education. |
| 10:09:44:19 | 10:09:49:19 | Screen text | Bishnu Nepali – Samaritan Uplift Service |
| 10:09:53:20 | 10:09:58:17 | subtitle | If we want to uplift the dalits fromt heir situation.- |
| 10:09:59:05 | 10:10:05:09 |
| Education is important |
| 10:10:05:21 | 10:10:09:11 |
| Also a strong law is needed. |
| 10:10:09:22 | 10:10:14:11 |
| If someone harasses a dalit and goes to the police:- |
| 10:10:14:22 | 10:10:18:01 |
| He doesn’t get the right kind of justice. |
| 10:10:20:17 | 10:10:23:13 |
| Now that is enough. We’ll sit down now. |
| 10:10:24:00 | 10:10:26:21 |
| Tell the others that we will come to pick them up later. |
| 10:10:36:22 | 10:10:53:01 | Voice over 8 | The organization where Bishnu works helps the Musars to apply for citizenship papers, which most of the lowcaste inhabitants of Jutepani don't have. The illiterate Musars were not aware of the importance of identification documents.
|
| 10:10:53:01 | 10:10:55:03 | subtitle | - Is this yours?, -Yes. |
| 10:10:55:15 | 10:10:57:07 |
| Dhan Kumari? , -Yles. |
| 10:11:01:16 | 10:11:06:08 |
| This is her husband’s birth certificate. |
| 10:11:09:04 | 10:11.12:04 |
| And this paper is from earlier, sir? |
| 10:11:14:13 | 10:11:18:00 |
| This certificate is useful for sending children to school. |
| 10:11:18:08 | 10:11:22:21 |
| If they go work abroad, they need this card. |
| 10:11:24:04 | 10:11:26:17 |
| For this reason we need this card. |
| 10:11:17:13 | 10:11:22:21 | Screen text | Neina Devi Majhi, Musar. |
| 10:11:31:16 | 10:11:47:24 | Voiceover 10 | The huge support to the Maoist movement can be explained by the fact that they aimed at breaking the age-old caste hierarchy. The rebels also gained support in Sarlahi, but after the peace process started, it has since died down.
|
| 10:11:48:22 | 10:11:53:15 | subtitle | Maoists promised to give us land and treat us well:- |
| 10:11:54:00 | 10:11:58:05 |
| But we didn’t get anything |
| 10:11:52:18 | 10:11:57:00 | Screen text | 18Foguni Musahar, Musar |
| 10:11:58:12 | 10:12:02:17 | subtitle | WHEN THE NGO CAME WE FELT LOTS OF SECURITY. |
| 10:12:03:16 | 10:12:06;11 |
| And as well as that, our children also get an education. |
| 10:12:13:24 | 10:12:20:20 |
| During the war there was hope in the Maoists. |
| 10:12:21:21 | 10:12:27:19 |
| They had a slogan “All people are equal”, like saying there is no hierarchy. |
| 10:12:28:16 | 10:12:37:03 |
| During the war the Maoists used uneducated young people in the army. |
| 10:12:32:00 | 10:12:37:21 | Screen text | Bishnu Nepali – Samaritan Uplift Service |
| 10:12:37:21 | 10:12:41:13 | subtitle | And they went to fight and die for them. |
| 10:12:42:02 | 10:12:46:19 |
| The slogan was merely used to abuse the people. |
| 10:12:49:15 | 10:13:04:07 | Interview english | They have not been able to be strong when they were in the government, they have not been able to push their issues in the parliament, and on the streets they have also not been too strong. |
| 10:12:51:06 | 10:12: 56:00 | Screen text | Kali Bahadur Rokaya – the Human Rights Commission of Nepal |
| 10:13:06:18 | 10:13:13:00 | subtitle | The issue that they raised in the beginning was full proportional representation for the dalits. |
| 10:13:14:05 | 10:13:20:00 |
| The second issue they raised was the end of caste based discrimination. |
| 10:13:21:00 | 10:13:28:00 |
| The issues the Maoists raised in the beginning, we felt they weren’t raising then;- |
| 10:13:29:04 | 10:13:32:22 |
| So,we didn’t feel represented |
| 10:13:23:09 | 10:13:28:00 | Screen text | Bishwendra Paswan – Dalit Janajati Party |
| 10:13:36:00 | 10:13:59:07 | Voice over 11 | The Musars work the fields of the high caste harvesting 5 kg of rice for 1,5 euros per day. They still live in total dependence of the region’s landowners. According to the rules of the caste system, they are not allowed to use the same well as the high caste.
|
| 10:14:00:11 | 10:14:06:12 | subtitle | We don’t have land, and we don’t have money to educate our children. |
| 10:14:01:00 | 10:14:06:12 | Screen text | Fogundi Musar - Musar |
| 10:14:07:04 | 10:14:13:22 | subtitle | We are weak and we don’t have power. |
| 10:14:14:17 | 10:14:21:04 |
| Brahmin-kshetri, the upper caste, discriminate us. |
| 10:214:21:24 | 10:14:35:00 | Voice over 12 | The high caste Wagle family lives just opposite the Musar community. The Brahmin family would not like to live so close to the polluted rat eaters. |
| 10:14:35:00 | 10:14:38:14 | subtitle | We are in the Musar community and they call us the dirty Wagle. |
| 10:14:34:02 | 10:14:39:00 | Screen text | Bhima Prasad Wagle, High caste Brahmin |
| 10:14:39:08 | 10:14:46:13 | subtitle | Some local people hate us, because we live so close to the Musars. |
| 10:14:47:00 | 10:14:53:15 |
| But we cannot move to any other place and buy land. |
| 10:14:55:22 | 10:15:00:00 |
| - They do their tradition and we do outrs, - Are there any differences? |
| 10:15:00:23 | 10:15:05:00 |
| Yes, there I a difference. We haven’t gone to eat at their houses. |
| 10:15:05:00 | 10:15:10:05 |
| We haven’t gone to visit them. We do our own separate tradtions. |
| 10:15:11:22 | 10:15:29:09 | Voice over 13 | The salary is not enough to feed a family with many children. The Musars collect the rice that drops on the fields during the harvest and hunt rats that live under the fields for food. Therefore they are called the rat eaters. |
| 10:15:40:10 | 10:16:22:09 | Interview english | Our poverty and all those factors that inhibit development like discrimination, backwardness is due to three factors: Feudalism, capitalism and the most important one, fatalism, which means the belief that everything is predefined. We have to get rid of all of this. Education, politics and development should free the people of these three mindsets |
| 10:15:53:00 | 10:15:58:00 | Screen text | Kali Bahadur Rokaya – the Human Rights Commission of Nepal |
| 10:16:26:24 | 10:16:29:04 | subtitle | Give it to the guests!
|
| 10:16:30:22 | 10:16:33:07 |
| Shall we eat, too? – Give me some, too. |
| 10:16:34:15 | 10:16:36:07 |
| Do you want to eat the tail? |
| 10:16:36:18 | 10:16:40:14 |
| No, I don’t want the tail. |
| 10:16:44:13 | 10:16:47:06 |
| It should cook a little more. |
| 10:16:48:23 | 10:16:51:16 |
| Oh, bring the plate, quick! |
| 10:17:14:16 | 10:17:28:16 | Voice over 14 | Where do fatalism, feudalism and the huge inequalities in Nepal then derive from? Some say from Hinduism, that is claimed to justify caste discrimination. |
| 10:17:30:05 | 10:17:57:06 | Interview english | The Hindu varna system is based on purity and pollution, or pure and impure. The dalits are seen as polluted, that is also why they are not allowed to enter the temples |
| 10:17:42:00 | 10:17:48:00 | Screen text | Yam Bahadur Kisan – Dalit scholar |
| 10:17:59:06 | 10:18:05:00 | Voice over 15 | Musars have their own place of worship in the village. |
| 10:18:05:00 | 10:18:21:21 | subtitle | When we go to the temple, they don’t allow us to go in. |
| 10:18:09:07 | 10.18:14:00 | Screen text | Pashupati – Dalit priest |
| 10:18:13:15 | 10:18:16:13 | subtitle | We have to worship from outside. |
| 10:18:17:18 | 10:18:20:03 | subtitle | That is one reason why we feel bad. |
| 10:18:20:17 | 10:18:23:21 |
| They are Hindu, but we are Musar AND Hindu. |
| 10:18:24:15 | 10:18:29:12 |
| What have we done wrong for them to discriminate us? |
| 10:18:30:05 | 10:18: 35:02 |
| That’s what we think. |
| 10:18:45:01 | 10:19:00:22 | Voice over 16 | In Kalikot Hinduism has incured into disfavour after the Maoist uprising. Temples have been abandoned or even demolished. There was no use for them after the upper caste lost their lands and moved to the city.
|
| 10:19:01:11 | 10:10:04:22 | subtitle | In this place we had the temple of Dedhedu. |
| 10:19:03:00 | 10:19:08:00 | Screen text | Danbar Bishwakarma - Dalit |
| 10:19:05:18 | 10:19:13:15 | subtitle | And we were not allowed to enter the temple from this area onwards;- |
| 10:19:14:05 | 10:19:19:05 |
| If we are not able o worship to the idols that we ourselves made, then there is no point. |
| 10:19:19:22 | 10:19:26:24 |
| We came to understand this and stopped maintaining the place. |
| 10:19:51:04 | 10:19:58:06 |
| Hinduism in Nepal has dominated people of lower caste, ethnicity and religion. |
| 10:19:58:23 | 10:20:04:02 |
| Because of this we say that Nepal shouldn’t be a Hindu state. |
| 10:20:04:12 | 10:20:08:15 |
| People of all religions should be able to profess their own fate. |
| 10:20:09:00 | 10:20:09:00 |
| Personally speaking I don’t believe in any other religions but humanism. |
| 10:20:21:04 | 10:20:42:04 | Voice over 17 | As the Maoists and dalit activists eagerly blame Hinduism for societal inequalities, Hindu scholars disagree. Demodar Gautam who represents the Hindu community in Nepal’s interreligious Council, sees the caste system as a polticial rather than religious question. |
| 10:20:54:05 | 10:21:00:23 | subtitle | IN Hinduism our body has been divided into priests, rulers, mechants and servants, and NOT society. |
| 10:21:00:23 | 10:21:05:00 | Screen text | Demodar Gautam – Hindu priest and scholar |
| 10:21:1:13 | 10:21:10:08 | subtitle | Only later as society moved forward, feudalist tradition started. |
| 10:21:10:18 | 10:21:20:16 |
| Due to the feudalist tradition, the concept of one person being low caste and one high caste emerged. |
| 10:21:21:03 | 10:21:25:07 |
| The Maoists provoked the dalits to turn against the high caste. |
| 10:21:29:10 | 10:21:43:02 | Voice over 18 | Religion has recently become an important identity question in Nepal’s young republic. During the reign of the monarchy, hinduism was the State religion for centuries . |
| 10:21:43:02 | 10:21:46:03 | subtitle | We are Hindus, we need Hinduism. |
| 10:21:44:19 | 10:21:49:00 | Screen text | Ganga Rasbaba – Sadhu holy man |
| 10:21:46:17 | 10:21:51:10 | subtitle | We also need a king. A nation that doesn’t have a king, is that a nation? |
| 10:21:51:24 | 10:22:01:00 |
| In a Hindu nation we need everything: A king, Brahmin and dharma. |
| 10:22:06:01 | 10:22:13:01 |
| For Nepal to become a Hindu state is unique. |
| 10:22:14:13 | 10:22:23:17 |
| There are no other Hindu states in the world, therefore it would be a good thing |
| 10:22:16:14 | 10:22:21:00 |
| Demodar Gautam – Hindu priest and scholar |
| 10:22:26:00 | 10:22:31:17 |
| But that doesn’t mean that Hinduism will be imposed upon others |
| 10:22:23:00 | 10:22:40:15 |
| The meaning f Hinduism is not necessarily related to kingship. |
| 10:22:41:00 | 10:23:08:13 | Interview english | There are many people, for example the ethnic minorieties, who do not belong to the Hindu caste system, There are also other religious minorities, who don’t belong to it. Then there are the dalits, who are about 15-20 % of the population. Especially for the dalits and the ethnic communities it is a very important thing that Nepal is a secular state |
| 10:22:41:12 | 10:22:46:00 | Screen text | Kali Bahadur Rokaya – the Human Rights Commission of Nepal |
| 10:23:10:01 | 10:23:30:19 | Voice over 19 | But not even democracy can always guarantee the improvement of the status of the discriminated. The old caste system forces itself into politics and political parties. The only member of the dalit party in the Constituent Assembly regards the situation as hopeless for dalits. |
| 10:23:30:19 | 10:23:36:19 | Screen text | Biswendra Paswan – Dalit Janajati Party |
| 10:23:31:13 | 10:23:35:12 | subtitle | The power that should have come from the king to the people;- |
| 10:23:36:01 | 10:23:41:05 |
| Has gone to the Brahmins |
| 10:23:42:02 | 10:23:50:16 |
| It has gone to the hands of the high caste leaders in the name of multiparty politics. |
| 10:23:51:12 | 10:23:54:21 |
| We want a democracy for the people. |
| 10:23:55:09 | 10:24:00:00 |
| Until the dalit community will be able to experience democracy;- |
| 10:24:00:10 | 10:24:04:00 |
| There will be not really democracy in Nepal. |
| 10:24:12:16 | 10:24:29:15 | Voice over 20 | : When politicians and intellectuals hopelessly discuss religion and the future of the Nepalese democracy in the capital, in the country the dalits continue their lives as usual. In Jutepani the Musars are celebrating a wedding. |
| 10:24:37:12 | 10:24:43:21 | subtitle | The political situation is not good. |
| 10:24:44:05 | 10:24:51:06 |
| If this situation continues, and if there is no just political leader :- |
| 10:24:25:01 | 10:24:50:02 | Screen text | Bishnu Nepali – Samaritan Uplift Service |
| 10:24:52:00 | 10:24:58:24 | subtitle | And if the situation goes worse;- |
| 10:24:59:12 | 10:25:06:21 |
| Dalits and women and other disadvantaged will also not be able to get justice. |
| 10:25:42:03 | 10:25:45:07 |
| In case the structures of this country are changed;- |
| 10:25:45:20 | 10:25:50:17 |
| Then the people will be able to rule for themselves. |
| 10:25:51:08 | 10:25:57:09 |
| Then they will be able to accomplish what they have come to be aware of. |
| 10:25:57:20 | 10:26:02:10 |
| Things that they thought were impossible, there will be a basis for the change to materialise. |
| 10:26:07:24 | 10:26:11:04 |
| Look, your article on Kalikot has been published! |
| 10:26:11:16 | 10:26:15:17 |
| Oh, so it has been published! |
| 10:26:26:06 | 10.26.55.16 | Credits |
Sound: Marie-Cecile Embleton
Music: Antti Vuori
Voice over: Nathaniel Glasser
Fixer: Kirsti Kirjavainen
Translations: Enosh Rokaya, Hira Khadgi
Editing: Markku Karinko/ YLE
Graphics: Topi Kairenius
Directing & Production: Heidi Lipsanen
Produced by Moscas Productions Oy
in co-production with Eye Wittness/ YLE TV2 and The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission
2011 |
| 10:26:56:16 |
| THE END |
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