Original subtitles

WEBVTT FILE

There was the first revolution where people got the king to have less power than before.

In 1990 what happened was a big peoples movement took place.

Its a thing that started way back then, and it start by stopping the king, the feudal system.

When the king stepped down the newly formed parliamentary system

was established.

And you have the cast system, hinduism is ruled by high and low cast.

Everything has been ruled by king family and high cast and people want to liberate themselves from that.

To put it simply.

I had to work from a young age.

I come from a poor family, we had nothing at home.

If we didn’t work, we would starve.

So I had to work.

My parents are also old, so it was important to work.

An organisation helped us once by giving us two goats.

They also told me I should study

but once I started studying the organisation stopped helping us.

How can I study now?

These problems exist, first of all, because of the form of government.

The government in Nepal is based on a feudal system.

And that means that rather than working for the good of all Nepalis

the government works only for a handful of elites.

So people in the rural areas are still oppressed by the feudal era political system.

That’s the main reason these problems exist.

Women make 80 rupees for a day’s work and men make 100 rupees (1 euro).

This money is for food, clothing, healthcare and our kids’ education.

How could this money be enough? It doesn’t last us at all.

The money I make in a day is only enough for that day.

And if I don’t work for a day, we won’t have anything.

Our lives depend on daily wages.

The relationship between marginalised groups and the Nepalese state

goes back several centuries.

Since the creation of the Nepalese state lots of ethnic groups

and certain caste groups such as Dalits

they have always been excluded from the economic

political and cultural life of the state.

And in fact those in power have defined what it means to be Nepali.

If you look at statistics now you will see that

an overwhelming majority of people wether in bureaucracy

executive, military, all state organs.

In fact even in non- government organisations

belong to high caste groups.

So you can see how the marginalisation have seeped into

every sphere of society. And its not just political.

Its economic, social, cultural.

Linguistic.

On every front.

- Does your family have enough to eat?

No, not at all. The lands are barren.

We manage somehow, sometimes we only eat rice gruel.

It's not enough to even feed ourselves.

The government gave us land, but it’s infertile.

It would be different if anything grew here.

But nothing does.

The lands we have only have sand and pebbles.

There’s nothing there. We can’t grow anything, not rice, not wheat, nothing.

We have worked as forced labourers for feudal lords with acres and acres of land.

Acres and acres of land.

When I try to understand the situation from what I read, heard and witnessed.

As a student, it brings tears to my eyes.

In the 21st century, when science and technology have made great progress.

Capitalism has flourished, people are getting richer and richer.

However, people’s living standards are getting worse.

People work 18 hours a day, still their situation is worse than an animal’s.

Despite their hard work they still don’t have enough to make ends meet.

They don’t have enough to feed themselves in spite of their hard work.

And that’s because a handful of people take advantage of their hard work.

The situation is dreadful.

All I want to say is that if we want peace

then everyone has to have freedom.

For instance, there's a high school here

but poor people can't afford to send their kids.

Only rich families can.

Education should be free.

Food have to be cheap and affordable.

Healthcare has to be free too.

And there should be hospitals and schools in all villages.

There has to be a free hospital and a high school

in every village. That's all we want.

90% of Nepalese people don’t have access to anything.

The situation is extremely difficult for that 90%.

The remaining 10% controls everything.

The state agencies, the economy, healthcare, education.

They´re in charge of everything.

As a result, majority of the population has to struggle to get basic resources.

What people want here is change, practical change.

You can not fool people like in the west, giving them some internet and some nice bullshit on TV.

And fill them up with that, or a nice car cause here we don't have roads you know.

So you better really deliver something to the people.

Talking about water, health, sanitation, school education.

This was never delivered and still not.

You cannot just pay in tax and never see any public implementations in your place.

And only the people on top eating up your money.

This is what has been happening all the time here.

So there is definitely a big cense

of people to struggle in order to get what they think they should have.

What belong to them, which is the land, the money they give, i mean...

The government exists from the people, but it has never given back to the people what it should.

It's the government's responsibility to handle everything within a nation.

But Nepal has been ruled by the monarchy for 238 years.

Nepal was ruled by the Rana Regime for 104 years.

By the autocratic Panchyat system for 30 years.

Followed by the restoration of multiparty democracy, which lasted for 15 years.

During all this time, authoritarian governments have forced their feudal rule on Nepal.

That is the biggest reason for the situation in rural areas.

There were two fundamental factors in the Maoist view.

And this is more broadly in the communist view

within the Nepali communist movement.

First what the Maoist said was, there is structural domination within nepalese society

were certain groups, both in terms of class and ethnicity or cast

have been oppressed for a very long period of time.

And their interpretation of the newfound parliamentary system was classically Marxist

in the cense that they said that; this is formal democracy.

It only allows upper cast elites to come to power.

And without social change, it wont be able to bring about any radical, social reform.

And so even if the form of the regime has changed.

It is still going to be a regressive, exploitative regime.

That was their primary criticism.

Their second criticism was that.

This constitution is establishing a democracy.

But left the monarch as a constitutional head of state.

This was in theory, but in practice the king still enjoyed a great deal of power over the army.

And so one of the Maoist arguments was that this is a sham democracy.

It is not even a real liberal democracy because the king still has ultimate power in this country.

The king is the ultimate symbol of feudalism, he is the head of the feudal system.

And without him gone, there can be no real democracy.

So, that was why, when the king stepped down and the new order was established,

they in principle rejected the new order.

But they tactically decided to stay in parliament for six years.

People protested peacefully on numerous occasions

but the government refused to give people their rights.

People fighting for their rights have continuously been killed since 1940.

Like the killing of Bhim Dutta Panta in 1951.

The killing of revolutionary fighters in Jugedi, Jutpani.

And similarly the Sukhani Murders.

The feudal government continued to kill people who raised their voices for justice.

Because it had the power.

Between 1992 and 1996

there were an increasing number of violent incidents.

Among Maoists and the administration in some of the Maoist core areas.

Like Rolpa and Roccum.

And that violence gradually intensified, and the Maoists secretly still continued

to expand their organisation.

And finally, in 1996, they decided to go underground and start an armed movement.

We believe in the saying: iron cuts iron.

Only guns can ensure victory over guns.

The People’s War began based on the Marxist idea

that we can't get freedom until we defeat a government that relies on arms.

It's also true that we can't win this fight through an unarmed struggle.

Essentially, we picked up arms to eventually get freedom from the weapons of the state.

Because we didn't have another option.

We tried taking the electoral path as well.

We went in the elections, we also went to the

Parliament building and spoke to the politicians.

But we realised that they weren’t going to be able

to solve the problems. We also presented our

40-point demand to the government.

But they failed to respond to it.

After that, we had no choice but to take up arms.

When your opponent engages in violence.

When the government engages in acts of violence against you.

You are forced to counter it with violence.

So it was because of this that we picked up arms.

It was the only way for us to establish a People's Government.

There were 40 demands that the Maoists submitted to the government

before going underground in 1996.

Broadly they were related to three things.

One against feudalism.

For nationality, which means a kind of autonomy against India.

And third is livelihood, meaning demands for social services to the people.

These fall into the main aspects of Maoist ideology.

But these demands encompassed a wide range of issues.

Including major land reform.

Which was supposed to end structural inequality in Nepalese society.

Or the abrogation of certain treaties that Nepal had signed with India.

Which had led to unequal relations and allowed India to dominate over Nepal.

So these were some examples.

But these forty demands were submitted as

demands to the government. The Maoists said

if you don't fulfil these demands, we will go underground and start a movement.

But actually, it was more like a manifesto because

these were not demands that the government could really fulfil.

It was more like a manifesto that they put forward before going underground.

Yea, they never expected that the government would do anything like that.

There was a lot of oppression in my village, especially oppression of women.

Men married two or three women, who had to do whatever the men asked.

Because of gender and class-based oppression, people in my village

had to endure a great deal of unfair treatment.

There was no development, no healthcare and no education.

Witnessing such oppression, inspired me to join the Maoist party.

Political leaders visited the village and told us about the party’s mission to free people from

oppression, poverty, and ensuring gender equality and development together.

That influenced me a lot and I joined the party.

After six years of this new government, after the first revolution started the

revolution of the farmers that maybe unfortunately called themselves Maoists.

Once again its only a name, you can say whatever you want.

People then decided to take things by themselves

and not only change the political top, or changing names of people on top.

They started to change their own village, and they started very Do It Yourself.

They started to change their own place. The rich feudal lords in the area

who come to suck them out, and who own the land, they don't let them

come back. They took over the land themselves by force and cultivated it.

To use it for them instead of giving the harvest to the rich people that

live in Kathmandu or in India. This started simply, practically, and it worked

so well that it spread all over the country. And you can call them Maoists, but we

call them farmers in arms.

The initial reaction was disbelief and mockery.

It had only been five or six years since the democratic system had been institutionalised.

Conventional wisdom was that the communists ideology was completely obsolete.

That these Maoists would go nowhere.

They had no external support, and most parties thought that they had no internal support.

And the prime minister at that time didn't even see it fit to actually properly respond to this.

It was thought that these people would disappear within a few months.

It was treated as a law and order problem.

They thought that the police would bring them under control

in a very short period of time.

This thinking it went on for about two or three years.

Where the government thought that this was a very minor issue

and could be very easily resolved.

Workers of the world unite!

The reason I joined the party?

I am from a village. When I was a student, the Maoists were involved in the People's War.

They were fighting for the entire nation and the freedom of the people.

For the oppressed, and for justice. To put an end to feudalism.

The party’s slogan about fighting for truth, justice and the people resonated with me.

If that could truly lead to the freedom of the people and help oppressed Nepalis

being involved in the war was the least I could do.

So I gave up my education and got involved.

The problems faced by Nepalis, like poverty, weren’t solved by the multiparty system.

The Maoist Party introduced new programs

and I joined hoping to achieve radical transformation.

My name is Uday Gharti Magar.

And I'm from this village.

Thabang.

Which is also known as

the epicentre of the people's war

that lasted for ten years.

When the people's war started i think i was

8 or 9 years old.

We were organised under children's organisation at that time.

Not only me but every child of my age.

At that time it was very good feeling, you know.

Going out of the village at night, being a part of the big movement.

It was bullets and some money that we used to range.

And whenever police came, they used to fire, aiming at us.

That was not a big problem because it was rifle at that time, so we could easily run away.

Like, climb up the ridge you know. Though we were not very big.

We were small children.

But at that time everyone was perfectly organised.

And they were very disciplined in a way.

Because i think, as i was, other people also were

proud of what they were doing.

It´s hard to even think about it now. It was extremely difficult.

In the beginning, we didn't know what the insurgency would entail.

We thought it would be like regular politics, so we started with the student union and

the women's union. But there was a lot of suppression from the state.

Especially for people involved in the Maoist party.

They were arrested and captured. Their property was seized by the state.

That drove us underground, so we could only go out during the night.

We could only go among the public at night and forgot what days were like.

For almost two years, we did all our work during the night.

If we had to do public work during the day, we had to be very vigilant.

And most of our work, such as training the villagers

and organising them, we did during the night, which was difficult.

Police and the army were always looking for us, and we had to be very vigilant.

But after two years, many villages started supporting us. So we could go to the villages

during the day and start working closely with the villagers.

As we grow up, we could also be senior student cadres.

If we leave school and go to farming, we could also become

farmers organisation members.

Later the students were going to YCL

that is Young Communist League member

and they were perfect to be PLA (Peoples Liberation Army).

So these stages were one after another

to refine, or in a way to prepare, or perfect the PLA.

These were the stages one had to undergo.

Like this everyone was organised.

We learnt many things. And exchange of experience and feelings

with people from far away. It also continued our

raising of our consciousness.

That's what I'm happy for.

How long do we have to bear this 16th-century government?

How long do we have to bear this 16th-century government?

All castes and classes that have been oppressed.

We have to ignite a fire of rebellion.

We have to ignite a fire of rebellion.

We urge villages we urge cities.

We urge villages we urge cities.

Let's start a wave of rebellion.

Let's put an end to the tyrannical rule.

Let's establish a democratic republic.

Let's establish a democratic republic.

Initially, when we talked about women's rights, women didn't want to hear about it.

Men didn’t like it either. So we devised methods to reach out to them

through songs, educational work and social activities.

That’s how we convinced women in the villages.

In my village, Rolpa, women didn’t even step out of their houses.

We organised cultural programs, a fair on the festival of Teej. Where initially no women

participated, now hundreds of women gathered on such occasions.

Some years later, women from the villages were inspired and joined.

Men too encouraged women to participate in the programs.

In the beginning, we convinced women by singing songs, dancing and working with them.

If a husband beat his wife, we told him that it was wrong

and that they could solve problems by talking.

If they did worse things, we used to bring the man among the villagers to solve the issue.

Two years ago, some men tried to rape a woman in our village.

It was someone from the Pahadi community or a Rana (higher caste).

Was it a landowner?

He wasn’t poor like us, so a landlord or a Rana. But people stopped it.

Earlier, there were even bigger landlords, and these men

kidnapped women in public and even from the women’s own homes.

Injustice was pervasive. Since the Maoists started working actively here, I've been very happy.

First, women hesitated when hearing about the army.

But then some of them joined and felt freed from oppression.

Then many women joined the PLA.

We raised awareness in the villages about gender oppression and

had discussions and trainings for the women.

Violence against women, polygamy and discrimination

of women was problems in the villages.

We raised these issues and incidents and they decided how to solve the problem.

Our work against oppression of women made more and more women join us.

Their numbers increased and they amounted to 40% of the People's Liberation Army.

At first they were just members in the party. But by the end, they had become

commanders and leaders. They showed tremendous progress.

It was only the Maoist party that had a program especially prioritising

women's freedom. Secondly, it was only the Maoist Party that was able

to raise women's political awareness. If you look at our political history,

though women were involved in political movements, it was only the Maoist party

that introduced a clear program meant for women. That's why we

and many other women became a part of the Maoist revolution.

Not all problems were solved when the Maoist Revolution started.

We want qualitative solutions to the problems.

The society 10 or 12 years ago was shaped by conservative, traditional

beliefs that suppressed women. But since the start of the People's War

revolutionary positive changes have been brought about for women.

The Maoist government introduced and successfully implemented

laws in favour of women’s rights. The laws that the Maoist government

made in different areas, be it anti-alcohol or against polygamy and child marriage

have truly empowered women today. Women who were oppressed in the past

have now become actively involved in politics and many of them are

working as commanders in the PLA. So the situation for women

compared to the way it was 11 years ago, has largely improved.

Like I said, not all problems have been solved. But it has

improved greatly from how it used to be. Women today have

become a lot more aware of their rights than they were in the past.

So many villagers that don't feel like they are in the country that is called Nepal.

Nepal, in papers you know

they say that is proud of having

so many ethnic groups, so many languages, diverse culture.

But in practice people are not allowed to practice their culture.

And promote their language, their literature.

That's why people wanted their history to be compensated, be repaired.

They wanted their autonomous states.

It didn't mean that they wanted it to be a separate state.

But they want their history to be preserved in their own state.

And their language to be promoted, their literature to be promoted.

Because Nepal has a history that during the Rana regime

people were not allowed to speak their own mother tongue.

And whoever spoke their tongues would be cut.

Their hands would be cut if they tried to write in their own mother tongue.

So was the situation at that time, the history tells us.

And the goal of the movement, the people's war

was to decentralise the state, that mechanism

so that people would be treated equally.

And that they would have the equal opportunity

to participate in the government or state or in mechanisms of state.

So that was the goal.

One of the Maoist innovations was that, very early on

even before the war started

their view of caste and ethnicity in Nepal was very different from the other Marxists.

Like all Marxists they thought that caste and ethnicity were secondary issues.

That class was the primary issue.

But they said that because oppression in Nepal

has largely occurred along lines of caste and ethnicity

there is a very strong correlation between a person's class

and his or her caste and ethnic group.

So one big reason why the Maoists spread so far so quickly

was because marginalised groups felt that here was a communist movement

that actually paid attention to their lived reality.

It was able to express, in words

what these people felt their problems were in real life.

What the Maoists also did was create a narrative

in which the oppression of all ethnic groups, or various ethnic groups

could be related to each other and brought together in a national way.

So I think that this was one reason why they were attractive

to many marginalised groups as well.

- What do you think about the Maoist movement?

What can I say about the movement?

I hope that if a Maoist government were formed, they would

bring us out of this land and give us better land elsewhere.

We could earn some from our labour and grow some crops on our own land.

Until now, neither the Maoist party nor king Gyanendra have done anything good.

If we support the government, the Maoist party will torture us.

And if we support the Maoist party, the government will shoot us.

Either side will kill us. We have many problems.

But what can we bonded labourers do?

- What do you think about the Maoists?

Ever since the Maoist party's revolution started

the situation has been good for us.

I like the message they are spreading among the people.

They've said that they are trying to lead

the government because it's our freedom and our country.

They are fighting for people and not for their own interests.

If we do indeed get freedom

it will be easier for everyone.

No one will suffer financially, no one will have to starve to death.

Even if someone doesn't own land.

The Maoists have said they will manage the lands too.

I hope people won't have to suffer.

I hope they will manage everything accordingly.

The thing is that the country is at war and when you are in a village here

normally it's very peaceful.

And each valley here since the beginning when Nepal existed.

Each little valley has its own little system, working very well at a small scale.

And very, I would say, anarcho- communist type of system.

Without them giving it the name.

It's the way it has been happening.

So Nepal is very peaceful and very anarchic in the good sense of the word.

And very socialist, without knowing it themselves.

Now people have been trying to voice that and to make it clear.

And it led to a war.

So now when you go into a village it's not as peaceful as ten fifteen years ago.

And people are a bit tense because police are coming there, shooting there, raping there.

Your neighbour can give you to the authority, or to the other authority, both sides, anytime.

Lot of spying nobody trust nobody.

So the situation is pretty tense.

And the farmers, the revolutionaries

are trying to implement a lot of reform.

Mainly for the agriculture, irrigation.

Trying to have formation at the local level of teachers.

And of health workers, medical doctors because it's a thing that has never been done.

Everything has always been centralised here.

So the main idea of the revolution is to decentralize all these things.

But you understand that in times of war it's very difficult

to start to train 50 health workers, 50 nurses.

Because you have the helicopter coming and bombing the place.

Even if you have a red cross on the building it will be bombed.

So the reality is not as nice as it should be.

And Maoists often say that they are very sorry to the people.

That now it's wartime and they can't implement whatever they want.

But things changed over a period of time.

Within five years, by 2000 or 2001

it had become clear that the Maoists had actually spread very far.

They had taken control of a very large section of the countryside.

There were actually districts where

the Maoists were treated as the legitimate government.

Rather than the real government.

In 2001 the police had evacuated from almost all of the countryside.

Because of Maoist attacks.

And there was a great degree of chock.

Well, the economic condition hasn’t improved drastically.

That’s because we're still in war, and we can’t expect for things

to change all at once. Farmers, although have been

freed from oppression, still have to face economic problems.

These problems can only be solved when a stable,

competent government will be formed in the country and

when that government will focus on solving problems

faced by the farmers. That didn’t happen at all in the past

and we demand that it happen now.

Well, when it comes to farmers, there are women farmers too in the villages, right?

So, like I said, the changes that have been made in the situation of the women

the entire rural Nepal has also gone through the same kind of transformation.

The village society has been entirely rid of the flaws of the past.

The rule of dishonest people and elites oppressing and exploiting

people in the villages has stopped.

The situation was grim previously.

Farmers with little education was tricked by feudal lords to take their lands.

They also made the farmers pay unfair amounts of interest.

Now many farmers have been freed from such injustice and oppression.

That's the reason farmers got involved in the Maoist party and in the People's War.

The name speaks for itself

it’s a People's War. For the people, along with the people.

People are fighting in this People's War. Because it was people themselves

that were involved in the war, they have played a crucial role in getting freedom.

And many farmers have been freed from the oppression of the past.

I think that’s the reason, and the world has also accepted this

that the Maoist party has captured 80 % of Nepal’s territory.

If the Maoist government had failed to address the problems faced by farmers

by women and other genders, ethnicities, and various regions, they would not have

been able to solely govern over 80 % of the territory.

The party addressed these things properly and that’s the reason people

have also approved of them. The farmers have been making progress.

During our movement to establish a federal republic, we felt that the

impact of the Maoist revolution has been growing in the urban areas too.

We are alerting you! Don´t try and force us to leave.

It is our duty to stop you because there is a curfew.

And it is our duty to go ahead and break the curfew.

You have crossed the ring road and broken the curfew, but we have let you.

If you police move to the other side we stay on this side and will not cross you.

Thousands of people are being injured, innocent people are being shot and

lots of people have become sick after being exposed to teargas.

But in this country the person who calls himself king doesn't feel anything or it

doesn't have any impact on him. If the person called king does not feel

the problems of the people he does not have the right to call himself king.

This time the people are coming into the streets to get freedom forever

without thinking about negotiating with the king.

This time we are fighting not only with the king but also with his regime and

the whole monarchy system.

Within a short period of time there will be some sort of change.

There must be! Because the king alone can not keep

this type of huge mass alone. He can not control...

This is beyond the control of the king as well as the political leaders.

Everywhere there is democratic speech.

The rule of king 'Gyaane' is now gone.

There were two ways in which the Maoist

received their early education.

One was through propaganda material sent by the Chinese state to Nepal.

Secondly it was through translations of communist literature.

Which came through India, these were books and magazines translated into Hindi.

And because of Nepals proximity to India the relationship with the Indian communists

was much deeper than the relationship with the Chinese communists.

In the 80s most of Nepals communists decided to adopt a more

a line which they thought was more in consistence with a modern world.

They thought that they needed to participate in democracy

that the soviet system was falling apart

that the old style communist system would not work.

They came to the cities to organise, they were trying to build

their organisation to increase its size.

But in the 80s the Maoists they rejected all these ideas.

They rejected all the new ideas about political reform

Their strategy was still Maoist

meaning they wanted to launch an armed struggle.

Right now there is a curfew even though people are on the road.

Despite of the curfew announced by the government.

And they have no fear. They are not scared of the curfew.

Only their demand is restoration of democracy.

And people should be in power.

They focused, rather than expanding their organisation

and going out to the masses

they focused in a very Leninist kind of a way

on creating a small nucleus, of devoted revolutionaries.

And getting arms and preparing themselves for a long armed struggle.

Of course in 1990 what happened was a big peoples movement took place.

And they were taken unawares, to a certain extent.

So they said that even if we do not support a parliamentary order

we need to participate in this fight against the king.

And they participated in the first peoples movement against the king in 1990.

And they distinguished themselves from the other political parties

in a number of ways, one was their members was much more militant.

Than those of other parties.

And their political demands were more radical than that of the other parties

Not only in Kathmandu, in the capital, but all over Nepal people are united.

More and more they are gathering against the monarchy.

If it doesn't give democracy we will go through Maoists.

Then we carry here public democracy, ok?

In the beginning when the Maoist started their peoples war, 1996.

They made a 20 point demand to the government.

Unless its fulfilled they will continue the armed struggle.

And in this point there was lot of hard core communist things.

It can come to taxing the rich people, not taxing the poor.

There were many things.

And through all their struggle they have understood that now

They are not going to be able to get rid of the king, like the french did in 1789.

Because now you have missiles, you have rocket launcher.

And people just don't walk up on the capital.

They can kill the whole population here with a single bomb.

Which was not here 200 years ago.

And this the Maoist have been saying.

That they have to adapt the revolution to the time.

And i think within the Maoist party, contrary to what a lot of people say

there is enough open discussion, that they are ready also to change their opinion.

Or to polish a little bit their angle.

And thats what has happened. I think a few years ago

they have said openly that they are ok to settle their armed struggle.

To stop the arm, even all their demand are not fulfilled, but at least

there should be republic.

And they believe that people want a republic. And everybody knows because

nobody wants a king.

So of course anyways, the country is going to a republic.

But even the Maoist have said, we will lay down the arms

even before there is a republic, when there will be a vote

to the people to ask if they want a republic.

We are ok just even if we go for election

of a constituent assembly which will make a new constitution.

Meaning whether there is republic or not we are ok to lay down the arms.

But we want the real voice o the people.

And thats why they could manage to compromise and to talk to the main political parties.

Who have been until recently put in jail and beaten up by the king.

Who has taken full power.

So they have common enemy of the king.

Where actually the Maoists started against these parties.

With the king only on the side.

So now they found a common enemy which is the king.

People's power!

Long live!

People's power!

Long live!

People's power!

Long live!

People's power!

Long live!

I want to say that the protest should go on.

And the constitutional assembly should be conducted.

And peace will come in Nepal, unless it is not possible.

From the last 50 years experience

when the king gets the opportunity he always attack democracy.

That is why people have come to the conclusion that

king is not necessary for democracy.

Thats why if democracy is to be developed in Nepal

the king should be removed.

Now you can see people are united everywhere, people are gathering everywhere.

Almost in every part of the country, not only here.

Almost everywhere the people are fighting against

autocratic monarchy.

First it was organised by seven party alliance and Maoist.

But right now it is handled by almost all the people of Nepal.

It is not in the hands of political parties, it is not only in the hands of Maoist.

It is being handled by almost all the Nepalese people.

We are actively participating in the movement.

Because the power of people

is greater than the power of monarchy.

Its not optimum that they want to get rid of the king because its a common enemy.

But as we see for a lot of population it is always important moving ahead

they need an enemy to do so.

Thats not very anarchic but thats the way it is.

Because of this understanding they are ok to merge into the mainstream.

Become a political party.

If it is sure that there is a coming election for a constituent assembly.

Meaning making a new constitution.

And they are convinced it will lead to a republic.

And now recently when we saw all the peoples movement

and the king ordering with the chief of army to shoot at the people

there is actually no chance that people if they vote

will not vote for republic. Everybody now wants a republic.

The king he is already in the past.

I think the Maoist rebellion

it uncovered many issues

about Nepali society which had laid dormant in the past.

Specially issues relating to inequality and structural violence.

Which were papered over in earlier narratives

that were dominant politically.

The Maoist brought them to light.

So i think that the ten years of the Maoist rebellion

was a very major churning, both social and political churning

in nepalese society.

The police are beating the people. But the king doesn't care.

The king just want to spray perfume on his fancy clothes.

The king only wants to hear about peace spreading in the country.

But we just want hear about him leaving this regime waiting for the days to his funeral procession.

God Phasmpatis death should come soon to the king.

All the royal family members has to go to the cemetery.

And the crown has to come into the hands of the people.

Your eyes are like an owl and we are waiting for the king's funeral procession.

This is plastic, rubber bullet.

Before i went to my friend, they shoot, directly shoot.

Police yes.

Of course I was here and I was running.

I was running away from here because the policeman was running behind us

they were chasing us, thats why we were running away from here.

And I didn't see the scene here.

The bloodshed scene I couldn't see that because I was running this way.

According to the people who were here three people were dead here on this spot.

And some of the people who were killed here they were not identified

and their bodies were taken by police.

Hundreds of people were injured here badly

and they were taken to hospital by the volunteers walking here.

Helicopter were flying in the sky. As soon as the helicopter came

towards the direction, police started firing

to the protesters, without giving them warning.

So it was all of a sudden.

The police fired first.

The demonstrators, they had nothing. Just flags and something else in their hands.

They ran away and som of them who was standing in front was shot dead.

So you can see clearly police is beating people, specially innocent people.

More than a dozen people have been killed here, innocent people have been killed here.

I got to know that some people are taken by police, dead bodies are not given to family members.

So it seems that it is quite tyrannical.

It is going towards a tyrannical state because the police is not responding well to other people.

There is a police man living here.

Up till now in the movement more than 12 people have been killed

by the security forces.

Yesterday while people are in peaceful demonstration the government, the police

use excessive force, used indiscriminately firing, baton charge, teargas

and 3 people have been killed.

The movement have declared them to be martyrs of this movement.

More than 200, near 300 people have been injured.

They are seriously inured, they are in hospital now.

Who will feed me, who cares about my stomach? Who will care for my child, do you people do?

Government has given you the duty but who cares for our children?

We cant bear this empty stomach, for how long time do we have to bear it?

Do you know why people are throwing stones at you?

Because you have violently beaten children and women.

You have taught the people to throw stones at you, they haven't taught themselves.

If you want a real democracy, and if you see your family being shot

or your daughter being raped in front of you, it becomes self defence.

That's exactly how the Maoists started.

This is what makes us angry about the middle class and the upper middle class

living in Kathmandu, a lot of the intellectuals, the ones that

run magazines and news papers and are very political intellectuals

and are very against the king. But at the same time

they are against the violent Maoists.

Now you know, the Maoists didn't just spring from nowhere

they didn't come down from the sky with masks on with guns.

They took up the arms because they saw their own children being massacred.

And the middle classes here they live in huge walled compounds.

They have a name for themselves, so when they go to jail they go to jail

for seven days. They will never disappear or be lost because they have a name

for themselves and international media will be watching them.

Because they have a name for themselves.

Foo Maya Gurung in a village up there is gonna get raped by 12 soldiers

by a platoon.

No one knows her, nobody gives a shit, she gets shot in the head.

Whats her family going to do? Do a peaceful march?

This issue of peaceful protests.

This is so educated middle class bullshit.

This is Gungabo Chowk is changed into...

Gungabo Chowk is changed into Republic Chowk.

Republic Intersection.

You changed the name?

Yes, we changed, not me changed, all nepalese people changed the name.

First Republic Chowk.

Republic Nepal.

So after 2003 the official Maoist ideology was that, we need to get rid of the king first.

And we need to have elections to an elected constituent assembly.

And we need to allow a greater democracy than existed in the past.

At the same time, many Maoists thought that the first step

would be get rid of the king and hold elections to a constituent assembly.

And then after that, as a second step, they would have to get rid of

the parliamentary system and then establish a one party state.

But they were never able to go that far.

After 2006 the king was removed, they entered parliamentary politics

and the dominant faction adopted itself to the parliamentary system.

the faction that was always more in favour of democracy adopted itself

to the parliamentary system.

And the faction that was more Stalinist in nature

it quit the party and formed a splinter group.

And they continue to this day to say that another revolution is necessary

in Nepal.

And in the 2008 election they won a plurality of votes

and they emerged as the largest party.

And they formed a coalition government and the Maoist chairman

became prime minister.

So this was completely unexpected for the other parliamentary parties

and the whole organ of the state. Because they felt that once

the Maoist would entered the parliamentary system it would be

very easy to co-opt them into the system, to weaken them.

And turn them into a regular parliamentary party.

But because they were so aggressive and they expanded so fast

there was a very deep fear that emerged among the status quo parties

and the status quo segments of society.

And soon after they all banded together against the Maoists.

So all the powerful bodies, the main parliamentary parties, the Nepali congress

the CPN-UML, the army, the elite business interests in Nepal and the Indian government

They all decided that they need to counter the Maoists and bring them down.

And because it was a coalition government, and the Maoists didn't have a majority

their government was brought down in 2009.

What happened was, to put it simply

the other political parties and India and the army

decided that they needed to tire the Maoist out.

Refuse to give them anything.

Refuse to let them return to government.

And destroy their party basically.

And on the other hand what happened was

because they were already coming to the mainstream.

They developed a taste for the good life lets say.

Prachanda, the Maoist chairman, started to become very corrupt.

They took over many businesses.

Senior Maoist leaders were known to be dealing in property.

And they lost touch with their grass rots rank and file.

And as a result in their last elections they did very poorly.

And they emerged as a very small force in the current parliament.

So due to these tendencies

in recent years the Maoists have been significantly weakened.

The party changed in a way we did not expect.

Personal interests grew and took hold of the party.

We always spoke of how the party was for the public, for everyone.

But people’s personal agendas took hold of the party.

And all the work we had done during the People’s War

it became difficult to make them institutional.

The party split into several factions, and it couldn’t achieve all that it had set out to.

Any political party, be it Maoist or any other

is a powerful body in the state mechanism.

So a party needs to free itself from personal needs and interests.

When party members are selfish about fulfilling their own goals and not the party’s,

not much can be achieved. A party might have its own interests

or party members can have their own interests to fulfil.

But the most important interests to bear in mind

are those of the people’s, nation’s, and of different communities.

In lack of that, no society, nation can prosper and grow.

That was the reason the People’s Revolution started in the first place.

People in powerful positions taking advantage of it at the expense of other people.

And it’s the ordinary Nepali citizens that have to struggle.

But everyone, including me, has to rise above their own interests.

Well…what can I say?

If I had too thought of my own good, things would’ve been much different for me.

I would probably be much richer now.

I would probably have my very own mansion.

But I live in a small flat, which I share with my two brothers.

If we look at the situation from the public’s perspective.

From the whole nation’s point of view.

I think the situation has declined a little.

But whatever changes has been brought about

it is the result of the Maoist party’s efforts.

And I think everyone has acknowledged it too.

But the sense of accountability in fulfilling the responsibilities, has surely declined

and that has led to problems.

Some of their demands were fulfilled.

For example, the monarchy was abolished.

I think that is probably the greatest contribution that the Maoist made

to Nepali history.

Elections to a constitutional assembly were held.

From 1990 onwards the Maoist had always said that we need a constitution

drafted by elected representatives.

And because of that demand and because of their movement

Nepal eventually elected leaders to a constituent assembly.

To a large extent because of the Maoist movement

the agenda of marginalised groups, of Dalits, of Janjatis, Madhesis.

It became mainstream, it became part of the mainstream political debate.

And to a large extent because of the Maoist movement

the state was forced to adopt the agenda of federalism.

It was not only because of the Maoists, but because of

the Maoist movement and the Madhesi movement combined.

The state was forced to accept that the centralised state had to end

and we need to create federal provinces where power would be devolved.

So these are the accomplishments by the Maoist movement i think.

What they could not accomplish was...

Soon after 2006, they lost their focus on class.

Because the existing system was such that it could not countenance

any significant reform of the state structure.

So there was no reform of the army, the army remained as it was.

The Maoist wanted a major restructuring of the army

to make it more inclusive and representative of diverse groups.

There was no land reform or any other redistributive policy.

Because that was completely blocked by the other parties

and the Maoists also lost interest in that over a period of time.

And more recently i think that

even though federalism was adopted by the new constitution.

The Maoist were in to weak a position to actually fight hard

for the many marginalised groups.

So as a result Madhesi groups and Janjati groups

are still not happy with the form that federalism has given.

Though the new form of federalism

while it represents a progress on what existed in the past.

It still will continue the domination of historically dominant groups.

And won't fully allow marginalised groups to exercise their rights.

From the beginning of the insurgency and finally up to the Peace Process

what we had done during that time was

we had raised awareness about freedom from oppression

and people getting equal rights.

I am sure everyone felt it then.

Firstly, there was awareness about various issues.

From gender equality and women’s rights.

Proportional representation of indigenous peoples in the government

and right to basic needs and life of those living in poverty.

The Maoist movement and the people’s war helped raise awareness

about these things, and i believe this to be the biggest change.

Nepali society has changed a lot, both politically

and in terms of consciousness. There’s no denying that.

There’ve been positive political changes, in the state mechanism

and in consciousness too. Huge changes in these areas.

The state has to treat all its citizens equally.

But there are bigger conflicts. In many countries including Nepal

people have to struggle for access to basic needs.

There’s a disparity between haves and have-nots.

The upper class are really rich, billionaires even.

And the lower class doesn’t even have enough to make ends meet.

See i mean, insurgency has of course created lots of challenges.

We lived our lives dying every day.

Sometime without dignity, without equality, without justice.

Sometimes it was absence of rule of law.

But it has also created a lot of opportunity.

Specially after the peace process started.

Because insurgency not only challenged the political system

but it also challenged the discrimination, inequality

poverty, exclusion.

And they also attracted lots of marginalised and minorities voices.

And for women i would also like to mention

they also challenged the notion that women are weak.

They are biologically weak. They can not fit in the army as a combatant.

Because 40% of women were militia at that time.

So it has also challenged the stereotype and traditional role of women.

And also created opportunity during the peace negotiating process.

Because they had created an environment to make a constitution

through the new constitution.

And the benchmark they made is even in the interim constitution.

Maoist give 40% of seats to women in the interim parliament.

As a indicator of their contribution as an insurgent.

And i think this opportunity has been created

for renegotiating our right.

But that doesn't mean, yes i mean insurgency was one component.

But the way democratisation was started in this country.

The way people become educated and aware.

When you are exposed with the world.

With the knowledge, with the skills.

Then it also creates another opportunity.

So many things has come together and its not again

like people say, oh you people you just talk about western values.

Its not that.

Its our own realisation.

Our own internalisation of issue because we understand

what implication the present patriarchal system

has affected on women.

Why there is a huge disparity between men and women even now.

Wether in politics, wether in decision making.

Wether in education, wether in employment.

In health. Why huge disparity?

Why is women still dying in this country?

Why hundreds of women have maternal deaths?

Why hundreds of women are sexually abused or trafficked?

And is still confronting with the justice system.

We have a problem.

We have a problem with the discriminatory law.

We have a problem with the weak law.

We have also problem with the laws based on a protectionist approach.

Which is limiting our rights in the name of protection.

Because no place is safe for women. Neither home, nor workplace.

Nor street, not only in the foreign country.

So we need to create an enabling environment where women

are able to say no.

Where women feel safe inside the house.

At workplace, in the street.

So we have a opportunity to renegotiate our claim.

Our entitlement through the new constitution making process.

Through the political changes.

The people here, they still are hoping that something will happen.

They can make it happen.

Because they know what the dream was

at the beginning of the peoples war.

It didn't happen.

People didn't get anything.

Just a few people, a handful of the leaders.

Who turned out to be the most corrupt in the nation.

They got something.

In return of so many warriors.

So many peoples liberation army, so many cadres of the party.

Who died during the wartime.

But people who were called to participate in the movement

they didn't get anything. And there was

physically not so much change.

Though their level of consciousness, their level of understanding

was quite good.

But still we remember the glorious days of our movement.

So every year we gather here, the people from neighbouring villages

also gather here and we tell each other

the dreams we dreamt every time will happen one day.

And still people are not giving up.

And i think they will just come together.

to fight against the corruption

and the state that is always oppressive to them.

Are you from Sweden or Switzerland?

Please let the people in Sweden know that

Nepali citizens are not terrorists

that they're fighting for their rights.

And they are fighting with Marxism-Leninism-

Maoism-Prachandapath as their weapon.

And you too, rather than bearing the

expenses of your monarchy, we encourage you

to follow the right ideology and fight.

It will be a difficult fight but it won't be impossible.

Nepali people believe that you will win.

And we hope that, like Nepali people

the citizens of Sweden will support our movement too.

Thats all.