By Puru Subedi
What Comprises an Identity?
Who am I? What am I? What attributes define me? These are great questions one asks of oneself. Answering them to the self is critical to lead a normal and productive life. If you identify yourself as a strong person; you are bound to utilize your maximum strength to fight with your environment. If you identify yourself as a Nepali; you are bound to be interested in languages and cultures of Nepal. Also, if you express Nepali cultural properties, e.g. speak one of the Nepali languages and have a Nepali look, others will identify you as a Nepali.
Inaguration ceremony of School of Nepali languages and cultures in Denver, Colorado (Photo courtesy: INLS)
Inaguration ceremony of School of Nepali languages and cultures in Denver, Colorado (Photo courtesy: INLS)
Let’s explore more. Identity, in other words, is a sense of self that produces consistent behavior within a person. If I spoke Nepali once; that alone doesn’t become part of my identity. But if I consistently try to speak Nepali, even if I don’t know how, this is because of my identity as a person who is interested in speaking Nepali.
When others define our identity they might define by our name, age, sex, skin color, hair color, height and various interests at first sight. These primarily involve physical attributes used to distinguish oneself from others. For example, when someone says, “Nepalis are honest, hard working, and brave individuals”, he or she is stating shared identity of certain group of people, namely people of Nepali origin.
Simply put, there are two kinds of identities. 1.) Personal identity: attributes that define a person; and 2) Shared Identity: attributes that define a group of related people.
How do we preserve our identity?
It is easy to preserve personal identity. If one identifies himself as a hard working father, for example, he could consistently work hard and continue to be a father of his children he will have preserved this identity.
Preserving shared identity, however, requires higher level of thinking and organized activity. For example, let’s take Nepali identity. Question is: how do we Nepalis consistently be honest, hard working and brave individuals? If individuals of Nepali origin behave contrary to stated identity; we will have failed to preserve our shared identity. The only way to preserve such identity is to constantly remind ourselves of our true identity through Nepali literature, education, Nepali cultural cues and organised activities for the purpose.
If we are not able to preserve our culture and language and pass it on to our succeeding generations, it is certain that they will have identity problems. The communities around the world are becoming more and more diverse all the time. With increased amounts and varieties of information, people, and situations that our children will find themselves in, they must have a firm grasp of who they are and what their culture is. Without such a grasp of self and identity, their lives will be ruled by insecurity and fear. Therefore, it is essential that we work hard to keep our identity alive so that it can be transferred from generations to generations.
But, how could that be done?
First of all, since parents are recognized as the first and most important teachers of children, the educational process has to start from home. We have to speak with our children in our own language and teach them about our customs, traditions, family systems and values at home.
Second, the community has to establish a formal way to teach our language, literature and culture at various levels i.e. kindergarten, school as well as university so that children, youth and scholars can gain knowledge and possibly some of them will continue the educational process by teaching generations after them.
But with so many things to attend to most of the parents are not able to allocate time and resources efficiently so as to help their children become literate in our language and culture. Teaching language and culture becomes a low priority job for most of the parents as we try and stay afloat in the sea of daily responsibilities.
Do Nepali community associations help?
Yes. The good news is that International Nepali Literary Society (INLS), a Washington D.C.-based organization devoted to Nepali languages and literature launched a Worldwide Nepali Education Program about three years ago to promote, preserve and create awareness of Nepali languages and culture through out the world. The program has following major goals:
First School Graduation Ceremony in Washington DC (Photo courtesy: INLS)
First School Graduation Ceremony in Washington DC (Photo courtesy: INLS)
To setup Nepali languages and culture education projects at various communities worldwide. To facilitate obtaining High School language credit for Nepali as a second language. To work towards the establishment of Nepali languages and culture program at major Universities. INLS has been running a School of Languages and Cultures of Nepal in Washington D.C. as part of DC Nepali Education Project (DCNEP) under its Worldwide Nepali Education Program for the last three years. It has developed nine year curriculum that includes kindergarten, school and college level classes. Each class meets once a week for one hour during the academic year. The school offers Nepali language and dance classes for children and adults. Nineteen students graduated from the School with one year course of study in May, 2003 and about same number graduated in the year 2004 and 2005. 2005-06 academic year is starting from September 2005. A new team led by Mrs. Neeva Pradhan is overseeing the DC Nepali School starting this academic year.
To this date, INLS has transferred this successful DC Nepali School model to other Nepali Diaspora in North America and around the world in collaboration with local community organisations via INLS chapters and representatives. INLS Colorado Chapter, in collaboration with Rocky Mountain Friends of Nepal (RMFN), inaugurated School of Languages and Cultures of Nepal in Denver, CO and Boulder, CO in July, 2003. INLS Arizona-Nevada Chapter inaugurated School of Languages and Cultures of Nepal in Tucson, Arizona in July, 2004. INLS Texas Chapter in collaboration with Nepalese Society of Texas inaugurated School of Languages and Cultures of Nepal in February, 2004. INLS New Jersey Chapter inaugurated the School of Languages and Cultures of Nepal on December 2004. INLS representatives and chapters in New York, Pennsylvania, Australia, Japan and Russia are working on to replicate this model School in their respective communities.
Nepali Diaspora should be concerned about keeping Nepali identity alive and vibrant. Many Diaspora groups like Germans, Italians, East Europeans in the US have already lost their language and cultural heritages. We, Nepali diaspora, will have the same fate, if we don’t do something about it on time. For members of Nepali Diaspora, time has come to get involved in preserving languages and cultures of Nepal in their respective communities. Time for action is now.