“Nepal is blessed with conflicts,” says Shaubhgya Shah.
We meet the Harvard-educated professor at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. From here he heads a university program aimed at changing Nepal’s turbulent past for a better future. For while Nepal has had more than its share of war and suffering, there has been a distinct lack of research and expertise related to conflict management and solution-oriented policies in the country. This is what Shah aims do something about:
“When Nepal was in the midst of an armed conflict with the Maoist rebellion our university still didn’t have a program that would allow Nepalese to develop their own research capacity, examine and research the conflict, and offer solutions to the policymakers. We are now hoping to offer very rational and sound alternatives to how conflicts in this country might be resolved,” he says.
New challenges ahead
The Master’s degree programme is run in cooperation with Sri Lanka's Eastern University and the University of Ruhuna, and the University of Life Sciences in Norway. It brings together students from both Sri Lanka and Nepal, who get valuable international experience by carrying out research in conflict theatres in both Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Qualified manpower and expertise related to conflict management is urgently needed in both countries. In Sri Lanka the Tamil Tigers may have been defeated militarily, but a climate of fear prevails, and it will take years to heal the wounds and bring lasting peace to a bleeding nation. In Nepal the Maoist uprising, which between 1996 and 2006 cost thousands of people their lives, may be over, but the political situation is far from stable.
EMERGING CONFLICTS | New conflicts are emerging in Nepal. The capital Kathmandu is frequently locked down by strikes and sometimes violent demonstrations.
URGENT NEED | Professor Shaubhgya Shah says expertise and manpower related to conflict management is urgently needed in Nepal.
New and potentially just as threatening issues have emerged. The entire political system has been revolutionised. From being a monarchy Nepal is now a federal republic, and there are numerous challenges ahead. Shah explains that new conflicts, based on everything from ethnicity to religion and economy are emerging and threatening the fragile peace in the country.
“It’s going to be very complex to resolve the new issues that have emerged in the last two or three years after the Maoists came into the mainstream. Other issues have come up, other actors, with other demands. This could become just as serious as the Maoist insurgency before 2006,” he says.
Caught in the middle
Many of the 50 students admitted to the programme have first-hand experience of the previous conflict. 27-year-old Kalpit Parajuli, a journalist, recalls when he was caught in the middle of a battle between the Nepalese Army and the Maoists with only a camera and his press card to protect himself.
“I was talking to both parties on the phone when the gunfight started. I was really trapped with bullets passing everywhere. It was so terrifying that I thought I would
WISHING TO CONTRIBUTE | Manorama Sunuwar and Kalpit Parajuli are two students enrolled in the programme. They believe this education will help them to contribute to peace and stability in Nepal.
lose my life. So I was really thinking about the value of life. That we shouldn’t use our precious lives to kill each other, but rather go through dialogue, peaceful means and negotiations,” he says.
Parajuli is hoping the Master’s Degree will enable him to do just that.
“I will use this education to its maximum extent in peace-building throughout the world. I will really implement my knowledge to settle peace and bring peace and harmony,” he says.
Vigorous selection
Shaubhgya Shah maintains that the students enrolled in the programme have been carefully selected.
“We have a good mix of fresh students and students who also have experience in the field. The selection process is very vigorous.
We only get qualified and serious students, so when they come to class they are ready for this academic journey. They are open to all possibilities in terms of the material and the ideas they are exposed to by various professors,” he says.
The selection of academic staff is equally selective, compromising specialists from every field and political background.
“We make no partisan decisions here. They are recruited on the basis of their expertise on the particular themes we have to teach. One of our lecturers is for example a Maoist member of parliament,” he says.
FROM FIGHTING TO TEACHING | The retired general Bala Nanda Sharma is one of the lecturers in the programme. He believes his experience from war can teach the students the value of peace.
Bala Nanda Sharma, a retired general from the Nepalese army, is another lecturer. Sharma says he is enjoying his retirement years focusing on the prospects for peace rather than the art of war.
“I was involved, the Maoists killed our soldiers, and we killed; but ultimately we were both Nepalese, coming from the same family, same background and the same village. One day we were in two different camps, and for political reasons we had to go to war. It was very unwise,” he says.
He believes his first-hand experience from both the civil war and his participation in several United Nations peace-keeping missions has enabled him to give the students valuable insight into what conflict really is about. He also believes discipline is what is most needed to avoid another major crisis in Nepal.
“The value system in this country has eroded. From a kingdom we became a republic, the old order has been dismantled, and a new order has not been created, so if we are not disciplined in this vacuum, the tendency is that we will move towards anarchy,” he says.
Field-based research
CAREFUL SELECTION | The students attending the programme are carefully selected. “We only get qualified and serious students,” says Shaubhgya Shah.
According to Shaubhgya Shah,what is taught in the classroom is not necessarily the most important aspect of this degree. A major part of the programme is comprised of field-based research, where students get first-hand experience of emerging conflicts at grassroots level.
“Our program is theoretically vigorous but also very practical in terms of understanding and analyzing conflict dynamics. Field research is a major emphasis. We need to develop the student’s capacity to go to any area and examine conflict dynamics, whether they are economic, political, ethnic or religious,” he says.
For Manorama Sunuwar, another student in the programme, nothing could be better. Her background from Save the Children has already given her valuable experience, but she believes her degree will enable her to contribute further to society.
Strengthening the rights of vulnerable ethnic groups in the country is her main point of interest.
“This programme has given me a great opportunity to work with ethnic groups and find solutions to problems and issues facing them,” she says.