| Bhunte |
Posted
on 13-Jul-03 04:44 PM
Very sad that MC's meritorious contributions were, unfortunately, never recognised by the state....Read below:
Mahesh Chandra Regmi, Nepals quiet crusader calls it a day
By Ameet Dhakal
KATHMANDU, July 10 : Economic historian Mahesh Chandra Regmi passed away this morning, leaving behind his immense corpus of serious inquires that will keep him alive well into the future.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award winner mostly operated quietly inside his one-room office, away from publicity, and carried out his research works for more than four decades. Fittingly enough, death came to him quietly at one in the morning, and only a few relatives and family friends attended his funeral. Regmi is survived by his wife, four sons and a daughter.
If, as they say, the goal of all life is death, Regmi pursued that goal to the end. However, until only a week ago, frail as he was, Regmi was insisting on completing his 15th book, not realising that he would soon lose his fight against Parkinsons disease. In fact, he never gave in to the disease that has no medical cure yet. He fell in 1999 and his hip joint dislocated, and had been wheel-chair-bound since then. But even after the accident, he wrote a 314-page-long tome, Nepal: A Historical Miscellany.
He left another incomplete bookand the only book he was writing in Nepali languageas he passed away.
Regmi did pioneering research, mainly in the areas of land tenure and taxation. "He tried to analyse the evolution of Nepali society through research into landholding and taxation," said Dr. Prayag Raj Sharma, a historian and close friend. Before his seminal works, history in Nepal had been analysed only through the political lens and written only from the perspective of kings and their reigns. It was Regmi who chose to write the history of the people and their economic and social sufferings, said Sharma.
Born to a family of musicians in 1929, Regmi, however, found rhythm in books. He was a candidate for the then Matriculation Examinations at the tender age of 10 and, as expected, failed in his first attempt. As luck would have it, he stood board second in his second endeavour. After obtaining BA honours from Patna, India, he briefly tried his luck in business of books and textiles in Calcutta.
Regmi came back to Nepal in the early 1950s and joined the government as a deputy director at the Department of Industry, only to be unceremoniously dismissed shortly thereafter. He vowed not take up any jobprivate or public.
A major turning point came to the life of this pioneering researcher in 1957 when Frank J Moore, an American researcher, asked him to translate a book, Nepalko Audhyogig Sambhabana (Industrial Potential of Nepal). Impressed with his work, Moore asked him to work for USAID in the area of research. Instead, he opted to publish Nepal Press Digest independently that covered analysis of the governments decisions, changes in political and economic scenarios and Nepals foreign relations. His works gained instant popularity in the West. The University of California at Berkeley, USA, offered funding for his research projects.
He decided to research in the area of landholding and taxation since it was a virgin area.
In between 1963 and 1968, he produced four series. Then came the Regmi Research Series for the next 20 years.
Many historians, national and foreign, have done researches in Nepal. But it is only in Regmis works that you will find stunning revelations. Such as the late Prithvi Narayan Shah used to get only one-fourth of a rupee for his pocket money. Or, the royal proclamation of 1840 asked the people to drink water only after boiling to kill the bacteria in itthat was long before Louis Pasteaur had researched water-borne diseases.
A major recognition to his works came in 1977 when he received Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed Asias Nobel Prize..
He, however, didnt work day and night to earn all this honour. In fact, he had a unique working habit. He would begin his working day exactly at 10: 30 in the morning and work upto four in the evening. "He never worked more or less than that," says Rabish Chandra Regmi, his younger brother who assisted him in his research works and personal life for more than 18 years. He used to take a walk of an hour and a half every morning and evening.
His meritorious contributions were, unfortunately, never recognised by the state. Regmi was never conferred with any medals, nor received any awards, prizes or state honours. This itself sounds embarrassing, given the fact that the state habitually confers hundreds of people with medals for their "noble works" every year.
Neither do Nepalis seem to have learnt from Regmis research findings to change our feudal land system. Perhaps Hegel, the German philosopher, was right when he wrote, "What experience and history teach us is that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it." In that case, Regmis anticipated era of human, social, political and economic equity is yet to begin in Nepal.
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