Himal at 25

Himal’s prototype (Vol 0 No 0) was published in May 1987. This present issue is the magazine’s 25th. A political scientist from the Jawaharlal Nehru University looks back and reviews the effort.

How should one go about climbing a mountain? I found this useful tip in Voices, Himal Nov/Dec 1992, excerpted from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

“…You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you´re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn´t just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway .To live only for some future goat is shallow. It´s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here´s where things grow. But of course, without the top you can´t have sides.”

And as Himal started from the base camp in 1987, did the ascent look exciting?

The first few issues of Himal carry the doubts of a toddler- Not only does the editor appear unsure about what he proposes to be “development journalism”, there are also those equally doubting Thomases who raise the cacophony: What earthly good could another journal in English do? Would Himal gradually gain circulation or would it just fold up and fizzle out? A writer from Washington DC: “Will you provide an aloof and objective perspective or will you aggressively help define that elusive blend of ‘environment and development’ as your cover proclaims?”

What does the cover really proclaim? The editor was tinkering with it, and the caption “For Environment and Development” now read “For Development and Environment” with this explanation: “Has the E-word lost out to the D-word? Not really. We reversed placement only because ´development´ is generic and covers the entire social, economic and environmental universe. However we continue to keep ´environment´ because in these fragile, overpopulated mountains, the environment development nexus is more important than anywhere else” (July 1988). Did this make sense even to the editor himself?

So, with the Tourism Issue (Jul/Aug 1989), Himal strives for a new perspective; It shows its resentment at being advised in a patronising tone by the Delhi-based South Asia Journal that Himal should avoid “…the fads and fancies of the so-called environmentalists of the West,” The rejoinder was telling: “…‘fads and fancies’ are not limited to environmentalists in the West, and South Asian scientists and policy-makers too would do well to keep an open mind and do their home work. For it is not only journalists who are afflicted by intellectual laziness, nationalist blinders and an inability to look at others’ points of view.”

Does this also mean that Himal has begun to notice the mountain sides “where things grow”? It did take pride in the fact that its operation had shifted from New York to Kathmandu: “We have come home.” The Sept/Oct 1990 issue quietly drops both D and E words altogether. Instead, we find a new caption: Alternative bi-monthly. Practical, perhaps, but dull. But by Jan/Feb 1992, Himal has discovered what it always wanted to be: a Himalayan Magazine covering the entire region from Khyber to Nathu La, from the Indus to the Brahmaputra.

Nepalcentric?

In view of its limited reach, Himal gives more space to Nepali affairs. But this has not made it a ‘Nepalcentric’ journal. The Jan/Feb 1990 and Mar/Apr 1991 issues provide wide coverage of Tibet, the mystic mecca. July/ Aug 1992 devotes three quarters of its pages to developments in Bhutan, while also focusing on the plight of the Nepali-speaking Southern Bhutanese. The articles raised a storm in the magazine’s Mail section in the issues to come. “You have tried to rewrite our history into your version, perhaps intending to give the world an illusory picture of Bhutan,” fumes an official from Thimpu. A Dane accuses the editor of “being most unfair and biased.”

The sides taken by the letter writers tend to reveal ethnocentric affiliations. A pity! For, observes Rajni Kothari in the Ethnicity issue (May/Jun 1992), “…the paranoia of the majority is matched by the paranoia of the minorities. They are pushed to the wall by the growing accent on numbers in a democracy.” The problem of ethnicity obviously disturbs Prayag Raj Sharma. He warns of “an ethnic conflict of explosive potential, which could well engulf Nepal in future.” This issue also carries an excellent essay on the ethnic mosaic of Nepal’s Pratinidhi Sabha by Harka Gurung.

Wending my way through the pages of successive issues of Himal, I begin to wonder if Himal has a counterpart in South Asia. Probably not; for, leaving aside the glossies, most magazines produced in India are either owned by industrial houses or newspaper chains, face no marketing hardships (as Himal apparently does) and having a ready readership for the kind of fare they present. Some exist purely to provide entertainment, others are politically overloaded.

India Today certainly occupies a unique place in Indian journalism, but it caters to too many impulses under a single cover to be able to develop a definite character. Comparatively, Himal comes close to Seminar, a monthly started by Romesh Thapar, whose “issues carry a collection of essays on a particular theme.

Perhaps the closest comparison I can think of is Transition, a bi-monthly that Rajat Neogy used to publish from Kampala. In its carefully etched black-and-white presentation, Transition was a remarkable journal, addressing itself mainly to issues of the African continent. Neogy was ever-ready to explore new ideas and use them. But the axe fell in 1970; the magazine was banned and around that time Neogy too fell seriously ill. With Transition’s demise, Africa quietly buried its Homeric age.

It was in Transition’s Mail that great debates raged, and in Himal’s Mail, too, I get a feel of the same. Some letters provoke controversies, others lend greater depth to a certain theme. For example, a review of Dor Bahadur Bista’s book Fatalism and Development (Jan/Feb 1992) whipped up a mighty debate. The gem to come out of this debate was in Bista’s own defence of his book: “You know what I have been trying to do lately. I am trying to distract the worried and insecure upper-caste, upper-class Nepalis and draw their attention before they go to bed towards a grisly ghost in their own backyard.”

Index Breakdown

What helps Himal to spread out a rich fare are its regular departments—Mail, Briefs, Voices and Reviews. One gets to know so many things; important, amusing or plain facts. The Jan/Feb 1993 issue provides an index of all the articles that have appeared in Himal to date. But a classified list of the topics covered would have been useful.

Subjectwise, Himal seems to have provided widest coverage to environment-related issues, in terms of articles and items in its regular departments. Next come, in the following order, 1) migration, demography and refugees; 2) economy, foreign aid and water resources; 3) mountaineering and tourism; 4) sociology and religion; and 5) women. Apart from country studies of Bhutan and Tibet, it carries articles on Doon Valley, Bangladesh floods, Himachal Pradesh, Tehri Dam, Narmada Valley,and so on. The following issues are devoted fully to a single theme, not directly related to any of the above: Eating, Tarai, Hill Poverty, Democracy and Himalayan Herbs.

The subjects best treated — and this is purely subjective — are tourism, Gurkha recruitment, foreign aid, hill poverty, Bhutan and mountaineering. From the point of view of overall production and technological excellence, I rate… But no, this will not do. Who am I to judge, unasked and uninvited?

Instead, I should end with an excerpt from the editor´s note in March/Apr 1992: “A few issues older, we arrived at the conclusion that Himal is actually a mainstream publication after all, as far as the Himalayan region was concerned, because there is little else. So today, we are a ‘Himalayan Magazine’ of Himalayan society.”

Someday, as Himal traverses the summit and looks down the sides, it may perhaps discover that the outer edges of this society reach the sea to the south and roll across the Pamir, the Changtang, and Mongolia to the north…

Gupta is Professor of Political Science at JNU specialising in Africa and the Himalayan region. His book Politics of Nepal 1950-60 has just been reprinted in paperback by Kalinga Publications (Delhi).