With all humility and modesty we,The Gorkha Times, announce our launch on this historic day of September 1, 2020, in the service of the global literary readership interested in literature springing from the soil of Nepal, and from the minds of Nepal’s progenies spread all over the world.
Way back in 1939, this day, September 1, was that fateful day, when Germany attacked Poland, and sparked the Second World War. On the same day, after eight long decades, we are giving to the world a voice of peace, inspired by the ideals of the Buddha, a philosophical icon born in Nepal. This mission of peace, as a counterpoint to all sorts of wars, defines our very being, and our mediums are words, wrapped in our creations and reflections! We are here to seek your love, cooperation, guidance, and blessings.
Ours is a purely literary portal that shall showcase the finest creations of our contributors, the biggest bulk of whom shall be from Nepali-speaking people spread all over the world. Their works, written directly in English, or translated from their mother tongues, shall comprise our almanac. Alongside, we shall also focus writings from other cultural spaces and strike a harmonious balance among authors. Classed as creations, reflections, research, books, writer of the month, legend, schools zones, news and audio-visual contents, the works we feature shall make honest attempts to address the taste of varied readership.
There is a philosophical assumption that inspires our inception. We represent a cultural space, whose literary, cultural and linguistic richness is self-evident. We are also heir to a tradition of wisdom that is, in many respects unparallel. The physical Nepal of today, and the virtual Nepal constituted by Nepalese migrants and diaspora all over the world has, as a buffer community, witnessed many tumults of history, and in many cases, peripheral participants. In all these capacities, we do have many untold stories shut in ourselves. We want to unleash all of them.
Attempts to find a vent for international exposure for our literature are not new. The first serious attempt in this direction was made by poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959) when he, in 1958, led a delegation of Nepalese literary figures to participate in the Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Since then, efforts have been untiring. It is a matter of great relief today that, against what Theodore Richardi said in 1993 that “Nepali literature has, by and large, remained unknown” to the outside world, our literature is largely visible. Only that the academic and researchers should change their perspective. The tendency to dumb everything from smaller nations in South Asia as “Indian”, shaping perspectives from the glasses of other South Asian metropolis instead of reaching out to the real site, framing opinions through hearsays instead of reaching out to the real informants, and ignoring economically milder nations in the literary-cultural map of the world should end as early as possible. If these visual fallacies are removed, we are in a position to be instantly visible. We are very, very conspicuous.
Thanks to a burgeoning generation of Nepalese writers writing directly in English and a galaxy of zealous translators translating our classics, we are conspicuously visible in the globe. We, now, would love to have a serious dialogue with the rest of the world, for we have got fresh points to make, stories to narrate, philosophies to unfold, shares to claim in the intellectual firmament of the world, and real differences to make.
By remaining largely absent in global political and economic games, we did not leave history to slip off our hands. We chose an inward path, went deeper into our own existential essences, shaped the most pertinent world views, created finest of literary and artistic works, and developed an alternative worldview. Living in an interface between global metropolis and Himalayan hinterlands, we have caught voices of people from all strata of life. We have, over the years, brooded a civilization that decidedly stands on the ideals of amity, peace, friendship and love. We are therefore heir to a thought that now calls for global subscription. We have fresh, new, unheard of, and non-anemic stories to tell and negotiate with our readers and audience all over the globe.
We shall speak together with you. We shall write alongside. We shall make points of our own. On top of everything we express, we shall continue to uphold the highest benefit of the humankind. Let’s convene and create a better world.
Welcome to The Gorkha Times!