I Came Back from Two Decades’ Hibernation: Baniya

[Chandraprakash Baniya, author of Maharani, the Madan-Puraskar winning book for the year 2020, made a sudden reappearance in Nepali fiction writing, and created a sensation by bagging Madan Puraskar for his debutant novel. Always a rebel and non-conformist writer of progressive temperament, Baniya had an eventful literary career. He was force-stopped by the administration to abandon his writing, unable to digest its critical approach. Having come back into writing after twenty long years following his literary inaction and a brief political activism as a parliamentarian, Baniya seems to have made a permanent homecoming into the literary fraternity. Mahesh Paudyal of The Gorkha Times had a brief conversation with the seventy-year old writer. Presented herewith is an edited excerpt of the exclusive conversation.]

Madan Puraskar rarely goes to a writer living outside Kathmandu. If we look at a couple of years in the recent times, most of the winners have been those living inside the Kathmandu Valley, if Ram Lal Joshi, author of Aina is to be counted as an exception. This time, you made it. How do you evaluate this?

This is a wonderful inspiration. I am extremely happy, and so are people in and around my district. Parbat, where I hail from, is a district with a very old history of literature. It is home to poets years older than Bhanubhakta. Before him, poets like Prem Nidhi Panta and Sukritidanta Panta wrote from this location in the Dhaulagiri Region. Even in the recent times, poets like Bhupi Sherchan made this region the base of their writing. This time, when my Maharani has been picked for the award, the old and glorious literary tradition of the region has been recognized again. I feel blessed. People in my district are happy too. They feel honored.

You are nearing seventy. But the award, coming home at this age, has in a way urged you to make yourself more active and  creative. How would you respond to this new situation?

That’s very true. I am seventy, and I am physically not as active as I used to be before. I have feet issues; I cannot walk across long distances. I cannot travel. Much of my memory has transpired and I cannot recall many things. Considering this, the award seems to have added on me a burden, and I am concerned if I can really handle it. I don’t know if I will be able to uphold the glory of the award, and the expectations from me, thereof. I would not have launched Maharani on my own, if my publisher Pushparaj Poudel of the Shikha Books, had not urged me and boosted my morals. Considering how I could respond to the changed times, I have been quite restless for the past few days.

Many have read your award-winning book Maharani. I have myself been lucky enough to go through the manuscript of your upcoming book Bhaujyaha, a collection of critical essays. Both these books suggest that you are interested in a critical reading or say ‘de-reading’ of historical and religious issues. At a time when novelists are writing love, revolution, personal disgust and confusions, what motivated you to pick up historical and religious issues?

I grew up in a very religious family, where my grandfather and father read a lot of religious scriptures and engaged themselves in rituals. Naturally therefore, I was exposed to those religious texts. The Mahabharata was one of the greatest influence on me as a child. Soon  I developed a taste for the Puranas and the Upanishads. When I had access to them, I read. But the rebel inside me since my schooldays did not allow me to accept those scriptures as they are. I had a critical, interrogating and contrapuntal mind. I naturally started identifying their loopholes, discriminatory and illusionary contents and limitations, and wrote my feelings in the form of manuscripts, though they could never be published. But I have continued to de-read history, religious scriptures and myths, and probably I shall continue to do so. It has become a tenet of my writing.

You said many of your ‘rebellious’ manuscripts were never published. What stopped them from getting published? Were you yourself reluctant, or there were other reasons?

There were other reasons. By the time Panchayat had ended and constitutional monarchy had been introduced in the nation, people in my locality had started recognizing my writing skills, by dint of my isolated articles that occasionally appeared in local papers. But the nature of my writing, which was anti-traditional and rebellious, turned out to be an eye-shore for the conservative establishment. Though Panchayat had long ended, even the new system turned out to be equally unaccommodative towards progressive thoughts. I used to run a periodical, Myagdi Sandesh those days, and my writings occasionally appeared there. Beside writing, I had also preserved manuscripts by other rebel leaders like Dinanath Sharma and Prachanda. Having sniffed that I was myself into such rebellious writing, the administration once raided my house and rummaged by rooms and cupboards. A spell of torture after torture followed, and I was subjected to many kinds of trepidation inside and outside the police post. Many of my manuscripts and collections were seized and destroyed. They include the manuscripts of two of my novels, one of which was based on Gita, rendered with new interpretations. Following this my life in Parbat became full of miseries, and I left the district for Kathmandu. My creative writing stopped. A few years following this, I was in politics. It has been more than a decade I abandoned politics and have been living at home. I picked up my pen after a gap of twenty long years. Those years were my years of exile inside, let’s say, a cave. Though I didn’t write, I continued to read. I have come back with Maharani.

Sorry for the painful history! But then, you have made a glorious comeback. Maharani brought you to such limelight and fame! The fact that the book won Madan Puraskar testifies what an incredible piece of writing it is! Apart from the award, how did the readers’ community receive the book? What were the reactions like?

The reactions were overwhelming! But my bad luck is that, most of the reactions were positive, when I was looking for something very critical and corrective. Yet, I remember a couple of reviews that pointed out certain loopholes. Ram Lohani cited some historical mismatches, cases of anachronism and mistakes in the use of relational words—’Nana’ for ‘Mama’ for example—which made a huge difference in the meaning. Many of such things have been mended in the second edition. You alleged that focus on the central character ‘Maharani’ is peripheral and she appears in the story much later, say about the tenth chapter only. This is because, I wrote the novel back, having written the tenth chapter first, and adding the background later. Such critical inputs enlighten, and I look forward to receiving more of them in the days to come, not only on Maharani but also on other books I shall be writing.

Bhajuyaha, a collection of critical essays on religious and traditional subjects, is in line. I know, more will follow. How have you planned to move ahead with your writing?

I have many untold stories inside me. Many of them pertain to my own Dhaulagiri Region. I am not still satisfied with the little I have written. I have many more things to say about the religious, cultural and traditional malice. I want to write them out.

After your budding pen was force-stopped, you naturally moved away from literary fraternity. Later, you were briefly in politics, and became a parliamentarian. Naturally therefore, you were in the company of the politicians. Back home, you rested for about a decade. Now, suddenly, you are back into the community of writers, readers, critics and intellectuals. How, do you think, will this come-back affect your day-to-day life now?

You are right. In those years of hibernation, I did not build up much literary links. Even in Pokhara where I live, I have not many literary acquaintances, though it’s a hub of literature you know. I was in a sort of complete inaction for ten years with nil exposure. If it were not for my publisher who urged me, I would not even have made this comeback. The credit solely goes to him. Nevertheless, I have come back into the literary fraternity, where I most naturally belong. I think I will have less and less leisure now. I am aware that to prevent myself from being a misfit here, I must work hard. I have to write on those issues I have always pined to write about. I must travel more, research more, contemplate more. I have to change many of my habits too. Considering that, I am feeling rather uneasy too.

Wish you higher success ahead. We are impatient to read your further deliveries.

Thank you very much for your wishes and for this conversation.