Understanding Cultural Resistance Day: Definitions, Evolution, and Struggle in Nepal

• Definition

Culture is the expression of human experience, ideals, and civilization. It manifests as people's thoughts, habits, customs, and worldview. Let's look at some established definitions of culture:

‘Whichever class dominates a society, that class's culture will dominate.’ – Karl Marx

‘Culture is the ideological reflection of the economy and politics of the concerned society.’ – Mao Zedong

‘Just as the economic and political interests of one class clash with those of another, so too does the culture of one class clash with that of another class.’ – Pushpa Lal Shrestha

‘Culture is the synthesis of material and spiritual values created in the process of historical development of society.’ – Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran’

• Complementarity between Culture and Custom

Culture is the lifestyle, thought, tendency, and behavior formed through the struggle for production, the struggle for life, and class struggle during the development of human civilization. According to Marxist cultural activists and aesthetic thinkers, culture is built amidst labor processes and struggle. In a class society, culture, like philosophy, thought, politics, economics, and art, is class-based. The main basis for the construction of culture is the relations of production and class struggle.

The culture of a society with feudal relations of production is afflicted/influenced by feudalism. The culture of a society with capitalist relations of production is individualistic-capitalist, imperialist, postmodernist, neo-colonial capitalist comprador parliamentary system, and the culture of a society based on comprador relations of production is comprador, obscene, and anarchic, while the culture of a society with socialist relations of production is scientific socialist.

This means that the relationship between power and culture is interdependent, and customs are also expressed along with culture. Since culture is expressed through ideas, customs, and behavior, there is a deep interrelationship between them.

Currently, as Nepali society is shackled by the neo-colonial capitalist comprador parliamentary system, its culture of power is also comprador capitalist. Efforts to build a democratic-socialist culture against this kind of anti-human culture are also advancing alongside the process of revolution.

Since the fundamental character and form of power are anti-national, anti-people's democracy, people's livelihood, freedom, equality, and fundamentally anti-Mao (Marxism-Leninism-Maoism) or anti-scientific socialism, the culture of power is fundamentally comprador. The movement against this kind of bad culture is advancing as a complement to the political movement. The definitions and explanations given by Karl Marx, Mao, Pushpa Lal, and Kiran about culture make it clear that culture is transformed and constructed according to the character of class society and changes in class struggle-production relations.

The embryos of the new, or people's culture, constructed, used, and developed during the People's War in Nepal, also clearly demonstrate that class struggle creates new culture. However, due to the shameful compromise made by the main leadership of the revolutionary forces with the status quo, the embryos of class-struggle-created new culture were also killed along with the resulting political counter-revolution. Currently, the process of constructing a new or people's culture is continuing in line with the pace and flow of the programs of the rising socialist people's revolution.

This is a continuous process of the development of human civilization; its form changes with class struggle, and the process where the material and spiritual states transform each other continues. The process of cultural transformation advances rapidly during the intensity of revolution, and when it slows down, cultural revolution also slows down. Although the cultural revolution is not as intense as in past history, the continuous struggle against comprador culture is ongoing.

Kiran states that the general meaning of culture is construction, composition, refinement, or modification. The Marxist understanding is that culture fundamentally includes thought, conduct, values, beliefs, customs, practices, and art. According to Kiran, culture and civilization are interrelated. Civilization is mainly related to the material aspect, and culture to the spiritual aspect.

According to Dr. Rishiraj Baral, another scholar of Marxist culture, culture is a social expression that reflects the relationship between the individual and the collective, life, society, behavior, and theory, and is presented through various forms and media. According to Baral, culture is a complex structural aspect related to human life behavior. It is related to the life behavior, lifestyle, and overall spiritual and material activities of social man. Therefore, culture is man's spiritual and material activities, overall behavior, and lifestyle. It reflects various aspects of human life behavior, as well as worldview and ideological aspects. The cultural aspect is not limited to the individual and their behavior; it is reflected as an expression of class society and class power. Culture is related to man's thinking, tendency, thought, behavior, and worldview. According to Baral, culture is the process of transformation and expression from the collective to the individual and from the individual to the collective.

It is his belief that culture is the product of social action-reaction and conflict. The Marxist belief is that culture is constructed and expressed as the total result of the struggle man wages with nature, society, and himself. New culture is created through conscious class struggle guided by scientific beliefs against unscientific beliefs. Culture carries a character and essence according to two class standpoints: ugly and beautiful, scientific and unscientific, anti-people and pro-people.

• Uthan (Uprising/Beginning)

In the feudal era, almost all festivals, special occasions, celebrations, customs, cultures, creations, and arts of every settlement, community, sect, and caste, initiated by the consciousness of that time, are entangled with spirituality, superstition, and dogma. Extreme capitalist consumerism also sustains its existence by operating its businesses relying on those dogmas and superstitions. Customs and cultures are formed as necessary processes according to civilization and consciousness in society.

Since humans are social beings, they desire to mingle, rejoice, work together, and share intimacy in society. Civilized and advanced customs and cultures energize and motivate people to rejoice in collectivity. Such collective celebrations take the form of customs and culture, but rulers conspiratorially inject spirituality, dogma, hypocrisy, consumerism, and private self-interest into these customs and cultures, and gradually, they begin to operate as dogma.

Customs and cultures created according to the consciousness, capacity, and needs of yesterday's society are still accepted by society even when they have become like 'expired medicine'. Traditionalists are the ones who maintain and support something even when it has become like a rotten, collapsing old house. Creating parasitic, consumerist, obscene, individualistic, anarchic, and pessimistic culture in the name of custom and culture is the evil deed of imperialists and neo-colonialists.

The unnecessary customs preserved by traditionalists who cannot see the bright future ahead, linger in the present, and prefer a journey backward, and the postmodernist, anarchic, loose, individualistic, and pessimism-based culture constructed by imperialism and neo-colonial capitalism, can only be replaced by new consciousness, new needs, and new readiness. This is not only necessary but also possible.

Since Nepal is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society, various festivals are celebrated here in the form of culture and custom. Every festival and culture carries religious or non-religious beliefs according to its community. Since Nepal is a Hindu-majority society, Hindu cultures have a greater influence here. As the leadership of the Hindu community has operated the state power for a long time, this culture of power dominates society. On the other hand, taking advantage of the weaknesses of dogma, superstition, and hypocrisy within this community, imported hypocrisy in the form of Christianity and loose-anarchic culture have begun to disrupt society.

Due to Hindu extremism and Christian encroachment, other religions, cultures, and communities are being suppressed. However, as Karl Marx said, any religion is an 'opium'. To be liberated from opium-like religion, customs, and culture, and to build socialist customs and culture, class struggle must be made decisive. When class struggle does not advance intensely, the process of building people's culture also slows down.

Culture is the ultimate form of human consciousness. The more conscious the society built through class struggle becomes, the more civilized, cultured, and scientific it is. Rejecting traditional and consumerist customs and culture and constructing and adopting new democratic and socialist culture is the need of the hour. The more dialectical and scientific society becomes, the more cultured it is. Looking at the history of class struggle since the primitive communist era, it is seen that humans are gradually becoming more scientific and conscious. This is the result of class struggle and the product of collective consciousness.

The philosophy of life is expressed in a person's customs from birth to death. Struggles for customs and culture have taken place in the course of class struggle for the construction of a socialist era filled with exploitation-free, civilized, and high consciousness. In this sense, ideological-political struggle and cultural struggle are complementary to each other. Since culture and custom are questions linked to power, the more class struggle intensifies in society, the more scientific and life-affirming culture is constructed.

The customs and culture constructed during the great People's War have already proven this. However, with the counter-revolution in politics, comprador capitalist culture has become the culture of power, leading to the corruption of existing customs and culture. We believe that with the continuous process of class struggle and the next height of scientific socialist people's revolution, traditional customs will also be transformed, and a new socialist culture will be constructed.

In the people's power constructed alongside political revolution, customs and culture also become pro-people. A person becomes cultured not just by reading, but by fighting, falling, and being tempered. Man, as a social being, strives to civilize himself along with the entire society. Therefore, customs and culture change through collective effort, just like political power. This is possible only through long and difficult effort.

• Expansion

It has been proven by various studies that culture can be associated with two aspects according to human consciousness: ancient and modern. Ancient culture is a regressive culture from the state when human consciousness was undeveloped and backward. It opposes progress. This is the culture of feudalism, imperialism, and neo-colonial comprador capitalism.

Based on ancient superstition, this culture protects the interests of kings, priests, feudal lords, and headmen; it is based on servitude, not science. It does not respect human values and labor. It carries the Manuvadi belief that further oppresses the artisan, laborer, Dalit, women, and oppressed communities, imposes patriarchy, and considers women as objects of luxury. Evil practices like Sati, child marriage, and polygamy are its products. Both Western and Eastern ancient cultures treat women as consumable goods.

According to Kiran, ancient Eastern culture is based on the Varna system and caste. It divides society into four Varnas, a system that has existed from the Lichchhavi period through Jayasthiti Malla. The Dalit community is the most oppressed by this. It accepts reincarnation and fate, claiming that being rich or poor is the result of sin and virtue. It is entirely based on idealism. Its main foundations are the Vedas, Smritis, and Puranas, which consider serving the master as 'good fortune' and instill the fear of heaven and hell.

The culture representing Western imperialist thought is based on the monopoly economy and fascist politics of the decadent capitalist class. Its characteristics include pluralism, nihilism, and globalization. It looks down upon oppressed nations and classes and makes humans puppets of technology for profit. Sexual anarchy, postmodernism, extreme individualism, and pessimism are its core characteristics.

The culture that is a mixture or 'khichdi' of feudal and imperialist culture is revisionist culture. It has no original philosophical basis. Its character is abandoning class struggle and Mao, supporting feudalism-imperialism, and always being opportunistic. It opposes radical change and cultural revolution. This mixed culture simultaneously involves temple worship and rituals alongside dance bars and brothels. The tendency to worship a goddess but also commit rape in the temple and conduct beauty pageants is a product of this.

Separate and superior to all these is the 'New Culture' or scientific socialist culture. It is based on Maoism and takes science as its foundation. It struggles against feudal and imperialist distortions. It respects people's democracy, has faith in labor, and maintains a respectful attitude towards women. It emphasizes the abolition of untouchability, the promotion of love marriages, and the defense of national independence. In Nepal, this culture developed through communist ideology, especially the process of the People's War.

• Cultural Resistance Day

Cultural Resistance Day is a new cultural festival established by the People's War conducted under the leadership of the CPN (Maoist). The People's War initiated a campaign to build a new culture based on proletarian humanism while struggling against ancient and imported imperialist distortions. Self-sacrifice, collectivism, camaraderie, and internationalism are components of the culture built by the People's War.

This day began in the context of unarmed democratic cultural activists resisting to protect their ideas and faith against the armed suppression by the then fascist regime. This day is observed every year on Chaitra 5 in memory of Dilmaya Bamjan and Mast Bishta, and the seven people's artists who sacrificed their lives facing the brutal attack of the enemy in Anekot, Kavre— Chyangba Lama, Manju Kunwar, Chinimaya Tamang, Gumbasingh Tamang, Subhadra Sapkot, Dambar Shrestha, and Nirmala Devkota. It is also observed in honor of the martyrdom of fighters including Ichhuk, Chunu, Shiva, Sharada, and Raktim. This year, we are observing the 27th Cultural Resistance Day.

The Socialist Communist Party Nepal's campaign 'Come to the People, Serve the People' is concrete proof of this commitment. We believe that this culture will flourish with the success of the scientific socialist people's revolution.

• Climax

The People's War, as a new link in the class struggle in Nepal, began on Falgun 1, 2052 BS. It aimed to establish socialism by establishing a new democratic power. As the People's War gained philosophical and cultural superiority, the fascist regime began extremely brutal suppression. The government set bounties on the heads of revolutionary leaders and encouraged extrajudicial killings. Atrocities such as the murder of unarmed civilians, mass rape, and the burning of settlements occurred. Criminal campaigns such as 'Romeo', 'Kilo Sera Two', and 'Search and Kill' were conducted.

In this sequence, on Chaitra 5, 2055 BS, the enemy set fire to the house where seven people's artists were sitting with their musical instruments in Anekot, Kavre, and they were killed while breaking the siege. They considered dying as martyrs for the proletariat class more glorious than surrendering and living. Therefore, that day was declared 'Cultural Resistance Day'.

The state carried out massacres not only in Anekot but also in dozens of places like Bhabang and Gumchal in Rolpa, Dungla in Achham, and Mudbhara in Doti. Hundreds of cultural activists, including Krishna Sen ‘Ichhuk’, Chunu Gurung, DB Thapa, and Shiva Shrestha, were killed. Eleven people's artists training in Bhabang, Rolpa, were captured and killed on Ashar 8, 2056 BS.

We pay homage to the first literary martyr Krishnalal Adhikari, who sacrificed his life in jail for writing 'Makai Ko Kheti' against the autocratic Rana regime in Nepal, and to the more than 170 cultural martyrs of the People's War. We are ready for any resistance and sacrifice to fulfill the dreams of the martyrs.

• Conclusion

The history of the sacrifice of cultural activists in Nepal is long. The rebellions from Subba Krishnalal Adhikari in 1980 BS to Ganga Lal Shrestha and Yogmaya are significant. The sacrifice of seven artists in Anekot on Chaitra 5, 2055 BS set a historic record. They chose a glorious death in the spirit of the fighters of the Paris Commune.

For 27 years, Maoist revolutionaries have been observing Chaitra 5 as Cultural Resistance Day. We pay homage to the martyrs of resistance cultural movements worldwide and wish the injured a speedy recovery.

In Nepal, due to the surrender and class betrayal of the main leadership, the new consciousness and culture built by the People's War have also fallen victim to counter-revolution. However, the process of building a new culture has resumed with the direction of scientific socialist people's revolution. There is no doubt that a scientific socialist power and socialist culture will be built through resistant cultural consciousness and continuous revolution.

(The author is a Standing Committee Member of the Socialist Communist Party Nepal and Chairman of the All Nepal People's Cultural Federation.)