Karnali is not underdeveloped, it has been kept underdeveloped: Analyst Keshav Dahal

Surkhet. Writer and analyst Keshav Dahal has stated that the primary issue in Karnali Province is not a lack of development, but a lack of justice from the state. Speaking at the Karnali Festival, which began in Birendranagar on Saturday, Dahal argued that the state has failed to lift Karnali—a region rich in diverse civilizations—out of the deep wounds of class discrimination, gender inequality, and poverty.

He remarked that despite numerous political changes, the impact of such transformations on the lives of the people in Karnali has remained consistently weak.

'How can a region with immense wealth, water, forests, nature, and religion be poor?' he questioned. 'How does it end up on the margins? How does it become abandoned? How does it remain underdeveloped? How does it stay superstitious?'

Dahal noted that the Khas civilization, which flourished in the Sinja Valley, provided the foundation for the Nepali language, culture, and state-building. However, he pointed out that Karnali's language and dialects have been marginalized.

He added, 'We have failed to investigate how Karnali's civilization ended up on the periphery.' He further asserted, 'Karnali was not poor; it was made poor. It was not weak; it was made weak. It was not remote; it was made remote.'

He claimed that because power has always been concentrated at the center, Karnali has been pushed to the bottom, arguing that the region did not fall behind on its own, but was deliberately kept behind.