Multi-cultural and Multi-lingual Issues: Hegemony and Denial in the Constitutions of Nepal since 1990

Abstract

Despite several attempts towards inclusivity, the rhetoric of language policy and planning and ethnic and cultural rights in the Nepalese constitution, though pluralistic in its presentation, is replete with the vested interest and hidden agendas that in one way or another help in maintaining dominance by the traditionally dominant groups. Though the interrelationship between language and culture is broad and complex, and the debate over linguistic and cultural inequality and intercultural communication is bound to remain, this article attempts to critically analyze some of the constitutional documents that have emerged since 1990 in Nepal to find out how discourses over this period of time have denied linguistic and ethnic/cultural rights to various marginalized multilingual groups and how such discourses need to be understood to help make the future constitutional provisions more conducive to the socio-cultural and multi-lingual setting of the country.