Episode 15: Casteism: Millennial's Perspective On Intercaste Marriage In Nepal

In the first-ever episode with two guests in my show, I am joined by my school friends whom I have known since 2004. From NYC, US, Nima Lama is a recent college graduate in Computer Science. He is currently working on projects to expand online education and virtual health care, starting from Kalikasthan in his home district, Rasuwa, and eventually throughout Nepal. Nripesh Pradhan, from California, US, is a Data Scientist at Chipper focusing on solving problems related to growth and fraud in the fintech industry.

In this episode, which some people might find sensitive and controversial, we provide our Millennial's perspective on one of many aspects of Casteism in Nepal: Intercaste Marriage. We wanted to focus strictly on just one aspect of Casteism as it is impossible to fit all of them in a tiny episode.

As millennials who studied in Nepal until high school and then pursued their bachelor's degrees in the USA, we share why Intercaste Marriage should be a thing of the past and how we should start making changes starting from our family. We suggest listening to the entire episode with an open mind.

Nima and Nripesh also touch on the negotiation tactics used by parents to force same caste marriage. Also, we unravel the pressure children fall to respect their parents' decisions because going against the decisions is tantamount to discrediting parents' struggles to raise the children, even if the educated children have written hundreds of essays in their Social Science classes refuting the practice of Casteism.

In the latter part of the show, we touch on the ramifications of leaving out surnames that our alma mater Budhanilkantha School has been practicing since its inception in 1972. Although the school had the good intention of enforcing only roll numbers and first names to address among students, we wonder if the school could have included full names and made us more ready to tackle Casteism head-on. After all, the school is a perfect understudy of how discrimination can be eradicated with its mini Nepal model as students from various backgrounds study here.

For the older generation harvesting the thoughts about putting same caste marriage demands on their children and criticizing discussions from newer generations in the name of culture and tradition, I suggest listening to our opinions with an open mind. If you strongly feel that these three folks living in the US are far from the reality of not respecting traditions and want to share your opinions in my podcast, please reach out to me. I would love that.

As a disclaimer, we foresee the shortcomings of the opinions presented by the guests in this episode where all three people have not experienced Casteism issues and mostly deducing their thoughts from their exposure to critical thinking. We have accepted the fact, and hence, I plan to bring in guests who have experienced discrimination in future episodes.

I intended the episode to be a starting point to continue the conversation and make rational decisions for a better future where people's hard work and struggles from all backgrounds are not discredited solely by their so-called "castes." Also, in this ever-evolving social network world, I did not want to limit the conversations to purely online chat groups among just a few friends. Instead, I invited my friends and used my podcast platform to spark meaningful discussions and eventually take action to make changes.