British journalist Thomas Bell, who arrived in Nepal during the height of the Maoist insurgency, remains one of the keenest observers of the country’s ever-changing currents. After his successful book about cities in general, ‘Kathmandu’, in late 2024, he came back to Nepal with another book, ‘Human Nature’.
Although classified under the genre of travelogues, chronicling his own migratory experiences from East to West Nepal, the book essentially presents an anthropological analysis that attempts to understand the complex relationships between agro-geography, social stratification, and the historical development dynamics of the Nepali economy. Finally, Bell segregates his observations under four distinct pillars: Migration, Agriculture, Architecture, and Conservation.
Migration: The Ever-Present Current
Bell’s journey starts in the eastern hills, with a map only a few years old-though obsolete even then because of the mushrooming number of roads in the countryside. This change reflects a more profound shift in the socio-economic order.
Bell’s focus is on the Majhi (fisherfolk) communities, a tradition of early non-agrarian settlers that is often credited by archaeological findings. While the rivers continued to be a constant source of livelihood for such settlers, the history of their migrations is a story that is still unrecorded. This theme of mobility is continued in the contemporary period, albeit in a different manner. “Development,” as Bell writes, “has become synonymous with suspension bridges and the possibility of getting back to the village solely to obtain a passport for the hills.
The link that the author establishes between the “Lahure” tradition, which emerged as a result of the troops’ posting to Lucknow during the events of 1857, and the present remittance economy is very clear-cut. The migration of people, as stated by Bell, does not form a new chapter but is rather a “shifting tide.” The previous chapters “had been looking for another route” to either Darjeeling or Sikkim or the “Kala Pahad” areas of India, but the present generation finds itself “carried” to the “Persian Gulf” as if “carried downstream” along with the “floods” of the “monsoons” that “return” the “fish” to their “native” habitat, but the return of the “migrants” as the “modern” ones remains a
Agriculture: Taxes, Laborious Work, and the Food Journey
In this second section, Bell begins his transition towards Sindhupalchok and the new topography of a post-earthquake Nepal. Through his journey from the Helambu area towards the pious Gosainkunda, he succeeds in merging Sherpa cultural patterns with the story of Samudra Manthan from Vedic mythology. He hardly takes any time to transition from his journey towards an explanation of how Gosains were equally involved in trade as in pilgrimage activities.
The story of Nepalese agrarian history is also dominated largely by the “extractives” experience. Drawing heavily from the pioneering works of Mahesh Chandra Regmi, Bell shows how the state’s economic history was made in a system of oppressive taxation. By 1830, the peasant was compelled to turn over half his produce to the state, which Bell aptly points out is a “huge labor camp.” For instance, the Tamangs of Nuwakot were compelled to give 90 days of free labor in a year until 1950.
Bell also traces the “biography” of food:
The Potato: It was brought to Bhutan by the British in 1770, and by the mid-19th century, it was introduced to the Himalayas in Nepal. It remains to this day an essential ingredient in high-altitude survival kits.
Timber: The export of timber to the developing British Indian railways in the late 19th century contributed 40 percent to Nepal’s national revenue.
Architecture: Nature’s Sentinels and Man-M
In the dry landscape of Mustang and Dolpa, Bell analyses how architectural design mirrors the paradigm shifts in trade. Formerly the lifeline between Tibet and the Gangetic plains, the economics of Mustang were shattered by the Khampa rebellion in mid-century.
The author records the passage from salt to agriculture: the spread of apples since 1966 is now extended even to Upper Mustang because of climate change. Bell’s eye for architecture includes both the religious and the pragmatic—from Om Mani Padme Hum inscriptions on Mani stones to the “smooth Tibetan roads” constructed by the Chinese, on which subsidized rice keeps flowing into areas where it cannot be produced Fast Enough.
Conservation: The Cost of Beauty
The third part introduces us to the Karnali Zone, which is the homeland of the Khas-Malla rulers. This part sees Bell examine the contrast between nature and human involvement. He examines the mythology surrounding Jumla’s Mārsi rice, which came from Kashmir with Yogi Chandannath, as well as the initiatives taken by Nepal for conservation. Although 23% of its geography is protected, Bell draws attention to the “stinging tragedy” that exists behind this data. He tells a chilling tale of Rara National Park’s establishment, where “a pristine tourist site” was to be developed at “the cost of dislocating an indigenous population that could be just as senselessly brutalized as their landscape.” He laments that “it is better to preserve other people’s histories and civilizations than our own” and that “it is better to preserve other people’s art and culture than our own” because of the government’s lax nature concerning their own history, such as that of the Rara Valley’s Sinja Valley’s Rara Ruins of the Malla dynasty. Conclusion
Human Nature is an insightful, wide-ranging observation of a country in transition. Through the incorporation of the rigor of investigative journalism with the richness of anthropology, Thomas Bell has created something truly invaluable for readers in his own country as well as abroad. It is a book that functions to reveal not merely the “graceful” face of the landscape but rather the imprint of toil, the path of migration, and the indomitable will that defines the people of Nepal.
