Guthi, Model of sustainable development

Dr. Govinda Tondon

Culture Expert

There was a positive news about Ghthi Bill in a newspaper before the publication of the draft. But I realised that there were many contradictory provisions. The government tried to create a new legal instrument on a critical subject without consulting with the key stakeholders. It presented the bill as the final document not as a proposal.

Guthi is not only about the land but about the cultures and practices that sustained hundreds of years. The word 'guthi' means 'group' so it’s a collective sentiment. However, there are people connected with the guthi land who have been cultivating the land for decades and centuries. The bill does not define these farmers or 'mohi'.

It is unfortunate that Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota termed guthi as 'reminiscences of feudal practice' which hurt people in and outside the Kathmandu Valley. Swargadwari Mahaprabhu bought land from the money he collected and made arrangement for the necessary expenditure of the Swargadwari Temple. Hundreds of farmers are living on that field and they are not 'feudal lords'.

Guthi is a practice found nowhere in the world. It should be included in the world heritage sites since it’s a unique practice in the world and can be a model to preserve culture and social practices for other countries as well. It’s the only institution in the country which runs without government support in the country. It is an unparallel example of sustainable development.

Guthi land is not given by the government. It's the land offered by people to the temples to support in their everyday operation from the income made from the land. In the past there was the concept that the government must not take any income from the land under the temple guthi.

Guthi is an integral part of 'Newar' community, its needed from birth to death. Their major concern is the end of 'private guthi' as proposed in the new Guthi Bill, 2019. There are many temples and cultural practices in valley that run with the support from both the 'public' and 'private' guthi such as Machchindranath Temple. We fear that the government would ultimately finish the public and private guthis and strengthen the state trust (raj guthi). The bill tries to control the guthi while the government should only had proposed to regulate it.

The proposal to distribute the guthi-owned (tainathi) land to the tenants. Those people who had built home in the guthi land should be punished at first. We fear that the new law will end entire culture and religious practices which is the desire of the Western interest group. It demands registration of temples and stupas but not the church and mosques. It is also silent about providing the operation of various temples and cultural practices. Likewise, it does not have provision to punish and control the land-mafia. There are mediators, brokers and encroachers who are getting benefits form the guthi-owned land.

We don't demand to exploit the farmers or deprive them from their rights as the land-tenants but the land-brokers and mafias must be punished. But the provision to provide half of the land the farmers are cultivating to the and provide another half at a low price is ill-intentioned. Similarly, another proposal to run the temples on the basis of competition is also objectionable. Are the cultural heritages some form of manufacturing industry from where the government want to collect revenue? The heritage should be categorised as per their historical, cultural and religious importance.

I suggest the government to form a National Guthi Commission including the guthi-owners, tenants and other stakeholders, and the latter should formulate new draft of the Guthi Act.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 June 2019.