Shiva Rijal
This article aims to introduce the works of Neville Sarony, an Englishman of Irish origin and a Nepal lover among general readers. Sarony, a famous barrister, has made Nepal his area of interest since the 1960s. At times when the anthropological research conducted by the western scholars on Nepal has remained a dominant mode of knowledge production on the subject, Sarony’s novels and memoir written over a decade help one understand Nepalis caught into the geopolitical conundrum. Mention should be made here that the West has understood Nepali society through information provided by elite rulers and scholars for a long time. But with the fall of the Rana and the Shah regime, non-native scholars and writers have extended their research beyond archaic themes and issues. Sarony’s trilogy and memoir take a more realistic approach on Nepal’s politics and society.
Sarony became a familiar name among the Gorkhas serving under the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles in the early 1960s in the UK. He soon became familiar among diplomats and expatriates staying in Nepal during the 1960s. His further familiarity with Nepali lawyers and academics deepened his understanding of Nepal’s rich cultural diversity and corrupt bureaucracy. Married to a Nepali girl from Darjeeling, Sarony wanted to settle here in Nepal and make some contribution to law-studies at the University. But misunderstood by the policy makers, Sarony had no option but to return home. Later in the 1980s and the 1990s, he practiced tourism in Nepal. With his over fifty-years-long engagement with Nepali issues, Sarony has come with a trilogy: The Dharma Expedient (2013), Devlin’s Chakra (2016), and The Chakrata Incident (2022) and also a memoir Council in the Cloud (2017). As a renowned QC (Queen Council), a lawyer of high rank, he practices law in the Hong Kong court these years. In his late 80s, Sarony is full of life and keeps on playing music and writing fiction. As a translator of two of his novels and a memoir, I should write this review and introduce Sarony and his works.
As a Nepal lover, Sarony’s trilogy focuses on the global political tension that Nepal has got into right after the exile of Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, India. Caught between China, on the one hand, and India and the USA, on the other, Nepalis have to deal with some extra factors along with poverty, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Unknown about the ever present tussle between and among globally powerful nations, Nepalis’ understanding about development and politics look very naïve. Sarony’s novels and memoir do project another side of Nepal’s story that ordinary Nepalis aren’t familiar with.
His protagonist, Devlin, a former-British Gurkha is given a job of rescuing a Buddhist treasure trove that belonged to the Potala Palace. He is approached for the job because letting Indian Army or Nepali Army do the job would trigger diplomatic rifts. As a pawn in a chessboard, Devlin finds himself taking the job in a professional spirit. His familiarity with Nepal’s topography is further combined with his friendship with the British Lahure and the Sherpas. As a former Gurkha officer, he has several Gurkha boys now in their middle age ready to work for him. Definitely, Devlin carries a certain soul of Sarony, himself. This trove is transported through the Himalayas to India. Devlin handles this transportation in a professional manner. Sarony’s experience of serving the British Army and running travel and excursion packages for international clients has definitely played a significant role providing a real life quality to his protagonists. Like his author, Devlin, the protagonist specializes in knowing the Himalayan region, climate and the locals in a greater detail. He is a great fighter and can handle difficult situations in a very heroic manner. His hard earned Kathmandu-based tourism business comes to a halt mainly because of political intervention and corrupt officials. Devlin has no option other than taking the job of transporting the Buddhist treasure trove to India. This job cost several Sherpas’ lives. Devlin becomes successful at snatching it away from the Chinese control, a mission impossible. But soon the course of the event takes a dramatic turn, instead of delivering the trove to Dharamshala, Devlin’s boys happen to deliver it to a monastery in Sikkim. The trove taken out of the clutches of the Chinese Army now falls into the control of the Indian Army. The treasure trove becomes a diplomatic ping pong between two powerful nations. Devlin is caught and is put on trial in Hong Kong court.
Similarly, Sarony’s memoir Council in the Cloud provides a closer picture of the influential community of Nepalis and expatriates in Kathmandu. His memoir provides a glimpse of Hark Gurung’s journey amidst Brahmin, Khsetri and Newar intellectuals. It provides substantial information about the Royal Hotel, the first ever hotel in Nepal and the involvement of Bashundhara Shah, the favorite son of Tribhuvan King, into the business. The memoir further tells that as an expert of the subject, Sarony wanted to launch a new academic course on Law in Tribhuvan University, and the course was sure to take the law studies to the advanced level. But the authority concerned was conservative at core, and nothing moved ahead without the consent of the Royal Palace in the 1960s and 1970s. His memoir gives a picture that initiating any venture to lift Nepal’s academia and business up was bound to face obstacles not from people but from the government officers and power elites.
Sarony’s works definitely project the picture of Nepal that’s not Shangrila. Instead of romanticizing Nepal’s culture and geography, Sarony’s works make the readers cautious about the dangerous situation Nepalis have been caught into. Governed by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, Nepalis are doomed to get nothing out of the tension that China, on one hand and India, for that matter, the West as well are involved into. India, as the trilogy gives a hint, is bent on using Tibet issues not to free Tibet but to make some dealing with China in its favor. Indirectly, the trilogy also critiques the West for trusting India on Tibet issues and not understanding the real situation of Nepalis. Needless to say that it also critiques Nepalis’s naivety of not having any solid understanding about foreign policies that India and the West, and also China are staging in Nepal. As a friend to Gurkha soldiers, mainly coming from the indigenous communities as well as someone married to the daughter of Nepali indigenous family from Darjeeling, India, Sarony has reasons to show concern about Nepalis.
Sarony’s trilogy definitely projects the affinity between the West and the indigenous Nepali community. While criticizing corrupt officers and politicians, Sarony shows his deep love to Nepalis of humble origin and the landscape. Both the trilogy and his memoir give the picture that Nepal remains undeveloped mainly for two reasons: geopolitics and corrupt political practices.
(Rijal is a faculty at the Central Department of English. He is a writer and researcher, and takes interest in theater studies.)
