Cultural Reconciliation: Koirala’s Envisioned Utopia in Sumnima and Modiain

Abstract

This research project deals with interrelations among B.P. Koirala’s vision of harmonious Nepal with multiple languages, cultures, castes, religions, nation states and his philosophy on nationalism as depicted in his novels Sumnima and Modiain. Taking theoretical concept on nationalism from Benedict Anderson, Ernest Renan Homi K. Bhabha and Partha Chatterjee, the research illustrates that the process of nationhood in Nepal selectively excluded certain group of people, marginalized the others and failed to be developed as a nation in true sense. Koirala, by presenting the common people as his characters, has revealed that recognition of heterogeneity, plurality, and multiplicity is required for a nation to reconcile the conflicting forces and make everyone develop the sense of oneness with the nation and thereby creating an idealistic notion of nation.