हिन्दु धर्म

सिर्जना भण्डारी

'हिन्दु' शब्दको अर्थ के हो?

'हिन्दु' शब्द हिन्दु धर्मसँग सम्बन्धित छ। तर हिन्दु शब्दको अर्थ के हो त?
यो सुन्दा सबैलाई अचम्म लाग्न सक्छ कि 'हिन्दु' केबल एक शब्द मात्र हो, यो शब्दको क्रुनै अर्थ छैन अर्थात यो धार्मिक शब्द होइन र सनातन हिन्दु धर्मसँन यो शब्दको कुनै तात्विक सम्बन्ध छैन। तर हिन्दु शब्दसँग जोडिएर आएका केहि शब्दहरु प्रचलनमा रहेका छन् जस्तै- हिन्दु धर्म, हिन्दु धर्माबलम्बी, हिन्दुस्तान, हिन्दी, हिन्द महासागर आदि।


हिन्दु धर्म र शब्दको उत्पत्ति
संसारभरी हालसम्म प्रचलनमा रहेका धर्महरुमा हिन्दु धर्म सबभन्दा पुरानो र तेस्रो ठुलो भएको कुरा बिभिन्न पुरातात्वीक अध्ययन तथा अनुसन्धानहरुले देखाएका छन्। तर प्राचीनकालमा यो धर्मलाई हिन्दु धर्मका नामले चिनिदैनथ्यो। प्राचीनकालमा हिन्दु धर्मलाई 'प्राचीन सभ्यता' भन्ने गरिन्थ्थो। हिन्दु धर्म दुई भिन्न आस्था मिसिएर एक बनेको बिभिन्न पुरातात्वीक अध्ययन तथा अनुसन्धानहरुले देखाएका छन।

हिन्दु धर्मको उत्पत्ति इन्डुस घाँटीमा भएको हो। इ. पु. ३००० बर्ष अघि इन्डुस घाँटीमा सदियौं देखि बस्दै आएको प्राचीन सभ्यताको पत्ता लागेपछि अर्को धार्मिक आस्था भएका युरोपियनहरु इन्डुस उपत्यकातिर बसाइ सर्न थाले जसलाई आर्यन पनि भन्ने गरिन्थ्यो। यिनीहरुको बसाइ सर्नेक्रम इ. पु. २००० सम्म जारी थियो।

संसारभरी सबभन्दा धेरै हिन्दु धर्माबलम्बीहरु दक्षिण एशियामा बसोबास गर्दछन्। दक्षिण एशियामा पर्ने देशहरुमा सबभन्दा बढी भारत र नेपालमा हिन्दु धर्माबलम्बीहरुको संख्या बढी छ। हिन्दु धर्मको अहिलेको यो पुस्ता सीन्धु घाँटीको सभ्यताबाट फैलिएको बिश्वास गरिन्छ। सीन्धु घाँटीमा सनातन धर्म मान्नेहरु बसोबास गर्ने गर्दथे। प्राचीन गि्रकहरुले 'सिन्धु' शब्दलाई ' हिन्दु' उच्चाहरण गर्ने गर्दथे र उक्त स्थानमा बसोबास गर्नेहरुलाई 'सिन्धुबासी' नभइ 'हिन्दुबासी' भन्ने गर्दथे। पछि सिन्धु घाँटीमा विश्वका अन्यत्र स्थानहरुबाट थुप्रै मुस्लीमहरु बसाइ सरे र रैथाने सिन्धुबासीहरु सँगै बसोबास गर्न थाले। पछि तिनै मुस्लीमहरुले प्राचीनकाल देखि बसोबास गर्दै आइरहेका सिन्धुबासी (हिन्दुबासी) र आफ्नो समुह छुट्याउन तथा चिन्नका लागि स्थाइ बासिन्दाहरुलाई 'हिन्दु' र उनीहरु बसोबास गर्ने स्थानलाई 'हिन्दुस्तान' (हिम्दु+स्थान) भन्न थाले र आफुलाई मुसलमानका रुपमा चिनाउन थाले। समयक्रम बित्दै जाँदा यिनै सिन्धुका प्राचीन बासिन्दाहरु अहिलकॊ भारत, नेपाल, श्रीलंका, पाकिस्तान, बंगलादेश, बर्मा, थाइल्यान्ड, आदितिर छरिदै गए र ति हिन्दु अर्थात हिन्दु धर्मालम्बीका रुपमा चिनीन थाले। 

INTRODUCTION OF NEPAL

Sirjana Bhandari

Nepal is known as the newly established Himalayan republic. After abolition of 240-years-old hereditary monarchy, the country is declared as republic on May 28, 2008. The 10-years-long people’s war launched by the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) and the April 2006 People’s uprising under the leadership of Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists made possible to achieve historical political change in the country. Election to Constituent Assembly held on April 10, 2008 has further paved the path for peace process that was officially institutionalized through signing Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between SPA government and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) in November 2006.


Nepal is a beautiful, independent, sovereign, landlocked, mountainous, and agriculture dominant developing country which lies on the southern frank of Himalayas with the galore of the highest peaks in the world- the Mount Everest (8,848 m). It lies between 8004' and 88012' east longitude and 26022' and 30029' north latitude in the world’s map with an elevation range South to North of 60 m. (Terai belt) to 8848 m. (Snow Belt, Himalaya) from the sea level. Nepal is situated between two giant countries – India and China. It has been surrounded by 3 sides - East, West and South by India and North side from Tibet of China, and both of neighboring countries are larger than Nepal in terms of geographical area, total population and economic development.


Total territory of Nepal is 147181 sq. k. Meters. It is divided into three geographical divisions – Mountain region (15%), Hill region (68%) and Terai region (17%). As administrative and political division, there are 3915 Village Development Committees (VDCs) and 58 municipalities, 75 districts, 14 zones and 5 developments regions in Nepal. The village development committees and municipalities are the lowest organs of administrative units. These administrative units are further divided into wards. Each VDC has nine wards, where as the municipalities have variable number of wards according to the population concentration, economic activities and political status.

There are some prospective sectors to develop the country such as tourism, hydro electricity, bio-diversity, commercial agriculture, etc. In the present context, tourism can be the best income source for economic growth and human development in Nepal. The geographical diversity has made Nepal as attractive place for tourists.

Majority of population live in rural areas (85.8%) and are totally dependent on agriculture which is traditional and limited to some 19 percent of the total arable land of the country. Traditional subsistence farming is under practice in Nepal. The crop farming is the main agriculture activity which supports nearly 80 percent of total population and 36% of total GDP of the country. Traditional agriculture practices have undergone to little change because of increasing poverty of the farmers and topographical impasse. At present, the situation of agriculture productivity is not satisfactory and still several districts of the country have been facing food crisis every year. 

Nepal is a developing country with per capita GDP $ 383 (Economic Survey, 2007/08). It has about 27 millions total population (male-49.95% & female-50.05%) and growth rate of population is 2.25 percent. There are 101 ethnic groups and 93 different languages spoken all over the country. The majority of the people speak Nepali language (48.61%) which is the official language of the country. The country was declared secular by the Parliament in 2006 but religiously it is dominated from Hinduism (80.62%). It is been estimated that about 31 percent of its population are living below poverty line. Adult literacy rate is 53.7 (Male-65.1% and Female-42.5%) with average life expectancy 60.4 years (male 60.1 and female 60.7). 

Nepal still has to go a long way to go in re-structuring its political system and in accelerating the pace of its economic growth and human development. There are some prospective sectors to develop the country such as tourism, hydro electricity, bio-diversity, commercial agriculture, etc. In the present context, tourism can be the best income source for economic growth and human development in Nepal. The geographical diversity has made Nepal as attractive place for tourists. This uniqueness of physical features of the country has provided a wide range of tourism activities from visiting jungle resort camps to the snow-capped mountains. ‘Nepal is known as an important tourist destination in the world’s tourism map with its vast potentialities of natural attractions, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural community, archeological heritage and more other attractions. Nepal is also known as land of Mount Everest, the birth place of Lord Buddha, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic diversity. Nepal has a wide range of climate due to substantial topography variation in geography and ecological characteristics of the country from boiling hot of Terai to freezing cold of Himalayas and having more than 1310 identified peaks including Mt. Everest 8848 meters, which is the highest peak in the world.’ (Kunwar, 1997) 

Beside tourism, Nepal is also famous and rich for its water resources, bio-diversity and commercial agriculture potentiality. After Brazil, Nepal is known as second rich country for fresh water in the world. It has lots of glaciers, fresh water lakes, streams and rivers. We can run easily fresh drinking water industry and export all over the world. In addition, the wide range elevation of the land from North to South (8848 m. to 60 m.) has increased the current of water flow which can be the best natural source for generating hydropower. Nepal has 83,000 MW hydropower potentiality. At present context, electricity is getting prime concern in the world as clean, renewable and sustainable energy. 

As a positive aspect, the land elevation is a boon for development of the country, which has provided different types of potentialities of development but there are some drawbacks for the smooth progress of the country such as difficulties in transportation, natural disasters, etc. Because of North-South (8848 m. to 60 m.) land elevation, there is huge climatic diversity which provides positive effects in bio-diversity. According to geographical area, Nepal is a small country but known as a rich region in terms of bio diversities. It has lots of flora and fauna, numerous herbal plants, creatures, birds, and more other animals etc. which are rare and limited in the world. These things contain great value in the natural ecosystem, health sector, tourism sector etc.