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ABSTRACT
When Nepal promulgated a new constitution in 2015, discourse around the ‘New Nepal’, post-monarchical rule, was powerful; the new constitution was perceived as a landmark text to provide a clear vision for New Nepal’s overall development. The poor state of Dalits’ human rights and educational realities were widely cited as critical issues requiring attention and expedited intervention during the constitution-writing process. Almost a decade later, however, no outstanding progress is evident regarding the overall development of the historically marginalized Dalits. This paper aims to interrogate the perpetuation of the dominant ideology, as the basis for the marginalization of people lacking power, in the new constitution’s fundamental and educational provisions by exploring its marginalizing semantic elements. We selected these semantic elements or linguistic categories through reading the new constitution. Our analyses expect to unfold the link between Dalits’ poor state of human rights and educational experiences and the provisions of the new constitution. This study helps expose the roots of inequality, exclusion, and social injustice by appraising policies of public interest in situations where human rights violations, illiteracy, and poverty have distressed the lives of marginalized people, as well as encouraging research on the problems faced by extremely vulnerable population like Dalits, who are not only marginalized in their place of birth but also in the diaspora.
Acknowledgment
We acknowledge that no other persons than authors were involved in preparing this article.
Declaration of interests
The authors have no conflict of interest in preparing and publishing this article.
Notes
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Notes on contributors
Puskar R. Joshi
Puskar Joshi is a PhD Candidate in Curriculum and Instruction with Emphasis on Teaching and Teacher Education in the Department of Teaching, Leaning, and Culture at Texas A&M University. Puskar recently graduated from Teachers College of Columbia University. His research interests include education policy; international education; bilingual, multilingual, and multicultural education.
Zohreh R. Eslami
Zohreh R. Eslami (Ph.D.) is a Professor at Texas A&M University in Educational Psychology where she mentors master’s and doctoral students conducting research on Bilingual/ESL Education, applied linguistics, and multilingualism. She is the managing and co-editor of Applied Pragmatics journal and serves in several journal editorial boards.
Hector H. Rivera
Héctor H. Rivera (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, in the Department of Educational Psychology. Dr. Rivera is also the founder and former director of the Center for Child and Community Development at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 2019, he received the US Congressional Education Champion Award.