Values in the doldrums. Does the West meet the East in Nepal?

Abstract

This is a paper on the question of values of the East and the West. I might need to explain a little in the beginning as to where exactly I should try to draw this line, dividing the East from the West. Is the line to be drawn at the Suez Canal, following the English who, at the height of their colonial rule, often talked about this big cultural divide with the expression ‘East of Suez’? I have set this problem in a Nepali milieu or context in which it is my wish to raise a few points regarding the value crisis we have come to create for ourselves. Our present situation makes it difficult for us to chart a lonely course in isolation from the world. The West has been our trendsetter in everything and, whether we like it or not, we find ourselves constantly faced with the prospect of absorbing Western values at an ever-increasing rate.