The 10th Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival took place last week, running five days from Tuesday, November 5. The Nepalese documentary Who Will Be a Gurkha?, directed by Kesang Tseten, was screened on Saturday at Cirko-Gejzir cinema. The film is a Nepalese, British, Norwegian and Finnish 2012 coproduction.
But who are those gurkhas?
 |
Image: www.dailymail.co.uk |
Nepalese gurkha form the elite military group of the British Army since World War I. The British preferred using gurkha corps in wars, since these young men are exceptionally tenacious and move easily in the most dangerous terrains and battlefields. Although the colonial system has long been over, the gurkha corps continue recruiting young men between the age of 17 and 21. The recruitment process of gurkhas is very strict and has several rounds in Nepal. Roughly 8,000 men present themselves each year in Pokhara, Image: www.dailymail.co.ukwhere the selection procedure takes place.
The selection process has been the same since the 1900s, as black and white film extracts from the beginning of the 20th century have shown in the documentary. The boys have to perform several exercises to demonstrate their physical capabilities as soldiers. They must pass medical examinations and be deemed intellectually eligible to serve under the British flag. The recruiting staff is composed of former and recent gurkhas as well as British army officials. The Nepalese recruitment officer ‘Sahid’ emphasizes several times in the film that the procedure is “free, fair and transparent”, meaning that recruiters cannot be bribed into favoring any applicants. This assurance, however, is repeated often enough that one may start growing suspicious whether or not it is even true.
The militia chooses 300 men from all the applicants who are later transferred to a training camp where the second phase of selection takes place. The final round consists of much more demanding physical and psychological exercises. For instance, boys have to carry baskets weighing close to 25kg through forests in the mountain in 45 minutes. This is the hardest task of all. Only around 180 young men are finally chosen to serve in the Brigade of Gurkhas within the British Army. The ’lucky ones’ are then taken to the United Kingdom where they get their official training before they are sent to Afghanistan, Iraq or to other regions smitten by war.
 |
Image: www.militaryphotos.net |
Many boys apply 2 or 3 times in their lives, basically each year, to get into the Brigade. At interviews they admit that the main reason why they apply is because they have no other possibilities in Nepal due to poverty and lack of job opportunities. Serving as a gurkha in the British Army is well honored. Other young men want to help their families to reduce the debt they hoarded up over time. Only few of them want to be professional soldiers vocationally. It is also important to mention that once a gurkha is retired he obtains the British citizenship, and is entitled to settle down in Britain and receive a monthly allowance for life. So huge is this opportunity in the eyes of young Nepalese boys that these young men are willing to risk their lives in a foreign nation’s army. It is worth thinking about why these men choose to serve under the Union Jack instead of trying to “raise up” their country by staying, learning and working there. Many of them face oppression due to the still existing caste system in their society. Once they are born into a caste, it is nearly impossible to break out, unless they choose to be part of the Brigade, where origin does not seem to matter at all. It was sad seeing how these hardly 18 or 19-year-old boys were crying and became so desperate upon being rejected in the selection process. Finally, quite controversial is the scene when the successfully admitted new gurkhas ceremoniously take an oath in the presence of their relatives and are saluted in front of the photo of Queen Elizabeth II at the very end of the movie. These men might never return back to Nepal to see their relatives again, because hopelessness and necessity has forced them from home into the arms of war and death in distant terrains.
Eszter Kajtár,
Hungary,
Public Administration
More information about the gurkhas is available on the British Army’s website: www.army.mod.uk/gurkhas/27856.aspx
More information about the movie is available here: www.taskovskifilms.com/film/
0 comments:
Post a Comment