Story of Thaha and Rudane of Nepal

Nepal's legendary activist, elected leader, and philosophical and academic figure Rupchandra Bista is considered the biggest advocate for information accessibility in Nepal. Bista was popularly known as Rudane. Rudane was the name he coined for himself.

Rudane famously used the term 'Thaha' which roughly translates as knowing to drive his campaign. He emphasised people adopt Thaha to excel in their lives and livelihoods.

Thaha movement was born out of Hetauda. It got a lightening impression among locals and people from across Nepal.

According to Ramnarayan Bidari, a member of the National Assembly, the Upper House of Parliament, and the chair of Rupchandra Bista Smarak Samiti, an organisation working for the promotion and preservation of Thaha Movement, Rudane initiated his campaign in the 1970s. His campaign is said to be the first such campaign to have reaches the settlements of poor people. Despite his well-off familial background, Rudane worked for the poor, disadvantaged, and marginalised section of society.

Born on 9 January 1934, Rudane breathed his last on 21 June 1999. During his 66-year-long life, Rudane spent half of his life campaigning for the Thaha movement and its noble causes to awaken people. His movement was widely appreciated. He was elected twice- first in May 1981 and second in May 1985 to the Rastriya Panchayat or the parliament of the party-less Panchayat era. He strongly advocated his 'Thaha' movement even at the house. He was jailed for his campaign at times. He is still remembered for his firebrand campaigns and fiery public speeches.

Many consider 'Thaha' as the first Nepali philosophical movement to have reached the settlements of general people. From the RTI point of view, he was the great RTI leader of all time in Nepal.

Respecting his movement, on 8 May 2014, Nepal Government has named a local municipality situated in the northern part of Makwanpur district as Thaha Municipality accommodating three previous Village Development Committees (VDCs) namely Daman, Palung, and Bajrabarahi. A couple of years later, other VDCs like Chitlang, Agra, and Tistung were also integrated into this municipality.

Many societal and business ventures and movements of Makwanpur are named after him. A film is made based on his story. It is titled 'Rudane', it will be premiered on YouTube on 29 December, said Jagrit Rayamajhi, the Chief Executive Producer of the upcoming film. The film is researched, written, and directed by Amit Kishor Subedi and Bikash Dhakal. The film calls Rudane 'Nepali name of revolutionary'.

Rudane and his Thaha movement have national limelight and reorganisation. Rudane and Thaha movement deserve greater recognition even at the South Asian level.

In terms of legislation of informational accessibility, Rudane and Thaha movement has been successful. Constitutionally, Nepal pioneered the concept of the Right to Information from its Constitution of 1990.

Article 16 of the now-defunct 1990 constitution of Nepal gave a constitutional exclusive fundamental right of RTI for the first time in South Asia.

Even Nepal's Interim Constitution of 2007 gave RTI rights. Article 27 has allocated this fundamental right. In the historic Constitution of 2015, which was promulgated by the people's elected representatives of the 601-member Constituent Assembly on 20 December 2015, also RTI has got its strong space. Article 27 has provisioned this fundamental right.

Furthermore, to give the institutional framework for the RTI, RTI Act 2007 was enacted. Likewise, National Information Commission (NIC) was established in May 2008.