The legacy of N Chauvin lives on in Southasia.
The odour of ancient edifice,
Fill up the crevices of ancient desires.
Where we have lived,
For several years, holding breath.
– Anamika in Ichchha
The compulsions of living with antagonistic and resourceful neighbours forced the French to make a fetish of nationalism. That, perhaps, is the reason 'chauvinism' owes its origin to a reckless soldier of Napoleon Bonaparte named N Chauvin. After all, excessive displays of unreasonable nationalism are often little more than bravado – a pretentious, swaggering show of false courage intended to hide deep-seated insecurities. Regimes unsure of their stability have always looked to France to replicate their attempts at manufacturing homogeneity and instigating xenophobia. After the Meiji restoration, Japanese modernisers learned from France that if the onus of proving innocence was placed upon the guilty, there was very little chance of any 'outsider' escaping the netting of native justice. Similarly, the Jus Sanguinis principle of citizenship, which privileges descent over residence, ensures that France and Japan are two of the most exclusivist nation states of the modern world.
Jang Bahadur Kunwar, the first Southasian potentate to have visited Continental Europe, was so impressed with the uniformity principle behind the Napoleonic Code that he promulgated similar civil laws for Nepal immediately upon his return. Though Jang's subsequent "Muluki Ain" has seen massive modifications since the mid-19th century, the Nepali psyche has been so conditioned that some of those homogenising laws are still extant – in spite of the fact that the country has now been declared a secular, federal and democratic republic.