Hemlata Rai's "Counting on Nepal" (#94) was interesting. It is good to learn that the 2001 census will soon be out. Many new facts are shown through this census, but the most intriguing thing is that ethnic and language counting revealed dramatically more than the actual numbers. This may be due to the fact that the respondents did not understand what they were being asked. Therefore, as language names they gave names of clan or place instead of the actual name of their ethnic group or language. Complications arise from the differences in the naming of ethnic identity and language name-an ethnically "Rai" person speaks a language distinct from another person who is ethnically the same. Tejpuri or Gangai, on the other hand, speak the same language as the Rajibansi. But they want their own ethnic identity. Thus they claim to speak "Tejpuri" or "Gangai". A scientific language/linguistic survey should be conducted by an authoritative body as soon as possible to determine accurate numbers
of languages and ethnic groups in Nepal.

IS Toba,
Kathmandu