1.1.4 The re-unification of Nepal: The Shah dynasty 1750–1846
It was from one of these tiny hilltop kingdoms (Gorkha) that Prithvi Narayan Shah arose as king to conquer the surrounding kingdoms, finally conquering the three kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley twenty-three years later. Thus, Shah emerged as the king of a newly unified Nepal in 1768 and implementing a policy of protectionism, expelled all foreigners, a policy that remained in force until 1951. The Gorkha dynasty expanded, annexing parts of Kashmir (under British control) and Tibet (under Chinese control) to the new state of Nepal. Nepal’s excursions into Tibet bothered China, who sent troops to surround the Kathmandu Valley. The Nepali king appealed for help to the British, who were then given their first chance to visit the country, but the dispute with China was inadvertently solved without British intervention. Then in 1810, the British, bothered by further expansion of Nepal into British territory, itself went to war with Nepal. The war lasted six years and was devastating to Nepal, whose borders shrank dramatically as territory was given up to the British. As a condition of the Treaty of Friendship, which ended the war, a single British official was allowed residence in Nepal, although he was forbidden from traveling outside the valley.
1.1.5 The Ranas: 1846–1951
In 1846 the shrewd army general Jung Bahadur Rana accomplished a military coup, establishing himself as prime minister and reducing the king to a prisoner in his own palace in a puppet monarchy. He later declared himself king and turned his interests solely to the opulent development of his own family’s estate. The hereditary prime ministership established by the Rana regime lasted until 1951. It was a period of time when, to quote one historian, “the rest of the country stayed frozen in the middle ages” (Burbank 1992:24).
1.1.6 The return of the Shahs: 1951–1990
In 1947, Nepal witnessed the first open political protest against the Ranas. In 1951, the puppet king Tribhuvan (of the Shah line) left the palace ostensibly for a picnic but instead sought asylum in the Indian embassy and escaped to India. Meantime, the Nepali National Congress (NCC), an outlawed opposition party, took control of the Terai (the southern region of Nepal). The Ranas, knowing their days were numbered, formed an interim government with the NCC and King Tribhuvan was returned to Nepal, promising democracy. Although he died shortly thereafter, Tribhuvan’s son Mahendra oversaw the first democratic elections in 1959. A year later, frustrated with the corruption and chaos of the newly elected officials, Mahendra again took direct control and the newly elected politicians were exiled to India. Mahendra established the Panchayat, a system where the prime minister, the cabinet, and local government officials were chosen by the king, and in which criticism of the monarchy was a criminal offense. This system mirrored the earlier Licchavis system of government.
Mahendra’s son Birendra ascended the throne in 1972, carrying on the direct-rule policy of his father. He also continued the Panchayat system of government. Strong opposition to the Panchayat government throughout the 1970s led King Birendra to call for a national referendum in 1980. The referendum gave voters the opportunity to support or reject the Panchayat system of government. A very small majority (55%) voted to retain the Panchayat form of government. The narrow margin of victory suggested that many were still unhappy with the current political system and the country witnessed growing protests to Birendra’s reign throughout the 1980s.
1.1.7 Democracy, civil war, and Federal Democratic Republic: 1990–present
In 1990, the people of Nepal, inspired by the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and motivated by the worsening economic conditions at home (caused largely by a trade dispute with India), began violent pro-democracy demonstrations. The political unrest grew and the violence increased until May 1990, when the king agreed to end the Panchayat system and establish a representative democracy (although it retained a constitutional monarchy). The first free elections were held a year later in 1991.
The years since the nation’s first democratic elections can be understatedly characterized as politically unstable. The centrist Nepali Congress party won the first multi-party elections in 1991 and the Communists became the leading opposition party. Then in 1994, mid-term elections were called after the ruling Congress government lost a parliamentary confidence vote, resulting in a hung parliament, and the Communists, who emerged as the single largest party, formed a minority government. Then the minority Communist government soon fell and was followed by several successive weak coalition governments. All of these governments recognized a constitutional monarchy, retaining earlier ties to the crown within the political system.8
In 1996, spurred on by their frustration with the inability to affect change through the political process, one group of the Communist party splintered off to create the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) and subsequently declared a “Peoples War,” which decimated Nepal’s infrastructure and economy and paralyzed the country over the next decade. The civil war, which cost the country over fifteen thousand lives with countless others missing, tortured or displaced, lasted for ten years until the signing of a UN-led peace accord between the government of Nepal and the Maoists in 2006.9 The country has yet to fully recover.
The years between 1996 and 2006 saw two parallel governments in operation: the unstable government of Nepal (which mainly operated in a vacuum from within the Kathmandu Valley) and a parallel Maoist government that clandestinely operated throughout most of the rest of the country. Regarding the former, the Nepali Congress won an absolute majority of seats in parliament in 1999 and formed a majority government, with Krishna Prasad Bhattarai as the prime minister. An internal power struggle soon ensued within the Nepali Congress party, however, and led to the ouster of Bhattarai and his replacement by his long-time rival within the party, Girija Prasad Koirala, in March 2000. This government lasted little over a year when Koirala resigned in July 2001 and was replaced by his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba.
In June 2001 a national tragedy threw the already fragile central government (which still held loyalties to the crown) into further nebulousness. King Birendra (who still held much political currency), Queen Aiswarya, and seven other members of the royal family were killed by Crown Prince Dipendra, who was reportedly angered over his parents’ choice of his arranged marriage. The crown prince then allegedly shot himself as well and within days Birendra’s brother Gyanendra assumed the throne as king of Nepal.10
In May 2002 the country was thrown into further political uncertainty. The king dissolved parliament upon the recommendation of Prime Minister Deuba, who had been threatened with censure by his own party for supporting the extension of an official state of emergency. After a short one-week direct rule by King Gyanendra, Lokendra Bahadur Chand became prime minister in October 2002, followed by Surya Bahadur Thapa (2003–2004) and Sher Bahadur Deuba again (2004–2005). Then, on February 1, 2005, citing incompetence by the central government to properly manage the ongoing Maoist insurgency, King Gyanendra suspended the constitution and once again assumed direct authority. The king’s action sparked massive public protests, now referred to as Loktantra Āndolan ‘Democracy Movement’.11 Just over a year later he buckled under pressure, restoring the previous parliament on April 24, 2006. Girija Prasad Koirala was elected as prime minister. One of the first orders of business taken up by the newly reinstated parliament was a promise to hold elections within a year for a new parliament that would take up the task of writing a new constitution and usher in a new political era for Nepal. Three days later, on April 27, the Maoists announced a unilateral truce. And on May 1, Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai acknowledged that if the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections were found to be free and fair, they would abide by the results. The Maoists were again ready to re-enter the political process of Nepal.
After two postponements in 2007, the long awaited Constituent Assembly election was finally held on April 8, 2008. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) won 220 out of 575 elected seats and became the largest party in the CA. On May 28, 2008, the newly elected Constituent Assembly approved a temporary constitution abolishing the Hindu monarchy, declaring Nepal a secular state, placing the army under the command of the parliament rather than the king and stripping the king and his family of all