History of Nepal

King Prithivi Narayan Shah of Nepal instructions of Statehood, 1774 AD, Nuwakot Darbar,Nepal.
The first document on statehood and nation making, a basis for the Shah dynasty and modern Nepal! As Nepal enters the Constitution writing process, federalism and much else a highly needed reading as written by the King and translated by Stiller.

Today we tend to see India as the largest democracy on the subcontinent of Asia and our natural ally along with our other democratic ally, Great Britain. India and the independent countries that were created out of the British Raj, namely, Pakistan and Bangladesh (but not Burma, Myanmar today) are members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. But this present-day understanding fails to take into account the history of empire and ethnicity that antedates World War Two. Modern India is the product of two empires that preceded India’s independence, the Mughal Empire and the British Raj. The Moghuls consolidated Islam first introduced by Arab traders into a population that formerly had been primarily Hindu with offshoot of Buddhism. The Raj consolidated the various major linguistic groups (Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Tamil) along with numerous minor languages into a single political system and eventually into three nations: primarily Hindu India, mainly Buddhist Burma, and largely Muslim Pakistan (with Bengali-speaking Bangladesh becoming independent from Urdu-speaking Pakistan).

Both the British American colonies and India were settled by Europeans under a similar system of joint-stock companies: the Virginia Company and Massachusetts Bay Company in the case of America and the British East India Company in the case of India. The East India Company established its own army with native recruits and obtained the right to tax the native peoples of India. To run the bureaucracy, it established, the company established schools to train an elite native population. While some company employees married Indian women and adopted India culture, Christian missionaries sought to anglicize the Hindu population and stamp out such traditions as female infanticide and sati (the tradition of widows committing suicide on their husband’s funeral pyres). However, the British made exceptions in the case of the princely states ruled by minority maharajas, who tended to exploit their native population.

In both British North America and India, the corporate structure of government was replaced by royal government in the early eighteenth century in North America and in the mid-nineteenth century in India. The United States gained its independence from Britain during the American Revolution, and ever since it has been a champion of anti-colonialism while buildings its own territorial empire. At a time in the nineteenth century when the United States was expanding from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts, Great Britain was building an even greater overseas, colonial empire with India as the “Jewel in the Crown.”

In order to defend its ‘Jewel in the Crown”, Britain acquired Burma as shield against the French in Indochina, came in conflict with Tsarist Russia in what has been called the “Great Game,” secured the shortest route to India by way of the Suez Canal by establishing a protectorate over Egypt and so-called mandates under the League of Nations in the Middle East (Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq). After World War Two with the dismantling of the British Empire, the United States replaced Britain as a world power. But we have inherited a world created by previous empires that have conquered and consolidated various ethnic minorities into multi-ethnic nations not of their making. In this modern world, despite our becoming a world power, we must not lose sight of the principle of self-determination on which our nation is based.

This study examines the political process underlying Nepal's land reform legislation from 1951–1964, in the hope that doing so will enrich understanding of the politics of the period. It draws on various secondary sources’ discussions of land reform politics and incorporates primary sources such as political manifestoes, speeches, newspaper articles, and interviews with Dr. Mohan Man Sainju, the former national director of the land reform program under King Mahendra. It shows that the land reform legislation adopted was the product of a dynamic political process in which various actors were involved. Primary actors, who included the king, the various political parties and independent politicians, shaped political discourse most directly due to their status as leaders of the country. Secondary actors, who included the elite landowning classes, the peasantry, and international powers (particularly the US) also influenced discourse by pressuring primary actors, either directly or through less organized, less direct means. Many political parties lacked a coherent ideology for supporting land reforms; rather, their espousal of land reforms in preparation for elections and their populist rhetoric suggest that they used these issues instrumentally as a political tool for garnering popularity among the peasantry. However, the Nepal Communist Party and the Nepali Congress were exceptional in that each espoused socialism and thus had an  ideological foundation for land reform. The monarchy developed a tenuous commitment to land reforms only gradually, apparently motivated at times by prospects of political gain and at times by a desire to boost national agricultural productivity and industrialize the country, but it ultimately abandoned land reform, probably for fear of alienating the landed elite on which it depended for political support.

The following paper explores the unique history, tradition and culture of the Gurkhas focusing on their knife, the Khukuri, often called Kukri. The relationship between the Gurkhas and Khukuri, its use in Gurkha culture, tradition and history. The Khukuri is a essential part of the Gurkhas identity and soul.

This paper critically examines the Maligaun edict of Viṣṇugupta dated in Licchavi Saṃvat 57 offering new readings and translations as well as a review of two past studies of this edict by Dhanavajra Vajracharya and Gautam Vajracharya respectively. The edict deals with remarriage—formal or otherwise—of young women who have lost their husbands under certain specified circumstances. It analyses the contents of this important edict in the light of Dharmaśāstric injunctions on this topic and, against past claims, demonstrates that the royal orders in this edict are essentially in line with those Dharmaśāstric recommendations of the early mediaeval period and therefore were not typical to the non-Brahmanical ethnic groups. It points out that the still prevalent historiography of ancient Nepal that assumes both the existence of a particular Tibeto-Burman tribe of Nīpas and their gradual Sanskritization is based on shaky grounds. In a postscript, this paper also discusses the take of the Muluki Ain 1854 on the same issue.

This article is about the late Brigadier John Humphrey Montagu (1919-2014) and his Kukri (Khukuri) knifes. I´ve focused on his military career (Part 1) and the two Kukri knifes (Part 2) he acquired during his service in India and the Far East between 1939-1968.
John Humphrey Montagu rarely spoke about his military career though he had served almost 30 years in the Army, with the Gurkhas across half the world, with distinction. The late Brigadier Montagu followed his father into the Army and joined the Armed Forces at a time when the sun never set over the British Empire, prior to the 2nd World War (WW2). He was commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall´s Light Infantry in 1939 and during WW2 served in the 8th Gurkha Rifles on the frontiers of India and Burma. After the War and Indian Independence he served a short period in Royal Army Service Corps and 7th Gurkha Rifles, before transferring to 10th Princess Mary`s Own Gurkha Rifles.
He saw the British Empire at its height and over the years how it crumbled and former colonies became independent sovereign nations by the time he retired. During 30 years he served in WW2, Indian Independence, Malayan Emergency, Borneo Confrontation and Hong Kong.

The 1814-1816 war between the East India Company and Nepal led to the first substantive British engagement with Sikkim. This paper focuses on the role of Captain Barré Latter (1777-1822), the British officer who had the prime responsibility for frontline diplomatic contacts with Sikkim. It has two main themes. The first is Latter’s personal contribution to local and regional diplomacy during and after the war. The second concerns his religious views and his indirect contribution to Tibetan linguistic research.

This paper shows and analyses the issue of  the relations between Nepal and the Ch’ing Empire from the British point of  view during the last months of  the Manchu authority in China. Nepal, a buffer state between India and Tibet, represented for the British an important and decisive ally in South Asia. The first part of  the work will be dedicated to an analysis of  the political and geopolitical status of  Nepal compared to Britain and China of  the Ch’ing Dynasty. The second part, which further develops the first, enters into the specifics of  a tribute that the Himalayan country should have offered the Emperor P’u-i. The Hsin-hai Revolution of  1911 put an end to imperial power in China and would lead to the establishment of  the republic and would resolve issues and misunderstandings between the countries. The paper pays particular attention to the correspondence between the then Nepalese Prime Minister, Chandra Shum Shere, and the British Resident in Nepal, John Manners Smith. The research takes as a benchmark the wider scenario of  the period immediately following the end of  the Great Game and the decline of  the Manchu power. The guideline and key to interpretation of  the documents reflects the perspective of  the geopolitical and strategic interests of  the British Empire in Asia.

“a very impressive documentation of Newar culture, on a high level of ethnographic and theoretical standards, and excellently presented”
    (M. Gaenszle in EBHR 17: 154)
“an essential book not only for scholars of Nepal, Hinduism and South Asia, but for all social scientists concerned with the interactions of politics, religion and social organization in pre-industrial societies”
    (W.F. Fisher, JRAI (N.S.) 5: 323)
“essential reading for anyone interested in caste”
    (B. McC. Owens, American Ethnologist 25: 78).

We will learn in this article about a man who´s grandfather came to India in the late 18th century, who´s son and later grandchild, who´s descendants would serve in the military till Indian Independence in 1947. Alexander Bertram Lindsay had a unusual military career, serving in the North Western Frontier, the North Eastern Frontier, Russia and in London. He served in the South Wales Borderers, 2nd Prince of Wales´s Own Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army HQ, Secretariat of Imperial Defence, Personal Staff of the Commander in Chief, Army Staff HQ, India Office and the War Office during his 22 years in service. He made a name for himself as a translator and Interpreter of Russian, in a time when the Great Game was reaching its height, until World War1.