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ABOUT NEPAL
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OUTSIDE NEPAL
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POLITICAL STRIFE
King Yakshya Malla, who ruled from AD 1428 to 1482, was reckoned to be the bravest and most distinguished among all the Malla kings. It was during his reign that the kingdom grew to its largest extent, as has been mentioned earlier, and, like his predecessors, he was a great patron of the arts. Besides that, he was also a benevolent ruler who gave alms to the poor and improved the living conditions of his subjects by building canals and waterways for farmers. But prior to his death he committed a grave mistake that was to bring to an end the glorious age of the Malla Empire.
Yakshya Malla divided his kingdom among his sons, and so for a hundred and fifty yearsonwards, the independent kingdoms of Kantipur, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Banepa by modern Nepal. The conquest of Kathmandu Valley, which took a total of ten years of planning, siege and diplomacy, was the highlight of his conquests. His descendants continued the work begun by King Prithvi Narayan. At the greatest extent the Nepali (then known as the Gorkhali) Empire covered an area that was at least a third more than its present confines.
Around this time, Nepali expansionism came into conflict with the British, who were themselves busy with their own empire-building spree. The two forces met in a series of battles that culminated in the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816. The Treaty reduced the recently expanded Nepali kingdom by a great deal but after that Nepal was left alone.
The lull that followed the ceasing of external hostilities, however, saw a series of internal conflicts begin. These power struggles were the result of the polarizing of authority between the then king Rajendra Bikram Shah's multiple queens who supported different aristocratic clans in their proxy fights.
In 1846, Jung Bahadur Rana usurped power as Prime Minister with the help of one of the queens and arrogated the right of his family to rule by decree as Prime ministers and relegated the monarchy to the backstage. This oligarchy of the Ranas, not unlike the shogunates of Japan, lasted for 104 years in which the post of Prime Minister was transferred from brother to brother.
During this time, the country was bled white by the Rana rulers in their quest for emulating the grandeur of the British. Innovation of any kind within the country was disallowed and the people were kept on a tight leash. Criticism of their rule was brooked from no one, even from within their own family. But the most notable feature of the Rana rule was that Nepal was kept in isolation throughout the long century of their power.
That ended in 1949 when the then King Tribhuwan (the present King's grandfather) took on the might of the Ranas and with the help of a popular armed revolt forced the Ranas to surrender power. Political parties then openly entered the Nepali political scene. The first post-1949 government was a coalition between the Ranas and the Nepali Congress, the party that had led the revolt.
The coalition floundered in no time due to a split in the Nepali Congress. After this followed period of period of political instability with governments being successively formed and failing. It needs to be noted here that none of the governments constituted then had a popular mandate; their formation being purely a matter of the king's pleasure.
In order to end this uncertainty in the political scene, general elections were called in 1958. The Nepali Congress came to power with an overwhelming majority. But in 1960, King Mahendra, the present king's father, engineered what has been called a 'palace coup'. Moving swiftly, he had all political parties banned, the leaders, ruling as well as opposition, thrown into prison, power consolidated into his own hands and a political system called the partyless Panchayat system adopted.
It was through this political dispensation that King Mahendra and later the present King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah ruled Nepal for 30 years. All along political dissent was not tolerated. Things changed slightly after the 1980 national referendum, which was called after a student-led unrest began to get increasingly violent. The referendum asked the people to choose between the existing partyless Panchayat system and a multi-party system and the partyless Panchayat system won 55 percent of the votes amidst charges of massive rigging.
But despite all efforts the Panchayat system was doomed to failure. In 1990, the Nepali Congress and the communists joined hands for the first time to try and overthrow the Panchayat system. During a campaign, at times bloody, that lasted a month and a half, it became evident that the Panchayat system could not last long. King Birendra, recognizing this fact bowed to popular will and lifted the ban on political parties.
An interim government representing the Nepali Congress, the communists and the palace, with the explicit mandate to get a new constitution for Nepal ready and to hold general elections, was formed under Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the Nepali Congress president.
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