A Country governed by leeches.
Nepal: a land of Gods where Goddess Sita and The Enlightened one was born. A valley resembling paradise- what has become of it now?
I, myself being from a blood of 'kazis' know and accept the horrific tragedy of blood shed by Nepalese people throughout history and many even now.
In a country whose history is so littered with real conspires, it is second nature to be extremely reluctant to accept anything at face value- because throughout history Nepalese citizens have only been fed half-truths by those in authority. In a contrary where King is held to be a God, the father and protector of all his peoples- the massacre that took place in that unfortunate day of 1st June 2001 is not just regicide; it amounts to deicide as well.
The Shah dynasty has ruled Nepal since 1769, some years before the United States of America came into being. Since 1769 there has been an uninterrupted line of Shah kings, the son or grandson succeeding the father, up until the twenty-first century. That in itself is something of a success story. Like many other Hindu kings, they were revered by people they ruled as living gods, in this case the partial reincarnations of Lord Vishnu. Their human lineage goes back to the Rajputs, warrior princes from the deserts of Rajasthan who were in the forefront of resistance against Muslim invaders. "Rajput (from Sanskrit raja-putra, "son of a king") is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and some parts of Pakistan. They claim to be descendants of ruling Hindu warrior classes of North India. Rajputs rose to prominence during the 9th to 12th centuries. Until the 20th century, Rajputs ruled in the "overwhelming majority" of the princely states of Rajasthan and Surashtra, where the largest number of princely states were found."-Wikipedia
Shahs claim descent from the earliest of Aryan kings, and through them to the sun and the moon. King Prithvi Narayan Shah is, quite rightly, a founder of Nepal. When he ruled over Nepal even Communist China, recognized Nepal's sovereign status, they have referred to Nepal as the 'gate' that guard its southern borders.
'Rana' They were 'Kazis', or strongmen, who in their struggle for supremacy used every means at their disposal including assassination. Jung Bahadur Kunwar is a well known figure- the founder of Rana dynasty. Jung Bahadur is the reason for setting up the dictatorship that repressed the nation for more than 100 years and left it in a primitive economic condition even now! Kunwar is a sanskrit title used especially by Rajputs of Northern India, Nepal and Pakistan. Kunwar is one of the cast of Nepal under Chhetri category surname. Jung Bahadur created a regime that was to govern the country for the next 104 years, during which time the reigning Shah family were prevented from exercising any real power in the land. However even if Shah were still the kings of Nepal they were restricted to a purely ceremonial role. The Kunwars needed the kings for even though Jung Bahadur and his successors arrogated to themselves all powers of decision making and patronage, their authority was based on the premise that they were acting in the king's name. In theory, the king remained the source of all authority, the fountain of justice, the dispenser of all honors and lands within his realm. The oath of loyalty taken by every officer and soldier in the army was- and to this day still is-directly to the person of the king, and not to his ministers. This is why, despite incessant power struggles among its ruling elite, The kingdom of Nepal managed to void any full scale civil wars over a period of nearly 250 years.
And Now in the 21st century, the men that ought to be fighting for our country and represent our country are in places like India and Britain fighting for them! Surely our motherland deserves to be our first priority. This is why in our country there are 10s and 100s of people dying everyday, a constant never ending civil war, is this what Prithivi Narayan Shah wanted to see?
The gradual transfer of power away from the king was made acceptable simply because there had no real king in Nepal for so long. Nearly half a century had elapsed between Prithvi Narayan Shah's death in 1775 and his great grandson Rajendra Bikram Shah's commencing personal rue in 1837. During all this time there had been only seven years when a Nepalese monarch could be said to have truly ruled. The rest of the time the country had been governed by a regent, the Council of Nobles, or an all-powerful chief minister.
Today, rather than try to build the economy and disperse its benefits more, equitably, elected politicians seem eager only to fight over the diminishing pool of patronage and money available, just as the noble families of Gorkha had done 200 years ago/ The same feudal habits of mind, of putting their own interests and those of their extended families before any concept of service to the state, still prevailed. Its embarrassing.
