Category: Must Read Books on Nepal

Munshi Shew Shunker Singh & Pandit Shri Gunanand, Nepal: History of the Country and the People (New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1983) (Originally London: Cambridge University Press, 1877) (Edited by Daniel Wright)

Originally published in 1877, the book Nepal: History of the Country and People, translated by Munshi Shew Shunker Singh and Pandit Shri Gunanand, is one of the earliest accounts of the country. The book is the translation of Vansavali or Genealogical History of Nepal.

The original manuscript of the book, according to editor Daniel Wright, was written in Parbate with an admixture of Sanskrit and Newari and was in the possession of Professor Cowell, a scholar of Sanskrit, at Cambridge. Wright also mentions about another draft, “or at all events a similar work, recognized by the Gorkhas and the Hindu races of the country, and its copies were in the British Museum and the University Library of Cambridge.”

The history of Nepal, as covered by the book, is basically the history of the valley of Kathmandu. It is a mix of myths, stories handed down from the past, and some truths and realities. Beginning with the mythological period of the history and extending through the Satya, Treta and Dwapar ages, the book contains numerous curious legends regarding the temples, towns, and holy places of the country.

Editor Daniel Wright, who had the opportunity to spend ten years in Kathmandu Valley, has topped up the book with his Introductory Sketch. In its preface, he has pointed out that the translator Shew Shunker Singh, who was the Mir Munshi attached to the British Residency in Kathmandu at that time, had lived in Nepal for nearly thirty years. The Munshi was assisted, when necessary, by Pandit Shri Gunanand, a native of Nepal, residing at Patan, and whose ancestors, for many generations, according to Daniel Wright, have been compilers of this history. Wright has admitted that he himself was not an oriental scholar and had nothing to do with the translation beyond revisiting it for publication and adding a few notes regarding the customs and places mentioned. According to him, the illustrations in the book are copies of drawings. These drawings were made for him by a native and the portraits photographs taken by a friend.

The book makes an interesting read. It states that even though the country is small in its size, it possess a great variety of races in its population, the principals being Gorkhas, decidedly the best-dressed part of the population, Newars, Magars, Gurungs, Limbus, Kirats, Bhotelis and Lepchas. The Khas and Magar castes have been described as those who came to the Valley with King Mukunda Sen, a brave and powerful monarch. They introduced ‘sinki’ and ‘hakuwa’ rice in the valley. All Nepalese, according to the book, consume a large quantity of tea, which is imported from Tibet, as much as possible. Hinting at absence of educational provisions, it has been pointed out that the subject of schools and colleges may be treated in Nepal as briefly as that of “snakes in Ireland.” Commenting on the sanitary situation, Daniel Wright speaks aloud: “Kathmandu may be said to be built on a dunghill in the middle of latrines.”

This is probably the only book based on Nepal that explains why Nepal has been traditionally described as the country cursed by a ‘sati.’ As the story is given, King Laxmi Narsinha Malla of Kantipur was served by a Kaji named Bhima Malla, who was his great well-wisher. He established thirty-two shops in the city and also sent Nepalese traders to Bhot. He visited Lhasa and sent back to Kantipur a large quantity of gold and silver. He also negotiated with Lhasa authority to return the property of Nepalese subjects dying there to the Nepalese government. Kaji Bhim Malla also brought Kuti, a Tibetan village, under the jurisdiction of Nepal. His services to the King were thus immense. He was even desirous of extending the rule of Laxmi Narsinha Malla, the 16th century King who is attributed of building the Kasthmandap (Maru Sattal) in 1595, over the whole country. However, some people behind the scene persuaded the King that Bhima Malla was aiming at making himself King, and hence, the King put him to death. His wife became a sati and uttered the curse, “May there never be ‘bibeka’ (sound judgment) in this durbar.” The authors of this 1877 book quickly acknowledge in the foot note below: “And her curse seems to have stuck to the country to the present time.” The year 1877 was also the year when Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, who has been frequently referred to in the book, died, creating another wave of instabilities in the country.

Daniel Wright points out in the Introductory Sketch that Nepalese lawyers are not held in much estimation in the country. As the chief justice got a very meager salary of some two hundred rupees a month, the inducements for bribery and corruption were great. As a point of solace, Wright mentions that making an appeal to the Council, which practically means Sir Jung Bahadur, “justice is on the whole pretty fairly administered.” To Jung Bahadur’s credit, Wright clarifies that the old savage code of punishments, which involved mutilations and stripes among other methods, was abolished. 

“Though the poor, people in general are contented [in Nepal] they have few taxes to pay, and their customs and prejudices are not interfered with. Justice is fairly administered, and the ‘law’s delays’ are by no means so great as in more civilized regions. There are no legal harpies to foment litigation, no municipal corporations, no road-funds, no educational taxes, nor any of the thousand and one innovations that so exasperate the subjects of British India …In extradition cases, unless the Nepalese are utterly indifferent in the matter, it is almost impossible to obtain the arrest of a criminal.”

In the Appendix, Daniel Wright has pulled together the list of his great collection of Sanskrit manuscripts bought through the Pandits residing at Bhatgaon and Kathmandu. Some of them are believed to be among the oldest, if not the very oldest, Sanskrit manuscripts in Europe. The book has immense historical value. In the end, the worth of the book must be judged by what it has captured from the mythological or the real history of Nepal.

Lok Raj Baral, Nepal – Nation-State in the Wilderness: Managing State, Democracy and Geopolitics (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2012)

Nepal is at very crucial stage of its history as a “nation state.” While every state by definition is a political and a geographical unit; the nation is a composite cultural and/or ethnic creature. This creature can be defined as group of people who are bound together into a single entity, through history, customs, value, language, culture, tradition, art and religion.

On the contrary, a state is just a patch of land with a sovereign government. As a politico-judicial entity, which is identified by its sovereign rights, a political state constrains the intrusion of outsiders in its internal affairs. When ‘nation’ and ‘state’ coincide, they form a “nation state” which not only assumes a collective political existence of the people living together with an official language(s), a system of law, a currency system, and a bureaucracy to order elements of society, but also presupposes the diversity of unified national identity.

As a nation state, Nepal has its own realities. The new book of Professor Lok Raj Baral Nepal: Nation-State in the Wilderness is a comprehensive attempt to explore these realities in the background of its history and the efforts towards democratic consolidation. Several weeks of mass protests in April 2006 followed by several months of peace negotiations between the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), the crisis government dealing with the so called ‘people’s war’ and Indian agencies, often acting behind the scene, overturned the evolutionary process of change in Nepal. It also set aside the course of the policy of national reconciliation – the basis of Nepal’s political development so far. This is a significant aspect of recent political change in Nepal. Baral has tried to explain this change on the basis of his characteristic vantage point.

The new process culminated in (a) a November 2006 peace accord, (b) the promulgation of an interim constitution and (c) the elections to the constituent assembly. The assembly elected to draft and adopt a new constitution for the country was expected to chart out a new democratic vision for Nepal and its system of government. Baral explores the contours of the nation state in the wilderness covering a wide spectrum of important issues around these changes, their antecedents, future course and beyond.

There are six chapters in the book. As an introductory chapter, Chapter I is devoted to trace out the parameters of Nepali politics: the thrust of Nepalese people for liberal democracy, ambiguities in the change process, political disjuncture or break with the tradition and the 2006 mass movement. Here, he also describes what he considers the rediscovery of a nation state, values of secularism, the role of fractured parties, and external influence in the politics of Nepal. Chapter II is a precise effort to revisit Nepali state. Baral explains the wars Nepal fought in the history, the treaties it signed and signposts of Nepal’s diplomacy in Chapter III. Then follow a sizable chapter on the issues of democracy, peace and development. In Chapter V, Baral explains Nepal vis a vis the modern world, focusing on the geopolitics. Here, Baral discusses Nepal in the context of its immediate neighborhood. The last chapter is an analysis for the future.

In his preface to the book, Baral maintains that the work is the product of his “long observation and study of Nepali state, politics, political elites, and their orientation.” He has described the finding of his research as the “sum and substance of [his] long academic career.” Although he does not clearly specify the objective of the book, he has unmistakably “tried to make a unified theme by knitting together the origin, growth and limitations of the modern Nepali state, people’s role that came by way of their desire for democracy and the active geo-politics.” The author acknowledges that the book “does not provide any definite clue to the future of Nepali state and democracy. Yet it gives a perspective on the unfolding scenario and their consequences.”

Mapping the overall situation of Nepal, and its future challenges, the concluding paragraph of Baral’s last chapter has the following direction: “Paradoxically the state [in Nepal] has not reached the terminal point [despite the vicissitudes that he has explained]; neither has it given us any promising picture for the future. Democracy is in peril, so is the vitality of the state. Prolonged transition and polarized and uncertain politics may be more alarming when foreign powers start showing their active presence than ever before and when the political and other elites become too weak to manage them. Political parties that take position for and against any country themselves would make these powers active and interventionist as the recent developments have demonstrated.” The reference apparently hints at India, and responses of Nepal’s major political parties on its ghastly meddling in Nepal, its internal affairs and external relations.

What has not been covered in the book of Baral is the sad reality that all these efforts in the post 2006 scenario and the actors who led the process failed. Had Baral waited by any chance for another couple of months to publish his work, he would have been able to cover the 27 May 2012 demise of the constituent assembly without accomplishing its task, and the nature of disaster that the country is to manage in the upcoming months. By all these machinations, India has established itself in Nepal, setting aside the factors of stability and sustainable political development. This is the factor that will continue to trigger off quiet responses from other quarters as well.

If this particular perspective is not ignored, many of Baral’s arguments on monarchy, the process of national unification and evolution of Nepal’s politics, the challenges of national reconciliation and nation building, and the role of neighboring countries might entail alternative explanations. As Nepal moves into the second decade of the 21st century, a new power rivalry is taking shape between India and China. It does not seem to be possible to explain the “nation-state in the wilderness” without giving credence to the fact that Nepal is in the range of high-tech geopolitics. The context of the collapse of distance brought about by the advance of military technology must not be minimized. For an average Nepalese, what ails more is Nepal’s national security. The treatment given by Professor Baral to this aspect of his theme is not adequate.

Yet the book Nepal – Nation-State in the Wilderness is a significant addition in the library of political science of contemporary Nepal. It is a ‘must read” book for the political analysts of Nepal and abroad who want to pursue his themes more.

Lieutenant Colonel George Hart Desmond Gimlette’s Nepal and the Nepalese(London: H. F. & G. Witherbyn, 1927) was published at a time when the Prime Minister of Nepal was Chandra Shamsher JBR.

The book came into its present shape after sixteen years of the visit of the British King George V and six years after the visit of Prince of Wales—the  future Edward VIII. It was just four years before the signing of the Anglo-Nepalese Treaty of Friendship, and a year before the abolition of slavery in Nepal. Gimlette was yet another surgeon working at British residency in Kathmandu – the other famous notable surgeons who served there being Daniel Wright and H. A. Oldfield. Even though the book was published in 1927, many of the facts and figures referred in it were mostly from his experience in Nepal four decade earlier. Gimlette lived in Nepal from November 1883 to June 9, 1887. 

The book starts with a brief geographical sketch of Nepal, its towns and villages. This is followed by description of the various races that live here. The third chapter highlights the religious festivals, temples, etc. It is here that the author asserts that “the form of Hinduism almost universally followed [in Nepal] is Shaivism, the temples dedicated to and worshippers of Vishnu being very few.” The next chapter deals with the economy of Nepal (agriculture, trade and revenue) – agriculture being generally followed by all classes, “except, of course, traders and soldiers actually serving in the army.” The book attempts to deal with constitution and laws of Nepal also. Discussion about the history of what the author describes as the Rajput dynasties of Nepal valley has been lumped in the sixth chapter. The seventh chapter deals with the origin and history of the Khas race and the House of Gorkha. The eighth chapter explains the history of the Rana family. This follows the author’s personal recollections of some of the events that transpired at the time when he was in Kathmandu.

George Hart Desmond Gimlette writes about many things that his predecessors writing on Nepal did not mention or elaborate. He describes the 22 November, 1885, coup of Bir Shamsher and his brothers against their uncle Ranauddip Singh, who was the prime minister of Nepal at that time. But he refers to the coup as a revolution and does not explain the circumstances leading to it. He notes the Newar merchant population in Lhasa to be three thousand, “but it was probably less.” “The bulk of such articles of European manufacture as reach Thibet from India, passes from Nepal. And attempts to divert this trade to the Darjeeling route have hitherto met with but scanty success.” He mentions Taklakar or Yari, Mestang, Kerong, Kuti, Hatia and Wallang as principal passes in the Himalayas. “But only Kerong and Kuti passes are the nearest to Lhasa and hence the most frequented.” However, the Kuti pass has been described as the principal trade route from where the most of the interstate traffic has been carried on.

The author describes Nepal as a country rich in iron and copper. In his description about Nepalese agriculture, he refers to two kinds of local rice: viz, the Gaya or upland rice, and the Puya or lowland rice. The transplantation of the lowland rice takes place in June and upland rice in the middle of May. The other Nepalese products are Indian corn, the red and yellow pepper, wheat, and potatoes, radishes and other vegetables. “Besides the celebrated pepper, another Nepal specialty is the large cardamom, which is gown in extensive gardens in different parts of the valley, near the foot of the hills, in shady, well-watered corners.”

Gimlette states that King Ran Bahadur Shah had made large offerings at shrines of Devi for the long life of his Brahmini queen to whom he was greatly attached. Unfortunately, when the lady died, the King was so upset that “he revenged himself by desecrating the temples and images of the goddess. Talleju, some small temples near Simbunath, and others near Pashpati, were defiled and worship in them forbidden.”  Prime Minister Bhim Shamsher has been described in the book as having suffered from phthisis (the disease causing the wasting of the body, especially pulmonary tuberculosis). Correcting the existing misconception, he clarifies that the Khas tribe of Nepal is not always the people who have fallen from their existing caste, as the offspring of the union of high caste Hindus (father) and lower caste (mother), but also that “it was a tribe [that existed in Nepal] since days yore.” He mentions the system of the “Mana Chawal” in Nepal. This has been described as “the piece of land given by the government to the nearest relative of an extinct Raja family.” The system allowed the heir to enjoy the produce of the land as long as he lived. “There is a life pension on the jagir system. No tax is paid to government. After the death of the holder the land lapses to Government.”

There is also an account of the horror of cholera epidemic that erupted in Kathmandu and the adjoining districts in 1985. It started in the month of June and continued till the end of August claiming many lives every day. There is a reference that it spread to Hanuman Dhoka palace as well, where 23 people, most of them Ketis, died. “As soon as the symptoms had declared themselves, the sufferer was hurried off to the ghats on the banks of the Baghmati, and laid in some Pati (veranah), often on the ground with no bedding or covering of any kind; his friends generally sat by him, sleeping, cooking, and caring their food until death appeared near, when the moribund would be taken to the edge of the water, and his legs to the knees, placed in the stream.”

At times, the watchers left these sick people to die. The author says: “I frequently saw people still breathing who had been lying thus partly immersed for perhaps an hour. In one case, which had promised well, the patient was found to have been placed in the water and was taken out of it by my hospital assistant; she lived for three days afterwards, but eventually died from the effects of the exposure.” He also refers to a pathetic situation when the dead people were burned in the ghats in full view of the sick lying there. Many corpses, thrown out in the river without burning them, were brought back to the banks by dogs and jackals. “The register [of Gimlette’s hospital] shows a total of nine hundred nine persons treated, or to whom medicines were sent from the dispensary; but superstition, ignorance and indifference, were all combined against the sick.”

This sad story apart, there are other interesting events mentioned in the book. Gimlette writes about an exhibition that he observed, with some other Nepalese generals, some very good-looking girls. “Though perfectly demure and proper in their behaviour, [they] did not seem in the least to disapprove of the admiration their appearance evoked from those on our elephant. The two generals thought it no end of a joke, every now and then giving me a nudge and nearly choking with laughter. I asked who the young ladies were, rather a useless question, as I knew perfectly well they were not real ladies. [General] Ranbir Jang said, with another laugh and a sly dog expression that they were “Maids of Honour,” this is the euphemism generally employed to describe court slave girls.”  

There are some errors and inconsistencies in the book, which have been clearly indicated by T. R. Vaidya in his 1993 introduction to the book. In 1927, Gimlette also published A Postscript to the Records of the Indian Mutiny: An Attempt to Trace the Subsequent Careers and Fate of the Rebel Bengal Regiments, 1857-1858. That is another interesting book to the credit of this important writer. 

 

Ludwig F. Stiller, S. J., Nepal: Growth of a Nation (Kathmandu: Human Resources Development Center, 1993)

Ludwig F. Stiller, S. J. is not a new name in Nepal. He was a famous American Nepalese historian who produced a couple of distinguished books on Nepal’s history. The theme of the present work, Nepal: Growth of a Nation, published in 1993, is broad and challenging. It talks about the land and people of Nepal, the vision of the country and its leadership, the politics for profit, control and centralization, and the new awakening. The author covers these themes through the last two hundred years of Nepalese history.

In the opening paragraph of the book, the author states that “the Nepalese nation was born against improbable odds. In the most difficult terrain imaginable, the Nepalese achieved unity and then withstood the British threat to rule South Asia. Today, landlocked and hedged in by great powers, the Nepalese still proudly assert their independence in the family of nations. At home, their chief concern is development. Internationally, though Nepalese troops are everywhere respected, the Nepalese stand for nonalignment and peace. In fact, few have attained the peace the Nepalese enjoy.” Here, the author is speaking his mind about the country as it was in 1993.

The book has fourteen small chapters. Chapter I deals with the land of Nepal and its people. It is based mainly on chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the author’s 1973 book, entitled The Rise of the House of Gorkha. Chapter II deals with the Founder of modern Nepal, King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who unified the smaller principalities in Nepal to form a strong country. The unifier, Stiller mentions, “respected and worked with the regional, cultural, social and fiscal administrations he found, no matter how disparate they seemed.” Forty years later, after the unifier’s death in 1775, Stiller points out, Nepal suffered its greatest single military set back at Almora in Kumaon in Anglo-Nepal War (1814-16). This is the background with which Chapter III deals with the spoils of the war.

Chapter IV is a narrative of the country’s painful growth. When King Rana Bahadur dismissed Bahadur Shah, the regent of Nepal from 1785 to 1794, and began to rule the country directly, he was only nineteen years of age. As the court was deeply divided by factions, the situation demanded an experienced leader to govern the country. However, King Rana Bahadur was still young and inexperienced. The reforms Bahadur Shah, his uncle, proposed in 1793 suggested that he had finally come to grips with the financial problems that the newly-unified country faced, but those reforms were never implemented. Here, Stiller notes that “nothing more was heard of them once the new king took control of the state.”

Chapter V is about the Anglo-Nepal War, as noted above, and its handling by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa. Unlike the other great leaders in Nepal, Stiller states Bhimsen Thapa was “neither a man of vision nor gifted with a sense of history.” Chapter VI analyzes postwar stagnation in the country while Chapter VII explains the power politics in the new context. Stiller makes it clear at this point that by ordering the death of Prime Minister Mathbar Singh Thapa, Rajendra Bikram Shah, the King at the time, “destroyed the last vestige of trust the people placed in him.”

Chapter VIII is the account of the Mutiny and the rise of Jung Bahadur – the founder of Ranarchy or the system of hereditary prime ministers in Nepal. The next chapter covers Jung Bahadur’s last few years. Despite Jung’s autocratic rule, Stiller makes a point that “his reforms did indeed strengthen the nation.” Chapter X deals with Ranoddip and Bir Shamsher, the next Rana rulers. Chapter XI and XII are about Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher, who in Stiller’s opinion, greatly stabilized Nepal during his time. Similarly, despite several problems, Chandra bequeathed to succeeding Prime Ministers a growing Nepalese nationalist movement. Chapter XIII covers the subsequent political awakening in the country. Building on this, Chapter XIV, entitled “In the End is the Beginning,” deals with the author’s last few remarks.

Written in a very lucid manner, Stiller’s book highlights Nepal’s growth after its unification by King Prithvi Narayan Shah until the dawn of democracy in 1950-51. Many of his themes, as listed in the beginning, build on what the author has already worked on: The Silent Cry: the People of Nepal 1816-1839 (1976), Planning for People: A Study of Nepal’s Planning Experience (1979) (co-authored with Ram Prakash Yadav), Letters from Kathmandu: the Kot Massacre (1981) and The Rise of the House of Gorkha (1995).

In the context of what happened in 1950-51, the year of revolution, some of the analysis in the book is very illuminating. The effort to explain how Jawahar Lal Nehru, India’s Prime Minister at the time, was able to manipulate Nepal’s situation to India’s advantage makes Chapter XIV interesting to any reader.

The posthumous 2001 publication of the ‘Atmabritanta’ of Late B. P. Koirala, the leader of 1950-51 revolution, has already given history students the perspective of manipulation straight through the horse’s mouth. It is so enlightening that Stiller was able to explain this situation with such accuracy so many years ago. At the climax of movement, Nepali Congress planned for the abduction of King Tribhuvan, who would be taken from Kathmandu to Western Nepal, presumably Palpa. They thought of establishing a constitutional government under the King from Palpa itself. There was a plan to revolt against the Rana government by sections of the Nepal army. The abduction of King Tribhuvan was to take place in September, during the week-long Indra Jatra festival, and the revolt in the army was to be sparked by several ‘C’ class Ranas and Shah family officers. The Indians in Kathmandu were clever enough to outbid the Congress and write a new course for the revolution.

As Stiller has clarified, “after King Tribhuvan and his family left Kathmandu on November 10, 1950, the battle for control of Nepal began in earnest. That very afternoon, a Nepali Congress plane airdropped leaflets over Kathmandu to announce the Congress revolution and appeal for popular support. The following day, the Congress liberation army raided Birganj and ‘liberated’ government offices there. On November 12th, the Congress airdropped leaflets over other major town in Nepal. Nehru put an end to this. On November 15th, before the Congress could carry out a major attack, the Uttar Pradesh government in India banned the use of Indian railways for paramilitary action against Nepal. The following day, air flights from Indian territory over Nepal were banned. King Tribhuvan was Nehru’s guest, and Nehru intended to use his presence in Delhi to force the Prime Minister, and if necessary the Nepali Congress, to negotiate a peaceful settlement.”

As the story goes, “Nehru’s proposal was the Delhi compromise. Despite the Government of India’s restrictions on their activities, the Nepali Congress liberation army launched successful attacks in both East and West Nepal. By the time the Congress had these victories to report, Mohun Shamsher had already accepted the Delhi compromise. The Congress case was further weakened by the fact that there had been no mass uprising in support of the congress revolution. Although the Delhi compromise denied the Congress the total victory Congress leaders felt necessary to bring about real change in Nepal, they were obliged to accept the Delhi compromise or be left completely out of the final solution.”

Stiller reminds, “In the meanwhile, Nehru used to India’s advantage Mohun’s assurance that Nepal would stand by the new government of India as it had the old. On July 1, 1948, Nehru asked him officially for the services of ten battalions of the Nepal army for garrison duty in India. The Indian Ambassador explained that this would free the Indian army for duty in Kashmir (and in Hyderabad, as it later turned out). When Mohun discussed Nehru’s request with the British ambassador, the Ambassador warned him that compliance with this request might impede Nepal’s application for membership in the United Nations. … Reluctantly, Mohan signed the agreement on July 18th. BY August 5th the troops were their way to India, where they served from August 1948 until April 1949. During that time, India settled both the Kashmir and Hyderabad issues to its own satisfaction. In 1949, Nepal’s application for admission to the U.N. was vetoed. Not until 1955 did Nepal sign admission to this world body.”

The story goes on: “Nehru continued to press the Nepalese Prime Minister. The Nepal India ‘standstill agreement of 1947 had implied that Nepal and India would eventually sign a treaty defining their relationship more accurately. When Mohun visited Delhi in February, 1950, he learned that Nehru had prepared just such a treaty. In their discussions, Mohun and Nehru covered the whole range of Nepal-India relations. When Mohun returned to Kathmandu, he carried the text of two treaties: one, a Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the other, a Treaty of Trade and Commerce. Along with the treaties, Mohun had carried Nehru’s firm reminder that he would have to introduce political reforms.” The Treaty of Trade and Commerce was calculated to “prevent Nepal from developing into a little Hong Kong, serving as an entrepot between the international market and India.” As far as the second treaty was concerned, the secret letters of exchange accompanying the treaty contained a modern version of the traditional clause, “your enemies will be our enemies, and our enemies will be your enemies.” “The Nepalese had shied away from their principle in all their dealings with the British, and the whole weight of Nepalese history was against accepting it now.” Mohun had set out to prove to Nehru that friendly relations between Nepal and India required no political change in Nepal. With this treaty, Nehru was clearly asking to prove it. “Almost unchanged, the treaties were signed in Kathmandu on July 31, 1950.”

In his Epilogue, Stiller notes that the end of the Rana rule in 1950 was incidental in a way. “The real challenge to the Nepalese people was the democratic era.” On this, Stiller explains that the post 1950 political developments have been frustrating for the growth of the nation. “King Mahendra indicated his intense dissatisfaction with the direction the political debate had taken by his intervention of December, 1969. In his constitution of 1962, King Mahendra introduced Panchayat democracy in a serious effort to strengthen the voice of the people. Three major amendments to that constitution underlined the difficulty of opening the political debate to the people in a country with such poor communications.” The state bureaucracy during the Panchayat system, notes Stiller, was also reluctance to yield power to the people. The good thing, however, was “the large turnover of elected officials in later Panchayat elections suggest[ing] that the people had begun to take their future into their own hands.”

Stiller further adds: “The popular movement of 1989 that led to a complete change of government and the restoration of parliamentary democracy was a clear sign that the will of the people was not heeded by those then in power. Whether or not the government swept into power by that popular movement will function according to the will of the people remains to be seen. It seems certain, however, that the people, under the guidance of their King, will prevail over the hesitancy of the elite to accept the constraints of a democratic system.”

Reading again, after 18 years of its publication, the book Nepal: Growth of a Nation is still a concise but a very thoughtful analysis of Nepal’s experience with its nation-building challenges. Stiller has both the heart and mind to explain the vicissitudes Nepal had to face over the two hundred years of its unstable history. No doubt, the book is a great piece of work.

 

Ludwig F. stiller, S.J., The Silent Cry: The People of Nepal: 1816 -1839 (Kathmandu: Sahayogi Prakashan, 1976)

The Silent Cry is the story of the People of unified Nepal during a trying period of adjustment and searching of goals. This story begins with the Treaty of Sugauli signed in 1816 and continues through to the death of Prime Minister Bhim Sen Thapa in 1839.

In this book, Ludwig F. Stiller, a leading Nepalese historian, has described the Treaty of Sugauli as “a beginning rather than an end to Nepal’s time of troubles.” The Treaty was signed on December 2, 1815 and ratified by March 4, 1816, between the British East India Company and Nepal ending the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816).

The Treaty of Sugauli called for – territorial concessions in which parts of the unified Nepal were given to British India, the establishment of a British representative in Kathmandu, and allowing Britain to recruit Gurkhas from Nepal for their military service. By virtue of this Treaty, Nepal also lost the right to deploy any British, American or European employee in its service without British approval. Earlier several French commanders had been deployed in Nepal to train the Nepali army.

Under the Treaty, about one-third of Nepalese territory was lost, including Sikkim (whose Chogyals supported Britain in the War); territory to the west of the Mahakali River like Kumaon and Garhawal (present Indian state of Uttarakhand); some territories to the west of the Sutlej River like Kangra (present day Himanchal Pradesh); and much of the Tarai region. A part of the Tarai Region was restored to Nepal under a revision of the treaty and more territory was returned in 1865 to thank Nepal for helping the British to suppress the Indian rebellion of 1857.

The Silent Cry is a book that describes Nepal’s people and their polity in the next twenty-three years after the ratification of the Treaty of Sugauli. It is the period that has been largely ignored in the modern history of Nepal.

The book is divided into four parts. The first three chapters provide an analysis of the situation prevailing in Nepal at the time. This analysis covers the seeds of conflict with the British India, the trauma of defeat of the war, the details of village Nepal at that time and government constraints in the post-war perspective.

In the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, the author covers the movements of Nepal towards greater internal unity at the regional and village level as well as the obstacles that hindered that growth. Here the author deals with Bhim Sen Thapa’s authority, the Nepal China affair, the restoration of Tarai, the intrigue in Kathmandu, army discontent, and Nepal’s involvement with Sindhia. His analysis of the growth of unity and revenue collection policies in the post-war perspective comes next. After this, the author talks about the ‘Sanskritization’ process as well.

Chapters seven, eight and nine explore the dialogue that took place between the central administration of the unified Nepal in Kathmandu and its villages and explain the administration’s failure to respond to the needs of the peasantry. Here the author discusses insecurity and unrest that emerged in the context of the ceiling on Jagirs, the struggle for security, the emergence of a pressure group, the restless army, the conflict between Bhim Sen Thapa and the Residency, and the events leading to his downfall.

In the last chapter, the author has restated the major themes of The Silent Cry and tried to explain the nuances of this title.

According to Stiller, the silent years – ‘the years of unheard cry’ were the cry of the common Nepalis in the postwar perspective. The cry went up from rural Nepal. It was a cry of pain and a cry of protest against official indifference to their plight. It was the cry of the system calling for change. At the root of the problem was the newly set up administration, the tax and revenue system, justice process, and lack of protection to the common people. The cry went unheard. Although he achieved a great deal for Nepal when he succeeded in gaining a restoration of more of the Tarai land than the British governor general had first envisioned when he made his proposal in 1816. But people wanted more efficient administration, some regular and accepted channels of communications, relief from the burden of taxes, and so on. It appeared in the silent years that Thapa was concerned primarily about his own position in society. He remained a strong promoter of his family interests. The essential failure of the Bhim Sen Thapa’s administration was simply a lack of vision as to how to run the newly unified country. Stiller points out:

Bhim Sen Thapa lost touch with the people of Nepal because he lacked vision; and the people of Nepal failed to move towards a greater unity and a true sense of Nepali nationhood because he lacked vision. He saw no greater goals to strive for. His administration and his own actions were all bound up in maintaining the status quo. He was satisfied with what the state had and with what he had, an attitude no serious politician can afford or accept.

The unified Nepal, according to Stiller, was not able to keep up with three basic ideas that King Prithvi Narayan Shah had bequeathed to the nation. He links this conclusion with Prithvi Narayan Shah’s belief that the nation walked on two legs, the farmers of ‘village Nepal’ as well as the military rank and file; that a rich peasantry made a rich country; and that good government depended on nobility of service. Stiller points out: “somewhere on the road to conquest, amid the crash of guns and the sweat of battle, these ideals were lost.”

The Silent Cry that Nepal was living with was not without result. “From 1839 until 1846 Kathmandu would know nothing but alarms, changes in ministries, increasing tension, and finally the explosive night of the Kot Massacre, the fourteenth of September 1846.” The author reminds of the close connection between the events and policies of the silent years and the emergence of Jung Bahadur. The silent years ended with such violence largely because the cry of rural Nepal and the Nepali nation had gone unheeded. The author, who released the book in 1976, remarks that the modalities of the cry have changed now and there is change in the content as well. But he argues “the cry is still there.” The question is “will it be heard any more closely than it was during the silent years?.”

 

For a student of law, Stiller’s analysis of the problem of ‘Sanskritization’ and its results is interesting. He has tried to explain ethnic diversity and customary law in the newly unified state, the ideal of Hindu law and unity, and the beginning of the process of ‘Sanskritization.’ Here, the author banks much on references on Hindu law, as practiced elsewhere, rather than legal rules produced in the new state. His use of the term ‘Sanskritization’ in the contents that he has been reflecting on seems over generalized, or a little too much. One must however agree with his finding that “not only was the legal dialogue of the silent years building up a record of legally sanctioned differences in custom and practice, it was also building up a record of differences in treatment meted out to citizens of different ethnic and caste backgrounds.”

Finally, it must be pointed out that in his preface, the author gives an important note of caution: “The reader will be well aware that my conclusions are far from a final statement of the events of the ‘silent years’. I hope he will be equally aware that ‘the silent cry’ chronicled in these pages is not the dying echo of the distant past but a challenge to all of us today to realize that we are in truth our brother’s and sister’s keeper.” This is an impressive book which must be read by anybody who wants to link up contemporary Nepal to its history.

 

 

 

 

 

Laurence Oliphant, A Journey to Katmandu (London: John Murray, 1852)

Jung Bahdur Rana (1816 – 1877) has been one of the most talked about figures in the history of Nepal. The founder of the Rana dynasty, he has been remembered as a tyrant, a Maharaja, a Kazi (Prime Minister), a diplomat, a nationalist, and a brave man. Depending on one’s focus, several authors have tried to explore Jung Bahadur in terms of his vibrant personality, power, and clout in the Nepal that he lived in. One among such authors was Laurence Oliphant.

I n 1951, Oliphant, a British author and the son of the chief justice of Ceylon, had the opportunity to accompany Jung Bahadur from Colombo to Nepal, when he was on his way back to the country from his state visit to England. Oliphant was thirteen years younger than Jung. As a co-traveler, smart and curious, he got a very precious opportunity to know Jung Bahadur and spend sometime in Kathmandu, experiencing it very closely. The book, A Journey to Katmandu [London: John Murray, 1852], was his first one. It is a treasure of information not just on Jung, who had already succeeded to become Kaji Major General by that time, but on everything that Oliphant came across and had the opportunity to observe.

The book starts with the arrival of Jung Bahadur and his entourage in Ceylon. From there, they take on ‘Atlanta,’ one of the oldest steam frigates in the British Indian navy, to sail to Calcutta, the nearest sea port from Nepal, and then by some elephants to Benares. Jung had a short but elegant stay in Benares. “If he had been a lion in London,” notes Oliphant, “he was not less an object of interest at Benares.” Jung was always crowded with visitors of high degree during his short stay there. These visitors were both Indian and European. An old native king in particular was frequently seen visiting Jung. The reason behind these frequent consultations was his willingness to offer Jung the second daughter of the ex-king of Coorg (which was by then already taken away by the British) in marriage. So Jung did not disappoint him and married the ex-princess.

At Benares, a regiment of Nepal army was already waiting to escort him to Nepal. He favoured the inhabitants of Benares, and the English in particular, to review the Nepalese regiment. The platoon exercise they performed was exciting for many. Oliphant notes that the exercise was done with the “utmost precision at different notes of the music” without anybody commanding the platoon. Jung mentioned that his wife wanted that some other means be invented to put the men through their exercises than by “hoarse shouts, which grated upon her ear.”

The author tries to give a detailed sketch of Jung Bahadur’s career in the book. Apart from this, Oliphant has also described Jung’s shooting camp at Jaunpore, the area being close to Benares, his mode of dispatching an alligator, a Nepalese dinner, a picnic on the frontier, the Nepal Terai and its resources, the great elephant exhibition of 1851, and the scenes of war of 1814-16. As all western visitors who visited the valley of Kathmandu before him, Oliphant also tries to explain what he observed there including the distinguished features of the people of Nepal, their temples and architectures, and the resources and capabilities of the country. Of course, the author does not forget to mention the magnificent view of the Himalayas from the summit of ‘Sheopoori’ and the view of the Kathmandu Valley from the summit of the Chandragiri Pass. Based on his interactions, he also praises Jung Bahadur’s popularity with the Nepalese peasantry and the army.

At one place, Oliphant cautions: “It is worthwhile to make a trip to Nepaul, not only for the delight of viewing the romantic beauty of its scenery, of wondering at the stupendous height of the mountains, of roaming amidst its ancient cities, ruined palaces, and glittering pagodas, but in order to take a lesson in human nature, for we are not at liberty to suppose that the princes and nobles of this country are a more depraved class than any other body of men, the fact being that a Nepaulese follows his natural impulses, unflattered by the restraints of our standard of civilization and morality, and the results are apparent.”

Going ahead, Oliphant offers retrospection: “Is not the more civilized inhabitant of western lands actuated by the same feelings, and would he not behave in the same manner as his swarthy brother in the East, had he been brought up in the same code of morality, and were he as fearless of the consequences of his following the bent of his own inclination? But, if so, then the visitor to Nepal simply sees the game of human life played openly and unconstrainedly, and in no way hampered by the rules which prevail in more civilised countries; and the unsophisticated tyro has only to come here and learn in a month what would cost him a lifetime of anxious study in a country enjoying the blessings of civilization.”

The book has many such interesting opinions. Jung Bahadur was born almost at the end of the Anglo-Nepalese War of 2014-16. His feeling as regards to a war with the British, as Oliphant has noted, was not graceful when Jung said to him: “If a cat is pushed into a corner it will fly at an elephant, but it will always try to keep out of the corner as long as possible.” Of course, Jung had a policy in the matter of war and peace as well. The book is an interesting reading even after 160 years of its publication.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry Thoby Prinsep, History of the Political and Military Transactions in India during the Administration of the Marques of Hastings 1813-1823 (Two Volumes) (London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1825)

Many of the writings of Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792–1878), an English official of the Indian Civil Service, are credible. His writings on the origin of Sikh power in Punjáb (1834), the discoveries in Afghanistan (1844), social and political conditions of Tibet, Tartary, and Mongolia (1852) are a few of them.

To Nepalese readers, his book History of the Political and Military Transactions in India during the Administration of the Marques of Hastings 1813-1823 (Two Volumes) (London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1825) is of special significance. This is the enlarged edition from the narrative published in quarto in 1820 under the administration of the Marques of Hastings. It gives one of the very early analyses of the Anglo-Nepal War (1814-1816), which ended with a peace treaty that established the sovereignty of East India Company over many territories under the Nepalese control. The book is generally considered by the British side to be a trustworthy narrative of the political and military events of that time in Nepal, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Poona, Nagpoor, Jypoor, Pindarees, and other places of importance in the central India. The preface to the book highlights “its utility as an authentic exposé of the events of the period not having been superseded by any of the publications which had since appeared.”

The author teats the Nepalese part of the history in this book as a special case: “The state of Nipal has purposely been reserved for separate mention, both because its situation and the circumstances which brought it into contact with the British government have no direct connection with the state and powers of central India and because the conduct of their nation, which made war inevitable, even before Lord Hastings had set foot in the country require more specific explanation than suited the cursory view of the condition of other powers taken in the proceeding chapter.”

The book is not set to find “any consistent relation of the means and gradations by which the Goorkhas had risen to power, in the mountainous tract stretching between the plains of Hindoostan and the highlands of Tartary and Tibet. Suffice it to say, that when Lord Hastings took charge of the supreme government [in 1813], he found their dominion to extend as far as the river Teesta to the east and westward to the Sutlej; so that this nation was then in actual possession of the whole of the strong country which skirts the northern frontier of Hindoostan.” 

The author, however, describes “[t]he hill rajas, whom [the Goorkhas] had successfully conquered and displaced, were more ignorant, selfish tyrants, on bad terms with their subjects and neighbours, but most of all, with their own relations. Thus, while there was amongst them no principle of combination for mutual defense against a common enemy, not one of the petty principalities was sufficiently strong or united within itself to be capable of substantial resistance.”

Henry Thoby Prinsep also gives his reflection on Prithee Nurayun Sah, the main architect of the Goorkha expansion. He states that Prithee has “the merit of establishing the system which raised this nation to power. Taught by the example of our early victories in Bengal, he armed and disciplined a body of troops after the English fashion; and after a struggle of more than ten years, finally subjugated the valley of Nipal by their means in 1768. The Moorshedabad Nuwab (Kasim Ulee Khan) attempted to interfere in 1762-3, but sustained a single defeat under the walls of Mukwanpoor; and the British government was not more successful in an effort made some years after …”. The later is a reference to Major Kinlock’s expedition undertaken at the recommendation of Mr Golding, the British commercial agent at Betia. He feared that “the success of the Goorkhas would ruin the trade he carried before with Nípal; it had been interrupted for three or four years in consequence of the subjugation of Mukwanpoor.”

The book begins with an analysis of the political economy of the overall military transactions in India. There is an impressive 54-page introduction in which Henry Thoby Prinsep describes relations of the British with native Indian powers, their alliances, subsidiary, and protective. He is very clear as to the natives’ disposition towards British and of states subject to their influence. This helps readers to understand the regional setting of the Anglo-Nepal War of 1814-16. Chapter II deals with the causes of the Nepal War more closely. The first campaign of 1814 is dealt with in Chapter III. Chapter IV builds on the first campaign and elaborates subsequent military strategies of both the countries. The second campaign, the extended war and its intensity, its overall effect, and the process of peace negotiation have been captured by the author in Chapter V. Here the author also describes Hastings’ terms of peace. The Nipalese side in particular refuse cession of Terai. This leads to break-off in negotiation and the initiation of fresh overtures. There is an effort to modify the terms of treaty mediating further concessions. However, Kathmandu refuses the ratification of the peace treaty. Following this development, General Octerlony, the English hero of the war, takes to the field.

Giving an account of Turanee border disputes, Prinsep deals with Sarun frontier and the Gourakhpoor and Bootwal cases. There are references on the proceedings of Sir G. Barlow and Lord Minto, and further aggressions of the Nìipalese. Included is the story of the Indian occupation of 22 villages of Sarun, appointment of a commission by the Governor General, and the resolution of the government on the result of its investigation. Goorkhas counter the occupation of Bootwal by the British. Thus begins the Nepal War and its first campaign. The book also deals effectively with the resolution of Governor General to attack Kumaon in the far west. Prinsep writes about the desperate attacks of Nepal’s hero, Bhugtee Thapa, on Dethoul, his defeat and death. The surrender of another hero, Umur Singh, is another painful event. Notwithstanding the glorious aspects of the Nepalese soldiers, the Anglo-Nepal war was lost to the British. 

The author is very clear when he says “the uniform success which had hitherto attended the Goorkhasproduced, in January 1815, an effect on the public mind in the independent portion of India which is more easily imagined than described. Although jealous, naturally, of our preponderance, and suspicious to a degree of any relinquishment of the pacific policy, the native [Indian] powers had so little knowledge of the strength and resources of the Goorkhas, that the war at first excited little sensation.” The preparations of the British side, notes the author, “might have been assimilated to the measures taken in 1812 against the Rewa chief,” a small princely state at central India at that time.

The anticipation and cautiousness with which the British viewed Nepalese soldiers was made very clear. Referring to the Goorkhas, the author says: [t]hey were an experienced as well as a brave enemy: they had been continuously waging war in the mountains for more than fifty years, and knew well how to turn every thing to their best advantage. Caution and judgment were therefore more required against them than boldness of action or of decision; but most of all, that power of intelligence and discrimination which is never without a resource in circumstances the most unexpected.” It is clear from the book, and the account of the war given there, that the Goorkhas were very good warriors, but they were not very critical in the assessment of the enemy on the other side.

The war was a hasty decision. According to Prinsep, the Goorkhas were not clear as to what extent they wanted to go and how. While they decided to “hazard a breech with the British government,” they “never speculated on rousing it to such exertions as they witnessed in the first [military] campaign.” “Notwithstanding their early successes, therefore, they very soon repented of the rash measures by which they had brought themselves into so hopeless a contest. Even when at the height of their prosperity, the immensity of the preparations, and the perseverance of their enemy, convinced them their cause was desperate; and they would willingly have given up every object in dispute, could they by that means have brought the war to an honourable termination. They were prepared also for some sacrifices, if such should be required.”

A letter, which was sent to Kathmandu and intercepted by the British after the fall of Nalapanee, clearly mentioned that the Goorkha commander “was consulted as to the policy of giving up the Dehra Doon and the hilly tract west of the Jumna, in addition to the contested lands on the Saurn and Gourukpoor frontiers.” The person writing the letter was no other than Umur Singh Thapa, a proud commander of the Nepalese side. “That chief’s opinion was adverse to any cession of hill territory.”

The instability in the power spectrum of Nepal was foreseen by the author in very clear terms. Following the ratification of the peace treaty, the King of Nepal died of the small pox. He was a young king who was neither a crucial decision-maker in the war nor in the peace process. When he died on the 20th of November, 1816, he was succeeded by his infant son, Raj Indur Bikrum Sah. The author’s calculation is that “[t]his event contributed to fix more firmly the authority of the party of the General Bheem Sein, by giving him another lease of uncontrolled dominion, pending a second long minority [government].”

Goorkhas. At one point, the author notes, “[i]t is a saying of the Goorkhas that every tree is a mine of gold.” An important caution that must be maintained in reading the book, however, is that this is the perspective of a civil servant of an enemy state explaining how they slashed another fierce, indigenous power that had the tendency to know no bounds at the frontier. The rest is a very informative reading.

 

 

 

Francis Buchanan Hamilton, An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal and the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha (Edinburgh: Longman, 1819)

The book of Francis Buchanan Hamilton An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal is the second book in English ever written on Nepal’s history. The first is the 1811 book by Colonel William Kirkpatrick, which was worked on before 10 November 1793.

Hamilton spent fourteen months in the country, during 1802-1803, mostly in the vicinity of Kathmandu, as a low profile visitor of the British government. He spent another two years along Nepal’s tarai frontier. Apparently, the intention behind his mission was to report to the authority back home about his findings on the state and people of this Himalayan country. The book of Hamilton is the only account which discusses the entire country of Nepal and does not limit itself to the Kathmandu Valley or its vicinity.

As a foreign visitor, Hamilton “employed to obtain information, so far as [he] prudently could, without alarming a jealous government or giving offence to the Resident, under whose authority [he] was acting.” He had some support of Colonel Crawford, at that time surveyor-general in Bengal, with several drawings of Nepal and valuable geographical surveys and maps. The account of Nepal by Kirkpatrick which was already published by that time had provided him with certain definite background to proceed.

Hamilton worked with some Nepali and Indians to trace out the details about the tribes, the physical features of the country, laws and government and the various princely states that formed the unified Nepal. Trained as a physician, he seemed to be good in geography, zoology and botany as well. That helped him a lot in making his study visit a success.

Hamilton divided his book in two parts. Part I has two chapters. Chapter I deals with the inhabitants of Nepal. Here he deals with what he describes as Hindu colonists from ‘Chitaur’, ‘Asanti’ and ‘Chaturbhuja.’ Attempts have been made here to describe the Hindu tribes east of the Kali River here. There are descriptions on Brahmans, their diet, festivals and offspring. He has specific mentions about Rajputs, and adopted and illegitimate low tribes in the Hindu community. This follows his general observation on the customs of these mountain Hindus east of the Kali, and those west of it. Then he provides details about Magars, Gurungs, Jariyas, Newars, Murmis, Kirats, Limbus, Lapchas and Bhotiyas. The later group has been described by him as tribes who occupied the country previous to the arrival of Hindus. Chapter II is about the nature of the country, the plains, hills and mountains, their production, animal and vegetables, cultivation, climate, rivers, and so on. Chapter III devotes to laws and government of Nepal. There are orientations on courts and forms of proceeding, punishment, provincial government, revenue and endowments, state officers and military establishment. They all make the book interesting reading.

In Part – II, there are two chapters. Chapter I has four sections – each dealing with Sikkim, the dominions of the family descended from ‘Makanda Sen’, Raja of Makwanpur, and the history of Nepal Proper previous to the conquests by the ‘Gorkhalese’, and the countries belonging to the Chaubisi and Baisi Rajas. Chapter II deals with the countries west of the River Kali. The second part is a valuable record on distinct political units of Nepal including Sikkim, Sen Dominions, Nepal Proper, Baisi-Chaubisi and Kumaon-Garhbal-Barh Thakuri. There are notes on twelve petty chiefdoms in the western Himalayas. The book describes Nepal as it stood previously to the war with the British, commencing in the end of the year 1814. There are interesting information in Part – II as well.

The book of Hamilton stands out as the best of the early accounts of Nepal. Beginning the first part, the author describes Nepal, a name celebrated in Hindu legend, as the country in the vicinity of Kathmandu, but as it stands now it means the whole territory of the unified Nepal. East from the Nepal Proper, he notes, the mountains are chiefly occupied by Kirants, who are frequently mentioned in Hindu legend as occupying the country between Nepal and ‘Madra’, the ancient denomination now called ‘Bhotan.’ Towards the west again, according to Hamilton, “the country between Nepal and ‘Kasmir’, over which the present rulers of the former have far extended their dominion, in the ancient Hindu writings is called Khas, and its inhabitants Khasiyas. I am told, that, wherever mentioned in ancient records, like the Kirats, their neighbours to the west, the Khasiyas are considered as abominable and impure infidels.” 

For any reader, this book is a window of knowledge about many important aspects of Nepal at that point of time. While the book is very useful, there are many factual errors, hearsay and misinterpretation. One significant example is his thinking that the Khas people are different from the mountain Hindus. They are the same lot in Nepal, but with different levels of reception of Hindu values. His reference that Hindus of mountains arrived there following invasion by the ‘Muhammedan’ king of ‘Dili’ is another mistake of fact. Hamilton noted that the king wished to marry a daughter of the Raja of ‘Chitor’ or ‘Chitaur’, celebrated for her beauty, and the offer was denied. There is simply no truth in the story. Maybe there are unknown exceptions, but most of the rulers he described as Hindu colonists from ‘Chitaur’, ‘Asanti’ and ‘Chaturbhuja’ have been indigenous rulers, and the story of their connections with these places have been willful fabrication for political benefits.

Similarly, Hamilton described the mountain Hindus as “deceitful and treacherous people, cruel and arrogant towards those in their power, and abjectly mean towards those from whom they expect favour.” This is too subjective a statement for anybody. He has a very low opinion about the Khas people for unstated reasons. He described them as “abominable and impure infidels” as noted above.

Many of these errors could be attributed to the informants who assisted Hamilton with information and helped him make judgments. But more than that Hamilton had a skeptical attitude about the rulers of Nepal, and those who assisted them to rule the country. The ‘Gorkhalese’ were victorious people, and were considered expansionist as well. As a jealous British official it was natural that his misgivings about the rulers and their associates had some effect in his writings as well. 

 

 

 

 

The book of Eden Vansittart, Notes on Nepal [Calcutta: 1896] was published about 110 years after the publication of Giuseppe de Rovato’s account of the conquest of Nepal Valley by Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah. Vansittart was the captain of the 2/5th Gurkha Rifles and had the opportunity to know Nepal and the Nepalese in the perspective of the Gurkhas as well.

By the time the Notes on Nepal was written, several literatures on the hidden country of Nepal had already been published – the most significant, in terms of coverage and comparatively more thoroughness, being the researches of British Resident Brian Hodgson. Vansittart had been much benefited by the perspective of all these early authors. At the time this book was written, Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, the founder of Rana regime, was already dead. Prime Minister Bir Shamsher was running the show after the assassination of Ranodip Singh in 1885 who had succeeded Jung Bahadur upon his death.

Eden Vansittart covers a wide range of topics in the Notes on Nepal in fifteen sections that the book has been divided into, giving treatment to a host of diverse issues. The book has been introduced by H. H. Risley, an official of the British Indian civil service at that time. Starting from general descriptions of Nepal and its geography, Vansittart describes the major zones of the country, river basins, population, crops and minerals, and international trade. Both the history of Nepal Valley up to conquest by King Prithvi Narayan Sahi and the subsequent development have been described briefly in the book. The author introduces King Prithvi Narayan as “a person of insatiable ambition, sound judgement, great courage, and unceasing activity” and his Gurkha principality as inhabited entirely by Magars, Gurungs, Thakurs and Khas “with a sprinkling of the menial classes.”

While Eden Vansittart describes the four- year Gorkha conquest with a broad outline (from the first seize of Kirtipur in 1765 till the fall of Bhatgaon in the commencement of 1769), he admits to being “quite ignorant of the details connected with the several sieges and engagements,” and the number of troops engaged either on the Nepal Valley or the Gurkha side during these four years. He deals with the conquests that continued even after the death of Prithvi Narayan Sahi. Vansittart mentions “the most heroic bravery [of the men of Kirtipur] in the defence of their capital.” He describes King Gainprejas [Jaypakash Malla] as high spirited and heroic. It is no doubt that he is influenced by Giuseppe de Rovato’s Account of the Kingdom of Nepal in setting his tone. He mentions the gallantry of the King of Tanahung, a Chaubise principality, without giving his name.

Vansittart states that the population of Nepal is estimated by the Nepalese at around 52,00,000 to 56,00,000. However, he says most writers, whom he presumes are correct, estimate it to be about 40,000,00. Until this time, 1896, it appears Nepalese hills had not started importing salt from India. As Vansittart writes, “the salt is packed in bags forming loads of about 15 Lb each which are brought across the snows fastened to the backs of sheep.”

Captain Vansittart also describes Nepal army as he saw it. He notes that the country has a standing force of 30,000 soldiers. There are soldiers on leave of almost the same numbers, who “enter the ranks and take the place of others who in turn lie by for a year or two.” All regiments are armed with locally manufactured Martini-Henrys or snider or muzzle loading percussion cap Enfield rifles. As regards to their efficiency, he says “there is no doubt that the material is good, and for defensive purposes in their own hills and forest, the soldiers would fight well and be formidable foes.” The weak point in Nepal army is “the officers, who are generally either very old men long past their work, or very young lads.” Notwithstanding this comment, Vansittart also describes the Jung Bahadur- led force which quells the Mutiny in Awadh and the performance of the Nepal army led by Dhir Shamsher in the War with Tibet in 1854. Referring to a parade held in Kathmandu on 6th March 1888, he observes that “108 guns marched past the Prime Minister, and it is therefore only natural to conclude that the Nepalese are strong in this branch.” This certainly indicates that the Army was still a powerful one by the prevailing standards.

Vansittart has separately dealt with the Aboriginal tribes of Nepal, which follows a section on the military tribes. The first group comprises of the Magars, Gurungs, Newar, Sunuwars, Khambus, Yakkas, Yakthumbas, Murmis (Tamangs/Lamas) and Lepchas. He quotes Brian Hodgson in saying that the “transit from the north into Nepal was constantly made before the Thibetans had adopted … the religion and literature of Buddhism.” When he deals with the military tribes, the Khasas come as the first group to be followed by Magar, Gurungs and Thakur. He does not include ‘Thakurs’ in the group of Khasas. Also added are the Limbus, Rais and Sunuwars. Here Vansittart cautions: “the prejudice which existed against them would seem rightly to be dying out rapidly. Nagarkotis and Murmis have also been discussed in the book as military tribes.

About early immigration in Nepal, Vansittart notes: “The most ancient records would seem to prove that Nepal was originally inhabited by Mongolians probably from one of the great waves of Mongolian conquest which spread through the breath of Asia from east to west, some side wave washed over the bleak snows of the mighty Himalayas, into the fertile plains and valleys of Nepal. Finding here a cool and bracing climate and a fertile soil, this mass of Mongolians settled down and adopted the country as their own.” Similarly, he talks about historical evidence of the existence in Nepal, long prior to the advent of Sakia Simha of Hindus from the plains from India, “Daughter of [King] Ashok being married to the descendent of a Chettri, who had settled there centuries before.” Vansittrat does not seem to be aware of the Khas people and their pre-Vedic existence – who migrated to the country via the western Thibet and adjoining territories – rather than India he was quick to link them with. It is clear that he has the influence of many earlier writings, which described Khas people according to the story given to them by the ruling elites at that time.

The book is certainly a valuable reading. It covers a wide range of descriptions on Nepal. It is good to study this book along with some other writings of Vansittart to get a complete understanding of his perspective on Gurkhas and their country. Judged by the time it was written, it definitely was an informative work.