Before Nepal become the way we know it today, it was a collection of little kingdoms. The Licchavi dynasty (3rd–13th century) and the Malla reign (13th–18th century) in Kathmandu had almost no effect on those remote areas. In 1768 Prithvi Narayan Shah united these principalities and founded the borders of Nepal as known today. He established the Shah dynasty and made Kathmandu the capital of the country. In 1814 the British East India Company declared war on Nepal. During a fierce war Nepal lost parts of its territory to India which now comprises the northern parts of five of its states. Prime minister Jung Bahadur Rana 1846 initiated a meeting of top political and military leaders which then was ambushed. After this event – known as the Kot Maccacre – the Ranas took over power, adopted the name Maharaja and ruled the country for 103 years. The king was made a titular figure, and the post of Prime Minister was made powerful. With the assertion of Chinese control in Tibet in the 1950s, India sought to counterbalance the perceived military threat from its northern neighbour and tried to get more influence in Nepal. India sponsored both King Tribhuvan as Nepals new ruler in 1951 and a new government, mostly comprising the Nepali Congress Party, thus terminating Rana hegemony in the kingdom. Tribhuvan instituted political reforms and is credited as the father of democracy in Nepal. During political quarrels the number of parties in Nepal rose to more than 60. In 1960 Tribhuvans son Mahendra became king and declared a new constitution. He started a democratic experiment in 1959, and a partyless system called panchayat was instituted to govern Nepal until 1989. That council which stood under direct control of the king. This system was practised for many years. And although declared as the wish of the country it became quite disliked with its people. After the trade treaty between India and Nepal expired in 1989 both side could not agree on further trading contracts. India minimized the trade with Nepal, raised tariffs on needed goods and limited the supply of petroleum products. The people of Nepal got more and more angry about the worsening situation in their day to day life. In spring 1990 parties united to restore democracy and accused the panchayat to be the base for corruption and human-rights violation. The Jan Andolan (Peoples Movement) fought for constitutional reforms and the establishment of a multiparty parliament The govenrment responded full force, arresting, beeting and shooting the more than 200.000 people who rallied for democracy on April 6th 1990. The army took control of the city and during a weekend curfew the king negotiated with opposition leaders. Two days later the panchayat ended. The interim council after the revolution included various leaders of different parties. A new constitution was written and Nepal became a constitutional monarchy. In the elections in May 1991 the Nepal Congress Party gained the majority and formed a government. The peoples mood was upbeat for a while but soon unsatisfaction rose up. The inexperience and sometimes incompetence of the elected government frustated the people of Nepal. The next ten years saw a series of elections, no-confident motions and realignments that changed the government rapidly, finally even saw a communist democracy for some months. In 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) started a bid to replace the royal parliamentary system with a peoples socialist republic by violent means. This led to the long Nepal Civil War with more than 12,000 deaths of Nepalis. tourist were not endangered. In 2001 the situation was still unstable and marked by regular corruption cases and strikes, called bandah. The situation was still destabilized by the Maoists that controlled large parts (up to 80 %) of Nepals countryside. On the 1st of June 2001 everything changed. According to an official account the crown prince Dipendra had an argument with his parents. Things escalated and Dipendra murdered king Birendra and queen Aishwarya and numerous members of the royal family before killing himself. The public froze in grief about the tragedy and there were speculation and doubts among Nepalese citizens about who was responsible. Following the carnage, Birendras brother Gyanendra inherited the throne. He made public statements announcing democratic reforms but his public safety regulation which gave the authorities more power to arrest and detain people fed the fear of the people that the opressions of the panchayat system was about to come back to them. In those unstable times many foreign visitors left the country, sadly an additional negative effect on the countrys economy. On 1st of February 2005, Gyanendra dismissed the complete government and assumed full executive powers to end the violent Maoists movement which was unsuccessful because the Maoists were firmly entrenched in large expanses of countryside. In September 2005, the Maoists declared a three-month ceasefire to negotiate. King Gyanendra agreed to give back sovereign power to the people. On 24th of April 2006 the House of Representatives was reinstated. It instantly used its sovereign authority: on 18th of May 2006it cut the power of the king and declared Nepal a secular state. On 28th of December 2007a bill was passed declaring Nepal a federal republic, and thereby abolishing the monarchy. The bill came into force on 28th of May 2008. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) won the majority of seats in the constituent assembly election on 10th of April 2008. Although acts of violence occurred during the pre-electoral period, election observers stated that the elections themselves were peaceful and well-carried out. The newly elected assembly voted to form a new government. It was declared that Nepal had become a secular and democratic republic. The king was given 15 days to leave the Royal Palace. It was later reopened as a public museum. Political tensions and regular power-sharing battles are still common in Nepal. In May 2009 the government, led by the Maoists was toppled and another coalition government with all major political parties barring the Maoists was formed. Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal was made prime minister of the coalition government. Ram Baran Yadav is currently assigned as president.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 08:12:34 +0000
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