In the schoolbooks of the royal years, Nepali history proceeded from king to benevolent king, from glory to shining glory, beginning with the “unification” of the country—by the sword, yes, but in this version nobody seems to have complained—by the Shah kings. Revisions in the 1990s inserted mention of the democratic movements of 1951 and 1990, but the monarchy still managed to come out looking rosy. After the leading political parties of the democratic 1990s hitched themselves to the palace, they made little effort to change the story—unsurprisingly, since it upheld the prevailing hierarchy of classes, castes and ethnicities. But the 1990s also created unprecedented opportunities for democratic expression. Following liberal economic reforms, private media took its first steps, and the movement of people, goods and ideas accelerated. Across a deeply unequal society, stories of dissent and discrimination found larger audiences. That process continued into the 2000s, despite government efforts at censorship following Gyanendra’s seizure of absolute power in 2005. After the end of the war, a relatively free but fragmented media and intelligentsia carried on scrutinising the politics and ideals of the past and the present. Prashant Jha and Aditya Adhikari continue this project of rescuing Nepali history from the royalist pap that has long smothered it. In Books, Roman Gautam reviews two new political histories of Nepal, and asks where the country goes next.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 06:37:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015