From Himal Southasian
Violent pro-monarchy protests reveal Nepal’s incomplete transition from Hindu kingdom to secular republic, with nationalist myths and India’s Hindu Right feeding into royalist resurgence
In 1979, in the reign of Birendra Bir Bikram Shah, the Nepali monarchy instituted a few reforms to address popular demands for better political representation. A public referendum, now widely seen to have been rigged, delivered a verdict in favour of continuing the prevailing Panchayat system of rule, a partyless order of governing councils that left the king as the ultimate authority. In the aftermath, Birendra made a few concessions, such as allowing direct elections to the National Panchayat. The first of these was conducted in May 1981 – Nepal’s first general election, of a kind, since 1959.
In a 1983 assessment, the Unites States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reported that the “largely cosmetic” reforms had “only bought time for the monarchy”, and that the challenge lay in balancing “elite interests with aspirations of newly politicized groups eager to benefit from participation.” It was a prescient take. The reforms did not last the decade. In 1990, after mass protests, the Shah autocracy had to make way for a multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy.
The CIA was also of the view that Birendra’s “liberalizing instincts are offset by a natural tendency – reinforced by conservative members of his family – to preserve his power.”
It thought Birendra’s queen, Aishwarya, and his brother Gyanendra were “hardliners” who would “certainly halt the reform process and reassert royal authority.” Gyanendra “may consider himself better qualified for the throne than his brother … has a greater ability to command, strike hard deals, and reward personal loyalty than the King. We believe he would relish the royal role.”
Gyanendra got to try his hand at kingship after Nepal’s 2001 palace massacre, when the crown prince wiped out most of the royal family. (In the early 1950s, Gyanendra had been briefly placed on the throne by Mohan Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, the last in a hereditary line of autocratic prime ministers who had ruled with the Shah monarchs as puppets.) Seven years into his reign, at the end of a drawn-out civil war, he was forced to step down as Nepal transitioned from a Hindu kingdom to a democratic republic. Gyanendra’s belief in his suitability to rule outlasted this setback. He told an interviewer in 2012 that he hoped to return as king, and he continued occasional tours of the country – the latest came in March this year – rallying Nepal’s remaining stump of monarchists around him. This February, on the eve of Nepal’s Democracy Day, he called on the public to extend its support “for the prosperity and progress of the country.”
After pro-monarchy protesters ran amok in Kathmandu on 28 March, however, the former king has gone silent. The violence left two dead – including a television journalist incinerated inside a building set on fire – and many more injured. The protesters also torched the office of the Nepal Communist Party (Unified Socialist), attempted to burn down the office of Nepal’s main Maoist party, looted a department store and destroyed numerous vehicles. There are reports that locals prevented the rioters from doing even worse. An overnight curfew had to be imposed for part of the city, and the Nepal Army was briefly deployed to help restore order. The security forces have been questioned for their forceful and disproportionate response to the protests. The commander of the “royal task force”, Durga Prasai, tried to ram police officers with his pick-up truck. He is now absconding after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Earlier in March, the prospects of Gyanendra returning to the throne had been boosted by perhaps the largest gathering of royalist forces since the abolition of the monarchy. Eyewitnesses suggest a crowd of nearly 10,000 people greeted Gyanendra upon his arrival in Kathmandu from the city of Pokhara. The government had, until now, permitted peaceful pro-monarchy gatherings in the name of free speech. But the recent violence has turned the tide. More than a hundred people who participated in the rioting have been arrested. Nepal’s major political parties, barring pro-monarchy outfits, want the king to be held to account, if not by charging him with incitement to violence then at least by stripping him of the facilities and privileges he enjoys as a former head of state.
Gyanendra and Nepal’s royalists had so far taken pains to maintain civility, but that pretence is now gone. The limited but not insubstantial public sympathy they had gathered – helped by deep popular anger with Nepal’s current political leaders – has dissipated.
Nepali commentators see the resurgence of royalist forces as a symptom of increasing discontent with the country’s political and economic status quo. Nepal’s economy has not fully recovered from the ravages of the pandemic. Thousands of young Nepalis leave the country every single day for better economic opportunities abroad. None of the country’s political parties – including the main establishment forces currently sharing power, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and the Nepali Congress – have shown any inclination for much-needed structural reform. Instead, crony capitalism is rampant, as is corruption.
Yet for all the present anger, on almost every indicator – economic, social or political – Nepal is doing better than it ever did under the monarchy. In 1995, at the peak of the era of constitutional monarchy, 55 percent of Nepalis lived in extreme poverty. That figure had dropped to less than 0.5 percent in 2023. Although Nepal’s economy grew slower between 1996 and 2023 than those of most Southasian countries, personal incomes have risen for all demographics. Local governments have shown a clear preference towards decentralisation. There is freedom of speech on a scale unheard of under the monarchy.
Why, then, are some sections of Nepali society nostalgic about royal rule?
Amish Raj Mulmi is an editor and writer based in Kathmandu, Nepal.