- http://kantipuronline.com/columns.php?&nid=87329

Myths about Monarchy in Nepal



By Uday Bajracharya


Introduction
The recent military coup in Thailand has jolted awake the people of Nepal. The question on everybody’s mind is: will it happen in Nepal too? The Prime Minister has ruled out such a possibility but other leaders including Madhav Nepal and Bamdev Gautam aren’t so sure. They have advised caution.

Despite a clear mandate from Jana Andolan-2 to abolish the monarchy, certain forces, most notably the US, Girija Koirala and some of his colleagues in the Nepali Congress have been pushing for a ‘ceremonial’ monarchy. Girija has even reportedly advised the king to remain silent at this point because time is the greatest healer (from public hatred). The reinstated parliament has taken steps to curb the power of the king, to make the monarchy more palatable to the people. People are being made to believe that the monarchy is necessary for the unity of the nation or to stop the Maoists from coming to power and that a ‘ceremonial’ king can do no harm.

Myth about monarchy unifying Nepal

Prithvi Narayan Shah and his successors conquered the land and their relationship with the people was that of the victor and the vanquished. They saw Nepal as their ancestral property, as mentioned several times in the king’s address of 1 February 2005. Nepal’s “Unification” is an imagined myth created by the state-sponsored historians of the Panchayat regime.

The Shah kings have always been cruel to the people. Widespread repression during the royal coups of 1960 and 2005, and the brutal suppression of popular uprisings in 1962, 1990 and 2006 are recent examples of this.

The Shah kings have always suppressed the minority languages, cultures, and religions. King Mahendra did this in a systematic way through state nationalism, an ideology that was practised by dictators like Mussolini and Franco. Under King Mahendra, state nationalism mainly meant one language (Nepali), one religion (Hinduism), one dress (Daura-Suruwal and Topi) and glorifying the monarchy in various ways. Anyone who disagreed with this policy was an “anti-national element”. State nationalism flourished during the Panchayat regime. A whole generation of Nepalis grew up with these values that have now become a part of Nepalese culture to the point where doing otherwise is considered un-Nepali. I call it the Panchayat Culture. Most political parties subscribe to it today (the Maoists haven’t done so yet) and most people don’t see anything wrong with it. Undoing state nationalism is the biggest challenge for democracy in Nepal.

State nationalism restricts individual liberty and minority rights, which are some of the basic principles of democracy. It divides the people and promotes ethnic, language or religious nationalism in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural society like Nepal. This is the reason why the Maoists have been able to form Maoist affiliated liberation fronts among most ethnic groups in Nepal, including the Magars who form the bulk of their army. Clearly the monarchy has divided the nation rather than united it.

Myth about monarchy stopping the Maoists

BP said his “neck was joined with the king’s” against the communist onslaught. Some sections of the Nepali Congress still consider the communists as their number one enemy. However, the Royal coup of February 2005 forced Girija to join hands with the Maoists to bring in Jana Andolan-2. As a result, the Maoists gained legitimacy and widespread support, especially among the minority communities. This has become possible also because the monarchy has made sure that the state army remained loyal to it thereby forcing some people to trust the Maoist army rather than the state army for their security.

The Maoists took up arms in 1996 and their movement grew, largely because they could recruit people who were alienated by royal rule.

The US and others are alarmed at the rise of the Maoists in Nepal and want to marginalise them while supporting the monarchy. This is like treating tuberculosis with cough medicine. They ignore the fact that the root cause of the Maoists’ rise in Nepal is the monarchy.

Myth about ‘ceremonial’ monarchy being harmless

The monarchy bounced back to power after living like a virtual prisoner of the Ranas for 104 years. It didn’t take long for King Tribhuvan to gain power after 1951, thanks to the squabbling among the politicians. BP dropped the demand for a constituent assembly and agreed to hold elections in 1959, thinking that an elected government would be invincible. Soon King Mahendra sacked the elected government and sent the politicians to jail and into the wilderness of the Panchayat regime for 30 years. After the popular uprising of 1990, the politicians wrote a constitution in which the ‘constitutional’ monarch didn’t have the power to sack the elected government. That didn’t matter; King Gyanendra sacked the elected government in October 2002 anyway and went further by ruling directly from February 2005 until he was forced out by another popular uprising in April 2006.

This shows that the monarchy can get back power from seemingly impossible positions. The current situation of the monarchy is far better than during the Rana regime and yet some people are talking about “giving space to the king” via a ‘ceremonial’ monarchy.

Conclusion

Nepal’s situation is different than Thailand’s as Girija said, but the Nepali army cannot turn fully professional if the monarchy remains in any form. Nepal could have abolished the monarchy in 1951 and 1990, but didn’t. It mustn’t repeat the mistake now.

The parties in the government, especially the Nepali Congress should stop thinking that they can marginalize the Maoists and the latter should stop dreaming about an October revolution. They should implement immediately what has already been agreed between them. Any further delay may take them back to Square One. In the process, they may have to ignore international pressure, like they did after the king’s first proclamation during Jana Andolan-2. After all, the Nepali people should decide their own destiny, shouldn’t they?

Well, many feel uneasy now because there is a possibility of another coup in Nepal like in Thailand. And therefore, to prevent a coup... more articles like above will be written.

"The US and others are alarmed at the rise of the Maoists in Nepal and want to marginalise them while supporting the monarchy. This is like treating tuberculosis with cough medicine. They ignore the fact that the root cause of the Maoists’ rise in Nepal is the monarchy. "

well said. Military coup is not possible in nepal: only because of maoists.

Certainly Prithivy narayan shah commited a great mistake by unifying Nepal,Political parties,who can't even unite their own parties should be the symbol of unity,Did king Gyanendra sacked the elected government overnight?has anyone been following the events,before he seize the absolute power,interesting fact that root cause of maoist uprising is monarchy,when king Birendra seized the absolute power from the people,may be the helicopter that crashed was also due to monarchy,and may be Gyanendra encouraged the army of Thailand for coup,so against the monarchy Maoists cal go on declaring october, november, december ,jan. revolutions.Looks like an article written in great hurry,for the support of maoist,and justify their deeds.

The writer has a point. But let the referendrum decide that.

According to this opinion poll, the chances of the monarchy surviving are fifty-fifty at this time.

We sure live in interesting times!

:)

After reading this article few questions popped in my mind,when maoist declared their
war,who was ruling the country?Why everyone is after maoists,when they are here to liberate the people of Nepal,whats wrong killing few thousand lives for this great deed,why can't maoist join the government with their arms,Why US and othere countries except India not supporting the maoists,whats wrong with volunterly paid taxes,
and donations,Whats wrong with killing people during Dashin,pregnant women,and kiriyaputri,if all these efforts has been made to make Nepal a next switzerland of Asia.
Its not going to happen because they are the S.O.B. terrorists,Who will be the next target after monachy,most likely nepali people again,so blaming everything to monarchy
is not going to solve the crisis.

mother fugger Monarchy of nepal
father fugger GPK and his gang

Also, on the opinion poll, less support for the King in the western regions? That spells trouble with a capital T for the King in my opinion. It is the eastern and central parts of the country that have been the birthplaces of most political parties and the hotbeds of political activity whereas the western regions were, up untill a while ago, comparitively more restrained, if you will, in political activism. Perhaps the Maoist movement ,which has been very strong in the west, has resulted in this shift of public opinion.

It would be interesting to see the region-by-region breakdown of this data because poverty and illiteracy are much more rampant in the western regions, especially in the mid-west and far-west, and if there are majorities there that want a republic then that blows a big hole into the myth that the King has support among the uneducated, rural masses many of whom, although not all, live in the western regions.

Also, at the risk of speculating, I'd also be curious to see a KTM Valley/hill/terai breakdown of this data. Prior to the Maoist uprising, Kathmandu valley and the Terai have been politically more volatile than the hills and if there is increasing support for a republic in the hills,that could be a strong indicator of how far reaching the impact of the Maosits has been in the rural hills - Nepal's cultural heartland. If the King can't win the cultural argument for keeping monarchy in the hillls, he is unlikely to win it in the Terai or KTM valley.

good article! personally, i would not even settle for referendum. monarchy should be abolished once and for all. it will be for the greater benefits of nepal and nepalese in the long run. i am sure maoists will welcome the referendum's verdict but they won't be satiated if monarchy prevails. it's the republic nepal they are envisioning, if a new nepal is to born.

LooTe

I WANT KING BACK.

1. why does Maoist want election without at firt surrendering the weapons.
- i dont think any major logic or explanation is needed here for anyone who can see what they've been doing. its obiously, coz if the election does happen, then they can force ppl to vote for them thur their barrel of guns.

2. lets say monarchy is abolished, and there comes the presidential system.
- great for political parties. and worst for countries, now there is gonna be a power struggle among political parties for both , PM and President.

3. Lets say Moist win the general EC.
- Majoriy of MP in the parliament will be of maoist, pass whatever law they want , and do whtever they want tothe country. before you and i know, we'll all be in the facking streets.

4. Monarchy is abolished, election for PM and President ( sooner or later).
- prachanda - president - baburam -PM.

ani nepali janta ni.

I want king back.

Prachanda and Baburam will never get to sit in teh kursi.... they will be f*cked by the poeple first.

loote says " personally would not even settle for referendum. monarchy should be abolished once and for all"

hahahha... this shows his true nature as maoist:P

this what exactly maoist wants .And total control of Nepal.And stupid loote is following it..rather smart maoist.
Shows how much he has been taught of democracy by prachanda..he wants election with arms , he wants to remove SPA as well as KING once and for all.

hahaha...loote ko bhuddhi...Kartik ayesakeyo...Keti kojne bela bho ..derai dimag nalagau

Why Monarchy will survive in Nepal and why it should:
-
--As captain mentioned ..if we break the country in to geographical region and analyze the data .. we see more educated people live in east and central part of Nepal.People are political aware .Where as west has always been in low profile.Where people are uneducated and poor which is why maoist have strong hold on that region.If there is refredum..may be the king would be kicked out may be he won't ..but the fact that more educated people in valley and east support for king would send message ---- communist are successful at expoliting issue and poor ..but eduated people support monarchy than a maoist president!!!!

---The another reason king has chance of survival is because of maoist..strange but true. the way maoist are being pushy ..it is actually making people think again about the future of country...the more pushy and stupid maoist are chances of king of surviving is high.

Majority of people in ktm have are actually ignorant about hardships of life. I'd like to call them educated fools, who don't see that it's actually values that make them more 'human'. And most city residents lack the values!!!

just like u lack the brain and ability to think for urself...u need Maoist brain to think..

you aren't making any sensible statement here :P counter attack my argument if you can please.

attack your arguments.. do u have brains??? ..hehehe ..i will attack you ;)..don't think i can't u know very well i can..just not in mood :)...i need margarita first:P

Sajhauser, I don't think "majority of people in KTM" are ignorant about hardship of lives. Although it depends who you really mean by saying majority of people in KTM (the people that live in KTM, or only the people that have their name registered to vote), but I think, except for what you called ignorant people, there are people in KTM that are also very aware of the situation. Major street political turmoil, say Jana Andolan-I and II, kicks off from KTM and most of the time it comes out with something.

I am sure people in KTM are also wakka dikka from the past rulers. I think it is because of the people in KTM डर छेरुवा नेता who were always scared of CA (and for this very reason the peace talks have failed in the past) are now for CA. (And, not to mention Maoist has a huge role in it, too.)

i m better with monarchy than to live under communism. i dont want nepal to be next china. If maoist really wanna help nepal, "hey faghead read the french revolution first!!""