KATHMANDU, NEPAL 1949

CHAPTER 1 

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATION

Terra Incognita

Nepal has remained so long a hidden land relegated to a situation of darkness and obscurity and in a slough of despond and medieval slumber, into which it has been persistently blemished by the aristocracy and from which it cannot rise unless there is total freedom from this selfish stock. Those who are enamored, so as to fall in which readily, of British propaganda, a stuff nonsense served to people outside Nepal which has obtained credulity because of the reason that those who accept them have hardly any interest in that hapless country, lose sight of the hellish condition under which ignorant and uncivilized. It is one thing to pride in past, of the various splendors of arts and architecture and Nepal is wonderfully prolific in this respect, but to make them objects to screen palpable exploitation going endlessly behind nature’s soft hand and under a glorious past is what would amount to a great injustice not only for the cause of the poor people of Nepal but for all true sense of justice and right which have been too glaringly killed is our country, more so even as the glories of the past have been freely axed and interfered with by those whose praise is sung by foreign mercenary flatterers. 

Nepal is a triple incongruity. Geographically it is a part of the Indian Sub-continent, but yet outside her so much so that it has almost lost connections with India, even the most rudimentary type of intercourse like telegraph communication is non-existence. The country is supposed to be independent (?) and even accepting that it is, so there has been practically no endeavor towards bringing the county in line with other civilized countries, the status of independence has come only as immunity and a shield from punishment for all acts of commission and omission perpetrated by the rulers, for though the British Government had always controlled the foreign policy of the country, they had tactfully kept themselves aloof from internal administration that the Ranas, the rulers of the  country , have found the situation to their own advantage, they are today as also in the past monarchs irresponsible and irresponsive doing whatever they like without fear of admonition  or otherwise by any external agency or Political Department of the Government of India. Britain had never cared to redeem the condition, the people were suffering under and though the entire population was ignorant of Britain’s tacts and designs yet the impression was that Britain had protected the Rana autocrats for its own sake, because only under feudal subjugation and misrule a foreign Government can draw upon the resources of an independent country and curiously Nepal had been kept nominally independent to that end from the very beginning, even though the British might have absorbed it at any time. The incongruous nature is doubly expressive, while the British lived, the country was neither really independent nor the rulers had rendered its plight so as to deserve this kind of status and strengthen themselves to maintain that position but at the same time they has also falsely assumed the garb of independence that this have been utilized to cow down the dissenting elements rather than to enhance with plenty of water power, forest and mineral wealth, but it is so much backward that a Railway engine is a curio inside Nepal. This triple   incongruity is a tragedy writ large in its face, which we suffer heedlessly and unknowingly as though it were a part of existence, and deaf to the call of freedom and impervious to all what tremendous changes have affected them. If this is not a tragedy, what else it is! think of a country like Nepal vast and abundant, which enjoys every facility for a large and speedy development in industrial and agricultural spheres; think of its forest wealth, of water power supplied by the seven Gandaks and seven Koshis running through it s entire length and breadth; thing of its mineral wealth, of its innumerable copper mines, mica, tungsten, gold, silver, petrol, of various stone s and crystals, of it s botanical luxuriant. Another Japan or Switzerland it would have become. But in the absence of an agency to exploit them, the sooner is that not a mine is expropriated and not a single water fall is used for generating hydroelectric power, the whole country with a great potentially and possibility is rotting in darkness, poor and helpless with its people ignorant and illiterate.

                                                                FAMILY OLIGARCHY

Why this is so? To answer this question one must study the political machinery of the country. Where this machinery is appropriate necessary improvement of a country is a sure corollary. It has been found that for this machine to be appropriate, those who are responsible to the public or at least responsive to their needs and aspirations must control it. But where this is not so, there is no room for improvement for the machinery being for removed from public contact rendered moving for a selfish end of a particular class or a group, holding positions of superiority and grandeur. Neither in these circumstances private initiative on the part of the subject class can affect the general policy, nor is it possible to push individual enterprise in the narrow scope the people are left devoid of necessary civil liberty and of help from the State. In Nepal, the political machinery, here we may mean, the force of the State personified by the Ranas, is in the hands of a family who have controlled the whole aspect of social and political life of the country as though it were their own private property. The analogy would be with the theoretical stand of the Prince’s rule in India now fastly disappearing with only one difference that whereas in Indian States the force to be counted was always a single prince succeeding by primogeniture, there is a family of one hundred souls in Nepal claiming superiority status and privileges attached to birth. The family in power calls itself the Rana family, claiming its origin from the illustrious Ranas of Chitor.The Rana family captured power in 1846.Rana Jung Bahadur, by a tactical move, rose from a humble position to that of the Prime Minister of the country. He won the confidence of the army by deceit and intrigue, deceit and intrigue and after a time controlled the whole of arms and ammunition enabling himself to occupy a most formidable position, where even a coup by the army was not possible By 1857 he completely overshadowed the throne and came to be virtually accccepted as the throne itself. Since that time the King of Nepal has nothing but nominal functions, all executive powers being vested in the Rana Premier. Jung Bahadur had not acted in good faith when he secured the Sanad by which the King signed away all his powers to him and his family. The latter was of an unsound mind at the time it was executed, which is testified by no less a person than Dr. Oldfield, the then Residency Surgeon at Kathmandu. Jung Bahadur made Premiership hereditary through brother for he had seven of them to satisfy, each of them being participant in the fateful conflict, whom he could not forsake. The procedure of succession which has continued so long in full force is designed in such away that every legitimate issue of the Rana family is entitled to aspire for this august post, and the process of exploitation is orderly on the very face of it and every tissue of the Rana fiber is welded in a tie of self-interest so that whenever there is any opposition from other quarters, the Rana family, as a whole, to each legitimate successor presents a united resistance. Along- with the premiership, almost all the top positions in the army and civil are held in order of hereditary succession by the Ranas.

The Prime Minister is the highest personage in the land; he is the highest executive and judicial authority. His power is unlimited and unrestricted. By virtue of his control over arms and ammunition, he wields a very high power unequalled even by Hitler and Mussolini in their respective countries under fascist dictatorship. His word is law; arid he can make or mar the fate of any body next to him in the realm.

As in theory so in practice the Prime Minister exercises his power with unchallenged authority and zeal. And his supervision is entirely personal and in its scope extensive down to the mildest detail. As the administration is less cumbersome owing to the medieval character of the State, the Prime Minister conducts his Government as though it were a managerial concern under the Zamindari system.

Some of the Prime Ministers have satisfied themselves with only the work of supervision thus releasing the spare time for their personal rest and enjoyment, which is not the less immense but many of them have shown a tendency to look into the very m nor affair of administration, which has wholly overshadowed the State machinery of Government and effected in practice total subjection of the same to one individual will.

As matters stand even peons of various offices have to be taken in person before the Prime Minister for formal appointment, which is indicative of the nature of control he exercises over the administration.

Though at times the Prime Minister wields supreme power, and wields it in a way to discard the need of the advice by his kinsmen of the family, yet in general he has to share the management of State affairs with the senior members who hold the next important ranks in order of succession

Thus the Rana family has monopolized all the important posts in the state. All the nine vital posts of the army are held in order of seniority, and this includes the office of the Lt. general. Again, all the adult members of the Rana family are adorned with titles of military rank, and there are some who are entitled to claim ranks from the very birth. Illegitimate issues can go up to the rank of a General and not beyond that. For those who do not belong to the Rana family the highest rung of the ladder is colonelship, and that too very rarely conferred Today as there are more than two hundred members of the family, captainship and not colonelship has come to be the climax. Not a single civil department has a non-Rana head.

              If the fourth line is not counted there are all together eleven men on the immediate roll of succession. The last is a son of Chandra Shumshere and nearly thirty years old. The number of those on the roll does not exceed forty. The Rana family in itself is symbol of Nepal aristocracy's superiority complex, every member of the family being looked upon by the general populace as divinely superior and endowed with all the qualities (?) befitting a royalty. Its members enjoy a superior status, he must be addressed in respectable terms in Moghal fashion and he in right earnest shows himself off as a miniature Grand Moghul in his miens; and make up. The Ranas lead a very artificial life of pump and splendor. They live in a world of Parisian luxury, all sorts of western fashion and comfort are theirs Movie, Cars, Sports, Toilets. Worse than that but singular for them they manage each to keep concubines numbering over fifty and this is very common and observed by everyone of them without exception. Power has enabled them to snatch girls of their choice, while poverty in the populace help them to secure fulfillment. The result has been this. While the people are groaning regularly under the stress of penury, the Ranas are lording it over them without any thought of public welfare or administrative responsibility. While the system of polygamy and concubinage has tended to increase their number, the burden on the treasury and limited resources of the country has increased, for the Ranas curiously do not happen to be earning in another way save and except by misappropriation of public money. There are now in roll about forty members the cost of maintaining them is very high. The Prime Minister pockets almost the whole of public income for himself. So these forty people have to be given independent jagirs. Each jagirdar earns rupees one to ten lakhs annually from his Jagir. Be- sides, these forty people are from their very birth holders of high posts in the army and also in the civil for which they are paid one to five thousand rupees per month. The other groups of fifty who are mostly illegitimate are also provided with jobs. They are generally placed at district head quarters. The entire annual income of rupees four crore is thus distributed.

As a matter of fact the Rana family claims to present a structure of Government, which shows master- slave relationship in dealings with the subject population. Each member of the family enjoys the attributes of a ruler and when at the helm of affairs dispenses very freely the business of the State in a spirit of personal concern as though it was not different from management of personal belongings. It is not only that they govern the country without a sense of responsibility, but what appears so anachronistic is that the Ranas are used to treat the entire country and its people as their own private property with right to dispose of them at their discretion.

The Ranas, as masters of the soil, control all the departments of the State. There are certain posts, which are reserved for them only, such as the posts of Colonel and Generals in the Army and administrative headship in the civil departments. Merit has no consideration. From his very birth a Rana may become a General. Colonel in the army. From his very fifteenth year he may pass as the Director of Education.

 The whole situation is hopelessly confusing and by nature of things the administration is full of absurdities. Every post is sinecure and the machinery functions so inefficiently that it all looks a Seminary concern. And yet the Ranas are said to be governing the country. Really speaking we have no government in the sense a government is understood in textbook of politics. If we have anything, we have a police state in the hands of an inefficient aristocracy, which is bent upon thriving its own interest unmindful of the larger interest of the people. Unfortunately even the work of maintaining law and order is wrongfully neglected, for there is a barbarous lawlessness in areas lying far from Katmandu owing to non-deployment of police machinery. It is also a fact that the Ranas while curbing the law-abiding subject countryman do often  set loose the forces of disorder by encouraging acts of brigandage and pillage.

Sometimes Nepal is compared with Indian States of British days in point of backwardness & misrule. Possibly it may be compared with the worst of them, but, in no way, with the best governed of them. In States like Baroda or Mysore or Hyderabad, in spite of what had obtained as the irresponsive administration, they had a set of able administrators, who, at times, are take pains to improve the lot of the people But in Nepal as we have all posts controlled by those coming in hereditary succession the efficiency of administration is seriously impaired. We have a Premier who has no political education to his credit, a Commander- in-Chief who does not know what military training is, a Chief Justice who never went to school and so on.

We may not object to the King's being not educated for he has no function at his hands, but ordinary administrative etiquette demands that those who have administrative functions to perform should know the A, B, C of administration. In Nepal, the prevalent condition is just the opposite; just those people are thrust into powers, which have the least aptitude for exercising it. The resultant atmosphere is wrongfully intriguing as is natural in conditions where the whole governance is being run as the personal concern of a particular family. The aristocracy sees that the interest of the family shall prevail over the larger interest of the people, in the scramble, for undue advantage the very life of the country is killed, all avenues to development are closed and as a result of irresponsive administration the whole country is seething in extreme ignorance and poverty, distrust and suspicion.

Incidentally we may refer to the judicial system of the country. It is this, which is conspicuous for its injustice and deformity. Nowhere in the world justice is so barbarously administered. There is no judiciary worth the name, as all departments concerned to dispense justice are neither independent nor are equipped to deserve such position in the circumstances. They are just like other offices of the Rana Government and the analogy may appear in the system of the most backward Indian States existing in British period. The courts have both executive and judicial functions. There is no proper procedure of trial. And hearing and pleading and trial do not exist on an ascertained basis. 

The onus of proof rest on the accused and there are no assessors and jury Bribery is very common as the District Judges happen. in many cases, to be of poor education and so meagerly paid (Rs.150/- p. m.) they are that the feasibility of their boldly withstanding the temptation of bribe is. practically discounted. Further, they are under occasional risk of punishment at the hands of the higher tribunal, for whenever the judgment is reversed by appellate tribunal sitting in the capital the trying judge is heavily fined or bodily punished. Punishment in this case and in other cases ranges from physical torture to fine or imprisonment or both, which may six months or more. The district executive heads, called Badahakims. are very often members of the Rona family, in which case they are immune from punishment, but whenever the Ranas are at the head of district administration, their highhanded action is almost a torture to the people. Against a member of the Rana family there is no appeal.

Let us have an idea of the country's annual income and expenditure to be able to know how much personal is the nature of the present regime. Nepal is an agricultural country, and public revenue comes almost entirely from this source. There are a few more sources like electricity, customs and forest, which yield a crore of rupees. The total makes about Rupees four crores the public expenditure, however, is not even a crore. Fifty lakhs of rupees are spent upon the army (militia excluded) four lakhs on education for maintaining a few secondary schools and a college and some hundred Pathsalas and the rest on maintaining various administrative establishments. Thus Rs. 3 crores in toto goes to support the snobberies of the Rana family.

The system of taxation is regressive in its character and incidence as is common to all levies under a medieval administration. While the rich are excluded from the burden of taxation, there being nothing of income tax and other, the poor have had to bear the brunt of the whole of state revenue through so many channels of remittance. Besides land revenue, they have to pay dues for the upkeep of the forest and elephants belonging to the Rana family. A very cruel form of exaction, which tells severely on the proletariat section of the people, is the tax on coolies. All these have tended to hit most injuriously that stratum of society, which is productive, thus jeopardizing the very economy of the country, which has a tendency to stagnate.

We would leave it to the common man in the foreign country to imagine the general state of the country and compare it with that of British India. It is not our intention to underrate the situation as still obtains in some areas in the Indian Subcontinent. But all the same it is certain that we are, compared to them, at least sixty years behind and in a medieval slumber. In every respect, whether culturally or industrially, we are very much behind times, we have not those institutions which all civilized countries can boast of, we have no such agencies as cultivate the country's prosperity The country has no plan, nor the Government has departments having functions of a welfare States. Even such organs, as were found since the very inception of British rule in India, are missing here on top of it the administration is also suffering from a lack of secretariat organization. The premier may decide anything from his wise head and this has to be binding on the people, even when the entire policy of his may prove ultimately injurious to the larger interest of the country. And the pity is that while gross neglect of public affairs continues the Rana premier may be busy in playing with concubines and building his Palaces or squandering money on despicable snobberies.

Indeed, the administration is so badly lax that except for collecting revenue the Rana Government has no other function to execute. For their own interest, however, the Rana rulers move heaven and earth and the policy of self-enrichment is severely executed. In the scramble of exaction, heavyset sacrifice is expected from the peasantry who form the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants. Ejectment from holding on the slightest pretension is very common. For the same very reason taxation on land is increasing .The Rana’s find it is the only source of income to cater to their snobberies. As a result weights and measures have been so manipulated from time to time that at each time of assessment the peasant find his share of contribution increasing .The chain used for measuring lands have come down today from a length of 18” to 9”, nearly fifty percent lower thus the peasantry is made to pay a cent percent higher tax on the same unit of land.

The Ranas have got large estates under them and in these estates the tiller and cultivator are denied the most elementary rights of tenant. Their plight is certainly inhuman. The peasantry is suffering from indebtedness. They are occasionally liable to displacement and deprived of their property rights by moneylenders and Rana estate holders. There is no facility of proper judicial enquiry; even the ordinary protection from injustice by moneyed class (the Ranas) is withheld. The escape from this adversity is by way of migration to India and every intelligent reader may read a lot in the face of those hundreds and thousands of Nepali laborers in India. It depicts a tale of sorrow and merciless exploitation at the hands of the selfish Ranas.

The above is a very faint picture of the machinery known as the Government of Nepal, which, as we have said, does not possess anything in common with the texture of a structure passing as Government by universal usage or understanding. What we have is a crude type of personal rule free from touch of Governmental responsibility so essential to an administration of a big country. In the name of the Government personified by the Rana Maharaja who combines in himself the two functions of the Premier and Supreme Commander, the Rana family manages the affairs of the state in a thoroughly irresponsible manner neglecting its duty towards the welfare of the governed, and using all resources of the country to its own private interest. The possessiveness has gone so deep and pervaded so extensively that the Rana family is used to take the administration of the state as its own private concern making use of the power without distinction of the nature of the subject personal or otherwise to which it is directed. This sort of absolutely personal rule has no parallel in any part of the world. We doubt if in medieval age also such practices as to govern the country in terms of personal property of the family obtained. But in Nepal up till now the Maharja treats the police and army as his own personal retinue and bodyguard and the judicial court as his managerial department to reimburse his own financial commitments. He has unquestioned authority over the revenue of the state and whatever accrues to the exchequer. Sources not withstanding, he appropriates for his own private purpose. He has the power to call any case from any court and dispose of it in any way he deems proper and to allocate the disbursement of the fine imposed at his sweet will He can and sometimes does transfer a confiscated property decreed by a court to a hand which deserved reward for personal service s rendered to him. Every other department of the state acts in the same subservient fashion, and the officers have to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the direction and commands of the Maharaja but it is his whim and caprices that are sometimes the arbiter of their destiny and then the work is so tough that they dare not forget that they are his servants and most absurd of all the departments in turn are planned and shaped to look more as private offices ill-organized and shabby than such institutions of dignity and responsibility as appertain to a highly developed modern type of administration. Corruption is rampant to a degree that is Nepal's mortal paralysis under the Thumb-rule of the Master family and in consequence the people suffer untold misery due to neglect and apathy, which is a rule rather than exception. Beneath the greedy eye of the selfish Ranas, Nepal's lot has never been to be blessed with the benefices of an organization much less of a Government. The whole arrangement is full of absurdity and idiocy that is a shame to the age we are living. The pitiful relegation to a State of backwardness, which has almost killed the soul of the nation, cannot be justified as many interested European scholars have tried to represent. and no amount of word jugglery as to the unreceptibility of western methods of administration by the Oriental Gorkhas and similar other trash arguments shall convince one today about the efficacy of the system which has been all tyranny and misrule to the vast multitude of Nepal. The family oligarchy established by the Rana Rulers far from tendering any good to the country had definitely added to their misery and privation by depriving them of organizational set up the harm done by which is so glaringly manifest through the anarchy and misrule imported into the society.

                                                                 SUPPRESSED PEOPLE

For a Nepali the world is dark. His education has no value. While the Rana by virtue of his birth is entitled to draw a high pension from the State besides what he gets as emolument for his sinecure jobs, a subject Nepali may have to remain content with Rs.100 per month even though (he may have obtained high university degree and though) there might hardly be a dozen persons of his caliber. But he has to prefer it even though this may mean the enslavement of his soul, for he is so much emasculated and sucked gradually during the past ten decades that the alternative to him is starvation. One may ask if commerce be not his choice. But this also is not possible in view of the restrictions the Ranas have imposed on this pursuit, for there is a law which forbids the carrying of a trade on many articles by a subject Nepali, side by side with the fact that there is no scope in this field as trade in Nepal is mainly distributional and entreport.

The Ranas have killed the soul of our nation by first killing religious and civil liberty. Outwardly a rough line of comparison may be drawn between conditions here and there as obtained in Indian States before August 1947. But we are in worse plight. In most of the Indian States, ordinarily, civil liberty, like freedom of speech and religion was to some extent recognized, there was also freedom of association though at times it was usually interfered with. But we have not even the shadow of freedom in Nepal. Here nobody can ask for anything of political or social reforms by way of collective appeal or even privately. The people are also quite ignorant of the democratic channels of ventilating grievances, and a distant reference to a ruler's duty and responsibility if noticed may invite dire consequences.

Pandit Murali Prasad in December 1938 was given 3 years R. I. for defining the just duty of a ruler in course of his Katha recitation. Even today liberty of faith and conscience is quite unknown. We have been denied the most elementary religious rights inside Nepal the maintenance of status quo are the only rule. You must remain what you are runs the stricture. There is no question of conversion from one faith to another. Slightest heretical beliefs are pun1shed with vindictiveness. In 1909 Madhavaraj Joshi was publicly lashed and exiled for being a follower of Swami Dayanand his son, Sukra Raj Sastri, in 1941, had to give up his life for his alleged attempt to propagate Arya Samajic principles in Nepal. The poster pasted on the back of his corpse read "Treatment meted out to one who follows Swami Dayanand in contravention of the Sanatani rules of worship." The Ranas have tenaciously adhered to the policy of maintaining status-quo in matter of religious beliefs. The rules of caste division and unsociability are strictly enforced in the code of law which prevails in the country breach of caste rule is punishable. The vagary will be noticed in various instances, e.g., a Brahman cannot take tomato and must observe all the rigidity of kitchen and law punishes departure from these. As mainly inhabited by Hindus, the problem of caste rigidity and orthodoxy is the same as in India in its viciousness and intensity. But the assumption of responsibility by the Rana Government to preserve these has made the problem more complex, and social injustice on that account is of an enormous magnitude.

Nobody in Nepal has any knowledge of judicial trial as understood in civilized countries. There is not only no habeas corpus. but there is total absence of the rule of law. There is no legislative assembly, no newspaper and worst of all no agency for ventilating public grievances. The Ranas have so much terrorized the people that few dare criticize the action of the Government, however condemnable the same might be Even otherwise every body is in occasional consternation and dread of life and, of course, another question posing at this stage is, how many do really realize the gravity of the situation.

In order to check the least possibility of association, and underground activity the autocrats have imposed night curfew in many of the localities, particularly in the prominent towns and market places, which prevents occasional intercourse between citizens. Under the circumstances all these areas have worn disturbed appearance, while down below there is grave-like tranquility. Perhaps Katmandu is the only instance of a capital city to have been eternally clamped under night curfew.

            Nepal is almost wholly mountainous. There is also a small portion, one-fifth of it. which consists of even lands at the foot of the outer Himalayas, called the Terai. This part of kingdom is the richest from agricultural standpoint and the Ranas derive their fifty percent of income from here. But as the Rana Government takes only from the people and has nothing to give in return, the peasantry is in a hope1essly critical muddle. Whereas on the other side of the border the Indian peasantry has at least the spirit and opportunity as ordained by law to fight injustice, on this side there is a deadening influence of an autocratic regime shutting the breasts of those who in other circumstances might have given vent to their pent-up feeling. The Terai peasantry is the most downtrodden producing class, the human history has ever seen.

The valley of Kathmandu may appear a contrast to the surrounding places. Here the bright palaces of the Ranas may remind one of similar stately buildings in large towns of India. But the bright picture is only restricted to the Ranas. The people generally are, in no way, better than those of the hills or the Terai. The Ranas have occupied stately palaces, each costing Rs. 20 lakhs or more, but to the lot of non-Ranas a small hut is a luxury in the whole of Kathmandu one scarcely comes across a mansion owned by a non-Rana. There is no municipality to look after the sanitation of the town. We have roads, over which the Ranas ply their cars, but these are just for this purpose and the subjects may not use them. The Ranas have their own private schools and colleges for their children. Each of them commands the services of a whole staff of such institutions but the general populace have no body to look to and the pity is that even in these private schools of Ranas Nepali teachers may not find place and they are usually excluded in favor of outsiders mostly Bengalis. There are no libraries for the public, no reading rooms, though each Rana maintains a grand collection of books merely for purpose of exhibits to be shown to some distinguished visitors from Europe and India. There are no newspapers worth the name, the whole kingdom has only one paper but this also stands very much below when compared to the worst paper in India.* The Ranas for themselves have their supply of standard periodicals from Europe and America and able interpreters to read to them and also best radio sets which the public could not keep till 1946. There is a law in the land which forbids using of any conveyance by the citizens, even rickshaw is not spared to them Even in point of dresses, a distinction bas been drawn by restricting certain costly and fashionable types of clothes to the Ranas Thus a Sherwani may be worn by a Rana only and not by others. In marriage ceremonies, the Rana alone may use elephants and horses and musical bands are played exclusively in their festivities, while the populace have to be content with old conventional instruments.

The Ranas have affected a position of superiority much higher than the people they rule. That is a plane higher and farther in the air not to be reached by those under their rule Thus an artificial social stratosphere has been created. A Rana as a superman (?) has deep-seated caste prejudices. As every other Nepali is a slave of his, he cannot have any social intercourse with

him. He would not condescend even to address a citizen in a gentlemanly manner, nor he would shake hands with him. Many highly placed Ranas avoid parties in their honor while in India for the only reason that they will be asked to shake hands with their emigrant Nepali brethren. A Nepali military officer in Dehradun tells me that he had to cancel a reception programme on being told that the guest, a Rana General, would only shake hands with non-Nepali officers.

This finds a very injurious expression in marriage relationship, which they have set up with outsiders. As no Rana girl can marry a subject Nepali, she must choose her husband from outside. Thus a great amount of money is drawn by Rajas and Zamindars in India as dowries and tilaks, which may come to lakhs and crores. No consideration other than that of superiority complex weighs with them in their treatment of Nepali national, not even the welfare of their daughters who while with the talukadars and princes of India are all worse and have everything to lose and nothing to gain by way of domestic happiness.

This evil practice of marrying their daughters to the Indian Rajas and Zamindars was commenced by Chandra Shumsher who had only satisfied his vanity; for he regarded his family as one very much superior to fellow Nepalese Before him the practices had been to cultivate marriage relations with the Thakuris and other clans that were conventionally regarded as pure Kshatriyas, a status so long denied to the family of Jang Bahadur. Chandra reversed this practice, and not being content with his own elevation to the rank of the pure Kshatrias tried to by pass them in an attempt to seek relations beyond the frontier of Nepal where, of course. none of the ancient houses of Kshatriyas agreed to oblige him. The worst part of exploitation is with regard to the way the people are treated. A Rana is an object of divine grace and by the law of land enjoys the highest respect due to divinity. He is a superman. To him people go to bow down and ask for favors. He has got the command over all services and it is according to his discretion that allotment is made When he walks in the street urchins run away in terror, while the elders wait on him in trembling shoes In Katmandu nobody may look out of the window when a Rana of pure blood is passing on foot. If a Rana's house happens to be within the range of eye-sight from a subject's house, the windows of the latter must be closed, distance not counting and even if inadvisable it may appear to be for reasons of ventilation for the Rana shuns even a distant eye over his surroundings. If he required extension of his building or garden, the neighbors may be evacuated compulsorily. In short, the Ranas have enjoyed every power to interfere in the life and domesticity of a commoner and no idea of neighborly sympathy or fellow feeling is entertained in dealing with him. Outside Katmandu where even the most elementary amenity of civic life is practically unknown, the law prohibits building of a pucca house with tile roofs by a non-Rana without the permission of Kathmandu authorities. A kiln for burning bricks cannot be started in the locality unless the Government gives permission to that effect. Life and property are not safe in Nepal. One man may become a pauper by a mere frown of the rulers In fact, the Ranas are very much strict in maintaining their privileges. No one should betray his enlightened views save at the cost of his life. According to convention a subject should not build a fashionable house, should not wear a like dress or do anything which may go to show equality of status with the Ranas, I personally know the case of a person who, not long ago, was harassed simply, because he was found not saluting one of the sons of Chandra Shumsher in dinner party at Calcutta. To another Newar trader it cost him his entire property when he was seen hurrying in a motorcar without paying attention to his master crossing him in another car. Anybody contravening these practices lands himself in danger. As we have said, the people have no rights as fundamental rights, nor they are in a position to assert them for reasons of ignorance and economic distress, which have resulted from the century old oppressive rule. By convention the Premier is in possession of every life and property in the Kingdom. In practice each Rana asserts this right in ruthless fashion when- ever he feels himself called upon to do so. A single offence or any act of displeasure 1s enough to invite disaster, not excluding confiscation of property. Many people have been deprived of their life and property on simple pretext.

The lack of security and safety has tended to produce a great economic loss to the country. The population is incomparably poor. You will not find a single person other than the Ranas whose income is Rs. 1500 or more per month, and there may not be even one hundred persons who can be wealthy enough to have a claim on an annual income of six thousand. All avenues for employment are closed. The people have an ingrained fear that the Ranas do not brook any body's prosperity and, therefore, any attempt in the direction of self-development may incur their displeasure to ultimately bring about self-effacement. Therefore, only those who flatter to the Ranas have in any way acted to amass wealth and maintain luxury. It so happens that because of this factor the Ranas are looked upon as the source of all emoluments, and care is given more to their pleasure than to education or any kind of training. Because, the Ranas are averse to giving employment to educated men. People have been showing dislike for education. And thus a host of young men who should have ordinarily found their way to educational institutions waits upon the Ranas for his good grace. In all matters affecting appointments in or dismissal from services the Ranas act as high. handedly as possible and as though it were dispensing purely private business and favors. There is no Public Service Commission to consider the fact of merits. Day in and day out there is a peculiar congregation of young men at every door of the Rana and the latter makes his choice of the nominees from those who have put up to their credit the meanest kind of flattery. The result is the greatest impediment to the efficiency of administration.

This insecurity has greatly affected the position of the Ranas themselves and much detrimentally the county’s economic interest. It is not, however, for the insecurity dictated by the interest of the State and for fear of popular revolt that the Ranas feel in anyway perturbed. In the nature of things the Ranas know that no large-scale popular revolt can take place unless an all round consciousness against their misrule grows up. Starving and ignorant person, orthodox and priest-ridden is too simple a creature to be afraid of.

But there have been attempts on the life of the Prime Minister by those of all his relations following close on the roll of succession. As power is concentrated on him a single individual; there is a strong tendency in others to try to speed up the promotion even by recourse to a method of physical removal.

In between the people it has sown at. terrible seed of distrust. In course of the century the Nepali has been reduced to a phantom untrustworthy and distrusting. Even in treatment of a near relation one moves cautiously. The most popular saying in Kathmandu today attributes ears to the walls, which quite signifcant. A father may not trust a son and vice versa.

Not that betrayal in the hands of a near one is uncommon as if, the people have imbibed the narrow and mean outlook bequeathed by the environment. Incidents fraught with treasonable conduct have come to light very often. And it is not dying even at present.

No one is more cautious than a Nepali while he has to talk of politics, and before he expresses his opinion he makes it a point to assure himself that his confidant is not a spy. This habit does not leave him even outside Nepal. This is also a very common practice amongst our students to suspect each other as spies. Habit is second nature, and worse than that the habit of distrusting all, save himself, has become a serious disease with the Nepali.

Is it peculiar to a citizen of Nepal only one asks? No, not that. It is common to the type of environment as obtains in present day Nepal This timid, suspicious and narrow mentality is a special product of the circumstances in which we are finding ourselves under the repressive rule of the Rana family who have encouraged this mentality by a regular crusade against free thinking, forwardness, and bold and open expression.

An idea of the effect of mal-administration on the country in general has been already obtained to persue the matter further, let us recapitulate that the people are subjected to the most heinous type of oppression, exploitation, injustice and dishonor unparalleled in the history of any country at present. The peasantry is persecuted and put to untold suffering. His land is forfeited, absorbed in the various estates of the Ranas. Whatever remains of him he cannot utilize properly to his advantage for lack of irrigation and agricultural facilities. He has to render work for the estate-holder free of any obligation in return, and load carriers too are not exempted from heavy duties. There is a pressure on land, though a large part of fertile river valleys lies fallow. As there is no other source to fall back upon, a large part of population nearly 1/10th has migrated to India in search of food. The ten lakhs of hungry souls here are living examples of the barbarous persecution reigning in Nepal.

The country, on the whole, has seriously suffered. The Ranas have resorted to the most uneconomic activities in furtherance of their own self-interest. Finding that the existing land revenue is insufficient for their rising snobbery, they have resorted to currency manipulation. From 1931, a relentless effort has been made to pass alloyed silver coins at their original face-value. A silver coin of Nepal called Mohar today does not contain even a tenth of pure silver. The profit of the mint is pocketed by the Premier. Besides, the estate- system of administration has made the public finance a trivial concern and a matter of personal interest, for, as it is found, that only 1/8 of total annual income of the country comes for public expenditure and the rest is divided as spoils amongst members of the Rana family. The income of the Government is decreasing to the extent that individual Ranas have gained. In matter of foreign trade as Nepal does not export goods worth more than a few lakhs of rupees, the large yearly import which amounts to nearly ten crores of rupees had before the war to be met with a regular gold flow. Nor it is possible to reduce the imports in view of Nepal's unavoidable dependence on them for we have even certain necessaries to get through India. The electric ropeway connecting Kathmandu with the nearest spot on the Terai is a barometer to record the situation. It has so happened that all the buckets over the electric rope-way coming from Kathmandu are empty, while every bucket going thither is loaded to the brim This loss of foreign market has led to the depreciation of the currency in Kathmandu which was further accentuated by the action of the Ranas in transferring the entire revenue of the Terai to banks in Calcutta. Up till 1935 the revenue, which came in British Indian currency, was sent to Kathmandu and passed as medium in foreign transaction. But as the same was since then transferred to Judian banks, a great drain on gold reserves of the country is the result. All but the Ranas are very much hard hit by this development, and this was arrested only during the war, and in the scarcity days of the aftermath when imports had to be automatically curtailed.  

                                                  THE ABORIGINES AND BANDAS 

Of the eighty lakhs of people inhabiting Nepal a considerably large number belongs to the aboriginal tribes who are still living in a savage condition. Their condition can better be imagined than described. These people are so farther removed from civilization that to them even pottery is a curiosity. These aboriginal sons of the soil, the Tharus, Chepangs, Danuwars, Rajavansis, Meche, Koche, Thaksais and Lamas have been alway kept outside the fringe of civilization under the Rana regime. Not only no attempt has so far been made to raise them out of the slough of barbarism there seems a deliberate conspiracy to ------ ate that state of life which keeps them impervious to the influence of factors that have wrought some changes amongst the more advanced section. It is so pervasive that the aborigines betray in all expressions and behavior the characteristic of a society of the most primitive age at the dawn of history. Any Government which has under its care a vast population of the type just noted is duty-bound to see that they are well-looked after and provided with amenities to place them on the road to cultural and economic advancement. But during one hundred and two years of their regime the Rana family acted in a most complacent manner towards these unfortunate people. They have not been given that much semblance of social benefits which has fallen to the lot of the Parbatiyas and Newars, as well as of Magars and Gurungs who compose the civilized strata of Nepali masses.

Slavery existed in Nepal as late as 1923 when it was abolished as a result of pressure from the British Government. But another system equally obnoxious still exists. A man voluntarily agrees to the loss of his freedom by mortgaging himself. The difference between him and the slaves is in regard to the right which a mortgage enjoys, which makes it compulsory on the master to accept the price mortgaged whenever offered. Very often it is found that the aborigines once in contact with the more developed of his country-men is tempted to mortgage himself and thus automatically falls into the clutches of the well-to-do. The Rana Rulers do not find anything objectionable in this process of exploitation of the aboriginal races. At times they themselves become a party to exploiting these men who serve to carry timber from the forest of the terai to Kathmandu for the use of palaces.

 As they cared only to feed themselves fat on wealth of the country, they consistently neglected to introduce industries for fear of creating complications likely to revolutionize conditions which, in the end, might deal a death blow to the feudal regime altogether. This has led them to leave the whole country in a state of primitive economy, wherein a modern society could not grow up. Even the section that we have called advanced in comparison has hardly passed the barbaric stage. Modern civilization has certainly entered Katmandu, but not so easily and extensively and its scope has been too much limited. In spite of the abolition of slavery the lot of the average inhabitant of Nepal is no better than that of a slave and aborigines.

          There are aboriginal races in India and in other countries. We also know that this attitude of indifference towards the primitive dwellers is shared in common by almost all the Governments. But these, while themselves doing little in that direction, have not impeded the efforts of social workers who with missionary zeal are to be found engaged in the admirable task of reforming the poor savages. In Nepal, however, there is standing an age long ban on such activities jealously enforced and guarded by those in power, which has equally resisted the encroachment of modern civilization on the country. It is a well-calculated measure, which the rulers have adopted to keep the gulf unabridged.

The aborigines in Nepal are not an insignificant minority as in India In the farthest north of the hilly region they are in overwhelming majority. They are scattered throughout the length and breadth of Nepal from the upper reaches of the river Narayani to the Indian trader in Darjeeling except the valley. If we are particular as to consider deeply the ways of living, arid backwardness of the environment they are forced in. the aborigines may be very easily placed side by side with the other stocks whose lot, as we have hinted, is no better. The Gurungs and Magars have, therefore, to be included in the enumeration of the backward tribe, which means that the problem of aboriginal tribes is a national problem.

Not that amongst the higher strata, amongst the Parbatiyas and the Newars there is to be found a higher and better life We have thrown light on the various disabilities they have been suffering, and their resultant pitiable condition. This should bring home to us the picture of exploitation of the whole people, which practiced regularly reduces the country to no less than an undeveloped tribal territory. The one purpose to refer to aborigines here is not so much to draw attention to a tribe living in savage condition as to show that there cannot be drawn a line of distinction between the two sections. In the hands of the Rana Rulers the exploitation has been universal. The lot of the Brahmans, Khasas and the Newars is as unhappy as that of the aborigines. If there is to be noted any distinction  it should be done in respect of the Kusanda and Chepang savages who shun the very human contact.

                                                  THE NEPAL ARMY

Now a few words about the Nepal army. Those who imagine a picture of Nepal with the traditional, valiant Gorkha soldiers will be disappointed to know that Nepal has no standing army in the modern sense of the term. There are some tbirty-five thousand troops both regular and irregular, but they lack in training and most of all in equipment of modern arms. There is poorly equipped artillery and no air force in Nepal. Besides, there are no trained and experienced generals to lead them. The Ranas who, from their very birth, are promoted to colonelship or generalship in the army cadre can pass only as mere exhibits whom a British General termed as 'toys'.'  In the hands of these toys, these contingents have been reduced to an abject position of infirmity. They are poorly paid, the usual monthly salary of a soldier being Rs. 8 inclusive of food charges and anyone can imagine what the stamina the soldier might build for him from this petty sum, with which he has to carve out a living. The army, therefore, have no role to play in the political sphere, As a group of poor men, serving to keep body and soul together, they carry out the behests of the Ranas, use guns to kill down their opponents and are sometimes maneuvered to cow down possible rebels; considered otherwise they are of no use against foreign enemy. A lakh of such soldiers would hardly be a match for twenty-five thousand of the best-trained British soldiers. Yet the Ranas take pride in their military efficiency and their so-called independence.

Some Indians not knowing this particular nature of the Nepal militia have spoken eloquently of contribution to the defense of the country. It is, however, a travesty of truth to say that the militia force, which never saw a battlefield, might have any thing to do with the external or internal defense of the country. The militiamen have not even the equipment and ability of regular personnel of the Kathmandu regiments. They use antique weapons, and lack in training and exercises common to a military body. The tragedy is that they have not, been trained even as a guerilla force. They certainly look after law and order in their respective areas, but the ruggedness of the country render their task so difficult that they are hardly needed anywhere. The very fact that at the headquarter of the district there is a contingent of militia men has certainly been a deterrent factor for mischief if at all it has exercised any influence over the state of crimes in the locality, but for that also they should hardly get credit, because the apparent tranquility is due to the primitive nature of the society People are compelled to live in rather than to anything done by the government in the field of social welfare or defense.

The militia in Nepal consists of about 6000 soldiers, and their distribution is nearly 150 to each district under an officer of the rank of a second Lieutenant. They do mostly a periodical work called to duty during three months of the year. A militiaman gets Rs. 6/- per month as his salary for the period he is on duty.

By the above remark it is never my intention to disparage the character of the Nepali in his soldier's capacity. In fact, one would rarely find a specimen of soldiery so full of valor, courage and capacity to bear penury and hardship as the Gorkha fighter has proved himself to be through the myriad of achievements he put in diverse phases of the war. One, who has witnessed the exploits of the Gorkha in battlefields has nothing but praise for his soldierly qualities, and on all tests he has established himself as equal if not superior to his European counterpart. Again for fights in the mountains and rugged areas he has no equal, which he so successfully and gallantly displayed in encounters with the Japanese in the Burmese and Malayan jungles. But all this sterling worth of his could only develop through contact with the British under their leadership. It was not a raw contingent from Nepal that was employed in the war to shine in glory. All those who fought and challenged the Germans and the Japanese had a long record of training at the hands of the British which only proves that given proper training in the art of war the Gorkha can show himself up as the finest example of valiant fighter with his sturdy and robust body and natural skill of a mountaineer and faithfulness that forms a singular feature of his character But in the beastly condition under the malignant ru1e of the Ranas, without a single fighting quality developed, he is no better than a beast of burden. It is absurd to associate him with the glory of the battlefields of Italy and Mesopotamia, if he is to be disassociated with the traditions of the British trained Gorkha Regiment.

Before the Rana rulers demoralized him the Gorkha needed little training from the British to rise to his height. The record of the Nepal war is a testimony to his acumen as a valiant soldier who had challenged the Europeans successfully against heavy odds The British Officers have left in their memoirs high appreciation of the valor, skill and incorruptible character of the Gorkha Soldier. It was the time when the Nepalese copied without the least flaw the very latest model of European artillery, and used them in defense and offence against the British. They were also fully equipped with the talent and experience of mature leadership. The Gorkha officers were second to none as far as sound leadership went and their skilful maneuvers was a problem to the opponent. Thus in every respect of military life Nepal uncontaminated by the Rana Rulers presented a true picture of a warring nation, which was fostered and encouraged by the government in power without least diminution of interest. But the glory that was Nepal is no more. We do not get even a shadow of that glorious past at present that bright chapter seems to have closed in 1846 never to reopen.

It is really tragic that the Nepal rulers are not conscious of their shortcomings when they vaunt of their independent position. The falsity of their claim to recognition as a power able to defend territorial integrity of the country is nowhere so trenchantly displayed as in the pattern of military defense, which all along suffers from a lack of skill and equipment to a great degree. Nepal is proverbially poor in respect of artillery and it has not yet possessed air force even to the extent of commanding a single aeroplane. This backward state of affairs is definitely not the thing to inspire confidence and respect in the mind of the outsiders. If the arrangement of defense were to be the criterion of independence then the Rana of Nepal is the least fit country to lay a claim to that status. Unfortunately the country has not yet changed its role, which it was forced to play under the British as an adjunct of Britain tied to the tail of India, which was limited to supplying manpower as fodder to the British guns.

                                                 CAUSE OF SLOW AWAKENING

The situation had reached a climax long ago. It was too intolerable to admit of further complacency. But in no quarter there appeared signs of revolt to this inhuman crime perpetrated till a very late period of our history. Amongst a crore of Nepalese there were hardly a few who thought of resistance, and even they were not courageous enough to take up leadership and march on to the goal of freedom.

This is certainly strange, but one who has studied Nepal and the character and circumstances of her people will think otherwise. Nepal, as at present governed, allows no possibility for a large-scale public revolt, though every moment demands it. The reason is not to be found in the capacity of the Ranas to resist it but in the weak and almost beastly condition of the people. The people are ignorant and insipid, prone to cling to medieval orthodoxy. Ever credulous to have respected the divinity of the Ranas, as they are deliberately kept in this state of credulity and superstitious belief by a regular process of in education and suppression. These teeming millions have taken their present plight as one pre-ordained and natural coming from the heaven as malediction for their past sins. In spite of regular crusade against their goods and women, they were showing the least sign of stir and anxiety. Even patience would have tired.

One of the drawbacks of the social development in Nepal has been the very slow growth of the middle class, which has remained in an embryonic state for a long time. As a class most interested in the change over from feudalism to democracy its growth to stature is a prelude to any shifting of forces In our country, however, the very medieval environment encouraged and perpetuated by the ruling aristocracy has been a factor to prevent such a middle class coming into existence. Lack of efficient leadership at the present time has also to be ascribed to the same situation.

Even to this day no public agitation is possible inside Nepal, not only for reasons of popular ignorance and weakness, but also because the Ranas quench the spark of revolt with undue animosity. The procedure has been that an ant is killed by a heap of earth The Ranas do not brook even the slightest interference in their work. A word of suggestion to mend matters' may be answered with death penalty. The people have to willingly submit to what they do no matter their interest be jeopardized by such actions.

Examples of how the iron rod of the Rana Government is adversely killing individual initiative are very many and every Rana Ruler has proved himself the cruel taskmaster that he is in this direction. The Ranas in order to maintain their dignity have ruthlessly suppressed any kind of self-development in the public, be it in the field of education or industry. Thus, if a Nepali boy in an Indian University shines himself out as distinctively meritorious, he is sure to court the displeasure of the Ranas They do not like that their subjects should outshine them and as they themselves have the least ability to shine, the very potentiality for such distinction in others is made to lie dormant. Because of this and because of the fear of public consciousness, the Rana government has withheld all facilities of physical and mental development from the public. We are so much backward in physique and culture that we have no place in the comity of modern civilized nations. We have no well-advanced literature, we have as yet not been able to produce talented writers and poets, historians and economists, doctors and engineers of high ability and reputation and we have no one who is distinguished in any walk of life The pity is that we have to import all our experts from India. The Ranas have very unjustly distrusted some of the young men who managed to attain efficiency in the above noted branches of learning, but except for the doctor who, however, can utilize the weak health of the Ranas to his advantage, every other proficiency has no room for absorption in the State services so that learning is too much discouraged. Only antiquated type of Sanskrit culture is patronized to attract young men, thus preventing all doors to public consciousness, but even they have been forced to lead a hand to-mouth living.

How even the most elementary academic pursuit is interfered with will be evident from the very recent action of the Nepal Government in threatening the author of this document in 1940 with dire consequences if he did not stop writing articles for the Indian periodicals. The absurdity of the demand made will be brought home to everyone, if he knew the nature of the contribution, which always excluded reference to Nepal in the content. Again while he had published a historical work on the subject of Muslim invasion into Nepal the Maharaja chastised one of the author's relations for the publication. It came to my knowledge later on that Dr. Jayaswal too was not spared from threats and chastisement when he had for the first time referred to, in an article, the fact of Muslim invasion into Nepal on the strength of an inscription which he had traced in his sojourn to Kathmandu. The Rana autocrats pursue a consistent policy of gagging the people no matter it is exercised in regard to academic or intellectual pursuit.

By a policy of denial the Rana rulers have been able to keep the country backward. In the absence of the means for higher education, many promising young-men who would have certainly shined in life are made to drag a miserable existence in a state of despondency. But even the few who can afford to take up higher training at their expense find the doors closed, as permission is rarely given to such of them as intend prosecuting studies in foreign countries. Conventionally sea voyage is prohibited to caste Hindus, and the Nepal government often does take a stand on that ground to discourage overseas contact. 

                             POSSIBILITY OF AGITATION IN INDIA BEFORE 1946

In British India an agitation could be carried. But thus far the British Government had cast impediments on the way. Everybody in India knows about the stakes of the British government in Nepal, which have prevented them all along from adopting a lenient policy towards any popular movement of the Nepalese. Nepal up till now forms a free recruiting ground for regiments in the Indian army. In peace and war the recruitment is free and helped by the Rana Government. The British Government thought that under any other regime free recruitment is not possible. Indeed the Premiers before Jung Bahadur were in no way reconciled to the idea of free recruitment of Nepalese by the British. But Jung Bahadur put his selfish motive before everything else and finally signed an agreement allowing perpetual rights to the British Government Gorkha soldiers in Nepal. In response the British Government on their part had secretly guaranteed protection to the Ranas. The interest shown by the British authorities in discouraging agitation against the Ranas may be explained with reference to this guarantee. The treaty of 1923 imposed a special obligation on the contracting parties to stop all means every form of agitation carried against the other from the territory of the other. Public agitation British India was accordingly out of question as the British Government gave up the old policy of mutual assistance. But the British would not abandon such a policy for reasons of the stake they had Nepal as mentioned earlier. They were bound to crush the anti-Rana agitation in the circumstances. In case of defiance of the Prohibitory rules the whole might of the Empire might have been, therefore, used to silence voices of protests raised against the Ranas in India.

 What the Nepalese apprehended, more than any other measure was unconditional surrender to the Ranas by the British in cases of political crime, which is however strictly forbidden by international law. There have been many cases of political exiles taking shelter in British India, but so far till 1944 no incident of surrender was reported. But the fear had gained ground and until that was dispelled no agitation in the name of exiles could stand. Of course, the British Government has displayed the basest form of ingratitude towards the people of Nepal, while they had ignored the services the Gorkhas rendered in the cause of the Empire. It should be noted that the British have always regarded the Rana family as symbolic of everything connected with Nepal and naturally the people were no concern of theirs.

The emigrants might have done so at the peril of punishment according to British law. The law regulating such actions comes within the purview of the Foreign Relations Act, which-like the Indian States Act prohibited agitation against the present regime in Nepal. But the stipulation did not deter the action so strictly as the fear of surrender did. Even when as in the past the British Government had tried to emasculate the dissenters financially, agitation had been discouraged. During the Great War two papers 'Gorkhali' edited by Debi Prasad Subba, an old Nepali revolutionary, and 'Gorkha Sansar' were started in British India to conduct campaigns of agitation against the Rana regime. The British Government demanded heavy security from the press, in both cases, forfeited it and thus suppressed the papers.

A short observation may be made on the so-called right of demand for surrender, for this is a very important part of the Anglo-Nepali relation and often misconstrued so as to make infructuous any movement in British India against the Ranas by creating sense of fear of unconditional] surrender in the minds of the workers. Sub fear, however, was not entirely baseless, for the treaty of 1855 bas not definitely laid down provisions disallowing surrender of political and the apprehension that the British Government may disregard them to please the Ranas could not be discounted. The treaty of 1855 (10^th February) has definitely laid down that criminal cases of the nature specified in Article (4) are alone subject to surrender, and another offences not specified in and civil offenders. according to Article: 1, are not to be delivered. The offences mentioned in Articles (4) are (1) murder (2) attempt to murder (3) rape (4) maiming (5) Thuggee (6) dacoity (7) high-way robbery (8) poisoning (9) burglary and (10) arson. To our advantage the procedure of surrender is elaborated and unless and until definite proof of guilt is established by the court of law in British India in accordance with the provisions of the laws applicable to similar allegations no apprehension and detention, not to speak of surrender, can take place. These provisions have not been changed since then, and the reader can judge how it was not at all easy to secure politicals from British India for trial in Nepal. But, we know as well how the British callously trampled down all agitations carried against the states in British India and it was not unexpected that they might disregard the treaty of 1855 and surrender the politicals specially when a valuable and loyal ally like the Rana Government was to be benefited.

 The Ranas, on their part, had always tried to wantonly override the provisions of the treaty of 1855 and had demanded political and civil offenders, from time to time, though not without failure. The first demand, as far as we know, was put forth in the case of the Ex-premier Deva Shumsher with Subba Homnath Upadhayaya who hatched up a plan to capture power in Nepal during the absence of Chandra Shumsher at Delhi Durbar in 1902. Deva Shumsher was then living in Banaras. A band of his loyal followers with guns and muskets were ready to pounce upon Chandra immediately he reached Raxaul, while a secret move was already being made to secure the consent of the King, who was then at Amlekhganj. Before however, this plan was being carried into operation, Chandra Shumsher got the scent of it through an approver and hurried to Nepal to meet the contingency. Deva Shumsher and his band were arrested in British India for the alleged offence of conspiracy the Ex-premier was honorably interned. The matter was referred to a Magistrate's court where Deva Shumsher could establish to his profound joy his ground of exemption from trial and conviction by the British court and from surrender to Nepal for trial by Sessions for the same allegation. The judge found him not amenable to Indian laws agreeing with the opinion of  Deva's counsel.

During the First World War and after the early twenties some patriots had started weekly papers in the Nepali language to conduct propaganda in British India against the misrule of the Ranas. The British Government, however, merely contented themselves by forcing them to close the press and cease their activities. A demand made for surrender of persons found guilty of traffic on Nepali women in Banaras was similarly set aside, the person being convicted according to law in British India,

In 1918 March, a non-Rana graduate tutor, Bhet Narain of Vaisya caste, developed intimacy with a daughter of an exile Rana General Pratap Shumsher, who was then living in Calcutta, The mother of the girl filed a suit for the restoration of the girl in the court on the ground of her minority. The court on a motion referred to by the Police Department investi- gated the case and summarily dismissed the suit. The girl was then nearly 24 years old and she was accordingly married to the tutor subsequently after at Banaras according to Arya Samajic rites. To the Ranas in Kathmandu, this was too much. A Vaisya subject of theirs and a subject under caste marrying a Rana girl of divinity and superior blood was something very much criminal and they indirectly evoked the help of the British Government to punish him according to the Rana's law. But no surrender was made, perhaps the Government of India were exasperated by the flimsy ground put forth to demand his surrender and refused to comply with the request. Bhet Narain, however, lost all his property lying in Nepal. which was seized by the Government as a measure of penalty.

Three cases of arrest, as will be referred to later, were also made in Calcutta in 1940 at the instance of the Ranas who demanded their surrender, but the Government of India refused to comply with the request for political reasons. One of the arrested person was Santbir Lama, who had been victimized three times consecutively in similar circumstances. In an earlier extradition case he had established his being a citizen of India. Bhet Narain kept in surveillance died a consumptive in that state sometimes after 1941 perhaps much to the relief of the Rana tyrants.

The arrangement, which prohibited anti-Rana agitation is now ceased to be binding. Looked that way the above will appear a superfluous attempt to add to the volume of the narration. We have no interest in this arrangement as well so it has floundered at present. But sometime back this had been practically responsible for suppressing any move conducted against the feudal Government of Nepal and there lay its importance, and we have, accordingly, brought it to our picture. Today, we do not encounter the galling restrictions which made it totally impossible to raise even a straw in the matter, and this freedom from possible difficulties and dangers is apt to make some of us forgetful of the past But if we know that there have been left a legacy of pessimism and fearfulness still remaining intact, we will not underrate the situation as then prevailed, and of our delineation of the same.

 It was really a very painful picture. The way the British zealously safeguarded the interest of the Rana family made it virtually impossible for any agitation work to stand for a little long. Any open activity as it will be evident from another part of the narrative was  out of the question. The British authorities did not even tolerate democratic activities conducted purely for j the local interest of the emigrant Nepalese. A shadow of terror always hung over these poor people. It seemed that the terror of the Ranas had followed them as far as British India.

The only effect of the policy of discouragement and suppression had been to keep the Nepalese away from the main current of national liberation fight in India, which had sent again its repercussion in making them impervious to the influence of progressive forces. That terror of the cruel Ranas had almost paralyzed them. Even now with India free and no fear of punitive action by the authorities the Nepalese have not been able to shake off that age long stupor. They are moving very slowly if at all we mark a movement. It is really a tragedy that the same paralysis is gripping them up till now.