KATHMANDU, NEPAL 1952

                                 CHAPTER 1

                                          NEPAL IN RETROSPECT  

          Nepal is known as the only Hindu Kingdom in the world, and the home to the valiant Gorkhas, the short statured hill fighters.  It is also the home of many antiquities, and of many quaint costumes and usages still extant and of many barbarous tribes of multiple races and of ritualistic Buddhism unique in itself.  But more than it is famous today as one of the most backward spots on earth, more backward than some countries in Arabia and Africa and of a tyranny that is still triumphant in the personal rule of the Rana family. It is that way the home of a curious form of political structure, of baby military officers, and of primitive economy where railroad, telegraphic communication and cine-film are almost unknown.  

Geographically Nepal is a part of India, and even historically at one time or another it was linked in political sphere as well as to the capital city of the Subcontinent.  It is not a big state, not much bigger than the smallest province of India and very much thinly populated on account of rugged hill side and in a way lost in the whole as a part, which makes it little known to foreigners.  It is not at all known in America and Europe, much less in Africa and Australia as an important independent entity, where people were till late accustomed to see in the map only a protected native state painted yellowish.  It was not much differentiated from the rest of India. Of all the outside countries England knows it thoroughly well, but only through her mellocracy which was interested in keeping Nepal under feudal subjugation.  The British officers always led the Gorkhas in the Indian army, and Nepal was not allowed to retain connections with the outside world.  The result was that Nepal for a century was under the monopoly of the British aristocracy.  Even India was being deprived of the age long intimate association with that country by the combined operation of the British Imperialists with feudal Ranas.  Consequently the knowledge about Nepal is poor in India, which is also the immediate neighbor of Nepal, though relatively as nearness determines it this is not entirely negligible.  But even the Indians little realize that the extent of oppression and exploitation in the feudal setting is so deeply inhuman as to beggar description, and without parallel in their own country under the worst period of British tyranny.  This little knowledge, however, has been a dangerous thing making untenable references in all optimism about the state of affairs, and Nepal for very long flowed in milk and honey in their imagination.  It was to them the country of the rich Ranas, of their grandeur and pomp and regale and of Parasmani stone which converted iron into gold by the mere touch of hands and of the men that were upright and honest, the proof of which they obtained in the unflinching faithfulness and devotion with which the Gorkha menials served them.  Incidentally Nepal happens to supply a large percentage of domestic servants to the Indian middle class, the most informed of them, in the same vein as it fills the most reliable section of the Indian army of the British.  But the Gorkha stands to test in these matters only because he is ignorant. The moment he is exposed to the vagaries and intricacies of more advanced surroundings he fails to acquit himself up to expectation.  At present the proverbial simple minded Gorkha is no more to be seen as also the ignorance about him with the real Nepal he inhabits which is gradually vanishing in proportion to the degree of revelation and unfolding of the mysterious land.

Nepal is completely land-locked and insular, and cut off from the rest of the world in all respects except the physical contact it maintains with India on three sides and with Tibet in the north owing to contiguity.  But nowhere the isolation is so galling as when we find the man there being shut within it like in a cage as if he is imprisoned in the helpless condition, even telephonic and telegraphic communication is not maintained with the external world, not to speak of a system of modern communication .  It will be easier for a man in the contiguous provinces of Indian Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, to send his messages or travel himself to the most in approachable parts of Arabia and Africa leave aside America or Japan which he can easily touch after an air flight of 60 hours, than to communicate with his counterpart in Katmandu only a hundred a miles from the border.  The cage like position makes it almost sealed against all outside influences physically for lack of communication and socially for reasons of material backwardness.  Nepal is barricaded in a way to all intents and purposes and darkness hangs over it rendering the impregnable mountains nestling into a playground of mischievous reactionary forces, which under the pall of medieval smoke perpetrate unbelievably heinous crimes.  The isolation is, however, man created and is deliberately maintained by him by a policy scant attention paid to question s of reconstruction and development. Nepal remains still a bulwark of antique economy not pierced by modern civilization and almost decaying in barbarism.  It is one of the most backward spots on earth, and thereby presents an expression of outmoded behavior natural behavior unnatural enough in the new context of the world, where distance is still unabridged, and unconquered nature red in tooth and claw defies the men wrapping in superstition and blind faith.  In the final analysis it is a segmented watertight society, which is definitely raising its structure aloft and seemingly unaffected by new trends of universal changes to condemn the very life of the nation, it nourishes.

            This isolation should not be mistaken for an iron curtain, which we are accustomed to hear on connection with the western description of Russia and eastern European states. In some aspects of the country’s gagged existence it assumed a virtual deserted appearance, calm and unstirring, but as nowhere there is a sign of new activity a new upsurge of reconstruction as in the so-called iron curtain countries that are far advanced socially and also industrialized.  There is no comparison between the two but the curtain over Nepal is literally of iron casting its deadweight of the environment, which is the most poignant phase of its life unlike other countries where the curtain has come to mean only a degree of inaccessibility to certain interested outsiders.  Nepal was leading a life of stagnation as a result of deadweight, and wallowing in fifteenth century medievalism.  The continued inaccessibility to outside forces served only to stagnate its life further and screens the palpable barbaric conditions of the people’s inhabiting the region.  From the eyes of the awakened world who might raise its voice of protest, medieval Nepal had no likeliness with modern countries of the iron curtain except that it was a picture of the dilapidation, a picture of the ugliest and the unhealthiest isolation where the nation’s life freedom had ceased to throb to the tune of breathe.

Nepal’s isolation is primarily a British creation. It was to neutralize Nepal’s military strength that the British contrived to segregate it from the rest of India by treaty stipulation.  By 1835 Nepal ceased to enjoy in practice all powers of external contacts of its choice, and the British indirectly regulated such contacts if any.  It could not even appoint to its state all private services any European personnel and their presence or the presence of any Indian was to be reported forthwith to Calcutta.  A little later near about 1846 there was established a vile autocracy which surrendered the remaining privileges to the British, and utilized the   situation to maintain its stranglehold over the realm.  A deal was struck between the foreign power and the local medieval autocracy on the basis of Nepal’s isolation from all external contacts.  The Nepalese had resented earlier an attempt by the British in this direction.  But now this was designed to cover an entire field of Nepal’s economic and social progress as they came to be related with outside influences which was shut out deliberately to keep it ever backward.  In Nepal’s medieval backwardness was discovered the foundation than the structure of autocracy and supplied the fodder for the Imperialist gun. 

England had no direct interest in the natural resources of Nepal.  She was mainly concerned with the Gurkha manpower of Nepal and before that actually matured with sterilizing it s military strength, which was totally segregated from the over all Indian pool.  The system princely states in India was concerned with the same sort of motive, and they too lay extremely primeval with a few expectation as long as the British ruled.  But Nepal’s fate was comparatively pitiable; unlike most of the Indian states, which maintained railroad communications with the main centers of India, Nepal’s segregation was thorough.  No modern scientific inventions, no modern system of social reconstruction could penetrate the fastidious mountain barrier.  It was left to wallow in the most archaic conditions of medieval sloth and ignorance regularly deprived of modern amenities of existence.  Thus was ensured the fodder for British guns, and position of easy and unquestioned exploitation based on poverty and ignorance for a handful of Nepalese aristocracy.  The  northern frontier was virtually sealed, because in British history of the period, Tibet was always kept as her sphere of influence, and consequently the Nepalese could not expect anything of modern influence from that quarter.  Geography, British diplomacy and imperialist interest, the local autocracy, all combined had made out of Nepal a prison house and a secluded cloister where human beings were subject to the most lonesome barbarous existence and unknown in other sectors.

           In India the British bad proceeded on a course of modernizing the administration and on a path to change the face of the country much against their will, and without knowledge of the consequences following theirs was a wide commercial interest, which was attended with military measures designed to protect the same.  They could not certainly refuse to introduce industrialization and reforms when these appeared essential for the security of the state.  The railway, the steamship, the ordnance factories, and all their paraphernalia directly followed out of considerations for the defense of Imperialist interests in India.  They required an efficient army trained on modern weapons and a steel frame of bureaucracy for the same reason.  Because they lived in India, they brought their own democratic ways of life to bear on the general social condition of the subcontinent, though they at the outset touched the remote fringe of the society as affecting the upper strata of the rich disposed to copy the westerners.  When clubs, cinemas, newspapers, social gatherings and other media of collective democratic life inseparably connected with an English man, which he could not abandon, and adopted wherever he went came as a major factor in their application to Indian condition to revolutionize it in accordance with the spirit of western democracy they contributed a great deal, in spite of certain other obstacles, to pave the ground for the rise and progress of the national liberation struggle.  It is a truism to say that the very mode of education practiced in a large scale as a measure of democratization which the British thought would impede the national awakening of the Indians by inculcating in the educated a tendency to despise their national trait in slavish imitation of all evil that was British went ultimately to give rise to and facilitate anti-British sentiment, which later on assumed a magnitude of revolt against British rule.  The over all effect of the measures undertaken by the British rulers was to broaden the base of democratic reforms, however tardy and unwillingly introduced, which developed with the propitious times into a mass hunger for the end of the regime that dominated and grudged them full democratic rights.

           But Nepal was outside the province of a Britisher's Indian habitat.  It was not directly governed by him nor it was ever sought for commercial exploitation by him.  He wanted Nepal as a reservoir of Gorkha military manpower, which was loyally fulfilled by the indigenous autocracy for obvious advantages.  Thus farther removed from western contact Nepal never tasted a life of western culture and never shared with India the bliss or otherwise of a modern industrial society.  Consequently its tale of woe, its life of isolation and medieval drudgery protracted the wound inflicted by centuries of exploitation not in any way healed up.

            The advantages offered by the situation, which had rendered Nepal into a tightly sealed envelope, were utilized to perpetrate unjust and unsocial acts designed to keep the subjects ignorant and poor and naturally submissive.  The Nepal autocrats have been notorious for their heinous measures of administration, which mainly contributed to unhealthy timidity of the ruled so long gripping them.  They spared no pains to nip any rebellious tendency of the people in the bud, which tragically resulted in putting off the moment of general awakening. It is no wonder, therefore, that basking in the sunshine of foreign Imperialist favor they are still ruling the roost in Nepal assisted so advantageously by the backward and unawakened state of the people, which as yet does not show signs of improvement.  The same accounts for the apparent lack of understanding of the changed international situation, and for consistent opposition to the democratic forces, which are being tried to be crushed by old methods.

            The legacy of the British period of Imperialism in India, which came to an end in 1947, still sits heavily on Nepal’s unchanging medieval structure.  The theoretical independence which Nepal enjoyed in the eyes of the outside world keeping it so long far from the Indian orbit is now become real but at the moment it exists as a handmaid helping the same autocracy till yesterday servile on the British to maintain an iron curtain and shut out all progressive forces from its domain.  Leave aside the nervousness due to the changes in the neighboring countries, the Nepalese autocracy as yet is not developing adequate enthusiasm to lift the curtain over, and allow the country to enjoy the benefits of external contacts, and this is the clear expression of the past influence working in the usual way.  Not only the dead past is being clung to with all tenacity, but ever and anon incessant effort is made to drag it on and shadow the future under its crushing weight.  The century old isolation created a tradition of aloofness and impregnable fortress of timidity, which does not leave even outside home.  In Katmandu nobody as yet dares harbor an outsider in his dwelling not excepting the occasion of the Hindu festival of the Shivaratri when Indians have free entry for a period of 15 days and this is the only occasion, and the personnel of the Indian legation is always shunned.  Even outside Nepal a Nepalese will scarcely mix in the society, and will talk the least of his country when faced with such a situation. The tradition has him still in its close grips, and it seems to be relaxing not without an enormous pull.  At present it has stood as one of the counteracting influences and a hindrance against popular awakening and is corroding the vitals of the nation in an atmosphere of unhealthy rigidity.

           Entry by an outsider into Nepal is still very difficult, while come out by an insider is not so difficult, but in the nature of things he is not disposed to undertake a journey as freely as in circumstances of mobility under conditions of transport facilities, except when he has to migrate for livelihood, and this is largely an economic problem touching the masses of Nepal, invariably and exceptionally poor.  It is a general practice with the Nepalese that he descends from his mountain fastness for sheer need of bread, and not for sight seeing or cultural contact, a fact which is noticeable in connection with the influence this descent and migration has carried, which is very insignificant, the overwhelming majority of the visitors from Nepal are so engrossed in eking out a living for themselves that they can hardly arise to a plane above loaves and fishes.  In another sphere trade between Nepal and the outside world is fast growing in recent times, but it is not such as to cover an extensive range of objective factors, so that Nepal remains a secluded and closed cell as ever.  As yet the old ideas of conservative self-centralism remain tough.  It will appear surprising to many, but it is a fact that except that it has applied for the membership of the UNO the Nepalese autocracy has not allowed Nepal to be depicted in world picture or come to play a role in world arena. I am sure one has not heard as yet about Nepal’s participation in any of the international activities, not even in Olympics.  Even in all India activity Nepalese names are conspicuous by their absence mi except that of late Nepalese boys come to study in the Indian Universities for lack of facilities at home, but there too without any distinct achievements.  For all these days Nepal lies hidden in the narrow groove, to which the aristocracy has confined it beyond the horizon neither letting in nor letting out the wind blowing from other parts of the world, and consequently far removed from world influences altogether.  Had it been a buffer state like, Afghanistan lying in geographical contiguity with more than one independent States, the isolation we saw tightened in the past hundred years would not have been there.  But as we said earlier Nepal’s geographical situation in the top of the Himalayas surrounded on all but one side by territories of the Indian Empire and on the north by Tibet, itself a backward country under the British sphere of influence, was the main factor to isolate its resources and people.  At no time during the hundred years of Nepal’s close alignment with the British power an attempt was made to bring the country under the influence of modern ideas in science and arts, but in the meantime as the chains grew strong they were of regularly and consistently shut out in an endeavor to hold on to feudal rights, which required a condition of unalloyed feudal backwardness, the people being condemned to a lie of ignorance and poverty.   Any effort made in the direction of introducing modern scientific methods of education in Nepal and of industrializing and modernizing the country was bound to generate forces of popular awakening, which would not have acted conducive for feudal vested interests.  There was also the British Empire, which drew upon its manpower for the Indian armed forces.  And looked for a suitable ground in an unawakened country for in no other way this could be fulfilled and any state of consciousness was a hindrance as it was likely to inculcate a feeling of resentment against the enslaving foreign rule. So followed a period of deliberate stagnation.  Nepal’s potential resources were not tapped for capitalist exploitation much less to ameliorate the condition of the people.  Nepal lay in the same primitive condition chafing under the feudal yoke.  The last hundred years of its history is a blank page.  Except that the Gorkha soldier made a mark in military exploits of the British Empire and that too was unduly exaggerated, Nepal had nothing special to show to the world.  Being deeply steeped in morass of poverty, illiteracy and moral degradation, this country was passing all along for a hunting ground of reactionary forces which had practically annihilated its independent spirit.  No wonder that it is today lagging behind most countries in the race of advancement in the running world by at least two hundred years.

           Nepal is not at all wanting in natural resources to make it happy and strong. It has immense natural resources, minerals, forest and waterpower.  Recent estimate shows that it has abundant deposits of copper, iron, mica, oil, and coal, iron and asphalt scattered throughout the length and breadth of the hilly region, which is three fourths of the total area comprising 65.000 sq. miles.  But none of them have to come to be touched by human hands as also the vast sylvan resources, materials for wood and paper and match industries and building which remain unutilized to this very moment. The belt of forest 500 miles long and 10 miles wide is one of such abundant natural treasures of the world, where also roam in large; numbers very many wild, animals like elephants, rhinos, tigers, deer, etc.  In the northern-most habitable area of the Himalayan range wool yielding goats, and a little lower fruits like oranges ate literally farmed in prolific plenty.

          These could be exported to the outside world for which there is an increasing demand. But lack of communication and of fruit preserving methods prevents any systematic use of these for exports. Up till now except for a distance 45 miles of railway from the Indian border the entire country has no motorable road, and Katmandu the capital city lies yet like a lonely outpost in the midst of an un-navigable approached only on foot.

            Nepal is potentially rich in waterpower.  The whole country from west to east is covered by a network of river channels having their sources higher up in Himalayan snows all flowing to the brim with constant roar.  The seven Gandaks running down over the entire western part and their counterparts, the Kosis in the eastern, these fourteen Himalayan rivers together with the Ghogra, Karnali and Rapti in the extreme west equally important, are some of the largest river systems ill the whole of India.  Their utility as supplier of hydroelectric energy for modern industry and as canals for agricultural farms is beyond imagination.  Nepal’s life would have been to a great degree enriched materially and culturally with such a use of water wealth.  But these have not been tapped at all.  It has been calculated that the whole of Northern India could be electrified village by village over the entire area under a planned scheme of utilization of Nepal’s river systems.

          As a home of superb natural sceneries Nepal can attract  huge tourist traffic.  It contains places which can favorably compare with the beauteous spots in Kashmir.  To those in UP and Bihar who seek summer resorts near about their home Nepal provide excellent hill stations. If the country was open to tourists the Government and the people could enjoy lucrative source of income.  But apart from the inaccessible nature of the places, there is a regular prohibition to entry by outsiders, very rarely relaxed; which deprives Nepal of the opportunity of deriving immense benefits of out of tourist traffic.

         The absence of communication has done harm.  The Terai produces an enormous amount of paddy and other cereals much more than what its population of twenty five lakhs of people needs.  Ordinarily as a north mountain region suffers from shortage of foodstuff, this surplus could have been beneficially diverted.  Also there stalk at one time or another famine condition in certain parts of the Terai itself, but in the circumstances no help can reach them for the same reason.  The Terai exports a substantial portion of its production to the neighboring provinces of India, and thereby earns cash balance required to meet the imports.  But this is quite unpleasant in view of the countrywide condition of shortage in the upper region.  In between the mountain terrains and river valleys cultivation of cereals is neither methodic nor extensive, and the primitive nature is a gigantic problem.  A solution would have come by way of modern methods of farming and fertilizer, but there is no agency to introduce these.  Rather these are resisted by the power that be in pursuance of a policy of feudal exploitation which always requites an isolated self-centered backward economy.

         Nepal is approached through the Ghagra-Gandak-Kosi stretches from the side of India and in the north the Himalayas stand as the natural frontier.  The Indian railways extend up to the border with terminus at about 13 points, and between Tibet and Nepal, there are natural passes each at an altitude of 12000 feet S. I. or above.  Up-to-date except on occasions when persons crossed these passes inside under military necessity the last of such swarms descended in 1790, traffic has been hard as far as Nepal’s contact with Tibet is concerned.  Because of the absence of the natural barrier Nepal’s contact with India is, however, comparatively easy.  But the highways connecting various centers in Nepal with the neighboring points on the Indian border are not even broad enough to pass for footpaths. Katmandu alone can boast of a thoroughfare with a capacity to allow more than two passengers either ways.  The Indian outpost on the way is Raxaul, and Katmandu is 60 miles due north of it. Half way is rail route and motorable road combined, and the ascent from the point where great sub-Himalayan ranges of 6000 - 8000 ft. height begin is done on foot. to cover a distance of nearly sixteen miles, which takes one to the Nepal valley where Katmandu is situated.

           Entering the Nepalese territory the immediate impression formed in the minds of an outsider is that of medieval and barren atmosphere and of docile people, inured to a life of toil and fatigue.  Free from sophistication and bustle of a modern-life, Nepal gives an impression of a quietness, which borders on unusual dullness and insipidity common with the tranquility of the grave.  When you cross the frontier at Raxaul, you leave behind modern civilization, its problems and struggles and all what it means.  Nepal’s is a medieval picture.  I am tempted to bring to memory at this stage Marx's description of Ireland, as it existed near about the year 1850 for a correct analogy.  In the description the reader is advised to replace Ireland by Nepal and the British aristocracy by the Rana autocrats, Nepal’s present day rulers, and then the picture will be complete.

           A vast expanse of 60 thousand sq. miles with all its potential abundance and richness is lying almost unstirred and in medieval slough of despond.  It appears that Nepal is standstill, its people ignorant and poor could not advance further from the point where they reached at the advent of the medieval age.  Therein lies the sin of the rulers who perpetuated this sterility in order to facilitate the continuance of their outdated regime resting on the weakness of the ruled in an atmosphere of poverty and ignorance.  It was obviously to maintain the status quo as they inherited in 1846 that medievalism had to be nursed and maintained.  Hard enough for the modern man to appreciate but it is an undeniable fact that Nepal is two hundred years back in civilization to many of the countries of the day.  Man does not seem to have moved here during this period and presents a stultified growth in this part of the world.

           Katmandu itself, the capital city of Nepal, is not much different from the surrounding backward tracts.  It looks medieval, cold like death and devastated.  There is a sickening gloom hanging over it.  This is the only town worth calling in the whole of Nepal.  It has a history of two thousand years, which was incredibly glorious.  Its art and architecture visible in temples of past creation are a testimony to the achievements, which are credited to the ancestors of the modern Nepalese.  It shows that Katmandu was a nest of a high standard of culture which was original, advanced, and refined.  But all this past died except in its remains, much of which are ruins reminding pathetically of the prideful days gone by. Katmandu today is forlorn.  It is once again growing in its own way and showing signs of life. But much of it does not befit its past of grandeur and is ugly and grudgingly tendered.  It shows a marked sense of heavy pressure, which has not allowed its natural spring of life.  Medievalism has been its killing disease.

           The valley is 18 by 22 miles in area and has a population of nearly a million.  It is a very fertile valley, damp in climate but very much productive of paddy, potato, onion, soy beans and peaches.  It is situated at an altitude of 45000 ft. above sea level and not uneven, which means it is suitable for mechanized transport though but within its own precincts.  In the past it commanded the highway between China and Tibet, through which many cultural missions trekked on to their respective destination.  It has contained the site for Nepal’s capital from times immemorial, and was the only place in the whole of Nepal approachable and known to foreigners until very recent times.  But today it is a fading glory.  Modern amenities it has none.  Although it is the premier city of the country, it is lacking as yet in first class educational institutions.  It has to remain content with ten high schools and a college, which happen to be the sole educational center for the realm unlike places of identical status in India.  Katmandu is poor in cultural centers, there is no public reading room, much less public library, and bookstalls and newspapers are totally nonexistent.  Katmandu is wholly steeped in medieval backwardness, and presents, an outmoded social life unique for the advanced 20th century.

          Representative of the common life in Nepal other peculiarities in Katmandu are, (1) there is no hotel, (2) there is no cinema house (3) there is no public park, (4) caste system is very strict, (5) people have not heard of a public meeting, lecture or news agencies, (6) Rad was not permitted for the people till 1946, (7) law courts are not independent and the onus of proof rests on the accused who cannot be represented by his pleader during the arguing of the case, (8) life imprisonment is given for the killing of cows, and for illicit sex relationship between blood relations, (9) the government is a personal concern of the Maharaja Premier who appropriates public revenue for his own private disbursement, etc. etc…… Throughout the realm except the two jute mills on the southern border industries of account do not exist.

           In striking contrast to the almost beastly existence of the populace stand a handful of individual aristocrats headed by the Rana family of 100 individuals who lead a life of Parisian pomp and luxury with all the absolute powers of medieval regime.  Most of them dwell in suburbs, of Katmandu and the little modernization of the site restricted to a limited mileage of mechanized transport is being effected for their, convenience.  They get all their necessities from Europe and America, all clothing, toilets, cars, cine-projectors and films and many house hold furniture, all of which reach Katmandu at an enormous cost.  The mansions and palaces constructed by sweated labor, even the timbers cut to the shape of ceilings are carried free of charge by the inhabitants under a system of compulsory service, tower high over the huts and tenements of the poor people eyeing down as it were on them in the most insulting manner.

          The Nepalese aristocrats can be distinguished very easily from amongst the people, the plebian.  He lives in a mansion, there are about one hundred of this type just as many as the number of the families occupying them, and he maintains a huge retinue of servants, men and women most of the latter his concubines, in the fashion of the English lord of the middle age or the Chinese landlord of Kuomintang days.  His manner of living is more or less European and at times much Nawab like and considering that the law prohibits donning of a non-conventional dress by a lower class citizen, his foreign dress and manner is symbolic of his status.  He commands the greatest possible respect and obedience from those he rules over, which is absolute in degree and is feared and awed face to face by them.  His is a condescending mood whenever the people are brought in touch otherwise he sits on the pedestal much high like the sky high mansion he occupies.  He does not mix with them nor does care to know how they live.  This goes so far as to preclude marriage relationship inside Nepal, which he always contracts with his own counterparts in India.  He must take his food in dishes of silver and gold, and he would not walk on foot without feeling lowered; and then there are other restrictions on the movements, observances and use of certain social facilities by the people which go to widen the gulf between the two sections inasmuch as the latter are not permitted to use conveyances, rickshaw included, to use European musical instruments on festive occasions, they have to be content with the old conventional instruments to keep open the windows facing a mansion and lastly to build a building of a size likely to compete with those of the aristocracy.  In another context all the high dignities, ranks and posts of responsibility are reserved for the aristocrats, many in hereditary order of succession, which has greatly curtailed and limited the scope of advancement of the average citizen of the land ruled by them.

            Nepal’s aristocracy is a blood sucking vampire, and a lording wolf.  Outside the fold there may not be even one hundred people any way socially and economically prosperous, or to put it even more exactly, out of the two hundred people in the country, who can be called pulling both ways by modern standard, the aristocrats are alone one hundred and fifty, such is the concentration of wealth, and the extent of reduction of populace to impoverishment.  The aristocracy is both the feudal nobility and Nepalese edition of the modern bourgeoisie combined, all others, the whole lot of the ten million people minus the two hundred is proletarian and proletariat. and to put some of them a bit higher, we can call petty bourgeois of much-limited means.  It is again whole and sole one family texture with collaterals from the King’s family, the Brahman Royal Priests, and a few more individuals in matrimonial alliance with the principal aristocracy, in the subordinate role.  They together own 95 percent of the country’s wealth, of movable and immovable properties, run all business except the retailing conducted by small shop keepers and because of the absence of large scale industries such business is just enough for the hundred of them to monopolize and carry, and manage the country's political affairs in the most unquestioned spirit of vanity, which is tyrannizing the down trodden multitude.  They not only rule the roost but also in the ultimate analysis grab the entire resources and personnel of the country as their private property without the least sense of responsibility and obligation. These are the people who are not Duniyadars as distinct from the plebeians, whom law courts of the country cannot charge with offences and convict of crimes however heinous.  

          In Nepal the plebian is a subhuman.  His position is kept within limits of that species.  It is only the aristocrat who will go outside these.  The plebian, therefore, finds himself much stinted and dwarfed and he has absolutely no opportunities to rise up, conventionally the regime has fixed colonelship of the army and its equivalent in the civil service to be the highest ladder he can set his foot step on, but even for that he has to look to the Rana master for favors.  Because it is a personal concern, so the Ranas freely dispense with posts as though it were filling up the vacancies in their personal concerns or domestic services.  Nor the treatment meted out to such people as are in their services gentlemanly. Whatever may be the status otherwise of a non-Rana, he must think himself socially inferior to a Rana, just as it is the birthright of a Rana to command position of rank and dignity, so is the plebeian’s birth right to serve and submit to him.  Sometimes in ranks and seniority a non-Rana is placed above certain Ranas of lower birth, it must be noted that their number is very few as that of the Duniyadar rising to colonelship, but the former is duty bound to accept the latter's suzerainty and over lordship in practice and pay his respects and obey him except on matters of strict discipline.  The autocrat is perforce a superior being and so receives all obedience and respect from the people.  None can ignore him.  It is true that such of them as are feared and saluted under some sort of conventional compulsion are not the entire lot of the 150 people nowadays the circle has narrowed down to include only the persons on the roll of succession, and their number is hardly 40, but nothing is so exacting and strictly enforced as this part of the people's obligation.  Any delinquency or tendency to carelessness is promptly dealt with by harsh measures of punishment.  Instances of victimization on such accounts can be easily given, e. g., passers-by not showing respectful attention to a motor car with the lord in or a horseman aristocrat with the retinue of hangers on behind are forth taken to task. In a few cases such a conduct has involved the delinquents in a pretty mess where extrication was virtually impossible.  Where it has been interpreted as a case of disrespect to authority it is given a political color and. the penalty paid is imprisonment.  To the aristocrat the very notion of deviation from conventional state of abject obedience to his personality is intolerable.  He sees, therefore, that the subject citizen kneels before him in sackcloth and ashes, as actually the latter does.

          Since 1846 a hereditary Prime Minister under the aegis of the hereditary prisoner king is governing Nepal. Premiership is hereditary through the eldest member in the line, and is reached in so many stages beginning from a major generalship in the army, which means that almost all top ranks of the state are held in order of hereditary succession.  This has directly placed one particular family in a vantage point in all spheres of public life of the country, and the various component members with their own establishment constitute the privileged aristocracy monopolizing pelf and power.  The king being shorn of power loses the last vestige and faintest halo of a monarchy, which again tends to render the grab of the intermediary unthinkably absolute.  In fact the family of the Prime Minister wields the supreme power exercising divine right of ownership over the entire length and breadth of Nepal as did the monarch himself before he signed away his powers.  The Premier of Nepal is known as the Maharaja.

              The Prime Minister's family is known as the Rana family and is the Nepalese edition of the Japanese Samurai fold.  The first man is the Premier.  The second is the Commander-in-Chief and the third is the Senior Commanding General, and so on and so forth, the ranks are distributed according to seniority in relationship, just as in Japan the Nobility had grabbed the lion's share for a long time in its historical existence.  But Nepal’s Rana family outbids the Japanese medieval texture of aristocracy in its hideousness.  It has contrived to check the growth of the nation it is ruling over, while its own degree of propriety has been unbelievably fantastic.  Its contribution to popular welfare and the country's national improvement has been nil almost. Nepal’s present state of filth and dirt is the expression and judgment.  No other aristocracy bound its country’s hands and feet in the manner the Nepalese aristocracy did in regard to Nepal, which as we said is virtually stagnating for the last hundred years.  The greatest impediment in Nepal’s path of progress has been the political structure instituted since 1846 which Nepal into the hands of the Rana family.

         The Nepalese Government is a misnomer.  The Rana family had rendered it a personal concern of a very crude type.  It commands by far the most irresponsible and irresponsive and loose and morbid administration and as the same is centered on a person who rules on a divine right of possession, its use as a public utility agency is much too limited.  Nor it is equipped to be able to render work in that line.

         Its mainstay is the handful of armed soldiers posted in districts, and an army of nearly twelve thousand men in Katmandu as an intimidating factor.  The administration both in the center and the district units is conducted by the Ranas and their relations all of them untrained, whose function is whole and sole to collect the state revenue and nothing else.  So far the Government of Nepal do not have to administer social services.  The few schools, hospitals and asylums are more as charity institutions than as governmental establishments and there are only ten high schools, one first grade college and two public hospitals, these also quite recent additions, for the whole of Nepal.  Law courts they no doubt maintain but distribution of justice is too outmoded and that way it would be folly to call them real courts of law in the modern sense of the term.  There is as yet no Central Secretariat for the Government of Nepal, which is a very disgusting factor at the present century.

           Nepal’s standing army is only capable of terrorizing the ignorant poverty ridden folk of the country.  It is ill trained, small in number and devoid of modern equipment and officered by the equally untrained hereditary Rana rank holders-its total strength is said to be 20,000 men national militia undergoing part time services in the mofussal outposts included. Nepal has not as yet possessed an aeroplane much less a fighter-bomber. The first aeroplane reached Katmandu in March 1950, and that belonged to the Government of India who had built a stopgap landing station in the valley near about the capital city.

          As Pandit Nehru observed once in the Indian legislature the Nepal Ranas do not have much of a foreign policy.  Till August 1947 they had none, since then they had contacts with independent India and America, the latter as a factor filling the void left by the British. But where American representation temporary, the American Ambassador in India acts in both the capacities, there is a permanent British allotment at Katmandu.  The British Ambassador, however, is gradually losing his command over the affairs.  His place is likely to be taken by the Indian ambassador who will certainly act in the interest of India if, of course, being a supporter of the British in their days he does not nurse a secret feeling of loyalty to the Empire. Nepal has also now applied for the membership of the U. N. in April 1949 and its candidature was sponsored by India with the support of the Anglo-American bloc of powers, but Russia applied veto, and its admission is pending before the Security Council.             

                    A question is asked here as to how Nepal with these slender resources was being able to resist merger with India at the time of the British. The answer is mainly obtained from willful deliberate British policy and by explaining that the British willed it, but in any other case they could have easily grabbed Nepal or curbed the Ranas more easily than they restrained the Nizam.  There was not much strength left after 1857 and Jung Bahadur ten years later had almost accepted their suzerainty.  Nepal’s internal status was no better than that of a first class princely state, and the treaty stipulations with the British did not leave it an international judicial existence.  In 1923 Nepal was declared completely independent and it got British recognition, but no other powers granted recognition and to the outside world it passed once more as a protected native state.  The British had some subtle design in declaring Nepal independent in 1923 as they had in keeping it fettered till that year.  The nominal sovereignty certainly satisfied the vanity of the snubs at Katmandu, but more than that it threw a camouflage over the real status and powers of the governing authority, which were nevertheless kept at the old level.  Instead of limiting Nepal’s external relations to themselves by provisions of treaty as heretofore, the British Imperialists had now taken recourse to a subtle form of domination outside the province of the treaty.  This was a more advantageous course, as Nepal since 1923 went completely beyond the periphery of the Indian Empire and naturally cut adrift from the main stream of the national democratic forces that were surging in India, while at the same time it was bound to London inasmuch as the foreign policy continued to be managed by the British foreign office.  Truly speaking as it was only a British show and Nepal had no diplomatic contacts with other countries, it can be said with authority that this country had no foreign policy till August 1947.

           Nepal sent its Minister to London nearly 11 years after the signing of the treaty of 1923.  At the suggestion of the British the Nepalese minister visited a number of European capitals, particularly those that were closely connected with the British and decorated the heads of states of those countries with Nepalese insignias.  That the European potentates accepted the Nepalese representative much on commendation of their any is no doubt a fact but it is equally true that the British diplomacy had succeeded in its willful task of presenting Nepal as an independent partner to the outside world.  In 1936 the Prime Minister of Nepal received Dutch and Italian orders of merit and a year later the Nazi no.1 Hitler, the German Chancellor, honored him with the Star of Lion and sent his compliments to the leader of the brave Gorkha race, German's Asian counterpart.  In point of fact all this sounds like a huge joke for neither the status of Nepal in international field was a whit changed nor the British had relaxed their hold in any way.  It was obvious that the only purpose of concluding the treaty of 1923 was to isolate Nepal further from Indian contact for the preservation and immunisation of the mountaineer Gorkhas in order that at least one main section of the Indian army remains actuated by anti-national sentiments in quelling the mounting nationalist uprisings in India.

              The people of Nepal happen to be terribly crushed and suppressed beyond redemption. The most elementary civic rights are yet denied to them.  There is not even liberty of worship and freedom of propagation of faith.  The regime has been inhumanly harassing, their life and property are not safe.  The rulers are doing everything to evoke in them a feeling of hatred and animosity.  They are as yet unconscious.  So the situation has not drifted into becoming a threatening result.  The rulers are showing an extraordinary vigilance to avoid pitfalls, and sowing the most innocent looking germs of awakening.  That way education is being grudged, and natural resources of the country are not touched.  But changes in India have forced the rulers to at least pay a lip service to the cause of the people and theoretically admit people's right to participate in the government of the country.  This found expression in a written constitution, which they proclaimed in January 1948.  This constitution is to enable the people to enjoy certain fundamental civic rights within limits, and introduce village or district self-governing units as a major step towards democratization of administration.  But the fear of widening the gamut of the agitation made the rulers withdraw the promised reforms; of course they withdraw them on the plea that the country is not prepared for the working of such a constitutional enactment.

           The open popular agitation is of recent origin.  In formal appearance it was ushered in independent India with the facilities obtained after the withdrawal of restrictions imposed by the British rulers.  The Nepali National Congress was organized by exiles from Nepal taking advantage of these facilities.  So far inside Nepal nearly two hundred people have courted arrest under inspiration and guidance of the leadership working from the Indian territories and now civil disobedience movement is not anew thing for that country.  But as the Ranas do not relax their tight hold, our work is increasingly getting difficult.  The main impediment has been lack of civil liberties at home, which renders any ambitious scheme of resistance movement quite inoperable.  Last year's civil disobedience movement by the Praja Panchayat demand the implementation of promised reforms was encouraging, and showed a marked improvement over the previous satyagrahas.  But Nepal's anti-Rana struggle is quite old.  It began in 1881 with a concerted move on the part of some non-Rana feudal nobilities to physically do away with the entire family.  This move was foiled on account of the betrayal by a dissident at the last, hour, and culminated in an all round massacre of the conspirators. Then followed a series of inter family conflicts in the Rana family itself, which eliminated a good many of them in the process.  In 1916 Suba Debi Prasad Sapkotao conducted a ceaseless campaign of anti-Rana publicity through his weekly Gorkhali, which he edited from Banaras for about six years; Thakur Chandan Singh's Tarun Sansar caught up the thread at the part where it was broken after the Suba's campaign got exhausted.  The last in 1940 was waged within the Nepalese territory and at the heart of the country.  For the first time Katmandu was agog with the sensational underground leaf letting and the illegal literature penetrated into its quietness.  The secret underground agitation was conducted in the name of the Praja Parishad, a youth democratic party patronized by the king.  Nearly four months the Rana rulers were most annoyed for not being able to trace out the source of the trouble. Though nipped in the bud, the Praja Parishad succeeded in attracting a good deal of public attention to problems of democracy for Nepal.  And when four of its brave men were sentenced to death and their dead bodies publicly exposed, Katmandu experienced a jerk in its otherwise still existence.  

               The Rana autocrats resort to a monstrous method of reprisal in dealing with political cases. Whenever there is a tendency in the people to come forward to defy the conventional ban on civil liberty, the police authorities start wide-scale indiscriminate arrests, and many harmless unintending persons are also trapped and severely beaten just as an intimidating and demoralizing measure.  People who have actually defied the ban are spared for worse treatment bordering on whatever we have come to understand by third degree methods.  But there the trial and suffering does not end.  Inside the prison house defiant types are specially culled and secluded to be dealt in an extraordinary manner, which covers a long and exhaustive catalogue of inhuman methods of torture.  Failing these the authorities try indirectly to bring pressure on the prisoner so that he may of his own accord express a wish to be out of detention, which in many cases results in his release after undertaking to be peaceful and law abiding.  The Ranas are viewing the problem of agitation as one just stepping in the initial stage, which of course it is, and their policy to meet the situation is being largely determined by the idea that the more severe the repression at this stage the longer will be delayed the inevitable hour of mass popular uprising.  They mean certainly to check the growing tendency of fearless resistance to laws and usages in the minds of the people by rousing a fear of cruel victimization at the hands of the authorities.

              There are now about one hundred political prisoners. As one full year transpires since the 19..  movement began, many arrested without charges have been let off.  The overwhelming majority of those detained have not yet been produced in the law courts, and some of these are there for the last three years; of course, legal trial in Nepal is more or less a comic farce, the autocrats act in double capacity as a policeman and judge and every case is decided without reference to law, on pure and simple personal considerations.  There is probably no provision in the code dealing with cases involving open disobedience, procession and demonstrations.  All those convicted after a farce of trial are the members of the Praja Parishad who are undergoing life imprisonment since 1940, with whom is also placed another one in prison since 1930 when he had been taken to task for his alleged plan of civil disobedience movement in that year.  These people are simply languishing, yet their spirit is not crushed, and they have not yielded to any pressure and further considering that Nepalese jail condition is an inferno, their tenacity and undaunted spirit evokes admiration.

           Political prisoners in Nepal do not form a separate category as far as amenities are concerned; they are treated as a separate identity only in meting out harsh method of torture from which the most heinous of the criminals remains safe. Prisoners are given insufficient diet, and very unhealthy and unclean at that.  He can, of course, supplement from personal expenses but the worst sufferer from this system are generally the poor not affording to earn personal income and the politicals who are usually turned out-caste in the eyes of their family out of a sense of loyalty to the government.  But prisons are few and far between, in the whole of Nepal there are only too of them, one worth the name in Kathmandu and another in Birganj near the Indian border but they also have a limited capacity suggestive of the fact that in case of a large scale uprising the administration will collapse for want of accommodation to lodge the prisoners.  One thousand people ready to go to jail are said to be sufficient to create an insoluble problem for the Ranas.

              The new jail in the damp valley of Nakku not far from Katmandu is a pointer that the Ranas do realize the gravity of the situation, and also the possibility that the near future may not be as calm as the present.  But there are other matters, which they cannot but bungle.  The Nepal administration is known for its primitiveness and it is natural that it should be ill equipped and unfit to solve problems of real modern character and unusual dimension.  Because the affairs of the government were only managed were only managed in terms of personal interest, any thing of public concern which is now often compellingly thrusting itself in the new environment appears almost baffling.  And to deal with the matter further it is too personal at its climax. Take for example the grants in-aid for social service schemes.  Up till now the practice has been to discourage all such schemes that require a large outlay and for minor project when a few lakh of rupees here that investment. Whatever is spared out of the aggregate expenditure on the army, maintenance of courts, the educational institutions and on allowances for the sinecure Rana dignitaries goes to the Prime Minister. It is almost about one crore that the Government spends, otherwise, the rest is for private disbursement.  All salaries are low and consequently the burden on the Premier is almost negligible compared to the surplus he pockets, which is said to be nearly one crore.  The Prime Minister never likes to take up nation building activities because that involves him in a position to part with certain percentage of the pin money surplus. The inadequacy of the administration to deal with the new situation, which more often than not places popular interest above other considerations, arises, therefore, in the first due to financial stringency. This is the main factor contributing to the apparent inoperative nature of anything but the crudest personal business of the Rana Premier.  Secondly the Rana rulers used to individual rule of non-obligation and irresponsibility have no knowledge of the problems, which require modern mind to deal with for solution.  Although such problems are few and tried to be escaped over as often as possible some of them have left the rulers much exposed of colossus ignorance.  Their helplessness is manifest even in the most insignificant cases.  Nepal seems no longer to have been cast into oblivion.  Gradual1y the attention of the outside world is being drawn to it, to its resources and potentials and its strategic position.  The government which does not know its precise powers in the dispute between foreign capital and labor stationed in its territory as was displayed by the Ranas in the Biratnagar strike of 1947 will find its mind going from a state of confusion to one of worse confounded.  The day when you could run a primitive government of a personal concern is passed.  Even without admitting obligation to the people there must be some suitable agency to administer the various economic and security needs of a country.  But so far we do not see an efficient administrative agency or even a semblance of it in Medieval Nepal.  The government is being run as a purely private affair with no equipment of a central secretariat, records up to date and files and statistics, a fact, which makes it a mess rather than an ordered system things.  Practically speaking the Nepalese administration has not at present passed the borderline of the region of primitive ownership.  Even the census of population on a scientific basis is lacking, not to say of very many administrative measures that are entirely necessary for the good governance of the country but are wanting.  How ridiculous it is that those people who boast of independence do not have a department for issuing passports.  Even the Nepalese Ambassador could not travel with his government's passport.  The Ranas will find before long, not of course long before Nepal is admitted to the UNO that their administration contains a self condemnatory character of being too outmoded for the age they are living.  This administration is not at all fit for the management of the affairs of a crore of people.

            Now take the amenities, which they have provided, to the people, which may be taken within range of the activities the government indulges in.  It is really funny that these men have not even cared to run an efficient postal system, leave aside the question of improving the country's communication which is all primitive.  Till as late as 1936 Nepal’s external mail service was managed by the Postal Department of the Government of India and even today all the registered and insured items belong as usual to their province of responsibility.  Come to another aspect of national development.  In 1946 certain joint stock companies initiated to set up various trading concerns and mills and exploit mineral and food resources were floated, but all these liquidated sometime after without producing any tangible results.  The requisite capital was not forthcoming for the reason that the Rana  members, who happen to be the only people in a position to invest are not well disposed towards this problem as they without exception deposit their cash property in Indian and foreign banks and concerns.  But more than that the company promoters were handicapped for lack of governmental agency which would procure for them machineries and implements from overseas sources.  And also of late the very inadequacy and inefficiency of the distributing agencies for the India supplied articles of vital consumption, like salt, cloth, kerosene oil, etc., is very much giving inconvenience to a vast majority of the people.  There is no control of commodities, and to the absence of rationing in any form is added the very defective method of allotting quotas to retailers, which gives them absolute advantage over the consumers to manipulate the market rate as they please.  Over and above all these is the unwillingness of the ruling authority to view the problem of administration in any lighter than as a purely private concern of theirs, which makes them indifferent to the difficulties and inconveniences of the citizens of the country in general.

             Let me now describe in brief the process through which the Ranas reached the present position of absolute ruler ship of the state.  The story related is on of blood path, insidious massacre, conspiracies, fraud and deception.  It follows the usual pattern of a like palace intrigue and is too conventional.  Before the state powers came to be the monopoly of the Rana family, the king in his absolute discretion exercised these.  The Royal Person- age at the time of the capture of power by the Rana family was the present king's great-great-grandfather, who was imbecile enough to be under dictation of his second wife who nurtured a jealousy towards the crown prince, her stepson and secretly desired to kill him.  The governing cabinet filled by men of various feudal families was in the circumstances the queen's nominee, but Jung Bahadur the founder of the Rana dynasty, had established himself in a strategic position having won her favor in between the two the queen's allies and the king's men through one Gagan Sinha who was known as the queen’s paramour.  Jung Bahabur, however, was playing his own game, and was desirous of using any favorable occasion to effect his own ascendancy and this readily came to him because of the feud between the two sections of the courtiers, the adherents of the prince and queen respectively, growing hot day by day.  By his alliance with Gagan Sinha, Jung had further ingratiated himself to the queen who had by that time come to look upon him as her own man. Besides Jung had six brothers to follow him and the queen's thin rank was swollen by his adherence.  It was a clear-cut division no doubt. Jung Bahadur was now to kindle the fire into the powder keg at a propitious moment to swoop down on the entire court, and finish those who stood in his way.  Jung Bahadur contrived to kill Gagan Sinha to provoke her to precipitate the plan of action, as she much desired to avenge his death, which she attributed to the king's adherents. The queen could not read Jung's duplicate role, and played straight into his hands to do as he asked her.  At midnight of the 14th Sept. 1846 an assemblage of all the courtiers was arranged to take stock of the situation as it developed after Gagan Sinha's murder where they came almost undefended in a state of suspense.  There was nothing more to do for Jung Bahadur than to provoke quarrel and send the force he commanded to action.  It may be remembered that he had kept all his men in readiness to pounce on his adversaries as the call was sounded.  The event that followed was too tragic for a graphic narrative not a single of the courtiers summoned for the assembly had been saved and a river of blood flowed through the gate of the palace into the adjoining drainage and the aftermath found the arch conspirator Jung Bahadur and his six brothers in a supreme position of power, all having been nominated by the queen as ministers of state.

             This massacre called by the Nepalese the Kotparva meaning the memorable event of the court yard where the ghastly scene of murder was so relentlessly enacted marks the beginning of the ascendancy secured by the present Prime Minister's family.  That night Jung Bahadur had captured all the vantage points and occupied them, but in theory he was yet the nominee of the queen.  A month after again that position was also ended as he declared the queen a traitor to the throne in view of her seeking to remove the legal heir by act of murder and exiled her to Banaras . This was followed by the dethronement of the husband king who was replaced by the crown prince equally imbecile, and unsound in temperament. All this in turn helped him to strengthen and fortify his position, which he further made extraordinary secure with a Royal Sanad which started the government of the hereditary Prime Minister. The insane king had put his seal on the document, which contained his death warrant as a real ruler.  Jung Bahadur could not, for the fear of inciting the general populace to revolt, obviously dispense with the king. The system of hereditary premiership was the next convenient course for him. It was founded on the basis of a need for a de facto sovereign overshadowing the de jure one, which he actually became after the receipt of the Sanad by which the king had virtually abdicated his power and position to the Rana family in all but name.  Jung had also to satisfy all the seven brothers who had helped him to capture power and the rule of succession could not be by primogeniture and was, therefore shaped in order to accommodate all of them, which meant a brother-to-brother succession according to the seniority in relationship.  Unlike the system of monarchy, which is hereditary through the eldest son, the institution of prime minister in Nepal is hereditary through the eldest male member of the entire ruling family as a result of this compromise between brotherly self-interests.  

            Incidentally let it be noted that the premiership became at one time a bone of acute contention as when the same descended to the second line.  Anyone progeny or group would try to oust the other in order to facilitate his or its own succession to the exalted post for in the labyrinthine structure of succession involving so many lines of cousins, not many of them would find themselves atop to secure legally easy passage to the rightful ownership of the post.  In 1885 the internecine conflict had resulted in the effacement of the entire line of lung and his five brothers and thereafter  prime minister ship became the sole concern of the youngest of his brother Dhir’s sons who are at present known as the powerful Shumsher brothers.  The present incumbent is Dhir’s grandson General Mohan Shumsher, son of the late Maharaja Chandra Shumsher who had secured his job by another deceptive tactics in 1901 which he had used to successfully exile two of his predecessors his own brothers at the top.

             This system of succession through the eldest member of the family had produced' another unhealthy feature aside from the general harmful trends of an autocratic system.  It brought only needy and temperamentally reactionary people to the forefront.  As things obtain the Prime Minister wields the unchallenged sway over the entire resources of the land, and has the lion's share, though, in practice other rank holders too are assigned some great or small share of spoils.  The latter, however, are not enough to cover a range of expenses of the luxurious living which every high Rana dignitarian subscribes to so that his eye is always cast on the coveted post to enable him to replenish the deficiency in time. Premiership is looked upon as a source of enormous profit and, therefore, is used to its utmost to squeeze out the available resources of the country.  As always aged men come to occupy the job, the exaction is too merciless and illiberal as none of them can view the administration with liberal mind as a trust in their temporary custody.  The contribution of the like system of concubinage is no less severe and less straining for the limited treasury.  Because the Prime Minister has countless children, he must exercise his talent to grab in order to maintain them all the more.  To keep a large number of people aspiring to be millionaires and to feed to their needs takes a great deal out of it.  This does not leave a surplus for nation building activities even if some unexpected turn of mind wills them.  Its overall effect has been to enrich one single family at the cost of a crore of people.

             Ask any of the Prime Ministers he will tell you what the possession of the Prime Ministership means for a needy snob, and the fun of it is that a Rana is always needy even with millions because he leads a spendthrift life, and has to maintain and look after a large family and retinue.  It is natural that he is not finding himself able to spare more than 3 lakhs of rupees for the university and other soc1al services announced every year.  He has only crores as his cash property, and he needs add more in order to t bequeath to each of his half a dozen grandsons like amount, hence this stringency.  Add to it the fact that the Prime Minister also pockets the entire Sum of Rs. 20 lakhs provided for Nepal annually by the Indian Exchequer. Unlike other Indian autocracies now disappearing Nepal is unique because its administration is still run as a private concern of a particular family, whose eldest member manages the resources on purely a profit line.  Take other vagaries, and the points will be clear, as the government is owned and possessed by the Prime Minister anything accruing to the state out of the government operated rail, road, electricity and trading projects goes to him as his personal income.  He can of course lay hands on anything he likes, but two items are particularly reserved for the next two incumbents, the Commander-in-Chief and the Senior Commanding General.  It is said that the jagir attached to their job is not sufficient to fulfill every item of their requirements, the yearly income of the former is nearly a lakh of rupees, and of the latter nearly 60 thousand rupees.  So they are assigned respectively the whole of the revenue spared by the vacancy in the military personnel of the state and the fines realized out of the absence of work.  The ridiculous part of the story is that the Commander-in-Chief deliberately keeps a large number of vacancies unfilled to replete his income, and the senior Commanding General enforces an unduly rigorous discipline if only to get the opportunity to fine the men under him.  Till a very late period all the state jobs including that of the lowest paid soldier were paid in  jagirs, each one of them used to get a title to the revenue of a particular portion of land equivalent to the yearly salary estimated, which he had to collect by himself.

           The rulers do not have to produce account of the state revenue and expenditure, which renders easy any grab they want to make on the resources of the country, In fact they have been running the whole administration as their own private concern and hence unaccountable for anything done in discharge of state function.*

* The first budget of the interim government shows that the annual income of Nepal is nearly three crores, and the surplus left by H. H. Mohan Shumsher in the treasury amounts to seven crore worth of cash. bullion and negotiable securities all combined.  This goes to the credit of the outgoing Rana Prime Minister, and absolves him of all the charges of misappropriation of public exchequer, Mohan Shumsher's regime is outstanding in respect of acquittal of such charges for the entire century old history of the Rana family,

                                        Men at the Helm of the Rana Regime

The most important amongst the men of Nepal at the helm of affairs today is Maharaja Mohan Shumsher the redoubtable Rana Premier who rules the country since April 48. He was born in 1885, the year of a colossal palace Coup, which saw the coming into power of the Shumsher brothers who had then virtually eliminated their cousins from the roll of succession. Mohan has had a long and thorough experience of the Nepalese administrative affairs being in the front rank of politicians since his very boyhood.  The first work of responsibility he bore was while he served his father the late Maharaja Chancre Shushed as his Secretary General.  Except that every post in Nepal is of a character of a farce, and does not mean actual carriage of responsibility, it was thought at the time while he was appointed as the Secretary General that he being only a lad of sixteen was the last choice, but in the circumstances this appointment was made he was the only choice as well. His father had usurped power by dislodging &e legitimate occupant of the post, who was no other than his own uterus brother.  This meant that by virtue of the example he himself set a brother could not be trusted with any post of vital responsibility.  So Mohan had to be pushed up, and since then the practice of appointing his own eldest son to the Post of Secretary General by the Maharaja has been surely established.

           For the Nepalese Premier, the brother is the most menacing factor, because as the incoming successor to the august post he is always aspiring for a prompt and speedy succession, and plots and conspiracies on that account are often his main pursuits unless, of course, he is too much swayed by a feeling of duty or short of self-confidence.  The Secretary General is the key man in direct touch with the Premier and in charge of the entire government stock of arms and ammunitions, the control of which is vested in the former. Such a vital job could not be entrusted to one who can at any time, utilize the same to fulfill his own ambitions.  Naturally, therefore on a mature consideration this practice of appointing one's trusted man and nobody could be more trustworthy than the son himself in the family set up, got recognition, and the brother's case was set aside.  Mohan held his post of the Secretary General till 1949 when his father died.  Two years in between the date of the installation of the third man, the Maharaja Juddha Shumsher, his youngest uncle he was being eclipsed by a rival party from amongst the heirs of the Bir Shumsher and Bhim Shumsher lines, the last in direct control of the administrative apparatus under the Premiership of the father.  It seemed then that he and his six brothers were to meet the fate of Jung’s sons as in 1885, and preparations were actually reported to have been made in all secrecy to repeat the catastrophe of that year, which was averted without incident to the party in opposition by the death of Bhim Shumsher.  Mohan is a shrewd man.  He combines in him the gift of modern education though not obtained in a public institution and he is not intellectual too, with a thorough knowledge of the Nepalese history and affairs, which he had gained in course of his long career as the Secretary General.  He is said to be the author of the expulsion plan of 1934, according to which some ten members on the roll of succession were very cleverly ousted on grounds of illegitimacy.  Mohan’s group had obviously retaliated and unlike the opponents succeeded in their task.  How far Mohan Shumsher could be accused of unjust dealing one cannot say.  But he had achieved his objective with dexterity.  It was a tough job to oust these men for they had acceded to the roll through a process of ablution sanctified by the concurrence of all the legitimate claimants who had dipped their hands into the sacred water of the river Bagmati in pledging their words for that cause.  Never were his tact and wit better tried than on this occasion.  But he triumphed over all the obstacles and effected a bloodless purge, which promoted him to the exalted post of the senior Commanding General, only a few steps short of premiership.  And the wonder is that he escaped all the opprobrium and the guilt of the performance because everything was done in the name of the ruling uncle Maharaja Juddha.  About him keen observers have said that he machinates things in such a way as makes it possible for him to acquit himself of all the sense of responsibility of the work done.  But the same presupposes that he has to achieve his purpose by underhand means.  This explains probably the fact of his weak nerves and at times he shows a habit of sufficiently yielding to pressure for the same reason.  Though conservative to the core is not quite uncompromising in the dame way as his temperamental weakness dictates. Today he has come to appear to his people as a diehard conservative wanting to go too slow in regard to the question of democracy.  But it is equally true that he would one day yield to the demands of his people in response to his own habits of mind.  Also all his illiberal views on administration are set in quite a strange contrast with his puritanical way of living, it is generally believed that H. H. Mohan is the single example of a life in the Rana family to be free from lusts of wine and women and he is god fearing and all these taken together make him all the more scrupulous in conducting policy of state.  It is said that unlike his predecessors who extracted the most out of their unchallenged position of supremacy in new acquisition General Mohan has no desire to add to his already fabulous wealth and therefore he does not lay his hand on the state treasury.  He however cannot be credited with having sincerely helped his country to tide over the difficulties in a spirit of accommodation and having tried to alleviate the suffering of the people of his own accord.  He is still busy with farcical performances of parliament making, and of panchayat elections, though these have been fully exposed and be himself realizes that in near future circumstances will compel him to embark on a course of radical reforms.  H. H. Mohan's difficulties are that while his temperament does not make him fit the sort of repression needed for withholding the reforms, he himself is moving in the direction where he is likely to be called upon to enforce the most repressive measures in the state.  It is certain that this clash of weak nerves and conservative mind in the ruling personality of Mohan Shumsher will create a situation where Ranacracy collapses like a house of cards.

          Mohan Shumsher’s ideal in the administration is his father who  was as much of a conservative as himself and in his time was responsible for withholding desirable reforms in the country.  We can say that much of the anti-Rona feeling as exists at present is due to his very stingy and reactionary policy.   Had he moved with the time Nepal would not have been as backward as it is today and likewise his family's reputation gone very high.  But he clung to an orthodox selfish policy and we have seen the results.  Mohan is treading an equally dangerous path by not paying heed to the writing on the wan of time.  The difference in these two personages is only the difference in the ages they lived. Mohan has certainly to take into account all such new developments as have emerged out of the recent world changes more particularly the Indian. But he has not been able to shake off his bias as a faithful follower of Chandra’s policy.  He would not alter his conception of autocratic rule as long as medieval condition continues, nor he would yield to public opinion on such matters as affect his family's status and power, and himself initiate drastic reforms to change the squalid face of the country.  It is true that he has fallen a victim to the environmental habits of a conservative and he singly cannot be blamed for resisting changes, but no one would be surprised if his errors become instrumental in bringing about the downfall of the Rana family.  Even admitting that he is willing to change with times and is not allowed to do so by virtue of his having inherited and worked an outmoded machine of administration, he cannot escape the blame of at least sticking to that machine and of retaining its old parts intact.  Of course, Mohan's position as a hereditary prime minister is doomed in the new context and despite all ingenuity and intrigues will not be maintained by any course of action, but he should have rehabilitated himself in the hearts of his people and earned their goodwill in his retiring age by an act of wisdom and statesmanship.  If he does not voluntarily hand over powers to his people in response to the call of the age he is indeed a foolish ruler.

              Mohan Shumsher derives his strength from two sources.  He has unlimited resources in money, and men whom he buys with money.  He has also a solid backing of his brothers, all of whom occupy key positions in the administration. The latter aspect of the problem creates distinct relief because in any case a Rana Premier is much troubled on account of brotherly animosity and has to remain alert all the time to ward off the threat. With Babbar the C in C he is reported to be in disagreement on some matters, another rumors does that Mrigendra Shumsher, Babbar’s eldest graduate son now occupying the post of the Director of Public Instruction prevails on his father to press for the Maharaja's resignation in order to make room for himself.  But both these do not seem even distantly related to facts.  They have simply started out of a wrong line of thinking, out of a misconception to attribute all blame to the second man for the sins of the first. Mohan cannot but trust his brothers. The Rana family is to divided to give room further to such quarrels.  It is the solidarity and mutual trust that saved them in critical days and all of them cannot but be aware of such strength of unity.  There is, however, a deep-seated rivalry between the young elements, the sons of the two stalwarts of the Rana tyranny. Mohan's are in key positions, one a very gentle soul, however, is the Secretary General and in other is the Director of Foreign Affairs. This fact is not viewed with forbearances and re1ief by Mrigendra who is senior to both of them in age. The transfer of Shankar Shumsher, another brother of Mohan by his step mother from the post of the Secretary General to that of Ambassador in London is also attributed to a desire on the part of Mohan to promote his own son to the key post, which mayor may not be true.

            Mohan Shumsher became Prime Minister on the retirement of his predecessor Maharaja Padma Shumsher who is now in Ranchi (Bihar).  Another personage Juddha Shumsher who was the first man during the last century to voluntarily resign his post of the Prime Minister is in Dehradun.  Both these resignations took place within a short period of nearly two and half year.  A ready inference has been to ascribe the same desire of resignation to Mohan.  It is said that he is very much anxious to allow the two aged brothers following him to serve their turn one after the other. After all the hey day of the Rana family is over.  Why give anyone the opportunity to groan that he was left out of account in the deal? In the declining years of glory let no one remain, sullen that he could not be glorified.

       Babbar Shumsher, the present Commander-in-Chief of the Nepalese army, is the next important figure.  Together with Kaiser, the senior Commanding General, Mohan and Babbar form the trio of brothers who own and rule over present day Nepal with proprietary rights. These two younger brothers of Mohan are known respectively as men of military proficiency and scholarly attainment.  Babbar had served in the First War as the head of the Nepalese contingent

            That operated in the tribal areas of the frontier Province of India.  Kaiser has no record of military assignment and is said to have been engaged in acquiring knowledge from books of history and politics at about the same time.  Both these attributes are, however, not in the nature of extraordinary attainments and do not deserve profuse adulation and may appear praiseworthy only on the view that they represent a healthy departure from the family tradition of medieval sloth, snobbery, ignorance and mad lust.  In their temperament both these persons differ a great deal.  Babbar is violent, openly rough, aristocratic and reactionary while Kaiser is reported to be mild, sociable and gives the impression of a knowing and cultured person, though he has many other private vices shared in common with family members.  There is a common belief in Nepal that Babbar will turn out a pucca fascist once he seizes the reins of administration.  Babbar's eldest son General Mrigendra Shumsher prides in calling himself another edition of Churchill for barbarous Nepal.

            The fourth man on the roll of succession is General Bahadur Shumsher son of the Ex-Maharaja Juddha.  He is another rough, violent and primitively aristocratic person often curbed and tamed by Mohan's adroitness and yet sometimes trying to bounce and giving expression of intolerance, insolence and bad manners.  He is reactionary to the bone as Babbar is.  His one principle is bold on powers.  We are born rulers. We cannot associate with the dregs of the people.  Sometimes his harsh and uncompromising attitude on questions all and sundry gives evidence of an ill tempered and uncultivated mind blindly holding on to old beliefs and usages.  But Bahadur has not been able to go the whole hog with Mohan in carrying out his policy of suppression. Several causes have contributed to estrange him from the main ruling clique.  First he being only a cousin of  Mohan does not find himself totally identified with the interest of the Chandra group.  Secondly he harbors a deep grudge against Kaiser, because Chandra Shumsher had put him down in the roll below Kaiser even though Bahadur was born an hour earlier.  Chandra had given out Kaiser’s birth to have taken place five hours earlier while Bahadur's birth was announced to him. Bahadur's father knew the fact thoroughly well but swallowed it thinking that the issue was a minor one.  Today, however, when it has meant a distinct advantage enjoyed by Kaiser over him, Bahadur's feelings have been bitter.  Recently his sense of pride has been wounded with a sorrowful occurrence at the sad turn his only son's career took.  This son Nara Shumsher had demoralized himself into getting himself arrested on charges of certain criminal offence.  Bahadur Shumsher has lost his ardor.  On the political front the changes in Delhi have also become too much for him.  Nobody will be surprised if he tenders resignation to escape to the cool region of Bangalore following the example of Krishna Shumsher.  Three of Bahadur’s uterus brothers are also on the roll, but they are too servile on their cousins to think of any independent line of action or even to be in a position to assert themselves in times of need except that they represent just another set of son bullies.  None of them are holding responsible posts.

         The Nepalese Ambassador in Delhi General Sinha Shumsher is another man of note, but not so important-as the four preceding him on the roll of succession. One factor, however, adds weight to his office. He is a trusted brother of Mohan Shumsher.  In the context of political changes in India the Ranas have a reason to attach greater importance to the Indo-Nepalese diplomatic relations than to the Anglo Nepalese contact. This explains Sinha's accredition to Delhi and his experiences as a former minister to London have been utilized.  Sinha is reported to be of a genial temperament, and though aristocratic and conservative to a degree is not blind to the reality of the situation.  Under the direct influence of Jawaharlal Nehru and other Indian democrats he is reported to have shed off to some extent his superiority complex and old prejudices against associating his people with the administration.  This may be a mere propaganda, but it will be a pity if he advises his brother to hold on to power at this revolutionary period of the twentieth century.  The tornado, which is rising in the east, will sweep them away in no time if they persist in their policy of cruel   exploitation and then they will be abhorred.

             Chandra Mohan Shumsher's youngest uterus brother, General Krishna has earlier Shumsher has resigned his post and privileges and is already in Banglore.  Before he submitted his resignation he was reported to have been asked to reconsider his intentions and there were exchanges of hot words between the two brothers. After he resigned there was a flood of speculation as to the cause of his resignation. It is probably not his ill health as has been suggested in certain quarters.  He could not think of Premiership to be falling to him in ordinary course when the whole system has been assailed.  It is not a far-fetched conclusion to attribute to him differences of political views with the ruling clique on the questions of reform.

           He was definitely in favor of democratizing the administration. And his resignation is not a happy sign of things within the Rana family.  It certainly reflects a growing panic, which not a few important members can avoid.

            Now to deal with the institution of the King. We have already mentioned about the king of Nepal, his powers and position, which are quite insignificant in the real context. That way he does not deserve elaborate mention at the present juncture. But his place as the ruler has been a source of much confusion to the outsiders and a source of inspiration to Nepalese freedom fighters.  People outside Nepal find it hard to notice a distinction between the two political heads of the country. Both share the title of the Maharaja, though the king is known as Adhiraj in Nepal itself and is quite distinguished.  His is the most anomalous position.  Not too often at the time of the first two Rana Premiers he bad plotted to overthrow the government of the intermediary.  Yet he is retained as a defined sovereign without much concern.  The only thing the de facto rulers do is to sterilize him.  Even his potentiality is dreaded. So he is subjected to extraneous demoralizing influences, to wiles of courtiers and unhealthy petty coat intrigues.  But the Nepalese, king has even ceased to represent a legal fiction.  He is just a mockery if any attribute can be given. He has been totally eclipsed by the hereditary Prime Minister.

           The present dynasty was founded in the 14th century A.D. by an emigrant Prince from Chittor.  At the initial stage small area in the valley of the River Kali comprised the principality, which was later expanded to include a substantial portion of territory further east up to the River Marsyangdi.  The dynasty shifted to Gorkha and its victory over the local Magar chieftain pushed the frontier to touch the fringe of the Katmandu region.  In the first half of the eighteenth century further inroads were made and the kingdom of Gorkha expanded in all four directions.  The Nepal valley and its outlying tracts were annexed in 1768.

           The kings in their hey days contributed not a little to the unification and consolidation of forces tending to make Nepal strong and prosperous.  Their anti-British attitude towards all questions of external contact had also kept Nepal immune from unhealthy influences and its fair name was not tarnished by servility to foreign interests.  Nepal was once again growing resurgent with proud and glorious records of achievements and feats.  But this was not destined to continue for long and the half a century of effeminate, vacillating and intemperate rule following of the climax destroyed all that was built during the preceding years.   In 1846 exactly 70 years after the death of the founder the glory that was Nepal vanished never to appear again and with it the institution of the king too ceased to be a force in the realm.

             We have already recounted the story of the way the king was shorn of power.  Since 1846 again started a process to further debase and demoralize his person.  To curb the likelihood of a resentful spirit in him he was kept in a state of terror always given to exaggerate the might of' his adversaries.  But more than that the requisite of an asserting factor was lacking which completely reduced monarchy as an institution into a mere fiction devoid of centripetal force.  The kings had never lived up to an age likely to be a cause of annoyance to the hereditary Premiers.  They say that such a situation was deliberately planned.  It was the logical culmination of a life of excessive indulgence and of wanton submission to lusts and immoral conduct.  It was essential for the ruling Prime Minister that the royal puppet never out passed the infirm stage of a youthful debauch and he, therefore, consistently used his efforts to that end with the above-mentioned result.

            The king is now a marionette pure and simple much neglected and ignored even as a potentiality.  The Rana Premier does not even care to display him on ceremonial occasions. His prisoner like condition has taken him away from day to day festivities of the Nepalese. He has lost contact with the masses of his people, who have nearly forgotten him.

          The present king H.M. Tribhuwan Vir Vikram Shah is the eighth successor of the king Prithwi Narain Shah.  He succeeded his father in 1913 while he was a boy of only six years of age.  He had little opportunities for education and cultural attainments being forced to live a life of debauch from the very early childhood.  But today as he has lived to a ripe mature age he is reported to be very much detesting his life and surroundings.  At one time in 1940 he was actually encouraging political activities of democratic nature conducted against the Rana family.  Of course he has his own axes to grind and may even cherish hopes of restoration when we talk of running a responsible government under his aegis.  But his pro- people sympathies are patent.  He, however, suffers from a fundamental weakness.  He is not daring, and at critical times is prone to submissiveness of the worst order.  His courage was sufficiently tested in 1940 while he was put on trial for his complicity in the anti-Rana political movement.  Had he acted in defiance of the authority and tutelage of the Prime Minister, the movement would not, have been crushed so easily as it was done.  There were various ways that he could have adopted in manifestation of his desire to help the people.  One such course suggested at the hour was that he should appear before the army on parade to announce the dismissal of the Rana Premier and revoke the Sanad of 1846. Whatever might have been the consequences in general the act could have certainly attracted world public attention and. the attention of his docile people. But he acquitted himself much too hopelessly. At the present moment when he has not been trying to utilise the precious opportunities for a bold action, his very utility as a dissentient element of the ruling hierarchy is being questioned. His pusillanimity will always make him a tool of a clique even after Ranacracy gets overthrown, and thereby he will prove a source of danger to the democratic aspiration of the Nepalese people. One would not be surprised if his existence is ruled out in the  new set up.

            King Tribhuban, however, has certain qualities which mark him as a constitutional monarch and it is expected that sometime or other he will surely throw in his lot with his people.  He is mild and harmless in his behaviour and is intensely pro-people in his politics.  These, of course, will work only when the king is extricated out of the filth of palace intrigue. Care must be taken to inculcate in him a habit of thinking independent of external influences.  As the king is intimately associated with the freedom movement of Nepal he is the least factor to be ignored in the future scheme of things.  Nepal is looking to him with hopes and goodwill.  Let us see how far he will be able to rise to the occasion when he is called upon to fulfill the important role of a democratic ruler in the interim period.