Nepal - Monarchy
According to Nepalese tradition, the King of Nepal is an incarnation of Vishnu, a major deity in the Hindu pantheon. The leadership of Nepal had been vested in a hereditary monarchy since the unification of the country in the 18th century by the Shah kings of Gorkha. Nepal as a modern nation state was born in 1768, when Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered the Kathmandu Valley and its surrounding areas and declared the territory a unified state. The monarchy had generally been popular and served as a symbol of Nepali unity.
The kings did not always wield power, however. From 1846 to 1951 the Rana family gained control of the military and established a Legal Code that gave official status to the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy. Many of the nobles who participated in the consultative court called the Assembly of Lords, or Bharadari Sabha, had been slaughtered at the Kot Massacre in 1846. Once Prime Minister Mathbar Singh alienated junior queen Lakshmidevi, the person who officially wielded state authority, his days were numbered. On May 17, 1845, he was killed, most likely on the queen's orders. The assassin apparently was Jang Bahadur Kunwar, his nephew, then a minor but rising star in court politics.
The death of Mathbar Singh set the stage for one of the crucial sequences of events in modern Nepalese history — the destruction of the old aristocracy and the establishment of a dictatorship of the prime minister. These events provided the long period of stability the country needed but at the cost of political and economic development. After three months of squabbling, a coalition ministry was formed in September 1845.
The real power behind the throne was the favorite of Queen Lakshmidevi, Gagan Singh, who controlled seven regiments in the army compared to the three under the prime minister. Abhiman Singh and Jang Bahadur also served as commanders, each with three regiments. Plots and counterplots continued until Gagan Singh was found murdered during the night of September 14, 1846.
The queen was beside herself at the death of her favorite, whom she had hoped to use to elevate her own son to the monarchy. She commanded the entire military and administrative establishment of Kathmandu to assemble immediately at the courtyard of the palace armory [Kot]. Emotions ran high among the assembled bands of notables and their followers, who listened to the queen give an emotional harangue blaming the Pandes and demanding that the prime minister execute the Pande leader whom she suspected of the murder.
The queen's party was carefully arranged and heavily armed, whereas the members of council came as they were summoned, in a hurry, each from his own house, and with no weapons but their swords. There is no doubt that the whole affair was arranged beforehand, and that written orders were given by the Rani to Jung Bahadur. A stormy discussion ensued, insults were freely exchanged, and when Fath Jung laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, it seemed to be the signal for an attack by Jung Bahadur and his faithful soldiers, who in the meantime had guarded the entrance of the building. In a few minutes thirty-two of the nobles of the country, and upwards of a hundred of the lower ranks, were shot down.
During the free-for-all that followed, swords and knives were used on all sides to dispatch opponents. Through some scheme that has never been explained adequately, the only leader with organized bodies of troops in the Kot area was Jang Bahadur, whose troops suppressed the fighting, killing many of his opponents in the process. When the struggle subsided, the courtyard was strewn with the bodies of dozens of leading nobles and an unknown number of their followers — the cream of the Nepalese aristocracy. The Pande and Thapa families in particular were devastated during this slaughter.
The poor king, alarmed by the noise of the struggle, mounted his horse and rode off to the Residency. On his return, within an hour, he found the gutters around the Kot filled with the blood of his ministers, and what little power he possessed in the state was gone for ever.
Why the Kot Massacre took place has never been established, although the queen herself was obviously at fault for calling the assembly and whipping it into a frenzy. It has always seemed suspicious that the king was notably absent when the fighting began and that Jang Bahadur was the only leader who was ready for trouble. The extent of the carnage was apparently unexpected.
Jang Bahadur was the only true beneficiary of the massacre and became the only military leader in a position of strength in the capital. The next day, he became prime minister and immediately launched a purge that killed many of his aristocratic competitors and drove 6,000 people into exile in India. Jung Bahadur, backed by his band of brothers and the army, was now the most powerful man in Nepal. A few of the old Sardars, however, still tried to make head against him, but without success. On the 2nd of November thirteen more of the Sardars were put to death, and in December the king fled from the country to Benares.
Through intermarriage with the Shahs, the Rana family gained effective control of the country for over a century. The end of the Rana rule made possible for the first time discussions aimed at the election of a constituent assembly responsible for drafting a permanent constitution. Nepal's royal palace may have been the only political institution in Nepal focussed on the long view.
In January 1951, the Ranas were forced to concede to the restoration of the monarchy, which then assumed charge of all executive powers: financial management, appointment of government officials, and command of the armed forces. The latter power became an increasingly useful tool for enforcing control. King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah announced by royal proclamation an interim government and an interim constitution until a new Constituent Assembly could be elected. The interim constitution, based on principles in India's constitution and entitled the Interim Government of Nepal Act, 1951, ratified the end of the authority of the prime minister and the system surrounding that office.
In 1962, King Mahendra dismissed the government and replaced the national parliamentary democracy with a system of royally-supervised local district elections (the Panchayaat system). King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev devised the centrally controlled partyless council system of government called panchayat. This system served as the institutional basis of the king's rule and was envisioned by the palace as a democratic administration although it functioned only at the king's behest. Incorporated into the 1962 constitution, the panchayat system was established at the village, district, and national levels.
Successive changes in government and constitutional revisions did not weaken the powers of the absolute monarchy. In fact, a May 1980 referendum reaffirmed the status quo of the panchayat system and its continuation as a rubber stamp for the king. Elections in 1981 and 1986 were characterized by the lack of political programs.
Government by an absolute monarch behind a democratic facade lasted for some thirty years. Although many party members were exiled to India, opposition to the government and the panchayat system continued to grow, particularly in the late 1980s when the outlawed political parties announced a drive for a multiparty system. A coalition between the Nepali Congress Party and the Communist Party of Nepal was formed in late 1989. The increasing disillusionment with and unpopularity of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev's regime and the worsening economic situation caused by the trade and transit dispute with India added to the momentum of the incipient pro-democracy movement.
Political parties agreed in 1991 that the monarchy would remain to enhance political stability and provide an important symbol of national identity for the culturally diverse Nepali people. The King exercises limited powers, including the right to declare a state of emergency in the event of war or armed revolt, with the advice and consent of the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister.
On June 1, 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed his father, King Birendra; his mother, Queen Aishwarya; his brother; his sister, his father's younger brother, Prince Dhirendra; and several aunts, before turning the gun on himself. After his death two days later, the late King's surviving brother Gyanendra was proclaimed king.
King Gyanendra’s direct rule came to an end as the result of a 19-day popular uprising in April 2006 known as Jana Andolan II (People’s Movement II), in which both the Maoists and the SPA took part. This movement, during which 23 protesters were killed, forced King Gyanendra to reinstate the 1999 House of Representatives, which he had dissolved in 2002. In May 2006, the parliament passed a resolution calling for Nepal to become a secular state, stripping the King of his historical and social positions including the head of State and also ending his control over the Armed Forces.
The members of the Constituent Assembly [CA] were sworn in on May 27, 2008, and the first session of the CA was convened on May 28, 2008. In this session, the CA voted to declare Nepal a federal democratic republic by abolishing the monarchy. Gyanendra abdicated on 28 May 2008, abolishing the 238-year-old monarchy.
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