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Dear reader, For the last couple of months, the streets of Nepal have been witnessing a unique kind of people’s movement. The protests are aimed at restoring monarchy in this tiny Himalayan country that had about 17 years ago removed the king in favour of a democratic republic. Those demanding the restoration of the monarchy believe that it is an expression of the frustration and disappointment with the current government’s inefficiencies. At the same time, there is also the idea borne by the monarchists, that Nepal deserves and absolutely requires a monarchy to preserve democracy. In an interview with Indianexpress.com, actress Manisha Koirala, who is the granddaughter of B P Koirala, Nepal’s first elected prime minister, says that her grandfather was a staunch democrat, and yet he believed that if democracy has to survive in Nepal, there has to be an institution that is above the political parties. That institution, say the monarchists, is best identified in a constitutional monarchy, since in many unique ways it was the Shah dynasty king of Nepal, who had first introduced democracy to the country in the 1950s. Our story this week digs into the fascinating history of the Nepalese monarchy and the unusual twists of fate it went through over the course of centuries. One would be interested to know the role that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played in establishing the democratic credentials of the Shah monarchy in Nepal in 1951. Nehru mediated what came to be known as the ‘Delhi compromise’, a tripartite agreement involving King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev of the Shah dynasty, the Nepali Congress and Maharaja Sir Mohan Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana who was the prime minister and the de facto ruler of the country. The ‘Delhi compromise’ is seen as the first democratic revolution in Nepal. As explained by historian John Whelpton in an interview, when this change happened, the monarchy had collaborated with the more liberal elements to stand up against the autocracy of the Ranas, which in turn gave a fair bit of prestige since they could claim to be the ones who introduced democracy in the country. Moving on from the story of the Nepalese monarchy, we come to the internal social issues of India where caste continues to be a predominant one. As part of the series ‘The caste web’ that we started last week, we turned our attention to how this social order that is mostly associated with Hinduism has penetrated into other religions as well, and took up the case of Sikhism. Sikhism, although a synthesis of Hinduism and Islam, has since its inception denounced the caste system. Yet caste, as a social category, remains predominant among Sikhs. Thirty-nine castes in Punjab are officially listed as Scheduled Castes (SC). However, as experts suggest, caste among Sikhs has no “doctrinal injunction,” and is merely a “cultural construction.” Yet another piece we published this week as part of ‘The caste web’ series is on manual scavenging which continues to be a harsh reality in India and is intrinsically linked with one’s caste identity. We pored over historical sources to find out more about origins of the practice and how it came to be tied to caste. Wishing you a pleasant weekend ahead. Sincerely,
Adrija Roychowdhury |
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