History

Ancient History

Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least 9,000 years. Documented references reach back to the first millennium BC, when ancient Indian epics such as the Mahabharata mention the Kiratas, the inhabitants of Nepal. It appears that people who were probably of Tibeto-Burman ethnicity lived in Nepal 2,500 years ago Also, the presence of historical sites such as Valmik ashram, indicates the presence of Aryan culture in Nepal at that period.

Birth of Buddhism

Aryan tribes began arriving around 1500 BC from the northwest. Around 1000 BC, small kingdoms and confederations of clans arose in the region. One of the earliest confederations was that of the Shakya clan, whose capital was Kapilavastu, near the present-day border with India. One of its princes was Gautama Buddha Siddharta Gautama (563-483 BC), who renounced his royalty to lead an ascetic life and came to be known as the 'Buddha' ('the enlightened one').

321-184 BC: Maurya Empire

By 260 BC, most of North India northern India was ruled by the Maurya Empire. Although not all of Nepal was under Maurya rule, there is evidence of at least the influence of Ashoka the Great (the ruler of the Maurya Empire from 273 BC 273 to 232 BC and a convert to Buddhism) have been found in the Kathmandu Valley. In the fourth century AD, the area fell under the Gupta Empire. Though all of Nepal wasn't under the direct control of the Gupta's, they have had an influence on its culture.

Licchavi Kingdom

Between about 400 and 750 AD, Nepal's present capital Kathmandu was ruled by the Licchavi kingdom. The Licchavi rulers arranged for the documentation of information on politics, society, and the economy in the region. Most of the Licchavi records (written in Sanskrit) are deeds reporting donations to religious foundations, predominantly Hindu temples; and the last such record was added in 733.

The Licchavi dynasty went into decline in the late eighth century and was followed by a Newari era, from 879, although the extent of their control over the entire country is uncertain. By the late 11th century, southern Nepal came under the influence of the Chalukaya Empire of southern India. Under the Chalukayas, Nepal's religious establishment changed as the kings patronised Hinduism instead of the prevailing Buddhism.

Nepal in the 12th Century

By the early 12th century, leaders were emerging whose names ended with the Sanskrit suffix malla ('wrestler'). Arimalla was the first king of this dynasty, which was initially marked by upheaval before the kings consolidated their power over the next 200 years.

Three Medieval Kingdoms

Thirteenth-century Nepal was occasionally pillaged by the Delhi Sultanate of northern India, and was marked by increased militarisation. By the late 14th century much of the country came under the rule of the king Jayasthitimalla, who managed to unite most of the fragmented power bases. This unity was short-lived: in 1482 the kingdom was carved into three: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhadgaon.

Gorkha Rule

Modern Nepal was created in the latter half of the 18th century when Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of the small principality of Gorkha, formed a unified country from a number of independent hill states. The country was frequently called the Gorkha Kingdom.

After decades of rivalry between the medieval kingdoms, Prithvi Narayan Shah dedicated himself at an early age to the conquest of the Kathmandu valley and the creation of a single state, which he achieved in 1768. Between 1717 and 1733, the Nepalese in the west and Bhutanese in the east attacked Sikkim many times, culminating with the destruction of the capital Rabdentse by the Nepalese. The Sikkim king fled to Tibet. After Shah's death, the Shah dynasty began to expand their kingdom into India. Between 1788 and 1791, Nepal invaded Tibet and robbed Tashilhunpo Monastery of Shigatse. Alarmed, the Chinese emperor Qianlong dispatched a sizeable army that forced the Nepalese to retreat and pay heavy repatriations.

After 1800, the heirs of Prithvi Narayan Shah proved unable to maintain firm political control over Nepal. A period of internal turmoil followed. Rivalry between Nepal and the British East India Company over the annexation of minor states bordering Nepal eventually led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814-16), in which Nepal suffered a complete rout. The Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1816, ceding parts of the Terrai and Sikkim to the British in exchange for Nepalese autonomy.

Rana Administration

Factionalism among the royal family led to a period of instability after the war. In 1846, Queen Rajendralakshmi plotted to overthrow Jang Bahadur, a fast-rising military leader who was presenting a threat to her power. The plot was uncovered and the queen had several hundred princes and chieftains executed after an armed clash between military personnel and administrators loyal to the queen. This came to be known as the Kot Massacre. However, Bahadur emerged victorious and founded the Rana lineage. The king was made a titular figure, and the post of Prime Minister was made powerful and hereditary. The Rana regime, a tightly centralised autocracy, pursued a policy of isolating Nepal from external influences. This policy helped Nepal maintain its national independence during the colonial era, but it also impeded the country's economic development.

The Ranas were staunchly pro-British, and assisted the British during the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, and later in both World Wars.

Nepal in the 20th Century

In 1923, Britain and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, in which Nepal's independence was recognised by the British.

Democratic Reform

With the annexation of Tibet by the Chinese in 1950, India faced the prospect of an expansive military power operating under a radically different political philosophy on its long northern borders, and was thus keen to avoid instability in Nepal. India sponsored both King Tribhuvan as Nepal's new ruler in 1951, and a new government, mostly comprising the Nepali Congress Party. After years of power wrangling between Tribhuvan's son, King Mahendra and the government, Mahendra dissolved the democratic experiment in 1960. In 1962 he declared that a 'partyless' panchayat system would govern Nepal.

Popular dissatisfaction against the family rule of the Ranas had started emerging from among the few educated people, who had been taught in various Indian school and colleges, and from within the Ranas, many of whom were marginalised within the Ruling Rana hierarchy. Many of these Nepalese in exile had actively taken part in the Indian Independence struggle and wanted to liberate Nepal as well from the internal autocratic occupation. The political parties like The Prajaparishad and The Nepali Rastriya Congress were already formed in exile by the patriotic minded people who wanted to stage both the military and popular political movement in Nepal to overthrow the autocratic Rana Regime. Among the prominent martyrs to die for the cause executed at the hands of the Ranas were Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Shukraraj Shastri, Gangalal Shrestha and Dasharath Chand. This culminated in 1950, King Tribhuvan, a direct descendant of Prithvi Narayan Shah, fled his 'palace prison' to newly independent India, sparking off an armed revolt against the Rana administration. This allowed the return of the Shah family to power and, eventually, the appointment of a non-Rana as prime minister. A period of quasiconstitutional rule followed, during which the monarch, assisted by the leaders of fledgling political parties, governed the country. During the 1950s, efforts were made to frame a constitution for Nepal that would establish a representative form of government, based on a British model.

In early 1959, King Mahendra issued a new constitution, and the first democratic elections for a national assembly were held. The Nepali Congress Party, a moderate socialist group, gained a substantial victory in the election. Its leader, B.P. Koirala, formed a government and served as prime minister.

Democratic Failure

Declaring parliamentary democracy a failure 18 months later, King Mahendra dismissed the Koirala government and promulgated a new constitution on December 16, 1962. The new constitution established a 'partyless' system of panchayats (councils) which King Mahendra considered to be a democratic form of government closer to Nepalese traditions. As a pyramidal structure progressing from village assemblies to a Rastriya Panchayat (National Parliament), the panchayat system enshrined the absolute power of the monarchy and kept the King as head of state with sole authority over all governmental institutions, including the Cabinet (Council of Ministers) and the Parliament. One-state-one-language became the national policy and all other languages suffered at the cost of the official language, 'Nepali' - the king's language.

In 1972, King Mahendra was succeeded by his 27 year-old son, King Birendra. Amid student demonstrations and anti-regime activities in 1979, King Birendra called for a national referendum to decide on the nature of Nepal's government - either the continuation of the panchayat system with democratic reforms or the establishment of a multiparty system. The referendum was held in May 1980, and the panchayat system won a narrow victory. The king carried out the promised reforms, including selection of the prime minister by the Rastriya Panchayat.

Multiparty Parliament

People in rural areas had expected that their interests would be better represented after the adoption of parliamentary democracy in 1990. Jana Andolan forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament. The Nepali Congress won 110 of the 205 seats and formed the first government in 32 years. In May 1991, Nepal held its first election in nearly 50 years.

In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiralling prices as a result of implementation of changes in policy of the new Congress government, the radical left stepped up their political agitation. A Joint People's Agitation Committee was set up by the various groups. A general strike was called for April 6.

Violent incidents began to occur on the evening ahead of the strike. The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute 'lights out' in the capital, and violence erupted outside Bir Hospital when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'. At dawn on April 6, clashes between strike activists and police outside a police station in Pulchok (Patan) left two activists dead. Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at Tundikhel in the capital Kathmandu was attacked by police forces. As a result riots broke out, and the Nepal Telecommunications building was set on fire. Police opened fire at the crowd, killing several.

1996-2006: Nepalese Civil War

In February 1996, one of the Maoist parties started a bid to replace the parliamentary monarchy with a so-called people's new democratic republic, through a Maoist revolutionary strategy known as the people's war, which led to the Nepalese Civil War. Led by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Pushpa Kamal Dahal (also known as 'Prachanda'), the insurgency began in five districts in Nepal: Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, Gorkha, and Sindhuli. The Maoists declared the existence of a provisional 'people's government' at the district level in several locations. At one point, 70% of Nepal's countryside was under Maoist rule.

Intense fighting and civic unrest continued well into 2005, with the death toll rising to 200 in December 2004.

In June 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra assassinated 11 members of the royal family including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya before shooting himself. Lingering in a coma, he temporarily became king before dying of his wounds. Prince Gyanendra (Birendra's brother) then inherited the throne. Meanwhile, the Maoist rebellion escalated, and in October 2002 the king temporarily deposed the government and took complete control of it. A week later he reappointed another government.

In the face of unstable governments and a Maoist siege on the Kathmandu Valley in August 2004, popular support for the monarchy began to wane. In February 2005, Gyanendra dismissed the entire government and assumed full executive powers, declaring a 'state of emergency' to quash the Maoist movement. Politicians were placed under house arrest, phone and Internet lines were cut, and freedom of the press was severely curtailed. The king's new regime made little progress in his stated aim to suppress the insurgents.

Municipal elections in February 2006 were described by the European Union as 'a backward step for democracy', as the major parties boycotted the election and some candidates were forced to run for office by the army. In April 2006 strikes and street protests in Kathmandu forced the king to reinstate the parliament. A seven-party coalition resumed control of the government and stripped the king of most of his powers. In November 2006, peace talks end with the signing of a deal between the new Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist leader Prachanda. The deal allowed the Maoists to take part in government, and placed their weapons under UN monitoring.

At present, the future of monarchy remains in question, and it is unclear whether the Maoist parties, which form part of the interim government, will hold true to their cease fire. As of 15 January 2007 Nepal is governed by an unicameral legislature under an interim constitution.