Michael Hutt

Drafting the Nepal Constitution, 1990

An account of the process of drafting Nepals new democratic constitution, which was finally promulgated in November 1990, with an analysis of its content and of the roles played by various actors, including the royal palace.

Things that should not be said : Censorship and self-censorship in the nepali press media, 2001-02

Scholars and researchers across a range of disciplines increasingly “read” South Asia only in English. After all, the subcontinent produces English-medium scholarship, journalism, and creative literature in copious measure, and the Indian novel in English occupies a dominant position on the world literature stage. That culture is rapidly globalizing is one of the truisms of our day. That the principal language of globalized culture is English is almost axiomatic throughout the Euro-American world and beyond, and the belief that mass media, the entertainment industry, and the Internet will entrench its position even further is rarely challenged. These assumptions about globalization, however, ignore the explosion of locallanguage media that has taken place all across South Asia over the past three decades. In India, the number of daily newspapers grew from 875 in 1976 to 4,453 in 1995, with sales of Hindi dailies surpassing those of English for the first time in 1979. Similarly, in Nepal, where until 1990 only a few dozen newspapers were published on a regular basis, there are now said to be more than sixteen hundred newspapers, of which 230 are dailies. In India in 1976, 9.3 million newspapers were produced each day for a population of 617 million: fifteen dailies for every one thousand people. By 1996, this rate had nearly trebled, reaching forty-three dailies per one thousand people (all figures from Jeffrey 2000, 39, 48, 47; Press Council Nepal 2001). According to Robin Jeffrey:

A NEPALESE TRIANGLE: MONARCHY, MAOISTS AND POLITICAL PARTIES

I manage to visit Nepal just about every year, usually these days for only about three weeks and usually during the monsoon. I was last there in June/July this year and I was struck by the great change that had happened since my previous visit 12 months before. Let me give you just one example of this change. In June 2005 a typical Nepal TV news broadcast would begin with a story involving a member of the Royal Family, for instance “Princess X gives away prizes at a badminton contest”. This would be followed fairly shortly by a report that a number of Maoist terrorists had been killed during an encounter with the security forces in some part of Nepal, often followed by close-up photographs of the dead bodies. The evening’s programmes would close with the national anthem, accompanied by pictures of the king, Mount Everest etc. One year later I watched the coverage of the speech on the next year’s budget by Ram Sharan Mahat, the Finance Minister, who announced drastic cuts in the royal palace budget with a theatrical flourish. The next day I saw a round table Newsnight-style discussion of the Budget which included members of not only the main political parties but also of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). So in 12 months we have moved from a situation in which Maoists are terrorists and are regularly shot on sight to a situation in which Maoists are people who take part in studio discussions of the national budget. How has this change come about? On 1 February 2005, in his proclamation to the nation, King Gyananendra said: “Nepal’s independence, national unity and sovereignty are best safeguarded by the intimate relationship between the King and people. An institution of monarchy ever devoted to the country and people and a people with an innate love for their land is the glorious history of the kingdom of Nepal, its present and also its future.” A response was not slow in coming from the Maoist leadership, specifically from Baburam Bhattarai: “A brief recapitulation of the incessant struggle between the monarchy and democracy since the 1950s in the country should leave no one in any doubt that without the complete abolition of the archaic institution of feudal monarchy and its puppet army, no form of democracy can be secure and institutional in Nepal.” Nepal is now passing through what may or may not turn out to be the final phase of a long struggle between two conceptions of how the people of Nepal

Monarchy, Maoism and democracy in Nepal

On 1 June 2001, King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal and his entire immediate family were either killed or fatally injured by gunfire while attending their traditional monthly gathering at the Narayanhiti palace in Kathmandu. Of the 21 guests, King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah, their younger son, Prince Nirajan Bir Bikram Shah, and their only daughter, Shruti Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah, were pronounced dead on arrival at Birendra Military Hospital shortly after the incident. Their other son, Crown Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, who was declared king even as he lay in a coma, was pronounced dead three days later. Five other relatives also died of gunshot wounds, including Dhirendra Bir Bikram Shah, one of King Birendra’s two younger brothers. Prince Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, the only surviving brother, was crowned on 4 June. In the absence of any substantive explanation of the shooting, rumours spread rapidly. The situation was not helped by the fact that the palace retreated behind its traditional veil of secrecy. Although a story was leaking out about Dipendra running amok with firearms before turning a gun on himself, the government-owned media simply broadcast religious music while a palace spokesman informed the world of an ‘unexpected burst of gunfire’. Conspiracy theories multiplied, fuelled by suspicions that Gyanendra, perceived as the chief beneficiary of the carnage, might have had a hand in planning it, and by the unfortunate reputation of his eldest son, Paras.

Bhutan in 1995: Weathering the Storm

The Economy Bhutans nonagricultural economy still centers on government investment and a handful of larger companies. Over 80% of the population are farmers, but agriculture, forestry, and fishing have now decreased to some 46% of GDP, mainly because of the development of hydropower (HEP) since 1986. The bulk of Bhutans external trade is with India, and the main trading agreement between the two countries was enhanced in February. Electricity from the HEP plant at Chhukha now accounts for 40% of Bhutans trade with India, and in April the unit price of electricity from Chhukha was increased, to raise an extra

Nepal: the pale dawn of democracy

5.9 million per annum. Further hydro-power projects are in progress or at the planning stage, including the Basochhu Project, which is the largest single project supported by Austria in a developing country. A smaller HEP project, the

A Hero or a Traitor? the Gurkha Soldier in Nepali Literature

4.34 million Rangjung Project, came on stream in December 1995, and Bhutan and India are currently discussing plans for the Chhukha II and III schemes (the Tala HEP and Wangchu reservoir projects), which will have a combined capacity of 1,020 megawatts. Bhutans capacity to consume electricity remains tiny because the industrial base is small: Bhutans largest factory, owned by Bhutan Ferro Alloys Ltd., began production of ferro silicon and micro silica in April 1995, with a workforce of 355.

Sociocultural and Political Change in Bhutan Since the 1980s: Reflections from a Distance

Long caught in the crossfire between the government and its readers, the press in Kathmandu is attempting to adjust to new freedoms. But it is too early to seek change out of the 12 May elections

Ganga Bahadur’s books: landmark proletarian novels and the Nepali communist movement

Britain’s recruitment of soldiers from Nepal began in 1815 during two minor wars between Nepal and the British East India Company which had been provoked by Gorkhali expansion and a consequent clash of territorial ambitions. After the British victory in these wars, a treaty was imposed upon the Nepalis, signed at Segauli, (now in Bihar), and ratified in 1816. This drastically reduced the size of the Gorkhali kingdom and installed a British resident in Kathmandu. The Segauli Treaty did not stipulate that Nepal should allow Britain to recruit its citizens for army service: this arrangement dates back to an agreement made in May 1815 between Amar Singh Thapa, Gorkha’s western commander, and his British adversary in the field:

Book Reviews : Bhutan: Mountain Fortress of the Gods, edited by Christian Shicklgruber and Françoise Pommaret. London and Vienna, Serindia Publications and Museum für Völkerkunde, 1997. Pp. 276:

This chapter argues that it can be instructive to compare sociopolitical developments in Bhutan with those in its close neighbour, Nepal, over the past three or four decades, and draws a number of parallels between them. It also argues for a more complex and nuanced approach to contemporary Bhutanese affairs on the part of foreign scholars.