Democratic Innovations

in Nepal
 BHUWAN LAL JOSHI

and LEO E. ROSE

Democratic Innovations
in Nepal
A Case Study of Political Acculturation

Berkeley and Los Angeles

University of California Press

1966
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
Cambridge University Press, London, England
(e) 1966 by T h e Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 66-14092
Printed in the United States of America
 To
His Majesty King Mahendra Vir Vikram Shah Deva,
King of Nepal,
and
Sri Bishweshiuar Prasad Koirala, the first elected
Prime Minister of Nepal—

Two Nepali leaders who, although placed at

opposite ends of the political spectrum by a
not too uncommon irony of Nepali history,
are in a real sense the two most important
co-authors of Nepali political acculturation
surveyed in this book.
 Preface

M O D E R N Nepali political history can be divided into two periods

—with the 1950 revolution as the dividing line—in which the
form and the dynamics of the political process demonstrated
certain distinctive characteristics, b u t in which there was also a
high degree of survival and persistence of traditional institutions
and modes of behavior. T h e revolution which overthrew the
oligarchic R a n a family regime in 1951 unleashed complex and
multifaceted forces in this previously isolated, sternly regimented
society. A renaissance in the sphere of literature was one of the
first evidences of a new awakening. L e a d i n g figures in the minute
b u t influential Nepali intelligentsia began experimenting with
literary forms and subjects that had been frowned upon by the
tradition-oriented Ranas. Educational facilities also multiplied
rapidly, if often on a tenuous basis, under the leadership of a
newly emerging youthful elite that had been educated in the few
Western-style schools sponsored by the R a n a s or in the colleges
and universities of neighboring India.
T h e aftermath of the revolution was indeed an exhilarating
and creative period for this new elite, gratefully released from the
deadening oppression of Rana-imposed conformity and authori-
tarianism. Inevitably, this almost frantic search for innovation
had a considerable impact on political and social attitudes.
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the immediate postrevolu-
tionary period—setting it apart both from what had existed
before and what eventually emerged—was the broad political
freedom conceded to virtually all political elements, even those
frankly counterrevolutionary. From a society in which voluntary
political associations had been most conspicuous by their absence,
Nepal was suddenly transformed into a society in which virtually
all forms and idioms of contemporary world politics received at
least token expression.
Political and bureaucratic institutions, shaken from their
traditional moorings with insufficient time or opportunity to
adjust to the new situation, were necessarily subjected to a long

vii
viii Preface

period of experimentation which has not yet come to an end. T o

both the active participants and the society as a whole, the politics
of this transitional period has often seemed to be little more than
an exercise in frustration as experiment has succeeded experiment
after what seemed to be only a nominal trial. T h i s obvious failure
to achieve a meaningful consensus on many of Nepal's basic
political questions has proved a serious handicap to all the
political innovators—the Crown, the political parties, and the
articulate Nepali elites.
In view of this substantial lack of agreement on fundamen-
tals, it is hardly surprising that there has been a gradual renewal
of interest in and appreciation of certain aspects of the traditional
political structure and process. T h e r e is, indeed, a broad degree of
continuity between pre-1951 and post-1960 politics in Nepal.
Innovation is still a predominant characteristic of contemporary
Nepali politics, but the limits within which these experiments are
structured are now more rigidly defined than in the 1951-60
period.
T h e present study is thus an analysis of a political system in
transition in its most critical and formative period. Doubtless,
many of the problems and situations under discussion are those
faced at present by most Asian states, as also those of Africa. Nepal
offers certain advantages, however, for a study of politics in a neo-
traditional, pseudo-modern society. T h e long and comparatively
effective isolation of Nepal from the outside world u p to 1947
facilitates a study in depth of the Nepali political process. T h e
origin, role, and position of the elites, whether traditional or
modernist, are probably more clearly defined in Nepal than
elsewhere in Asia because of their shorter and less intensive
exposure to external influences. Political behavior still tends to
follow familiar traditional paths. T h e sources and impact of
external influences are more easily identified and isolated by the
social scientist, and the processes of political and social transition
are more susceptible to analysis on the basis of well-defined
categories in Nepal than in most other Asian countries, where
contacts with the West and reactions to Western influences have a
longer and more pervasive history. T h e impact of a H i n d u social
system on political institutions and behavior, for instance, is
probably more easily studied in Nepal than in India, where
extraneous and adventitious influences have intruded for several
centuries.
 Preface ix

Nepal's strategic, if uneasy, position between t h e largest

C o m m u n i s t and democratic powers in Asia adds f u r t h e r interest
to this study. K a t h m a n d u has f r e q u e n t l y expressed its determi-
n a t i o n to avoid the paths charted by either of its giant neighbors,
b u t it is still to be proved that an alternative system is feasible
u n d e r such stressful conditions. T h e n a t u r a l reaction m i g h t well
be for Nepal to retreat to the protective shell long p r o v i d e d by its
isolation from the harsh realities a n d ambiguities of i n t e r n a t i o n a l
politics. But withdrawal has been specifically a n d repeatedly
rejected by the N e p a l i political leadership in favor of a policy
a i m e d at carving o u t a separate a n d u n i q u e i n t e r n a t i o n a l person-
ality, distinguishing Nepal f r o m both C o m m u n i s t C h i n a a n d
democratic India.
Much of this study consists of a detailed political history of a
crucial transitional period in N e p a l . T h e m e t h o d of i n q u i r y we
have employed in delineating political events a n d in describing
political personalities is the case-study approach, focusing inten-
sively on c o n t i n u o u s trends and patterns e m e r g i n g over a p e r i o d
of time. W h i l e thus trying to disentangle the c o m p l e x skein of
political developments, we have also emphasized the discontinui-
ties or the disjunctures that m a r k e d the emergent political process
at its various crisis points. W e h o p e d that o u r reliance o n the case-
study m e t h o d of i n q u i r y w o u l d enable us to u n d e r s c o r e the
m u l t i d i m e n s i o n a l n a t u r e of political change a n d b r i n g o u t as
fully as possible the psychic d i m e n s i o n of c h a n g e — i n particular,
the overriding influences of a few key individuals o n t h e transi-
tional politics. For in Nepal political change not only has b r o u g h t
correlated changes in the social, economic, a n d intellectual life of
t h e country, b u t also has p r o d u c e d p r o f o u n d changes in the
behavior, values, a n d ideals of the small g r o u p of persons compos-
i n g the new " m o d e r n i z i n g " oligarchy. T h e s e behavioral a n d
ideological modifications in t u r n caused f u r t h e r alterations in the
developing political process, a n d this active interaction between
the change agents a n d the n a t u r e of the change process itself has
c o n t i n u e d u n a b a t e d till now.
Indeed, this study of political change in N e p a l can be
c o m p a r e d to the study of behavioral a n d a t t i t u d i n a l modifications
in a person u n d e r g o i n g a program of stimulated change. Nepal's
hectic political experiences since 1951 are analogous w i t h those of
a person who has subjected himself to psychotherapeutic treat-
m e n t . It was in that year that the long-sequestered H i m a l a y a n
x Preface

kingdom was catapulted out of its medieval coma into the

bewildering stream of twentieth-century existence. T h e crisis in
Nepal's national identity precipitated by such a revolutionary
upheaval continues to affect deeply the individual and social lives
of the small band of Nepali elites. T h e groping for directions, the
search for anchor values, the intense desire to grow rapidly, the
frantic impatience to catch u p with the rest of the world, the de-
mand for equality in the comity of nations—all these preoccu-
pations have marked the years of Nepal's infantile and adolescent
politics, if one could label the years of transitional politics until
1959 as the period of political infancy and the years after that as
the period of political adolescence. T h e dominant mood in Nepali
politics has been self-expression and self-aggrandizement rather
than problem solving. T h e successive governments formed be-
tween 1951 and 1959 were so enmeshed in interpersonal, intra-
party, and interparty conflicts that task orientation was all b u t lost
from the public life of the country; the crisis in Nepal's national
identity became truly a crisis in the personal lives of all Nepali
elites. T h e attendant atmosphere of frustration and cynicism
virtually ruled out the possibility of any rational, predictable, and
stable party politics, and the rise of political influentials made the
nature of transitional politics more personality-centered than ever
before.
By bringing together the political facts and events of these
"infantile" and "adolescent" periods in one place, and by collat-
ing them so that their underlying motivations and meanings
become apparent, we may have brought to light some aspects of
political life and behavior in contemporary Nepal which many
Nepali politicians would perhaps wish were best left in undis-
turbed oblivion. W e hold no brief for any political individual or
system, and as social scientists our primary allegiance is to facts;
whenever we have brought to surface some unpleasant political
facts, this has been done only to provide an accurate and objective
delineation of significant events.
We have purposely refrained from theorizing about the
process of political change. W e feel that the first concern in any
scientific study of a problem should be to provide a full and
objective description of the relevant facts pertaining to that
problem, and that theoretical concerns should succeed rather than
precede the empirical process. We also feel that we are too close to
 Preface xi

events in Nepal since 1960 to have the necessary emotional and

temporal remoteness to engage in theoretical abstractions. It is
our hope, however, that the present study of political change in
Nepal will provide the factual substructure for qualified social
scientists to undertake the next phase of scientific inquiry—that of
analyzing and abstracting the interrelationships of significant
political events and processes into formal propositions and hy-
potheses of social and political change in a traditional society. W e
would also like to see any theoretical model thus derived f u r t h e r
cross-validated with political experiences of comparable countries
and societies so that eventually a general theory of social-political
change with predictive power can emerge.
Even though we have favored a descriptive case-study ap-
proach, some hidden biases may have entered into the study
through the manner in which we have catalogued and collated
specific political events or persons for discussions. Selection of any
kind is unquestionably a subjective process, but we believe that
awareness of possible biases can act as a useful restraint on any
preexisting proclivities in data collection. T o make our possible
biases explicit we can state that we have consciously guarded
ourselves against omitting references to events or persons we have
judged to be politically significant. Likewise, we have exercised
our discretion in excluding all references to events or persons we
deemed to be trivial or inconsequential with respect to the total
political process. For each head and prominent member of the
Cabinet we have included a brief sketch of his political career and
socialization, and for each government we have provided a
detailed and objective account of its record; where political
controversies were involved, we have plunged headlong into the
discussion of the political issues and the participants concerned as
impartially as possible.
T h e basic objective of the study is to describe, understand,
and explain, in all its many and varied forms, the course of
modernization in an essentially backward society. O u r main
efforts, however, have been geared to describing and under-
standing the processes of political change in a traditional society;
whatever explanations we have offered from time to time are more
in the nature of descriptive hypotheses derived from the relevant
domain of data (i.e., political facts and events) than of hypotheses
derived from any subsumed theory or model. We believe that in
xii Preface

exploratory investigations like the present one, excessive preoccu-

pation with general theories or comprehensive models may lead to
the one-sided collection of only those facts which are congruent
with the predilections and thus support the theory. Such exercises
in scholarship fail to provide an objective test of the subsumed
theory and only lead to its perpetuation and, eventually, institu-
tionalization under a misleading façade of scientific objectivity. In
social sciences, most theories at the present time are still descrip-
tive, hindsight theories whose main criterion for survival is the
plausibility of their post hoc explanations rather than their
capacity to anticipate new events. Before social science theories
can claim the status of scientific theories surviving by the power
and generality of their predictive hypotheses, we must first
construct theories based on dependable facts, and then test such
theories constantly in the crucible of new facts and events to
refine their validity and generality. We hope that the present study
will prove a modest contribution toward this long-range goal of
constructing a theory of social change.
At a nontheoretical but practical level, we feel that this study
may have some value for the political elites in Nepal who are,
indeed, the ultimate authors of the processes and events we have
investigated. In the heat of political controversy, many political
distortions and misperceptions have arisen in Nepal, some acci-
dentally and some deliberately. O u r hope is that this study, by
mirroring the facts and events of these crucial years faithfully, will
enable the Nepali political elites to analyze past events with
better perspective and greater objectivity, and to continue their
political "prospecting" with better successes and accomplishments
than heretofore. If in some measure it will contribute to a
clarification of national political goals in Nepal, improved politi-
cal understanding and maturity, a sense of regard for facts and
honest dissent, we will feel that our efforts are amply rewarded.
A brief description of the source materials utilized in this
study would be appropriate in view of the virtual lack of
secondary sources available to the public outside Nepal. T h e
Rana regime maintained a strict control over all publications in
Nepal and even sometimes used their influence with the British
Government of India to muzzle or suppress Nepali-language
publications in India. Only one journal, the official Gorkhapatra,
was permitted to be published in Nepal, serving both as an
official gazette and as a newspaper. One or two privately published
 Preface xiii

monthlies were also licensed in the last stages of the R a n a period,

b u t these p r i n t e d only noncontroversial articles a n d literary
contributions.
I n d i a n i n d e p e n d e n c e in 1947 e n d e d most restrictions o n
Nepali p u b l i c a t i o n s in India, a n d the 1950 revolution h a d a
similar result in Nepal. T h e N e p a l i press has u n d e r g o n e a
substantial g r o w t h subsequently, particularly in K a t h m a n d u , b u t
also in a n i n c i p i e n t f o r m in some outlying areas. T h e q u a l i t y of
most of the dailies a n d weeklies leaves s o m e t h i n g to be desired, of
course, as is to b e expected in a c o u n t r y with only a brief
journalistic history. T h e news r e p o r t i n g is usually scanty, biased,
and unreliable, with editorial c o m m e n t s freely interspersed. B u t
the press has o n e saving grace f r o m the viewpoint of o u r study—it
is a political press and, u n t i l 1961 at least, broadly representative
of the political s p e c t r u m in Nepal. Most of the significant political
factions in the capital p u b l i s h e d a daily or weekly which clearly
a n d f a i t h f u l l y reflected their views on the political issues of the
day. N o t all of these went o u t of p u b l i c a t i o n after the b a n o n
parties in D e c e m b e r , 1960, a l t h o u g h their official connections
with parties h a d to be t e r m i n a t e d . Nevertheless, several of these
j o u r n a l s seem to have retained an unofficial status as the voice of a
political faction or leader.
G o v e r n m e n t publications have also had a rapid growth since
1951. T h e Gorkhapatra has been c o n t i n u e d ; it still serves as a
semiofficial source for official views. T h e Nepal Gazette, which
publishes the texts of legislation, ordinances, a n d official a n n o u n c e -
ments, was established in 1951. I n addition, m a n y g o v e r n m e n t
reports on specific topics are now p u b l i s h e d by the d e p a r t m e n t
concerned or by the D e p a r t m e n t of Publicity a n d Broadcasting of
the C e n t r a l Secretariat.
Party manifestos, programs, reports o n party meetings a n d
conferences, a n d p a m p h l e t s on various subjects, i n c l u d i n g party
histories, were p u b l i s h e d by most of the m a j o r political parties
before D e c e m b e r , 1960. In addition, a large n u m b e r of books
a n d p a m p h l e t s have been privately p u b l i s h e d in the last decade,
i l l u m i n a t i n g certain aspects of the political history of Nepal. Some
of these are in the form of memoirs; others are indifferently
disguised a n d o f t e n vituperative attacks on political o p p o n e n t s ;
a n d some others have been published u n d e r the guise of political
histories. All were invaluable—indeed, indispensable—to this
study, n o t only for their contents, b u t also for their incisive
xiv Preface

depiction of the atmosphere and character of the Nepali political

scene.
Finally, mention should be made of the substantial coverage
given to Nepali political developments in the Indian press. These
often suffer from the biases and political predilections of the
newspapers or their correspondents, adding a new and sometimes
tricky facet to the task of political analysis of Nepali affairs.
Nevertheless, the Indian press serves a useful function as a
necessary supplement to the Kathmandu press, particularly in the
spheres of consistent chronology and news interpretation.
There were, obviously, serious deficiencies in the published
source materials available to the authors. These were met as far as
possible through personal contacts and interviews on an extended
basis with political and governmental leaders.
It is with pleasure and gratitude that we make the following
acknowledgments:
T o His Majesty's Government in Nepal, and in particular to
the many officials in the Central Secretariat who were generous
both with their time and their assistance on innumerable occa-
sions.
T o the Institute of International Studies, University of
California, Berkeley, under whose ultimate sponsorship this study
was undertaken.
T o the Center for South Asia Studies of the Institute of
International Studies, and in particular to Dr. Joan V. Bondurant
and Dr. Thomas Blaisdell, the chairmen of the Center at different
stages of the study.
T o the Ford Foundation and the American Institute of
Indian Studies, which sponsored the field work of one of the
authors in 1957-58 and 1963-64.
T o Mahesh C. Regmi, the prominent Nepali economist,
whose assistance in all aspects of the study, including the collec-
tion of elusive published materials, has been invaluable.
And finally to Dr. Margaret W. Fisher and Professor Robert
A. Scalapino, whose advice, guidance, and support were essential
to the inauguration of the project and to the completion of the
study.
BHUWAN LAL JOSHI
LEO E. ROSE
Institute of International Studies
University of California, Berkeley
September 1,1964