Nepal Declares Itself a Republic

For 239 years, the country of Nepal has been ruled by a monarch. It’s been a neat trick because the king of Nepal has officially been considered the human incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, and usually people don’t rebel against gods. However, a Maoist group (who don’t by definition believe in any gods) managed to win an election after a civil war. On Wednesday, the assmebly chosen in that election voted to give the king 15 days to get out of the palace. As of that date, His Majesty Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev becomes Mr. Gyanendra

Recent Nepalese history is a pretty bloody thing to read. Since 1996, the Maoists have been in the countryside fighting against the elected government (the country had its first of these in 1991) and the monarchy. In 2001, King Birendra and his family were murdered, allegedly by a drunken Crown Prince Dipendra, who died at the same time of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. That is the official story anyway. King Birendra’s brother is King Gyanendra who stepped into fill the monarchical void.

He wasn’t exactly an enlightened monarch. First, he got rid of the Sher Bahadur Deuba government in October 2002. A year later, he declared a state of emergency and appointed a few new prime ministers” Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Surya Bahadur Thapa and Mr. Deuba. None of them could stop the Maoists. So in 2005, the god-king re-adopted absolutism. By April 2006, Nepal’s 7 political parties and the Maoists came together to force him back into a constitutional role. In November of that year, a comprehensive peace was signed ending the civil war.

That was the end of the monarchy. The Maoists were part of the ensuing Interim Government. In April of this year, elections for a constituent assembly were held, and the Maoists, calling themselves the Communist Party of Nepal, formed the largest party in the assembly. The members were sworn in on Tuesday, and a republic was declared on Wednesday.

Naturally, this journal is suspicious of Marxist communists, and Maoists have a particularly bloody history and attitude. Nepal is not out of the woods just yet, and those woods are damnably poverty stricken. Nevertheless, the stupidity of monarchy has finally left Nepal. The audacity of freedom has a chance in that republic now -- if the Nepalese can keep it.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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