Nepal: The Man Who Would Be King, Again

Prithvinarayan Shah attacked a bowl-shaped valley during Indra Jatra, a festival that celebrates the end of the monsoon and honors the rain god Indra. He then expanded his kingdom to form what is now Nepal. In 1768, the new king received blessings from the living goddess in accordance with the local custom of the now-famous Nepali institution of Kumari, which involves the worship of young girls believed to be incarnations of the Hindu deity Taleju. Shah's last king, on the other hand, did not have as much luck. Last month, the site of the yearly celebration of Indra Jatra in Kathmandu’s ancient Durbar Square became the latest frontline in a battle being waged between Nepal’s ousted king and the nation’s young government.  

When former king Gyanendra Shah, who left his post after the government voted to become a republic on May 28, 2008, attempted to pay homage to nine former royal Kumaris in the square, government supporters gathered to protest the former king’s visit, and he was physically prevented from his visit.  The government cited security reasons for the interruption, but one local news commentator said that the tussle amounted to nothing less than a battle between the old and new Nepal.

 Nepal’s transition out of monarchic rule has never been smooth.  Five years ago, pro-democracy parties and the Maoists, who had fought a war that lasted a decade and killed over 13,000 people, agreed to work together to topple Nepal's centuries-old monarchy. On April 24, 2006, Gyanendra reinstituted the parliament he had dissolved four years earlier, under increasing pressure from subsequent street protests and the international community. For many, it was a long-awaited victory, but it was not until two years after the popular protest that Nepal’s last king was booted out of the royal palace in Kathmandu.

But many lingering issues — key among them the still-unfinished constitution and the integration of 19,000 former Maoist combatants who are sequestered in U.N.-monitored camps across the country — have prevented the new government from pushing through reforms it had promised upon its formation.  The peace process between the seven parliamentary parties and the Maoists, which looked promising until the Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda, resigned from the government a year ago, is unraveling as continuous bickering within the government has thrown the country into disarray.  Since Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned on June 30 under pressure from the Maoists, the country has failed to elect a Prime Minister even after elections on Oct.  10.

 The nation of 28 million people is stuck in a state of perpetual dysfunction as a result of this political limbo, which has led to a wave of support for the former monarch. The former king has attempted to return to the spotlight multiple times, including at the festival last month. In an effort to regain his lost popularity, he has been unrelentingly shadowing President Ram Baran Yadav, who has assumed the role of ceremonial head of state in place of the previous king. In March, Gyanendra’s visit to the Ram Janaki temple, believed to be the birthplace of Sita, the wife of Hindu god Ram, forced Yadav to reschedule his own visit there to avoid an awkward encounter.  Gyanendra gave his first interview to a local television station on the same day that he lost the throne. He said the question of monarchy’s end was “hypothetical.”

 The comment triggered an avalanche of press, culminating in the prime minister saying that Gyanendra was “daydreaming” — a surprising display of disrespect to the former monarch.  “There’s no chance of reverting back to the monarchical system,” says Surya Dhungel, a constitutional adviser to the president.  “The former king, as well as all the former royals, have to choose between the erstwhile privilege and the rights of the citizens” to choose their government.

 But the opposition, including the National Democratic Party, questions the fundamental changes — from monarchy to republic, from Hindu to secular — made by Maoists and their coalition partners in past four years.  Kamal Thapa, the head of a royalist splinter group and home minister under the former king, has been calling for a referendum on whether or not the monarchy should be restored.

 Interdisciplinary Analysts, a research organization based in Kathmandu, conducted opinion polls in 2007 and found that fifty percent of respondents supported some form of monarchy. “Monarchy may be past, but the king is not,” says Sudhindra Sharma, a leading sociologist with the research group.  “Once the king, he will forever be the king.”  In accordance with the monarch's traditional role as the nation's religious leader, Sharma believes that President Yadav should assume the role of head of state and the king should be permitted to attend and perform at Hindu ceremonies. According to Sharma, "there are certain rituals that only the king can perform." In the meantime, the political parties' failure to deliver anything resembling a functioning government frustrates many Nepalis. Parasar Rijal, 52, who runs a stationery store in the capital’s Bagbazaar neighborhood, says, “The parties have not only betrayed our aspirations, but have also stooped very low.”

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