Nepal is a restless land.

1. LETTER FROM NEPAL
Last year, after a decade of violence, Maoist
rebels drove through the abolition of Nepal’s
long-established monarchy, but all too
quickly they themselves fell from power.
What chance now for peace and democracy?
Isabel Hilton reports from Kathmandu
This restless
land
Over dinner in Kathmandu, my friend was the sidelines, organising demonstrations and
becoming increasingly agitated. It was not the strikes and replenishing party coffers through
fate of her own business – high-end fashion their own brand of extortion. They had signed
design and retail – that concerned her most, a peace agreement in 2006, following a decade
though a winter-long electricity shortage that of armed insurgency, and emerged as the largest
had blacked out the Nepalese capital for nearly single party in Nepal in the constituent assem-
19 hours a day had crippled it, along with many bly election in April last year.
others. Her biggest worry was the fate of the In August, the Maoist leader, Pushpa Kamal
business belonging to a Tibetan friend. Dahal, popularly known as Prachanda, was
The Tibetan ran a successful furniture fac- appointed prime minister of a coalition gov-
tory that gave much-needed work to several ernment. The Maoists remained the dominant
dozen employees. One day, 40 armed Maoists party of government until May this year, when
turned up at the factory, roughed up some Prachanda tried to sack the head of the Nepali
of the workers and made two demands: for army, General Rookmangud Katawal, on the
an exorbitant contribution to party funds, and grounds of insubordination.
that all the factory workers join the union. It seemed like an unnecessary quarrel to pick,
None of the staff wanted to join. The factory given that the general was due to retire four
owner, who enjoyed a good relationship with months later. Prachanda, however, chose to
his workforce, was equally unenthusiastic. The force the issue of the integration of Maoist
“union”, everyone knew, was a device to estab- fighters into what used to be the Royal Nepal
lish a Maoist presence in the factory. Once in- Army. The “Royal” was dropped when King
stalled, the union would insist on recruiting Gyanendra was deposed in May 2008, but the
Maoist cadres to the workforce, whether they army’s attachment to the interests of Nepal’s
were trained or not, to ensure that the party’s old ruling class was not lost. Faced with Kata-
writ would rule in the enterprise. wal’s reluctance to admit the Maoist combat-
The factory owner closed down his opera- ants to the army, Prachanda insisted that the
tions and took an unscheduled holiday. When principle of military obedience to civil author-
he returned to restart his business, it was with ity was at stake, even though the army had While factions fight
a militia, assembled for his protection against pledged loyalty, for the first time in Nepal’s his- over the spoils of power:
further Maoist visits. tory, to the elected government. When his co- Nepal has the lowest per
capita income in south
Since their departure from government early alition partners backed away from the confron- Asia, with 80 per cent of
in the summer, after a single, ineffective year tation and the president, Ram Baran Yadav, the population gleaning
in power, Nepal’s Maoists have been noisy on countermanded the dismissal, the Maoist-led
t
a living from the land
34 | NEW STATESMAN | 19 OCTOBER 2009

2. REUTERS/GOOPAL CHITRAKAR
19 OCTOBER 2009 | NEW STATESMAN | 35

3. LETTER FROM NEPAL
t government collapsed. Prachanda resigned, for next year; a second dry winter would repeat
leaving Nepal in the hands of an unwieldy coali- last winter’s power failures, as the rivers run too
tion of 22 out of Nepal’s 24 political parties. low to generate the hydropower on the which
The peace process is now in a precarious state. the country depends.
Certainly the central elements of the peace ac- Peace has brought no relief from the burden
cord – a new constitution to follow the ending of military spending: the current budget in-
of the monarchy, and the proposed integration cludes an increase of 27 per cent for a military
of the Maoist fighters into the army – have all that already enjoys a larger share of national
but stalled. Complaints by the army that many revenues than the collapsing power sector,
of the 19,000 fighters were underage and un- agriculture or health. Without the remittances
derqualified were fuelled by a leaked and widely sent home by millions of Nepalis working in
televised video of Prachanda apparently boast- construction gangs in the Gulf or serving in the
ing to his supporters in January 2008 that he British army, Nepal would be bankrupt.
had deceived the UN special representative
charged with guiding the peace process about Between China and India
the size of the movement’s army, and that he In recent weeks, thousands of Maoist support-
regarded the integration of the Maoist ranks ers have rallied in Kathmandu against Presi-
into the army as a means of politicising the dent Yadav, accusing him of undermining the
military. Against this background, settling the authority of the civilian government. Prachan-
outstanding accounts of the decade of violence The “fierce one”: Prachanda, the Maoist former PM da has threatened a campaign of disruption
– the still-unexplained disappearances and hu- unless the party is allowed to return to govern-
man rights violations on both sides – remains Every day there is agitation by one group or ment and the powers of the president are de-
a remote prospect. the other, anxious that such promises will be bated in parliament. Such threats merely rein-
Mutual suspicions could bring about the forgotten in the horse-trading around the text force suspicions that democracy, even in its
outcome that everybody claims not to want – of the new constitution. Following the conflict, imperfect, Nepali form, would not be safe in
a return to authoritarian rule, either through there is a new assertiveness on the part of some Maoist hands.
the Maoists or following an intervention by powerful minorities, notably the Madhesis A further political problem is Nepal’s grow-
the army, which has so far resisted the call to who live in the baked plains of the Terai, terrain ing role as a proxy theatre for the rivalry be-
reduce its ranks to a size appropriate for a poor that merges seamlessly with northern India tween Asia’s emerging giants, India and China.
nation that is no longer at war. If the Maoists, across an open border. The Terai covers one- In his brief term as prime minister, Prachanda
who believe they have earned the right to fifth of Nepal’s territory and contains 70 per ruffled feathers in India by making his first
political supremacy through both military and cent of its industry, but armed and militant foreign visit to Beijing rather than to Delhi. Al-
electoral success, feel unfairly excluded from groups now call openly for independence from though Nepal’s Maoists have little in common
power, a return to force cannot be ruled out. the mountainous parts of the country, with politically with today’s turbocapitalist Chinese,
Equally, if the army and its supporters feel that which they feel little in common. Migrants Beijing seems happy to take advantage of the
the Maoists’ real game plan is to establish the from the hills, many of them refugees from the invitation to establish a larger presence in the
Leninist party-state, it might be moved to backyard of its rival power.
“save” democracy. Nepal’s border with Tibet has been a fav-
Peace has brought no ourite escape route for Tibetans fleeing their
Mosaic of cultures relief from the burden homeland, and the government in Beijing says
Democracy is not an easy proposition in Nepal. it suspects Nepal’s large and lively Tibetan exile
Many of the country’s political parties – even of military spending community of anti-Chinese activities. Beijing’s
the relatively disciplined Maoists – are racked relatively modest investment in Nepal has
with internal divisions, and defections are fighting during the insurgency, are harassed in paid dividends in tighter border surveillance
common. These tensions are acted out daily in the Terai, both by armed political groups and and stricter controls on the refugees. For India,
the constituent assembly, which has set itself by criminal gangs that make a living from kid- at odds with China over their long and still dis-
a deadline of next May to complete the blue- napping and extortion. The hill people are not puted border, and anxious about connections
print for Nepal’s political future. To do that, it the only victims: factories are also closing as between the Maoists and India’s own Naxalite
must choose between a presidential or a prime businessmen flee the troubles. insurgency, the signs of Beijing’s increasing in-
ministerial system and determine what degree As the ragged government stumbles on, fluence are deeply unwelcome.
of autonomy Nepal’s 100-plus ethnic groups locked in endless negotiations over the minu- For the Nepalese people, sandwiched be-
can hope for. tiae of the division of spoils, the people become tween two competing giants, there is little relief.
General de Gaulle once remarked that it was more anxious and more impoverished. Nepal Neither the army nor the police, despite gener-
impossible to govern a country that has 246 has the lowest per capita income in south Asia, ous budgets, provides protection against dis-
different kinds of cheese. Nepal, with 126 lan- with 80 per cent of the population making a affected armed groups. For these violent gangs,
guages, presents an even greater challenge. The difficult living from the land. Only 15 per cent as for a corrupt and underpaid bureaucracy, for
country’s mosaic of peoples and cultures has have access to electricity and that has become Nepal’s political parties and for the police, citi-
been dominated for the past 300 years by the increasingly unreliable. Climate change is al- zens are cash machines, vulnerable to extortion
Brahmin and Chhetri castes, which have mo- ready having an impact on the livelihoods of and expected to offer bribes for everyday serv-
nopolised power in the army, the economy and some of Nepal’s poorest people, subsistence ices. For these citizens, who have repeatedly
REUTERS/SHRUTI SHRESTHA
political life. The overthrow of that dominance hill farmers, who are faced with new pests and taken to the streets over the years to demand
in favour of a system which would give equal diseases and failing crops. Two million Nepalis, democracy, a state that guarantees security,
opportunity to other groups was one of the out of a total population of 28.5 million, cur- equality and opportunity remains a dream. l
promises held out to lower-caste Maoist fight- rently receive UN food aid and the government Isabel Hilton is editor of chinadialogue.net.
ers by their Brahmin leadership. Many already has asked for twice this number to be included. For an archive of her writing for the NS, visit:
feel that the promise has been broken. An unusually dry winter presages a low harvest newstatesman.com/writers/isabel_hilton
36 | NEW STATESMAN | 19 OCTOBER 2009