Greater Nepal

Last updated

Nepal in 1805 is the predominant idea of "Greater Nepal" Joppen1907India1805a.jpg
Nepal in 1805 is the predominant idea of "Greater Nepal"

Greater Nepal is an irredentist concept in Nepal, [1] which claims current Indian and Bangladeshi territories beyond Nepal's present-day boundaries. [2] These claims typically include the areas controlled by Nepal between 1791 and 1816, a period that ended with the Anglo-Nepalese War and the signing of Sugauli Treaty. [3] In addition, extensive territories in the present-day Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himanchal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and some parts of Bangladesh are also included in the claims of the activist organisation Greater Nepal Nationalist Front, which demands the "return" of these territories to Nepal. [2] [4] A map similar to theirs was displayed by the mayor of Kathmandu in his office in June 2023, in reaction to an alleged "Akhand Bharat" map in the Indian Parliament building. [5] [6]

Contents

Background

Greater Nepal map with ceded territory Map of Greater Nepal (with part of ceded territory).jpg
Greater Nepal map with ceded territory

Nepal was originally the name of the Kathmadu valley, and, in this sense, the term had been in existence for 2000 years. [7] [8] In the 18th century, the king of the Gorkha Kingdom, Prithvi Narayan Shah, started a process of expansion, conquering Kathmandu in 1768 and making it his new capital. [9] The expanded state continued to be called "Gorkha" or "Gorkhali" until the early 20th century, [10] with the term "Nepal" being officially adopted as the name only in the 1930s. [11]

After the death of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Gorkha state continued to expand, conquering the Gandaki and Karnali basins, and then Kumaon and Garhwal (1792), halting at the Sutlej River where the Sikh Empire exerted its influence (1809–10). [12] In the east, the Gorkhas occupied the western half of Sikkim up to the Teesta River. [13] [lower-alpha 1]

Even though all of this was a straightforward military conquest with no national feelings of any kind, the modern Nepalese narrative retroactively treats it as the "unification" of a Nepalese "nation". [16] [17] Some of these extended conquests came unstuck in 1815, when during the Anglo-Nepalese War, the British General Ochterloney compelled the Gorkhali commander Amar Singh Thapa to withdraw from Garhwal and Kumaon across the Sharda River (or Mahakali River). [18] Negotiations for a general settlement took place at Sugauli in Bihar and agreed in December 1815, but ratified only after Ochterlony advanced to Makwanpur, thirty miles short of Kathmandu. [18] Among the terms of the Treaty of Sugauli was also the Nepalese withdrawal from the territory of Sikkim east of the Mechi river, which was a British ally in the war.

The Gorkha rule over this "historical Greater Nepal" from Sutlej to Teesta was brief. The duration of Gorkhali presence in Garhwal was 12 years, Kumaon 24 years, and Sikkim 33 years. [19] It has been claimed that the Treaty of Sugauli caused Nepal's rulers to lose about 176,000 km2 of territory and left the country with only 147,516 km2 total area. [20] [ better source needed ]

Advocacy

Greater Nepal Nationalist Front

The Greater Nepal Nationalist Front (GNNF, formerly "Unified Nepal National Front") [4] [21] is a Nepalese NGO headed by Phanindra Nepal, which champions the cause of Greater Nepal. The organisation disowns the 1810 Sugauli Treaty and the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India. It demands the return of the land that belonged to Nepal before the signing of the Sugauli Treaty. This involves land up to the Sutlej River in the west, the Teesta River in the east ("Shimla to Darjeeling" in the organisation's parlance) and extending up to Varanasi in the south. [4]

Scholars Mishra and Haque state that the organisation is rhetorically very powerful. The map of Greater Nepal produced by the organisation provides power to the movement by building "meanings and nostalgic longings". The movement has a web page in the Nepali language, a Facebook page and blog sites. [4]

An even more grandiose movement is said to talk about "Unified Gorkha-States of India Sub-Continent", which restructures the Indian subcontinent into five autonomous states, the largest of which is the so-called "Arya Autonomous State". [4]

Nepalese Maoists

A Maoist movement has published a 260-page Nepali book titled "Nepal: Teesta Dekhi Satlej Samma" ("Nepal: From Teesta to the Sutlej") which, while repeating similar demands to the GNNF, also provides copious references to alleged historical facts. Among others, it claims that the Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru supported the idea of "Greater Nepal". [3] Their map includes the Indian towns of Varanasi, Ballia, Bahraich, Pilibhit and Jaunpur within Greater Nepal. [22] The Maoist leader Prachanda dismissed the claims in an interview with the Times of India as a "media-created stunt". But according to the Times of India the book was readily available in and around the Maoist camps along the Indo-Nepal border in 2005. [3] The Maoist-affiliated Indian Nepalis advocacy group Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj is also supportive of the greater Nepali ideal according to some sources. [23]

Nepalese scholars

Scholars and retired officials such as Buddhi Narayan Shrestha (former Director of the Survey Department) and Dwarika Nath Dhungel (former secretary of Water Resources) have published scholarly articles with maps labelled "Greater Nepal". [24] [25] [26] Shrestha has also spoken in Greater Nepal gatherings [27] [28] and made media comments in its favour, declaring "The land we lost to the East India Company should not belong to India. It is ours." [29]

Shreshta narrates that, before the Sugauli Treaty, Nepal extended up to the confluence of Gandak and Ganges Rivers in the south, and to Shigatse and Tashilhunpo in the north. "It was called the 'Greater Nepal'", he states, without mentioning who called it so. [30] British India apparently "did not like" Greater Nepal as a unified country and therefore dismembered it. [31] He alleges that the British wanted to expand trade into Tibet but, since Nepal stood in the way, they needed to cut it down. [32]

Official positions

No king of Nepal has ever discussed or approved of the concept of "Greater Nepal".[ citation needed ] However, upon forming a coalition government after the 2008 Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and then-prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (popularly known as "Prachanda") stated that the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship would be "scrapped". [33] However, the matter was pursued no further. He resigned nine months later for other reasons. Late Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala called the idea of Greater Nepal "a product of unstable minds". According to Kanak Mani Dixit, as of 1993, the mainstream Left of Nepal appears ambivalent: "They like the concept but are unwilling to do anything about it." [34]

In 2023 when the Mauryan Empire mural in India's new Parliament building appeared in the newspapers, some politicians of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party started branding it an Akhand Bharat map. The fact that included some Nepalese towns such as Lumbini and Kapilavastu produced consternation in Nepal. The mayor of Kathmandu, Balen Shah placed a map of Greater Nepal in his office as a protest. [35] [36]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The occupation was in violation of the prevailing boundary treaty at that time, [14] but it might have been justified by the allegation that Tibet was opening an alternative trade route to India via the Chumbi Valley and Sikkim. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Nepal</span>

Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multiracial, multicultural, multi-religious, and multilingual country. The most spoken language is Nepali followed by several other ethnic languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Nepal</span> 1768–2008 sovereign kingdom in South Asia

The Kingdom of Nepal was a Hindu kingdom in South Asia, formed in 1768 by the expansion of the Gorkha Kingdom, which lasted until 2008 when the kingdom became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. It was also known as the Gorkha Empire, or sometimes Asal Hindustan. Founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha monarch who claimed to be of Thakuri origin from chaubisi, it existed for 240 years until the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy in 2008. During this period, Nepal was formally under the rule of the Shah dynasty, which exercised varying degrees of power during the kingdom's existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prithvi Narayan Shah</span> King of Gorkha and Nepal

Prithvi Narayan Shah, was the last king of the Gorkha Kingdom and first king of the Kingdom of Nepal. Prithvi Narayan Shah started the unification of Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gorkha Kingdom</span> Former kingdom in Himalayas

The Gorkha Kingdom was a member of the Chaubisi rajya, a confederation of 24 states, located at the intersection of Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent. In 1743 CE, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing several neighbors and becoming present-day Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Sugauli</span> 1816 boundary treaty between the East India Company and Nepal

The Treaty of Sugauli, the treaty that established the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Guru Gajraj Mishra following the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814–16.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unification of Nepal</span> Series of battles that shaped modern day Nepal

The unification of Nepal was the process of building the modern Nepalese state, from fractured petty kingdoms including the Baise Rajya and the Chaubisi Rajya, which began in 1743 AD. The prominent figure in the unification campaign was Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha. On 25 September 1768, he officially announced the creation of the Kingdom of Nepal and moved his capital from Gorkha to the city of Kathmandu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basnyat family</span>

Basnyat/Basnet family or Basnyat/Basnet dynasty was a Khas-Chhetri and a warlord clan family involved in the politics and administration of the Gorkha Kingdom and Kingdom of Nepal. This family got entry into Thar Ghar aristocracy group of Gorkha at the time of King Prithvi Narayan Shah. It was one of the four noble families to be involved in active politics of Nepal together with the Shah dynasty, Pande family and the Thapa dynasty before the rise of the Rana dynasty. This family is descended from Shivaram Singh Basnyat, the commander of Gorkhali forces and a member of Shreepali Basnyat clan of Gorkha. This family was maritally linked to Kala (Black) Pande section of the Pande dynasty through Chitravati Pande who married Kaji Kehar Singh Basnyat. This family was the last Kshatriya (Chhetri) political family to be wiped out from the central power by Jung Bahadur Rana of Kunwar family during the Bhandarkhal Massacre in 1846 for the conspiracy to take the power leading to people suffering from 104 long years of the Rana rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limbuwan</span> Area inhabited by the Limbu people

Limbuwan is an area of the Himalayan region historically made up of 10 Limbu kingdoms, now part of eastern Nepal. Limbuwan means "abode of the Limbus" or "Land of the Limbus". Limbuwan was incorporated into the Kingdom of Nepal by means of a collective Gorkha-Limbuwan Treaty with the kings of the ten Limbuwan kingdoms and their ministers.

History of Limbuwan is characterized by the close interaction of Limbuwan with its neighbours independent and semi-independent rule characterized by autonomy for most of its time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sino-Nepalese War</span> Invasion of Tibet by Nepalese Army and Chinese military intervention

The Sino-Nepalese War, also known as the Sino-Gorkha War and in Chinese as the campaign of Gorkha, was a war fought between the Qing dynasty of China and the Kingdom of Nepal in the late 18th century following an invasion of Tibet by the Nepalese Gorkhas. It was initially fought between Gorkhas and Tibetan armies in 1788 over a trade dispute related to a long-standing problem of low-quality coins manufactured by Nepal for Tibet. The Nepalese Army under Bahadur Shah plundered Tibet which was a Qing protectorate and Tibetans signed the Treaty of Kerung paying annual tribute to Nepal. However, Tibetans requested Chinese intervention and the Chinese imperial military forces under Fuk'anggan were sent to Tibet and repulsed the Gurkhas from the Tibetan plateau in 1792. Sino-Tibetan forces marched into Nepal up to Nuwakot but faced a strong Nepalese counterattack. Thus, both countries signed the Treaty of Betrawati as a stalemate. The war ended with Nepal accepting terms dictated by China. Nepal became a tribute state under Qing. Nepal paid tribute to China in 1792, 1794, 1795, 1823, 1842 and 1865. Both Nepal and Tibet also agreed to accept the suzerainty of the Qing emperor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Kirtipur</span> 1767 battle in Nepal

The Battle of Kirtipur occurred in 1767 during the Gorkha conquest of Nepal, and was fought at Kirtipur, one of the principal towns in the Kathmandu Valley. Kirtipur was then a walled town of 800 houses and part of the kingdom of Lalitpur. It is spread along the top of a ridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Kathmandu</span> 1768 siege in the Gorkhali conquest of Nepal

The Battle of Kathmandu or siege of Kathmandu or siege of Kantipur occurred during the Unification of Nepal. It was fought in Kathmandu in 1768, and resulted in the defeat of its king Jaya Prakash Malla by conquerors Prithvi Narayan Shah, king of the adjoining Gorkha Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Bhaktapur</span>

The Battle of Bhaktapur was the final campaign in the Gorkha conquest of Nepal. It took place in Bhaktapur in 1769, and resulted in the victory of the Gorkhali king Prithvi Narayan Shah, giving him control of the entire Kathmandu Valley and adjoining areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalu Pande</span> Nepalese Noble Administrator

Vamshidhar Pande known by Alias Kalu Pande was a Nepalese Brahman/Bahun politician and general who was appointed as Kaji of The Gorkha Kingdom. He was born in 1713 A.D. in a Gorkha family. He was the commander of the Gorkhali forces during the Unification Campaign of Nepal who died in the first Battle of Kirtipur in 1757 A.D. Pande's real name was Banshidhar Pande. He was a son of Kaji Bhimraj Pande who was minister during reign of King Prithivipati Shah of Gorkha. He was descendant of Minister of Gorkha and Dravya Shah's accomplice Ganesh Pande. He had three sons: Dewan Kajisaheb Vamsharaj Pande, Sardar Ranasur Pande and Mulkaji Sahib Damodar Pande.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kehar Singh Basnyat</span> Nepalese Kazi and Warlord

Kehar Singh Basnyat or Kehar Singh Basnet was a Nepalese military commander and war hero who laid down his life in the Unification battles of Nepal. He was born in the illustrious clan of Shreepali Basnyats as a member of Kshettriya (warrior) class.

Bir Bhadra Thapa or Birabhadra Thapa also spelled Virabhadra or Virbhadra, was a politician, courtier and military officer in the Gorkha Kingdom during the 18th century. Born in the medieval Tanahun Kingdom, he left his ancestral property there and migrated to the uprising Gorkha Kingdom. He got entry into the minor ranks of military of King Prithvi Narayan Shah due to being a nephew of Sura Prabha, the wife of military commander Shivaram Singh Basnyat of the Basnyat dynasty. Thereafter, he took part in the various battles of Unification of Nepal throughout his life. Among his grandsons, Bhimsen Thapa went on to become the Mukhtiyar of Nepal for 31 years and founder of Thapa dynasty.

Tularam Pande was a Nepalese military personnel, diplomat and politician in the Gorkha Kingdom. He was a diplomat who served King Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha. Two of his diplomatic missions were with Dolakha and Kathmandu while the latter remained unsuccessful. He also served as the national military commanders in the forces of Prithvi Narayan Shah. He was the patron of the Gora Pande clan, a minor faction of the Gorkha-based aristocratic Pande family. Some of his patrilineal descendants became influential politicians such as Ranajit Pande and Dalabhanjan Pande in the Nepalese history through their marital ties with the Thapa dynasty. His matrilineal descendants became significantly influential; Queen Tripurasundari of Nepal went on to become Queen Mother of Nepal and Mathawar Singh Thapa – the Prime Minister of Nepal and Jang Bahadur Kunwar Ranaji – the latter period ruler of Kaski and Lamjung and Prime Minister of Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prithvi Jayanti</span> National holiday celebrated in Nepal

Prithvi Jayanti is an observance annually celebrated on 11 January to commemorate the birth of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who was the first king of unified Nepal. In the mid-18th century, he set out to unify the small kingdoms which would become present-day Nepal. During the observance, many people add a garland to statues of Shah, participate in the parades, and remember his contribution to Nepal. Prithvi Jayanti was celebrated as a public holiday from 1951 until its abolishment in 2006. However, some local governments in Gorkha District and Nuwakot District have declared Prithvi Jayanti to be a public holiday. In 2023, the government declared it as a national holiday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Sindhuli</span> 1767 war between Gorkha Kingdom and East India Company

The Battle of Sindhuli was fought on 6 November 1767 near Sindhuli Gadhi. The battle was part of the unification of Nepal led by Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha.

Bise Nagarchi was a Gorkhali tailor and musician who worked for King Prithvi Narayan Shah.

References

  1. ↑ Verma, Jai Kumar (19 September 2020), "Greater Nepal: A spark which could become a fire", Aviation and defence, The growing concept of "Greater Nepal" is an irredentist notion which visualises to include several areas of India which were occupied by Gorkha army after conquering the neighbouring states between 1791 to 1804.
  2. 1 2 Amy Johnson, Don’t Break the State: Indivisibility and Populist Majority Politics in Nepal, Society for Cultural Anthropology, 16 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Nepal Maoists produce maps to claim parts of India". Times of India. 25 October 2005.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Mishra, Swasti Vardhan; Haque, Sk. Mafizul (2020), "Geographies of India-Nepal contestation", osf.io
  5. ↑ Greater Nepal's map installed at Balen's office, The Himalayan Times, 9 June 2023.
  6. ↑ In response to ‘Akhand Bharat’ mural in new Parliament, Kathmandu Mayor places map of ‘Greater Nepal’ in office, The Tribune (Chandigarh), 8 June 2023.
  7. ↑ Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 2: "Another manifestation of this nationalist approach is a wish to date as far back as possible the beginnings of the political connection between the Kathmandu Valley, to which the name ‘Nepal’ originally referred, and the much wider territory covered by the modern state.".
  8. ↑ Mishra, Ethnicity and National Unification (2007), pp. 802-803: "Prior to [the Gorkhali expansion] the designation Nepal seems to have been applied only to the Kathamandu valley of the Gorkhas, the people that lived in the principality of the same name... References to Nepal in Mahabharat and Puranas and also in Buddhist and Jain scriptures establish the antiquity of the country as an independent political and territorial entity.".
  9. ↑ Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 35.
  10. ↑ Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 55: "When people did think of themselves as subjects of a single king or a single state, it was not ‘Nepal’ they thought of. This word retained its original meaning of the Kathmandu Valley and did not begin to replace ‘Gorkha’ or ‘Gorkhali’ in official use until early in the twentieth century.".
  11. ↑ Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), pp. 39, 42.
  12. ↑ Rose, Nepal – Strategy for Survival (1971), p. 38: "By this time [1784] the fighting in Tibet had reached a stalemate, and there was also a temporary cessation of hostilities in Sikkim which left Nepal in control of all of the state west of the Tista river.".
  13. ↑ Pradhan, Gorkha Conquests (1991), pp. 127–128.
  14. ↑ Pradhan, Gorkha Conquests (1991), p. 131.
  15. ↑ Whelpton, Political Identity in Nepal (1997), p. 40: "The 'unification' of Nepal by King Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha and his successors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was in the first place a straightforward military conquest: there was certainly no demand for unity of the kind expressed by many Germans and Italians before German and Italian unification was achieved.".
  16. ↑ Gellner, David N. (1997), "Caste, Communalism, and Communism: Newars and The Nepalese State", in David N. Gellner; Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka; John Whelpton (eds.), Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal, Routledge, p. 156, ISBN   978-90-5702-089-6, The nationalist history of today styles him [Prithvi Narayan Shah] 'the Great': he is the Father of the Nation, and his conquests are referred to as the 'unification' of Nepal.
  17. 1 2 Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 42.
  18. ↑ Kanak Mani Dixit, Looking for Greater Nepal, Himal SouthAsian, 1 March 1993.
  19. ↑ Pande, Puran Ch.; Pande, Ravindra K.; Pande, Rajnish (1998). The Himalayan Environment: Issues and Challenges. Daya Publishing House. p. 76. ISBN   978-81-7035-187-0.
  20. ↑ Shambhu Bhujel, Nepali teacher campaigns for "Greater Nepal", Xinhua News Agency, 4 July 2009. ProQuest   451767580
  21. ↑ Nayak, Nihar (2010). "India–Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty (1950): Does it Require Revision?". Strategic Analysis. 34 (4). page 591, note 20. doi:10.1080/09700161003802778. S2CID   154483196.
  22. ↑ "Extremist Group - Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES)". www.satp.org. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  23. ↑ “My greater Nepal” released, People's Review (Kathmandu), 15 May 2019. "'My Greater Nepal', a compilation of patriotic articles of ten senior writers was released on Thursday last week amidst a function in Kathmandu. Edited and published by senior journalist Rajan Karki, the compilation in English includes analytical articles on Nepal by Bharat Dahal, Nepal's border expert Buddhinarayan Shrestha, senior journalist N.P Upadhaya, author Prof. Dr. Shastra Dutta Pant, water resource expert Ratna Sansar Shrestha, patriotism campaigner Dirgharaj Prasai, citizenship awareness campaigner Sadhya Bahadur Bhandari, analysts Premsagar Poudel and Basanta Khadka."
  24. ↑ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 151.
  25. ↑ Dhungel, Dwarika Nath; Pun, Santa Bahadur (2014), "Nepal-India Relations: Territorial/Border Issue with Specific Reference to Mahakali River", FPRC Journal, New Delhi: Foreign Policy Research Centre – via academia.edu
  26. ↑ Looking For Greater Nepal, greaternepal.asia.np, retrieved 20 October 2020.
  27. ↑ Buddhi Narayan Shrestha Speaking, Buddhi Narayan Shrestha blog site, 16 March 2010. "Border researcher Buddhi Narayan Shrestha delivering speech in Shanti Batika, Ratna Park during displaying the Hoarding Board of the Map of Greater Nepal by United Nepal National Front on 7 March 2009."
  28. ↑ Buddhi Narayan Shrestha: ‘We could regain Greater Nepal’, The Kathmandu Post, 6 January 2008.
  29. ↑ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 149.
  30. ↑ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 150.
  31. ↑ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 154.
  32. ↑ Maoists to scrap 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty, Rediff News, 24 April 2008.
  33. ↑ Kanak Mani Dixit, Looking for Greater Nepal, Himal SouthAsian, 1 March 1993.
  34. ↑ "Amid Akhanda Bharat map row, KMC Mayor Balen Shah displays a map of 'Greater Nepal' at his office". My Republica. 8 June 2023.
  35. ↑ "बालेन शाहले राखे आफ्नाे कार्यकक्षमा ग्रेटर नेपालकाे नक्सा, के ग्रेटर नेपाल सम्भव छ ? - लुम्बिनी टुडे". 8 June 2023.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.