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Greater Nepal

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Greater Nepal Map
Nepal depicted on a map from the year 1805.

Greater Nepal refers to the concept of a unified Nepal encompassing the territories within its borders during the period between 1791 and 1816.[1][2] Extensive territories in the present-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and some parts of Bangladesh were conquered during the unification campaign of Nepal led by King Prithvi Narayan Shah.[3][4] The campaign ended with the Anglo-Nepalese War and the signing of the Sugauli Treatry between the Kingdom of Nepal and East India Company on March 4, 1816.[5]

Background

Nepal extended from the Sutlej to the Teesta River during the unification initiated by Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1743. Gorkha rule over this expanded territory lasted only up to 1815. The Gorkhali presence in Garhwal was for 12 years, Kumaon for 24 years, and Sikkim for 33 years. The expansion of Gorkha ended with the 1814-1815 war with the East India Company. The ensuing Treaty of Sugauli, between the Gorkhali king and the East India Company, reset Nepal's boundaries in the east and west to the present boundaries. According to the Greater Nepal advocates, this caused a loss of 176,000 km2 of territory to Nepal.[6][better source needed]

Advocacy

Greater Nepal Nationalist Front

Greater Nepal Nationalist Front (GNNF, formerly "Unified Nepal National Front")[4][7] is a Nepali 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]

Nepali 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".[5] Their map includes the Indian towns of Varanasi, Ballia, Bahraich, Pilibhit and Jaunpur within Greater Nepal.[8] 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.[5] The Maoist-affiliated Indian Nepalis advocacy group Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj is also supportive of the greater Nepali ideal according to some sources.[9]

Nepali 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".[10][11][12] Shrestha has also spoken in Greater Nepal gatherings[13][14] 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."[15]

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.[16] British India apparently "did not like" Greater Nepal as a unified country and therefore dismembered it.[17] He alleges that the British wanted to expand trade into Tibet but, since Nepal stood in the way, they needed to cut it down.[18]

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 Nepali 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".[19] 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."[20]

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 Nepali 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.[21][22]

See also

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. ^ Amy Johnson, Don’t Break the State: Indivisibility and Populist Majority Politics in Nepal, Society for Cultural Anthropology, 16 March 2021.
  3. ^ Mulmi, Amish Raj. "The Making of the Gorkha Empire: Part I – Land". The Record. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e Mishra, Swasti Vardhan; Haque, Sk. Mafizul (2020), "Geographies of India-Nepal contestation", osf.io
  5. ^ a b c "Nepal Maoists produce maps to claim parts of India". Times of India. 25 October 2005.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Shambhu Bhujel, Nepali teacher campaigns for "Greater Nepal", Xinhua News Agency, 4 July 2009. ProQuest 451767580
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "Extremist Group - Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES)". www.satp.org. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  10. ^ “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."
  11. ^ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 151.
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ Looking For Greater Nepal, greaternepal.asia.np, retrieved 20 October 2020.
  14. ^ 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."
  15. ^ Buddhi Narayan Shrestha: ‘We could regain Greater Nepal’, The Kathmandu Post, 6 January 2008.
  16. ^ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 149.
  17. ^ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 150.
  18. ^ Shrestha, Demarcation of the International Boundaries of Nepal (2013), p. 154.
  19. ^ Maoists to scrap 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty, Rediff News, 24 April 2008.
  20. ^ Kanak Mani Dixit, Looking for Greater Nepal, Himal SouthAsian, 1 March 1993.
  21. ^ "Amid Akhanda Bharat map row, KMC Mayor Balen Shah displays a map of 'Greater Nepal' at his office". My Republica. 8 June 2023.
  22. ^ "बालेन शाहले राखे आफ्नाे कार्यकक्षमा ग्रेटर नेपालकाे नक्सा, के ग्रेटर नेपाल सम्भव छ ? - लुम्बिनी टुडे". 8 June 2023.

Bibliography

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