MODERN POLITICAL HISTORY OF NEPAL 1 day Grade level: 10th-12th Grade Key Questions: How does history influence the present?

Objectives:
Students will develop an understanding that the present is a reflection of the past.

Students will discuss this concept in the context of their own body of knowledge.

Students will apply this concept to Nepal.

Materials: 
Teacher prepared notes on Nepalese history from the 19th century to the present. 

Activity:
Begin class by having students share their responses to their homework and discussing their observations about values and culture.

Students will then be asked to brainstorm a list of examples of how history influences the present.

Teacher will then take students on a journey through the modern history of Nepal through lecture and discussion.

Evaluation:
This lesson is to provide background information for students in order to prepare them for the following days’ activities. An extension to this lesson is provided in the form of an article on the issue of peace and conflict from the International Year of Mountains web site.

Notes on Nepal
Adapted from “The Kham Magar country, Nepal: Between ethnic claims and Maoism” by Anne de Sales, European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 19, p. 41-71

“A country is a given natural environment in which one is born and where one lives alongside others similar to oneself.” (de Sales, p. 41)

Identity plays a critical role in the current political developments in Nepal.

1854 National Legal Code: Muluki Ain was established.  This legislation divided people into categories and these categories established their place in society, i.e. what laws applied to them, where and how they lived.  Rights over land and trade were impacted by a person’s position.
Major groups of the Muluki Ain
l.  Wearers of the Sacred Cord

ll.  NEAD

Non-enslavable alcohol drinkers

   Enslavable alcohol drinkers

   Blacksmiths, leather workers, tailors, Europeans

V.  Water Unacceptable

Membership in a group gives a Nepali legal status. 

1949 Communist party founded with the objective of mobilizing the peasant class to overthrow the feudal state.

1950 Democratic Revolution
Put an end to the reign of Rana dictatorship, opened  Nepal to the world under the watchful eye of India.  Led by intellectuals and politicians trained in India who had been active in the movement for independence there.

1960 Government elected through universal suffrage

1962 Panchayat system
Guided democracy with the goal of building the unity of Nepal and develop a nationalist sentiment- which is a change in the way “identity” was historically expressed.

“All devotees of Vishnu have an identical subtle substance that unites them in the body of Vishnu in the form of Parbrahma.”(de Sales, p. 43) (Religious nature of national identity)

Economic development led to the alienation of those who had no access.

Banned political parties, repressed mass media.

Created school throughout the kingdom.  Education made people less willing to accept repression.  However nepali language was imposed on all children.

Due to the connection between religion and identity “sorcery” was outlawed, impacting those culture groups who practiced shamanism.

1980’s Student Movements that provided an opportunity for Prachanda(commander in chief) and Baburam Bhattarai(theorist) to rise as leaders in the people’s revolution of 1990.

1990 “People’s Movement” revolution of mass politics
Led by students and elite city dwellers, brought together liberal and communist parties that were banned under the Panchayat system.  King Birenda lifted the ban on political parties that year and supported a new constitution that encouraged parliamentary democracy.

Focus of the ethnic movement was “Bhumi land, Bhasa language, Dharma religion.   However despite identity being a motivating factor of the movement when people cast their ballots they voted for food, water. Jobs and education, regardless if political parties they may not have initially identified with, embodied these issues. 

1996 United People’s Front (leftist group) submitted a list of 40 demands to the government, wanted a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage, criticized western and Indian influence and preached nationalism.  Government did not respond.  Violence ensued.

Why is the western part of Nepal the center of this uprising? 
1.  Forest environment provides cover for covert nature of guerrilla activity

2.  Poor economic conditions of the region

For more specific information on the region where the Maoist uprising is centered and the Kham 
Magar people, reference the aforementioned article.
 

International Year of Mountains http://www.mountains2002.org/i-conflict.html

Issues: Peace and Conflict

Peace is essential to sustainable development. Most wars and armed conflicts take place in the world's highlands. They represent perhaps the most significant barriers to sustainable development in mountains. In 1999, 23 of the 27 major armed conflicts in the world were being fought in mountain regions.

Mountains: today's war zones

Mountainous areas - ranging from Afghanistan to the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Andes, parts of the Near East and Africa - are the flash points of conflicts afflicting the world today. The reasons for this are complex and varied, but the effects on mountain people are universally devastating. Fighting prevents them from fundamental life-sustaining tasks ranging from collecting water to planting and harvesting crops. Where landmines are laid, agricultural lands must be left barren until expensive mine clearance can be undertaken, typically many years later. Infrastructure such as roads and schools are destroyed, halting economic development. The death, injuries and emotional trauma of war devastate individual lives and national advancement. Mountain regions suffer disproportionately from all these effects of conflict because they are often the poorest and least developed places in the world as well as the homelands of indigenous cultures.

Fighting for the higher ground

Occupying the high ground has always been of strategic importance when opposing forces have fought for local or regional supremacy. The rugged high terrain of mountain areas offers not just a place to seize military advantage. It can also be a place of refuge for opposition movements retreating from lowland areas. Mountain people are helpless hosts to these "refugees".

Who's the boss?

The remoteness of mountain regions can make it difficult to create a universally accepted set of rules and regulations regarding resource management - and their enforcement next to impossible. This creates opportunities for disputes over resources, territory and political jurisdiction. In the absence of a clearly defined and authoritative system for settling disputes, local conflicts can degenerate into long-standing conflicts between neighbouring communities and countries.

Local clan affiliations may be the only systems isolated mountain communities feel they can trust to legitimately represent their interests. In these conditions, attempts to introduce new resource management practices that involve entire watersheds may be seen as a threat. Furthermore, in power vacuums, it is men who usually take control, often by force of arms. Women, even though they may have the deepest knowledge about how best to use local resources, are rarely consulted when conflicts arise over resource management.

Hot water

In 1995, the inability to manage mountain waters was the source of 14 international conflicts. A look at the global situation suggests that there are many opportunities for similar conflicts. Rivers rarely follow national borders - two or more countries share 214 river basins, covering more than half of the earth's surface and home to 40 percent of the world's population. As populations increase and the demand for water intensifies, the potential for international wars over water resources escalates.

History offers some reasons for hope. There are many examples of international treaties regulating the use of mountain water that have stood the test of time, even though the countries involved have had intensely strained relations - such as India's and Pakistan's mutual respect for the treaty governing their shared use of the Indus River.

For many communities in both highland and lowland areas, internal conflicts over the control of mountain waters are a far more real threat than international ones, and they can be just as catastrophic.

National governments may be able to find common interests in building a large dam but their shared interests may be at odds with those of the mountain communities that live near a proposed dam or in the lands that may be flooded. When local interests are not taken into account in planning large-scale water management projects, such as dams, there is bound to be protest. Legitimate protest is sometimes met with violent repression, triggering a downward spiral of conflict.

Mountains, drugs and conflict

Mountains are the primary battleground in international efforts to control the illegal drug trade. Both the coca bush, the leaves of which are used to produce cocaine, and the opium poppy, which is used to produce heroin, are native to mountain areas.

For international criminal organizations, cocaine and heroin mean big money. For many mountain farmers in developing countries, with no other sources of income, the drug trade simply means survival. Often it is poor farmers who pay the heaviest price when governments and international organizations attempt to eliminate drug trafficking by curtailing the cultivation of illegal crops.

When drug money is available to buy large amounts of sophisticated weaponry, conflicts over political, social or economic issues can explode into full-scale military and paramilitary operations. In these situations, it is the least affluent mountain families who suffer the most.

Left out and fighting back

Conflict in mountain areas often arises when mountain communities are denied a voice in how local resources are used. In some areas of the world, lack of effective political representation has been the fodder for violent revolution. Local rebel movements gain momentum when central governments based in lowland capitals impose their rule over mountain communities and decide how to exploit mountain resources and who will profit from them. When mountain communities are of indigenous heritage or belong to an ethnic, racial or religious minority, their marginalization can be politically expedient for governing parties. The exclusion of mountain people from national politics can also be the result of deeply engrained and unquestioned racist attitudes.