The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0040/00403.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 33KB | 508 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00403}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Nepal
Chapter 2B.   The Rana Period (1846-1951)}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{George L. Harris}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{ranas
nepal
government
tibet
king
rana
power
political
prime
india}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Title:       Nepal
Book:        Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, An Area Study: Nepal
Author:      George L. Harris
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 2B.   The Rana Period (1846-1951)

     With Jang Bahadur's assumption of the prime-ministership, a pattern of
rule and a system of politics were established which prevailed virtually
without alteration until the end of the Rana era in 1951. Jang Bahadur's de
facto control of all governmental affairs was given royal sanction in edicts
of 1846 and 1856 which transferred to the prime minister, or maharaja, all
the absolute powers previously vested in the king and provided the legal basis
for the authority of the Rana maharajas. Moreover, the practice whereby the
appointment of the prime minister lapsed each year and had to be renewed by
the king was abolished and the position of prime minister was made a
hereditary possession of the Rana family.

     According to the rule laid down by Jang Bahadur to govern succession
within the Rana family to the prime-ministership after his death, the
position was to pass, not from eldest son to eldest son in lineal descent, but
laterally to his brothers, from eldest to youngest. After the last of his
brothers had died, the eldest member of the next generation was to become
prime minister, and the succession was then to run through the entire
generation of brothers and cousins-to the eldest in turn-and in that manner
through each following generation. Jang's purpose in instituting this
procedure was to ensure that the prime-ministership would always be in the
hands of a Rana of mature years. Having come to power partly as the result of
the fact that the system of primogeniture governing succession within the
royal family had often produced infant kings who were easily dominated by
their prime ministers, he sought to prevent Rana control from ever becoming
enfeebled in a similar fashion. In this he was entirely successful, although
the system possessed inherent defects which were as grave as those he had
tried to avoid.

     In addition to the sovereign authority conferred on the Ranas by the
throne, the strength of their position was buttressed by numerous other means.
Ranas were placed in high positions throughout the government, the importance
and rank of their office depending on their place on the roll of succession.
They were also strongly entrenched in the army, a major source of their
support. Traditionally, the position of commander in chief of the army was
held by the person who stood first in the line of succession to the
prime-ministership, and all male members of the family were automatically
accorded high military rank at the time of their birth. It also became
customary for the Ranas to intermarry with the royal family. Moreover, the
Ranas cultivated good relations with the British in India, and the
continuing influence of Great Britain in Katmandu was a major factor in the
continuance and stability of Rana rule.

     The system of rule brought into being by Jang Bahadur was oligarchical
rather than dictatorial, however, for the extensive authority held by the
prime minister was limited by the power which rested with other members of the
Rana family. Few decisions of the maharaja could be sustained, nor could he
hope to remain in office against the opposition of the most highly placed
Ranas. Several prime ministers, felt to be either incapable or too
progressive, were forced from office by combinations within the family. The
most serious challenges to the control of the maharaja always come from other
members of the family.

     The establishment of Rana control, therefore, did not fundamentally alter
the nature of politics. Possession of the prime-ministership was still the
crucial objective, power and initiative were possible for only a small number
of individuals, and conspiracy and assassination remained common phenomena.
Moreover, the royal family, despite the diminution of its influence and
prestige, continued to be drawn into the familial intrigues of the Ranas by
those who sought to exploit its latent authority. Thus, though the structural
effect of Rana ascendancy was the preeminence of the prime minister over the
king, its major political effect was the exclusion of all other groups from
competition for and exercise of power and the monopolization by a single
family.

     Nepalese history during the Rana period contains few developments of
broad significance to the people as a whole and centers around the possession
and transfer of the power of the prime minister, highlighted by several
sanguinary aberrations from Jang Bahadur's rule of succession. The basic
objective of the Ranas was the perpetuation of their control by maintaining
the status quo. In the realm of external affairs every effort was made to
insulate Nepal from the broadening impact during the nineteenth century of the
European powers on Asia, and the outlook of the Ranas heightened the isolation
already imposed by location and topography. Prithvi Narayan's policy of
excluding Europeans from Nepal was reaffirmed by Jang Bahadur, was continued
by his successors, and was not relaxed until after the overthrow of the
Ranas. Few Westerners other than those who came to staff the British mission
in Katmandu were allowed to enter the country, and permission for anyone to
travel beyond the Katmandu Valley was rare, the only exception being the
relative ease of access to the famous Nepalese hunting grounds in the Tarai.
Internally, change was stifled to prevent the weakening of the foundations of
Rana rule. Educational development was extremely slow, and the achievement of
anything beyond literacy was a privilege restricted almost exclusively to the
ruling circle. Although slavery and suttee (the traditional Hindu practice of
immolation of the widow on her husband's funeral pyre) were made illegal
early in the twentieth century, few other efforts were made in the field of
social and legal reform to relax the severity of many of the country's laws
and customs. The public works programs of the Ranas were at best only feeble
attempts to ameliorate living conditions and were particularly deficient in
the fields of transportation and communications. Moreover, the nation's
limited resources were largely appropriated by the Ranas for their own
enrichment rather than for the public benefit.

Relations with Great Britain

     The coming to power of the Ranas wrought a fundamental change in Nepal's
relations with Great Britain. Immediately upon becoming prime minister, Jang
Bahadur adopted a policy of maintaining intimate and cordial connections with
the British in India, which was pursued without deviation by each of his
successors. There was a wide area of mutual interest underlying the tacit
entente which existed for over a century between the Rana maharajas and the
British viceroys who governed India. It was evident to the Ranas that the
structure of their control would be precarious in the face of British enmity
and that, by the same token, the friendship and support of their powerful
neighbor to the south could do much to fortify their position. Consequently,
Nepal closely followed Great Britain's advice on major questions of internal
policy and foreign affairs. The British, on the other hand, while interested
in the acquisition of trading routes through, and commercial advantages in,
Nepal were primarily concerned with the security of their northern frontier
with Nepal and welcomed and supported the maintenance there of a regime whose
policies were designed to achieve a high degree of internal stability and
reduce friction along the border to a minimum.

     The most important tangible expression of the intimacy of the two
countries was their military conn