Burning Nepal baffles north-east dwellers

After Myanmar and Bangladesh, India's other immediate neighbour, Nepal, is on the verge of relentless civil unrest once again. The Hindu majority nation, sandwiched between democratic India and Communist China, has lately witnessed a surge in pro-monarch uprisings, where the protesters have raised demands to restore the former Nepal Nripati Gyanendra Shah in the historic Narayanhiti palace.

- NAVA THAKURIA

After Myanmar and Bangladesh, India's other immediate neighbour, Nepal, is on the verge of relentless civil unrest once again. The Hindu majority nation, sandwiched between democratic India and Communist China, has lately witnessed a surge in pro-monarch uprisings, where the protesters have raised demands to restore the former Nepal Nripati Gyanendra Shah in the historic Narayanhiti palace. Housing around 30 million peace-loving people, the tiny Himalayan republic shares a border of over 1,850 kilometres with Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, where north-east (precisely Assam) supports a sizable Nepali-speaking population. Incidentally, a royalist leader was picked up from Guwahati on 11 April and sent back to Kathmandu (officially recorded as being arrested by the Nepali police from bordering Jhapa district to avoid any complication from a non-functioning extradition treaty with India).

The ongoing anti-government movements witnessed an impressive public rally on 8 April 2025 in the national capital, where the protesters expressed their disappointments over poor performances of the Left-dominated regimes in Kathmandu for nearly two decades. They defied all government restrictions to hit the streets, raising voices for the restoration of the monarchy. In fact, the pro-monarchist rallies and demonstrations continue to attract hundreds of thousands of people even without following a particular leader or political party. The spontaneous movement insisting on re-establishing Nepal as a Hindu Rashtra is slowly gaining momentum.