The cultivation of chaos

Nepal's recurring political upheavals are rooted in a deeper, structural problem

- BY AMBIKA PD. JOSHI

The republican democracy that emerged in Nepal after a decade-long Maoist insurgency now hovers on the brink of anarchy. Following two days of mob rule and mass destruction, former chief justice Sushila Karki has become the 15th prime minister in just 19 years. Major administrative centres across the country were set ablaze, and prominent leaders and their families—including five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba— were assaulted by mobs. More than 50 people were killed, hundreds injured, and thousands of convicts escaped from jails.

Though it seemed sudden, these events of disorder and political instability are not new to Nepalese history. Political upheavals and destruction have repeatedly gripped the country—the insurgency from 1996 to 2006, the royal palace massacre of 2001, King Gyanendra’s coup in 2005, and the wave of regional and identity-based movements that followed the first Madhesh uprising in 2008. Dissolution of parliament, border blockade, party splits and mergers, and revisionist protests demanding a Hindu state and restoration of monarchy have kept Nepal’s democracy in a constant state of flux.

This seemingly persistent instability is rooted in a deeper, unresolved structural paradox—a flawed democratisation process, and a distorted liberalisation model that failed to dismantle centuries of inequity.