The Kingdom of Nepal , also known as the Kingdom of Gorkha , was a Hindu kingdom on the Indian subcontinent, formed in 1768, by the unification of Nepal. Founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkhali monarch of Rajput origin, it existed for 240 years until the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy in 2008. During this period, Nepal was formally under the rule of the Shah dynasty, which exercised varying degrees of power during the kingdom's existence. After the invasion of Tibet and plundering of Digarcha by Nepali forces under Prince Regent Bahadur Shah in 1792, the Dalai Lama and Chinese Ambans reported to Chinese administration for military support. The Chinese and Tibetan forces under Fu Kang An attacked Nepal but went for negotiation after failure at Nuwakot. During the early-nineteenth century, however, the expansion of the East India Company's rule in India led to the Anglo-Nepalese War , which resulted in Nepal's defeat. Under the Sugauli Treaty, the kingdom retained its independence, but in exchange for territorial concessions making Mechi River to Mahakali River its boundary under Nepalese rule, sometimes known as Greater Nepal. Forces sent by Jung Bahadur Rana defeated the Tibetan forces on 1855 to force the Tibetan side to sign treaty favouring Nepal. Political instability following the war resulted in the ascendancy of the Rana dynasty of Khas Chhetri Rajput origin, which made the office of Prime Ministers of Nepal hereditary in their family for the next century, from 1843 to 1951. Beginning with Jung Bahadur, the first Rana ruler, the Rana dynasty reduced the Shah monarch to a figurehead role. Rana rule was marked by tyranny, debauchery, economic exploitation and religious persecution.In July 1950, the newly independent republic of India signed a friendship treaty in which both nations agreed to respect the other's sovereignty. In November of the same year, India played an important role in supporting King Tribhuhvan, whom the Rana leader Mohan Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana had attempted to depose and replace with his infant grandson King Gyanendra. With Indian support for a new government consisting largely of the Nepali Congress, King Tribhuvan ended the rule of the Rana dynasty in 1951. Unsuccessful attempts were made to implement reforms and a constitution during the 1960s and 1970s. An economic crisis at the end of the 1980s led to a popular movement which brought about parliamentary elections and the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in 1990. The 1990s saw the beginning of the Nepalese Civil War , a conflict between government forces and the insurgent forces of the Communist Party of Nepal . The situation for the Nepalese monarchy was further destabilised by the 2001 Nepalese royal massacre, in which Crown Prince Dipendra reportedly shot and killed ten people, including his father King Birendra, and was himself mortally wounded by what was allegedly a self-inflicted gunshot. As a result of the massacre, King Gyanendra returned to the throne. His imposition of direct rule in 2005 provoked a protest movement unifying the Maoist insurgency and pro-democracy activists. He was eventually forced to restore Nepal's House of Representatives, which in 2007 adopted an interim constitution greatly restricting the powers of the Nepalese monarchy. Following an election held the next year, the Nepalese Constituent Assembly formally abolished the kingdom in its first session on 28 May 2008, declaring the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in its place. Until the abolition of the monarchy, Nepal was the world's only country to have Hinduism as its state religion; the country is now formally a secular state.
Continue reading...From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.