Positive and negative aspects of rana regime.



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Ranas Good, Ranas Bad…

JOHN WHELPTON | Jul 01, 1993

Three decades of Panchayat rule have been between present day (democratic) Nepal and the period of the Ranas. It is time to re-evaluate their regime.

The past is usually interpreted to serve present purposes. The 1857 revolt against British rule in India, for example, has been analysed very differently by older British historians and by Indian nationalists, as even the names given to the episode — ‘Indian Mutiny’ or ‘First National War of Independence’ — make clear.

In Nepal, after the end of a century of rule by the Rana maharajas in 1951, it was similarly inevitable that perceptions of the period reflected the concerns of the Nepali royal family and of the political parties who had together ousted the Ranas from power. Both the monarchy and the party politicians naturally stressed the failings of the Ranas when measured against ideal democratic standards, but the monarchy’s interests demanded that the Rana period also be seen to contrast unfavourably with the situation before 1846, when the Shah dynasty held real political power. The result has been that important continuities, especially between pre- and post-1846 Nepal, have been obscured.

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