From Monarch to Republic: Power, Representation and Marginalised Communities in Nepal

Nepal is the youngest republic in the world. One could see a very tempting and radical political transformation in the Himalayan country within a decade. In fact, Nepal’s new identity as Federal Democratic Republic has been achieved in a very difficult way. On the one hand Maoists which launched their “people’s war” in 1996 were saying that they were fighting for republic in Nepal. On the other hand, the same Maoist party leadership was having a tacit understanding with the Monarchy to abandon other parliamentary political forces. Many Nepalese were suspicious about Maoist party about its transformation from the rebellion to a peaceful democratic party before the party accepted the result of the second constituent assembly elections in 2013. People used to argue saying Maoists still wanted to capture the power by destroying all the existing apparatus. However, Nepal’s journey from Monarchy to a Republic has been a reality today even though the process was a bit lengthy and tiring one. Federalism, secularism and inclusiveness are considered as major achievements of “new Nepal” as mechanisms to address the problems faced by minorities and marginalized groups of the country.

This paper discusses how Nepal could deal both the authoritarian monarchy and the rebellion Maoists at a time, and introduced a widely acceptable political system within a democratic framework. Major concerns i.e. power, social exclusion, representation etc. of the minorities and the marginalized groups of contemporary Nepal will be the major focus of the analysis.