Flood of 1954: The beginning of a developmental state Sharad Ghimire Graduate Student of Global Environmental Policy, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, USA Editors Hari Dhungana-Coordinator Fraser Sugden Copy-editing Gyanu Maskey Layout and Design Manjari Graphics ©Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.sias-southasia.org NEW Nepal Journal of Published by Social Science and Nepal Policy Research Network ANGLE Public Policy Available at www.nepalpolicynet.com December 2014, Vol. 3(1), pp. 5-48 FLOOD OF 1954: THE BEGINNING OF A DEVELOPMENTAL STATE Sharad Ghimire* ABSTRACT Development projects evolve with reference to particular framings of the need and imperatives of a developing country. Once development projects get legitimated in this way, the aid agencies deepen their presence to move in a direction of their choice. This is evident from an examination of the 1954 flood in Nepal which devastated a significant part of the hills and Tarai in the eastern, central and western areas. This paper looks into the disaster caused by that flood; into how the government of Nepal, the civil society and donors responded to it; and into the way the crisis stirred conflict and contestation among political parties within and outside the government. This paper is based primarily on the review of newspaper coverage around the flood, the political processes and the inauguration of development project in Nepal in the 1950s. It shows the extraordinary power of how the crisis caused by flood stirs up political contestation and helps legitimise actions of one or the other actor, including the donors. These insights on the power of a big disaster to command response from a wide range of domestic actors and donors help us question the largely technocratic framing of the ongoing debate around disaster risk reduction. Key words: 1954 flood; development; disaster risk; Nepali politics INTRODUCTION Isaacson et al. (2001, p.9), Shrestha (1990, p.185), Mihaly (2002, p.80) This is a study of a flood in 1954. The and so on, but it has remained under event is important as it occurred during elaborated. Similarly, most literature on a particularly important time in Nepal’s natural hazards in Nepal have made only history. The incident is also covered in a cursory look at the incident, if any. The various literature of Nepal’s political flood occurred in a political context, which and development history, e.g. Joshi and L. S. Baral termed the ‘Apprenticeship in Rose (1966, p.118), Shaha (2001, p.310), Democracy’ (Baral, 2012) towards the end _______________________ * Graduate Student of Global Environmental Policy, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. © Sharad Ghimire, 2014 5 New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy Vol. 3(1), December 2014 of the Tribhuvan era (1911-1950) and at involvement. However, subsequently the beginning of Mahendra’s era (1955- it created challenges to the already 1972) of a more assertive monarchy. eroding legitimacy of the incumbent Regarding its development context, the government, ultimately leading to a shift period also saw the beginning of foreign in power. Similarly it laid the foundation aid-led development in Nepal and the of approaching disasters from a top-down event also attracted foreign aid for relief process in Nepal. Since the flood occurred and recovery, particularly from the USA. at particular time in Nepal’s history, there This later became a basis for the larger was a massive institutional response from development projects in the Tarai. The the state for relief, rescue and recovery. incident is important in the history of Since there was no discussion among responding to disasters in Nepal as it is decision makers about preparedness the first flood which attained such a high and vulnerability of the people and no level of institutional response, particularly proposals for establishing any policy from the modernising state. This set a mechanism to deal with such incident in 2 precedent for the conceptualisation of and the future , that would come only after 3 dealing with natural disasters in Nepal. In three decades , the example shows how fact, it led to the first rehabilitation efforts disasters in Nepal were dealt with in the in Nepal (Dixit, 2003, p.173). This article early period. aims to look at some of these aspects of On the second claim, the crisis attracted Nepal’s history in detail. foreign aid particularly from the USA through the USOM (United States Primarily based on newspaper Operation Mission), which was then about (Gorakhapatra)1 coverage of the event to launch substantial development projects and other secondary literature, this paper around health and rural development. makes two modest claims. One is related The support to the flood crisis made some to the Nepali state’s approach to the basis for donors to carry out the project of crisis and its implications for future policy their interest in the future. However, these making on disasters as well as on domestic upcoming projects had to be linked with politics. The second one is related to the flood. The USAID-led Rapti project and implications for foreign-led development. Resettlement activities became important Related to the state’s approach upcoming development projects. Other involvement, the disaster was so massive development policies, for example the that it inevitably required the state’s agriculture policy, also emerged in the _______________________ 1 Gorakhapatra is the oldest national daily newspaper from Kathmandu, Nepal. It is published in Nepali language. It is owned by Gorkhapatra Sansthan. 2 However, in case of India the same flood (of 1954) led to a policy statement, launch of National Programme of Flood Management (Mohapatra and Singh, 2003, p.138). 3 The Natural Disaster Relief Act 1982. 6 Sharad Ghimire Flood of 1954 context of the flood, as was covered in a committee during the crisis situation. The report of the first agriculture convention government’s efforts were also extended of Nepal 2015 (1958) (Dahal, 1997, p.152). to the district level. This paper also has a section on responses from monarchy, This paper is divided into following which was late to respond but ended sections: first it gives a picture of the forming a relief fund through yet another flood and the extent of its impact in institution. different parts of the country as covered in Gorakhapatra and few other sources. Towards the end of the paper is a Then it goes in detail about what responses discussion on how the crisis was responded were made, for immediate relief and to by the international community, rescue, from governmental agencies particularly by Nepal’s top donors, viz., (including ministries, departments, other India and USA. As hinted above, the USA’s offices and the newly formed committee response was more important since it as well as the Advisory Assembly), other also created the basis for upcoming and non-government agencies, and political bigger development projects. The USA parties and from countries like India and also formed another institution, a joint USA. disaster relief agency. Therefore, all the At the domestic level, responses were main actors of that time, government, the made from different institutions at AA, monarchy and donors approached the different levels, with many overlaps among flood by establishing one after the other them. The response from the Advisory institution to manage the relief operation. Assembly (AA) in its daily proceedings as Therefore, the approach to the 1954 flood well as through its members is particularly was mainly limited to dealing with post- important, especially to understand how disaster relief through a certain type of high the response was debated at the policy level institutions. It does not mean that making level, which ended up forming a there were no local level initiatives, but as committee, that was not long-lasting, and the paper reveals, the non-governmental was replaced by another committee in the and local level responses were either next session. However, its speaker and severely limited or were just outgrowths other members were active in making trips of central level institutions. However, this to different districts after the first session part may require further investigation. of AA (August 17) until the next session Based on these findings, the paper argues started (November 17).4 Responses from that the response to 1954 flood in Nepal the other government bodies were also actually led to the current dominant very important since they acted to make approach namely what Dixit (2003, p.166) the state conspicuous through another called the hazard-led top-down approach, _______________________ 4 A new committee was formed by sidelining the speaker not only from the committee, but also from the ruling party of PM who chaired the second committee. 7 New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy Vol. 3(1), December 2014 totally focused on post-disaster relief obtain the extent of the rainfall during distribution.5 Next, this paper argues that that time in all affected areas. However, it also contributed to the justification as measured inside the Kathmandu valley, for the upcoming bigger development the rainfall was more than 6 inches (152 projects under foreign aid. Similarly, the mm) per day on average during these 4 response also made it necessary for the days. There were also news reports about government, policy-making bodies and the damage caused by the rainfall and the other leaders to become engaged in subsequent flood in Gorakhapatra. Since providing relief. However, the response no specific report about the impact of the also ended by posing challenges to the flood could be located (except in a foreign then political arrangement.