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Regicide and Maoist Revolutionary Warfare in Nepal Modern Incarnations of a Warrior Kingdom

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Regicide and Maoist Revolutionary Warfare in Nepal Modern Incarnations of a Warrior Kingdom Regicide and Maoist revolutionary warfare in Nepal Modern incarnations of a warrior kingdom MARIE LECOMTE- TILOUINE translated by David N. Gellner Marie Lecomte-Tilouine is senior researcher at CNRS (Villejuif). She has published a monograph on the Magar of central Nepal, co-edited a volume on the royal rituals of Dasain in Nepal and the recent volume entitled Ethnic revival and religious turmoil in the Himalayas, OUP, Delhi, 2003. Her email is Marie.Lecomte- [email protected]. David N. Gellner is Lecturer in the Anthropology of South Asia at the University of Oxford. His most recent books are The anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian themes (OUP 2001) and (ed.) Resistance and the state: Nepalese experiences (Social Science Press 2003). On 1 June 2001 a drunken Crown Prince Dipendra of Gorkha forcibly unified more than 50 independent king- His email is Nepal killed his parents, King Birendra and Queen doms and imposed its own characteristics on the new state david.gellner@anthropology. Aishwarya, and seven other close relatives in a shooting of Nepal which emerged from this campaign (Stiller oxford.ac.uk. spree, after which – according to the official report – he 1973). Created by the sword in this way, Nepal has man- shot himself. By 4 June the assassin, having been declared aged to remain an independent kingdom and has experi- king in the interim, had died, and his uncle Prince enced neither colonization by Westerners nor civil war. Fig. 1. A photograph Gyanendra, Birendra’s only surviving brother, succeeded Moreover it has become famous in the outside world for its discovered by the Royal him to the throne. As if this was not enough, the leaders of export of soldiers renowned for their ferocity in battle, the Nepalese Army on the body of a killed Maoist soldier, and the Maoist insurgency sought to make use of the occasion Gurkhas (Caplan 1995). subsequently circulated to the to spark uprisings in the cities. These failed to take off, but The apparently gratuitous acts of regicide on 1 June press. It shows, from right to after a ceasefire in the summer the Maoists began to launch 2001 and the violence of the Maoist movement, both left, supreme Maoist leader, direct attacks on the Nepalese army for the first time, before and after June 2001, cannot be comprehended Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal), Badal (Ram Bahadur leading to the declaration of a state of emergency and what without taking into account the way in which the Nepalese Thapa), Parvati (Hisila Yemi, was in effect a civil war throughout the country. US state emerged, with its very basis in warfare. The Thakuris wife of Baburam Bhattarai), Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Nepal in January began to seize power in central Nepal as early as the 15th Baburam Bhattarai, and Prachanda’s son. The 2002 to offer the government support against the Maoist century. Over a period of two or three centuries these anxious faces of the unknown ‘terrorists’. Although a second ceasefire was negotiated in numerous small Himalayan kingdoms, led by kings of the followers behind form a stark January 2003, this too broke down by September, leading same or related clans, fought incessant wars which may be contrast to the expressions of to renewed violence and spiralling human rights abuses. characterized as ‘ritual’ or ‘honour’ conflicts, since they their leaders. This is only the third known photograph of In spite of the worldwide media attention that the royal aimed more at establishing a supremacy of status than at Prachanda. massacre received, and in spite of detailed coverage, in seizing the land or resources of the neighbouring king- Kathmandu at least, of the intricacies of Nepalese politics, doms. the symbolism employed by the two sides – the king and The present kingdom of Nepal emerged from one such A first version of this paper the Maoists – has remained largely unexplored. In this small kingdom, that of Gorkha in central Nepal. In the 16th was presented at a conference entitled ‘Figures paper I reflect specifically on the relationship between the century Gorkha, headed by the Shah lineage, a junior line de la guerre’ (‘Images of development of the Maoist movement and the royal mas- of the neighbouring kingdom of Lamjung, became the war’), organized by Brigitte sacre. Though the so-called People’s War was launched by centre of the dynasty that was to rule Nepal. At this time Steinmann in Montpellier in the Nepalese Maoist Party (CPN-Maoist) as early as 1996, Gorkha was led by two figures dedicated to the overthrow December 2002. I wish to dedicate it to Badri, a Magar the royal massacre marked a new phase both in the devel- of established powers. Drabya Shah (reigned 1559-70) friend from Timal, who opment of its rhetoric and in its confrontation with the was a junior prince, but he was assisted – according to accompanied me in central king. I interpret the emergence of the Maoist movement as myth and dynastic histories – by the god-cum-saint and western Nepal several times. He died in May 2001, reflecting the gradual weakening of royal power in Nepal, Gorakhnath, a disciple of the tutelary deity of the shortly after our trip to and at the same time note how it establishes significant Kathmandu Valley. It is said that Gorakhnath manifested Gorkha; but for him I would continuities with the royal past, despite its communist ide- himself to the young prince Drabya Shah and told him that perhaps still be sitting there, ology. he would become king and that his dynasty would subse- hesitating to cross the vertiginous cliffs along the quently conquer the Kathmandu valley because the god Budhi Ganga river. I am Warrior kings in a caste society was humiliated there. This may explain much of the grateful to Kiyoko Ogura, Nepal is a warrior kingdom. This presentation of the kingdom’s untypically aggressive and expansionist con- an expert journalist on Nepali politics and the country might seem clichéd, since every Hindu king is, by duct in the years that followed. Maoist insurgency (see definition, a member of the Kshatriya or warrior caste. The unification campaign of Prithvi Narayan Shah Ogura 2001) for illustrations. During the second half of the 18th century the kingdom of (1723-1775), the tenth king of the small kingdom of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 20 NO 1, FEBRUARY 2004 13 1. According to Sharma Gorkha, represents a major break from the formalized Dhakal (1963), there is no rules of war that the Thakuris had followed up till then, and Shah dynasty period of impurity following a death on the battlefield. If this partly explains his success. Instead of making the one dies from a war wound, defeated kings pay tribute and accept other obvious signs Drabya Shah (reigned 1559-70) the number of days of of inferiority, Prithvi Narayan waged an expansionist war, (founds Gorkha) impurity is equal to the number of days that have aiming to establish not an empire of vassal kings on the passed since the battle. received Hindu kingship model, but a large centralized Ram Shah (reigned approx. 1611-38) Should seven nights have kingdom with no overlord but the ultimate sovereign. (celebrated as early lawgiver) passed since the battle, then As practised by Prithvi Narayan and his successors, the relatives have to observe the usual ten days of impurity. caste system depended on kings in a very specific sense. Prithvi Narayan Shah (reigned 1743-75) 2. Maoist Information As Hocart has emphasized, the holistic coherence of the (unifies Nepal) Bulletin 2, 2002. caste system only becomes apparent in ritual contexts. For 3. Maoist Information Bulletin 3, 2002. Hocart it was above all the treatment of impurity which Tribhuvan (reigned 1911-55) 4. Raja nango 5, a play on gave rise to ritual specialisms and to the hierarchy of (father of the nation, rescues it from the traditional title of the priests, from which the hierarchy of castes was derived by Rana autocracy in 1951) King, sri 5 ‘five times extension. However, among the Hindus of the Nepalese venerable’ (M.Y. Bhattarai, Janaawaj). hills rites of purification such as cremation or shaving the Mahendra (reigned 1955-72) 5. Maoist Information head are not dependent on caste. Caste-based ritual serv- (puts an end to multi-party democracy and insti- Bulletin 3, 2002. ices only structure the entire society in a very specific con- tutes guided Panchayat democracy in 1960) text: when the whole population gathers around a royal centre and each caste carries out a specific task to celebrate war through worship of the patron goddess and sacred Birendra Dhirendra Gyanendra weapons. (reigned 1972-2001) (reigning 2001-) (after People’s Movement Warfare in the medieval kingdoms of Nepal of 1990 accedes to Warfare played an essential and catalysing role in the little re-establishment of kingdoms of west and central Nepal. The ritual services of multiparty democracy) the different castes were predominantly war-related func- tions: the Damai drummers and bellringers, the Sarki cob- blers and scabbard-makers, the blacksmith-gunsmith just for the individual concerned, but for his entire group. Kamis, the tribal and Kshatriya soldiers, and the Brahmin More often the reward consisted in being granted a posi- priests and astrologers who propitiate the gods of war and tion of confidence close to the king, with land being determine the auspicious moments to start fighting or to assigned to go with the position. Those who performed mobilize troops. This ensemble, focused upon the king, is badly on these occasions were correspondingly punished. called up each year to assist in the bloody sacrifices on In this way the warrior king ordered both the world and his behalf of the sovereign during the annual celebration of society by means of his sword, which today is still used to war, the Nepali Dasain or Durga Puja (Krauskopff & represent the king, and by extension as a metonym for Lecomte-Tilouine 1996).
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