Nepali Politics and the Rise of Jang Bahudur Rana, 1830
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NEPALI POLITICS AND THE RISE OF JANG BAHUDUR RANA, 1830-1857 John Whelpton Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London February 1987 ProQuest Number: 10673006 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673006 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 ABSTRACT The thesis examines the political history of Nepal from 1830, covering the decline and fall of Bhimsen Thapa, the factional struggles $ which ended with Jang Bahadur Kunwar (later Rana)'s emergence as premier in 1846, and Jang1s final securing of his own position when he assumed the joint roles of prime minister and maharaja in 1857. The relationship between king, political elite (bharadar'i) , army and peasantry is analysed, with special prominence given to the religious aspects of Hindu kingship, and also to the role of prominent Chetri families and of the Brahman Mishras, Pandes and Paudyals who provided the rajgurus (royal preceptors). Special attention is also paid to the role of the British Residency in internal politics and to rank-and-file protest in the army, which although largely manipulated by elite patrons showed signs of potential autonomy. Jang's assumption of power is discussed in detail, emphasising the importance of his alliance with guru Vijay Raj Pande. The main features of the new regime are outlined, including the relationship between maharaja and monarch (maharajadhtraj), the composition of the new bharadar'i and Jang’s dependence on it and on the army, changes to the administrative system, the significance of the Mutukt A'in (Law Code) of 1854, land revenue policy and relations with the British. Jang's policies were partly the natural continuation of lines already emerging, but he nevertheless made significant changes leading to a more centralised administration, the growth of a sense of national identity, and the shift towards de facto private ownership of land which continued under his successors. Nepal remained essentially in the tradition of Hindu kingship, but with the secular functions of the king transferred to the maharaja. Jang's 3 regime was 'autocratic* but he acknowledged in principle an obligation to the governed, and had in practice to conciliate key sectors of the public, limitations which correspond to those recognised in classical Hindu political theory. Appendices give details of Jang's family history and translations of letters written by him from Paris in 1850. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 ABBREVIATIONS 8 LIST OF TABLES 9 CHAPTER ONE : KING AND STATE IN PRE-RANA NEPAL 10 The Kingdom of Nepal 10 Kingship as a Religious Institution 21 The Military Factor 28 Land and Central Control 30 The 'Bearers of the Burden' 37 State, Caste and Nation 45 Notes to Chapter One 50 CHAPTER TWO : THE FALL OF BHIMSEN THAPA : 1830-1838 59 Introduction 59 The Political Stage in 1830 60 The Campaign against Bhimsen and the 6 8 Emergence of Ranjang (1837-8) Bhimsen1s Fall in Retrospect 99 Notes to Chapter Two 103 CHAPTER THREE : THE ROAD TO THE 'BRITISH MINISTRY' 110 Introduction 110 The Bhavadavi- under Pressure 111 Crisis and Intervention 124 Notes to Chapter Three 153 CHAPTER FOUR : FROM THE 'BRITISH MINISTRY 1 TO THE DEATH 162 OF MATHBAR SINGH THAPA Introduction 162 Politics under the 'British Ministry' 163 The Emergence of Surendra 171 The 'National Movement 1 186 Mathbar Singh Thapa 198 1840-1845 : Political Trends in Retrospect 235 Notes to Chapter Four 237 5 Page CHAPTER FIVE : JANG BAHADUR TAKES POWER : 1845-7 254 Introduction 254 Politics after Mathbar 254 The Kot Massacre 265 The Bhandarkhal Affair 279 Rajendra's Withdrawal and Deposition 284 Notes to Chapter Five 301 CHAPTER SIX : THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE RANA REGIME : 1846-57 311 Introduction 311 The Establishment of the Maharajship 312 Relations with the Bhavadavi 329 The Army 344 The Machinery of Government 353 The Muluki Ain 357 Revenue Policy 364 The British Connection 380 Conclusion: Continuity and Change under 387 Jang Bahadur Notes to Chapter Six 390 CONCLUSION : NEPAL AND HINDU POLITY 402 Notes to Conclusion 414 APPENDIX 1 Jang Bahadur's Family 417 APPENDIX 2 Letters of Jang Bahadur written from Europe 420 APPENDIX 3 Family Trees 427 MAP Nepal in 1850 4 3 4 BIBLIOGRAPHY 435 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would be impracticable to list all the friends and colleagues who have helped in the preparation of this thesis, but I wish to thank: individually a few whose contributions were particularly important, Abhi Subedi first drew my interest to Jang Bahadur, and he and his family allowed me to share their home and provided constant help and encouragement during fieldwork in Kathmandu in 1982/3, Madhusudan - Thakur and other members of the Thakur family similarly made my travels in India during the same year much easier and more profitable than they would otherwise have been. Drs. Krishna Kant Adhikari, Triratna Manandhar and Rukhmini Rana generously gave me access to some of the results of their own archival work. Among others who provided valuable advice and information in Kathmandu were Kamal Mani Dixit, Mohan Prasad Khanal, Jean-Claude Marize, Dinesh Raj Pant, Rishikesh Shaha and Chaitanya Upadhyaya. The descendants of many of the characters appearing in the following pages were able to supplement the written record with their own family traditions. Their contribution is acknowledged in the footnotes, but I am particularly grateful to Pradyumna Rana, great-grandson of Jang Bahadur, who also provided me with a base during my stay at Allahabad. I was affiliated in Nepal to the Research Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS), Tribhuvan University, and in India to the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and am grateful to the staff of these as well as of the libraries and archives I consulted. Bala Ram Dangol, Director of the National Archives of Nepal, and Nirmal Tuladhar of CNAS were especially helpful. 7 I benefited greatly from the advice and support of staff (both academic and non-academic) and fellow-students at SOAS. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Richard Burghart, and above all to my supervisor, Professor Ballhatchet. The strongest sections of the thesis are those most substantially modified in the light of the latter's comments, though responsibility for the remaining faults is, of course, mine alone. 8 abbreviations DO Demi-official FP Foreign Political Proceeding/Consultation FS Foreign Secret Proceeding/Consultation HP Hodgson Papers IOL(R) India Office Library (and Records) JA Jang-i Adda KKA Krishna Kant Adhikari KKK Kamyandari- Kitabkhana KM The Kot Massacre NAI National Archives of India NAN National Archives of Nepal NR Nepal Residency Records RAS Royal Asiatic Society VS Vikram Sambat 9 LIST OF TABLES Page TABLE I The Caste Hierarchy of the Mutuki Ain 18 TABLE II The Kathmandu Garrison (kampu): 1825-46 127 TABLE III Thav and Caste Distribution of Senior 330 Personnel: 1841 and 1854 TABLE IV Kampu: Strength by Rank, 1838-1863 347 10 L CHAPTER ONE KING AND STATE IN PRE-RANA NEPAL The Kingdom of Nepal The integration of the former 'Princely States' into independent India and Pakistan extinguished Hindu monarchy as a living political form throughout almost all of South Asia. One sole exemplar survived, however, in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, which had never been brought into the British Indian empire. The country today is still officially styled a Hindu kingdom, and the present king is the tenth-generation descendant of Prithvi Narayan Shah, whose conquest of the Kathmandu Valley in 1769 marked the beginning of Nepal's history as a unified state. Nowadays, as in Prithvi's time, it is in the royal palace that power principally resides. Over much of the intervening period effective power was held by a minister ruling in the king's name. Jang Bahadur Kunwar {later Rana) attained this post in 1846 and succeeded in making it the hereditary possession of his family. From 1857 onwards Jang and his successors combined the titles of Maharaja and Prime Minister, and the Rana family continued to rule the country until the 'revolution' of 1950/51 put the reins back into the hands of the Shah dynasty. Throughout the Rana ascendancy the royal family nevertheless retained their formal superiority, keeping the title of Maharajadhiraj in an arrangement paralleled in a number of Hindu states, most notably in the Maratha svavajya and in Vijaynagar. The purpose of this study is to examine Nepali politics in the crucial years leading up to and following Jang Bahadur's assumption of power, looking at the relationship between the constituent elements of the state in comparison with the pattern elsewhere in the subcontinent and with the model of Hindu polity 1 i found in the canonical texts. The principal focus will be on kingship itself, and on the problem of maintaining central control over an extended territory. The present chapter will outline the structure of the state as it had evolved by 1830 and consider the chief actors on the political stage. Chapters Two to Five will present a detailed, chronological account of events from 1830 to 1847, when the deposition of King Rajendra marked the consolidation of Jang's power, and Chapter Six will look more thematically at the nature of the new regime, as well as covering the principal political events down to 1857.