Tuesday, August 4, 2020

#KanakNiti and #Nepal

Kanak Niti and Nepal

 

The elite of the Nepalese society are the descendants of high-caste Hindus – mostly of the Brahman or Kshatriya castes – who sought shelter in Nepal during the period of Muslim invasions of India or even earlier. While the majority of the Nepalese population is of Mongoloid stock, the predominant religion is the Sanatan Dharma. ( Leo E. Rose, Nepal: Strategy for Survival, ( Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1971, p.7) Religiously and culturally, the majority of Nepalese and majority of Indians form one unit. From Rameshwaram in Tamilnadu to Janakpur ( the old capital of Mithila) and Pashupatinath (near Kathmandu) the same religious and cultural ethos prevails.

 The Kings of Nepal had their training in the tradition of ancient Indian Kings. King Mahendra, the architect of contemporary Nepalese policies (and a true follower of his famous ancestor Prithvi Narayan Shah who considered Nepal as a gourd between two rocks), is said to have deeply read and valued the three great Indian classics – the Hitopdesh, the Panchtantra and the Raghuvansh. However, it was the Kanak Niti, which is said to have influenced the King immensely. There is a fable in the Kanak Niti, relevant for understanding Nepal’s perception of its position in regard to India and China. The fable briefly told runs like this:

  There was a flood. A cobra, a scorpion and a bull-frog were marooned on high ground. The cobra was eager to swallow the frog. But in between them was the scorpion sitting with its raised sting. It held back the cobra. The frog wanted to bite off the sting and chew up the scorpion. The hiss of the cobra frightened it. The balance of terror made possible what was an uneasy survival. ( Cited in Y.G.Krishnamurti, His Majesty King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva – An analytical Biography, ( Bombay, n.d.) p. 29.

Excerpted from Raj Kumar Jha, The Himalayan Kingdoms in Indian Foreign Policy, ( Maitryee Publications, Ranchi, 1986) pp. 10-11.


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