OPINION> Commentary
Witnessing the decline and fall of a monarchy
By Ashis Chakrabarti (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-05 07:56

As Nepal abolished its 239-year-old monarchy and declared itself a republic, my mind went back to the fateful June day seven years ago, when King Gyanendra, now the last monarch, ascended the throne.

He sat there on his throne adorned in full regalia, as the royal coach, drawn by four caparisoned white horses, moved slowly on its way. King Gyanendra was doing what his forefathers had done for over two centuries - he was riding the half-mile to the palace from the temple in the old royal courtyard where he, like his forefathers, had just been anointed.

Watching the ceremony in the crowd, it felt like being transported to the medieval world where such pageantries were the order of the day. The setting - the lovely Kathmandu valley nestling in the world's highest mountains, heightened the fairy-tale atmosphere. Also, Nepal's kings were no ordinary monarchs - they were, as the legend had it, reincarnations of the Hindu god, Vishnu.

Yet, the new king looked somber, as he greeted the people from his perch with folded hands but with absolutely no sign of a smile.

And, the people too were not smiling. In fact, while most of them looked sullen too, many others shouted, "Killer king, leave the country", before being pulled away by policemen.

Kathmandu was truly a valley of sorrow - and of anger - in those unhappy days since June 1, 2001. A little before that midnight, the Narayanhity Palace was the scene of the most macabre royal tragedy of modern times. King Birendra, Gyandendra's elder brother, the queen and eight others of the family were gunned down during a family get-together. The assassin was none other than the crown prince, Dipendra, who then shot himself.

Nepal - and the rest of the world - woke up to the tragedy early next morning. The story we were told had elements of tragedy and romance in equal measure.

Dipendra had been in love with Devjani, the beautiful daughter of a Rana, the old feudal class which ruled Nepal for long in the name of the king. But his parents, especially the queen, will have none of it.

Angered by his parents' refusal to approve his love, Dipendra that night steeled his nerves with liberal doses of drinks and drugs, put on his military uniform, burst into the family dinner with guns in both hands and sprayed most around with bullets before shooting himself at the back of his head.

Gyanendra himself was away from Kathmandu on that tragic night. He was at his retreat in a wildlife sanctuary some five hours' drive from Kathmandu.

The most striking, however, was the spectacle of public sorrow. Thousands of people in the Kathmandu valley and elsewhere in the mountain kingdom shaved off their heads in a Hindu ritual of mourning, beat their breasts in public, placed flowers and wreaths and burned incense sticks at the photographs of the slain king and queen on the streets and public squares. The palace tragedy came at a tumultuous moment in Nepal's modern history . For six years then, a civil war was raging in the country. The Maoists of Nepal battled the police, the army and mainstream political parties in their bid to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic in the Himalayan country.

In June, 2006, I traveled, one and a half days on foot from the nearest motorized road, to the Maoists' headquarters in mountainous Rolpa on the western borders of Nepal. Far away from Kathmandu, where the king's rule simply did not exist, they already had a "people's government" in place.

But in Kathmandu, politics got only messier in the five years since the palace tragedy. Multi-party democracy has always had a bumpy run in the kingdom since it was introduced in 1990 by King Birendra in the wake of a two-year-long pro-democracy movement. Weak and corrupt governments rose and fell, none completing its full term, while the Maoists kept spreading their influence wide and deep.

King Gyanendra made one last attempt, as he said, to save the kingdom from anarchy and to save the monarchy. In February, 2005, he dissolved the elected government and took over all powers. As things turned out, rather ironically, instead of saving the monarchy, his move sealed its fate. The mainstream political parties now joined the Maoists to hasten the end of the monarchy, fuelled by a popular cry for democracy.

History, as we know, is not made by single acts of heroes or villains. It is a process in which individuals play their roles, big or small. Having witnessed the latest events in Nepal, I am convinced one more time that the people's age is well and truly here and kings and emperors are anachronisms today.

History also tells us another thing. There would always be royalists and supporters of the ancien regime everywhere. In France, royalists mourned the end of the monarchy after the French Revolution. The October Revolution saw the White Russians trying to revive the Czarist regime. In China, attempts were made to install the "puppet emperor" in order to try and overthrow the republic.

In England, of course, they had the Restoration. But that is another story.

The author is a senior editor at China Daily

(China Daily 06/05/2008 page9)