India's Foreign Relations, 1947-2007 by Jayanta Kumar Ray

Author:Jayanta Kumar Ray [Ray, Jayanta Kumar]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: International Relations, History, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781136197147
Google: zJYCgVkIwAwC
Goodreads: 17765241
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

7

Relations with Nepal

When it is claimed that the relationship between India and Nepal is unique, it may sound clichéd. But it has to be added that a cliché—like this one—can sometimes connote essential truths. One indicator of this uniqueness is that for many centuries these two countries have maintained largely peaceful and friendly links. They shared extensive trade relations in the ancient and medieval eras.1 A related and perhaps more important indicator is that the peoples, rather than the ruling circles or governments, of these two countries have been mainly responsible for these cordial links. The peoples, again, have been vitally influenced by geographical, historical, economic, and cultural factors. Religion has provided a stable foundation for cultural ties. India has four extraordinarily holy sites. The Nepalis consider it their spiritual duty to visit these sites. Similarly, Nepal has a number of sacred places, and the Indians regard it as their spiritual obligation to visit these for pilgrimage. ‘There is much that binds and little that divides our two countries except the fact that, politically, the two are separate and distinct entities.’2

Cultural-social propinquity, geographical contiguity, and political proximity have created a situation in which, for ages, the movement of people between territories (now called India and Nepal) has remained free from restrictions. This freedom of movement had been gifted by the people to one another, and is not a fiat of the rulers. Kingdoms in the ancient and medieval ages covered vast areas overlapping territories, which currently form parts of India and Nepal. This explains the movement of the Sanskrit language, the Gupta script, and architectural designs (with Hindu-Buddhist motifs) to Nepal. Sanskrit appears to have been the language of the court in ancient days, whereas the language of the masses in modern Nepal, viz. Newari, derives 50 per cent of its words from Sanskrit.3 Many kings from parts of present day India’s Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Bihar fled to Nepal in order to avoid domination by Muslim invaders.4 For a long time, the royal houses of Nepal and India maintained matrimonial relations. Around 1769, King Prithvi Narayan Shah, through his conquests, laid the foundation of modern Nepal. Subsequently, the British in India too embarked upon a programme of annexation of territories in the 19th century. Eventually, despite the Britain-Nepal War of 1814–16, after the rebellion of 1857 in India, when Nepal rendered significant aid to the British, the British rewarded Nepal by a cession of territories between the Mahakali and Tapti rivers. Modern Nepal thus consolidated its territorial possessions around 1860. The British treated Nepal as a buffer between China and India.5

In a sort of natural contrast, the founder of modern Nepal, Prithvi Narayan Shah, talked of Nepal as a ‘yam between two boulders’, that is between two mighty neighbours, viz. India and China. Although countless authors have been fond of repeating Prithvi Narayan Shah’s formulation, it is somewhat untenable. For, there are hardly any natural barriers between India and Nepal, with the average height of the mountains on the border varying between 610 and 2,200 metres.

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