As it turns out, some of the recent Nepalese royal history
has a bit of a Shakespearean feel to it, and the literature lover in me
couldn’t resist relaying this tale to you, as it was told to me by our new
landlord Deepak over our celebratory dinner/drinks after moving in (Editorial
Warning: very real potential of personal bias here in the telling of the story,
though I have checked the facts).
In 1950 a child was declared King of Nepal – 3-year-old
Gyanendra. Upon his birth he was sent to live with his grandmother after a
royal astrologer told his father, the crown-prince, that looking upon his
second son would bring him bad luck. For this reason, amid a political plot
that saw his father, grandfather and most other royals fleeing the country for India,
Gyanendra was the sole remaining male member of the royal family in Nepal. His
reign as King of Nepal ended a mere two months later, when his grandfather
returned to the country and re-assumed the throne. Now, this is where the
theories come into play. There are some who claim that Gyanendra was very
ambitious and wanted the throne back – meet our Macbeth. Many years later, in
June of 2001, when King Birendra (Gyanendra’s older brother) was monarch of
Nepal, his young son, crown-prince Dipendra, became upset with his family for
refusing to allow him to marry his choice of bride, a woman from a clan with
which his family had a historic animosity – enter Romeo. On June 1st Prince
Dipendra, in an alleged state of intoxication, stormed into a royal feast and
murdered nine of his family members, including his mother, father, brother and
sister, before turning the gun on himself – effectively eliminating every heir
to the throne from his father’s line. Gyanendra happened to be away in a nearby
city at the time of the massacre; however, his son and daughter came out of the
event unscathed, and while his wife was seriously wounded, she too survived.
Three days later, King Gyanendra was back on the throne.
However, there are also questions with respect to Dipendra’s
true role in the massacre. For instance, his self-inflicted gunshot wound was
apparently inflicted from behind. One guard has claimed that Prince Dipendra
was, in fact, killed before the massacre even began, and a piece of historical
fiction that recounts the events of June 1st from the perspective of the
Queen’s personal maid claims that two men masked as the prince were the true
perpetrators of the massacre.
These are officially listed as conspiracy theories, and
quite possibly can be attributed to the popularity of King Birendra and Prince
Dipendra, and the widespread dislike of Gyanendra, and his son Paras, amongst
Nepali people at the time. However, if for nothing else than an interesting
example in my mom’s English class next time she teaches one of the great
tragedies, I wanted to share this tale.
**Note: King Gyanendra’s effective reign ended for a second time in
June 2006 when, amid the final days of a ten year long civil war, Parliament
officially scrapped all the major powers of the monarchy and reduced him to a
figurehead. Two years later the interim constitution of Nepal officially
transformed the state into a republic, and the role of King was no more.
Like any new democracy, Nepal’s republic is still finding
its feet. Today the political government has been suspended and a caretaker
government of public servants, with the mandate of bringing the country to
elections, is at the helm. The most senior public servants are currently occupy
the most senior political roles – the Chief Justice is the Prime Minister of
Nepal. The election date has now been set for November 19th of this
year; however, tens of Nepalese parties oppose this date, claiming that only
three parties were consulted in setting the election timeline. Many people
believe the November election will be postponed, and we are sure to see
increasing civil disobedience and more frequent bandhs (city-wide protests
called by political parties that restrict vehicles from driving and shops from
opening by threatening retribution, meant to cripple the city) in the coming
months. It is definitely an interesting time to be living in Nepal.