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Prithvi Narayan Shah (1769-1775), with whom we move into the modern period of Nepal's history, was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah (1559-1570), the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father King Nara Bhupal Shah to the throne of Gorkha in 1743 AD. King Prithvi Narayan Shah was quite aware of the political situation of the Valley kingdoms as well as of the Bayisi and Chaubisi principalities. He foresaw the need for unifying the small principalities as an urgent condition for survival in the future and set himself to the task accordingly.
The following point highlights the positive contribution of Prithvi Narayan Shah (hereafter also called P.N. Shah) as a leader of Nepalese society.
1. Strengthening of his army to conquer
When he ascended to the Gorkha throne, the kingdom was weak economically and militarily. Hence Gorkha faced constant threat of invasion from the powerful neighbouring states of Lamjung, Palpa and Tanahu. As first step in the campaign, Prithvi Narayan Shah wanted to strengthen his army and so mobilised all the youth of his kingdom, regardless of caste.
2. Inclusion of different castes in nation building process
Going against tradition, he recruited Rana (Magars) to increase the participation of the people in the nation-building process, rather than leave it to an elite class. In his Divyopadesh, Prithvi Narayan describes himself as king of "Magarat" and talks about the need to involve "Pandes, Pant, Arjyal, Khanal, Rana, Bohora" (representing the major castes of the Chhetris, Brahmins and Magar people in Gorkha) in strengthening of the kingdom.
3. Defeat of British Army in 1767
Nepali military defeated the British army in 1767. In the battle of Sindhuligadhi the Gorkhalis defeated a British troop commanded by Captain Kinloch. This defeat had been of paramount importance to Nepal for two reasons. In the first place, it had stopped the potential British presence in the Kathmandu .Success of the British to enter the valley at that time would be the beginning of a military presence of the colonizers, and could be a great hindrance in the course of unification. Secondly, this prevented the British design to make Nepal a regular route to Tibet. Thus, this not only hindered the British policy of expansion, but also gave P. N. Shah the awareness that any further move of British to Nepal would be a greater threat to Nepal’s sovereignty.
4. Promoting a policy of defense and opposition:
Since the relationship with British was not good at that time, he proactively promoted the policy of defense and opposition in view of potential future encounter with the British, and in order to ensure enough time for military and economic consolidation of the country.
5. Strategy of self determination:
With the policy of resistance against and isolation from the British
India, it was also important to maintain self-reliance and self-sufficiency, mainly in economy and culture. He encouraged the cultivation of native crops and preservation of agricultural land. Prithvi Narayan strongly advocated self-sufficiency, self-reliance and believed in the concepts of sustainability. He wanted settlements on fertile lands moved to make way for irrigation channels and agriculture. True to those projectionist times, he encouraged export but discouraged import that would drain the country's wealth. Also he took steps for the promotion of local culture (watching the dances of Newars of three cities of Nepal) which was the best mechanism to unite people.
However, following illustrates most common criticisms about P.N. Shah.
1. Brutality:
After the victory over rulers of Kritipur, victorious Gorkha state humiliated the losers. It was also documented that soldiers of P N Shah cut the nose of the local residents. These bitter scars of P N Shah’s victorious celebrations have created enough hatred.
It has been agreed that local peoples of Kritipur still hates P.N. Shah’ successors and this was one of the main reason for the increased participation of people of Kritipur in Janaandolan- II, which was also conducted for abolishment of monarchy.
2. Ignorance to people of Terai
“ Madhesis are Indians. They should never be appointed to the civil service posts higher than Kharidar and Mukhiya.’” This statement is attributed to King Prithvi Narayan Shah as his upadesh’ by a Madhesi activist Bijaya Karna in the opening sentence of his article. No source is cited from which he has quoted the statement. But this sentence is not traceable in Prithvi Narayan Shah’s Dibya Upadesh. still nobody will dispute the fact that Madhesi are still looked at with a jaundiced eye by the Pahadia political elites, most agree that this was the main reason behind Madhesi Andolan , as Madhesis were ignored in government services- Army and others from the beginning of Shah’s regime as a unified modern Nepal.
This is further justified by the challenge came from Jaya Krishna Goit, the leader of Janatantrik Mukti Morcha, an armed group fighting for the “liberation” of Terai. Goit declared a “quit Terai” campaign against the rulers of Nepal like Mahatma Gandhi's “quit India” against the British. His principal claim (and dissatisfaction) has been that the Nepalese have been ruling the Terai as the British ruled India.
3. Discrimination based on caste
Prithvi Narayan Shah had started the feudal state structure. Prithvi Narayan Shah used to measure Khas-Arya castes in higher level whereas the other castes as people of lower level. The state created by Prthvi Narayan is based on caste and class exploitation." All the political and administrative posts/offices were held by Brahmin (in Nepali called Bahun) and Kshatriya (in Nepali called Chettri) people. All the political powers have rested on these two groups for past 240+ years since the founding of modern Nepal by P.N Shah. And probably this is the main reason behind the political unrest today.
P.N. Shah was determined to keep his kingdom free and safe from the British. At that time British East India Company had already captured major parts of India and was moving forward towards the Northeast and approaching Nepal. Nepal was divided into many principalities during this period. It was at this time that King Prithvi Narayan Shah, hailing from one of the principalities called Gorkha, decided to unify Nepal. He was the architect of modern Nepal. Although, Gorkha was small and economically weak, King Prithvi Narayan Shah astounded the world by carrying out such a challenging task under such difficult circumstances. The Unification Campaign was initiated in 1740 AD at which time the British had already started colonizing the Indian provinces.
This was a turning point in the history of the Nepalese army (NA). Since unification was not possible without a strong army, the management of the armed forces had to be exceptional. Apart from the standard army being organized in Gorkha, technicians and experts had to be brought in from abroad to manufacture war materials. After the Gorkhali troops finally captured Kathmandu (then known as Nepal), the Gorkhali armed forces came to be known as the Nepalese Army.
King Prithvi Narayan Shah was successful in bringing together diverse religio-ethnic groups under one national. He was a true nationalist in his outlook and was in favor of adopting a closed-door policy with regard to the British.
P.N. Shah was also involved in administrative work of the country too. During his regime, after conquering Kathmandu, He asked his ministers to clean and polish the statues of the rulers he defeated with new gilding of gold and preserved them right in front of the main gate of the palace where he lived. He was people oriented manager too. Prithvi Narayan Shah's policy of 'Rights of inheritors over the land'- (Jagga Mathi Raitiko Adhikar) has heralded a tremendous influence over the people.
These all facts cited above depict P.N. Shah as a good manager too, in addition to a good leader. Besides being in controversy for certain issues like inclusion of all castes, activities of P.N. Shah can be taken as a timely historic event. Existing history of Nepal has established the unification under his management as a landmark and timely contribution towards nation building.
