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Why Nepal - Nepalese hate India with a passion?
More than half of the total Nepali population hates India and a huge portion of that group hates India and Indians with a passion. So, you might ask why do Nepalese hate India so much? Where does this hatred arise from?
And, where is this leading us?
Let’s go through the main reasons some Nepalese hate India with a passion.
To understand it better, you need to take a look at some historical events that have helped to shape the hatred of the Nepali people for her open-bordered neighbour.
1. Almost all literate Nepalese believe that India has taken away our land
That was Nepal’s loss in the Sugauli Treaty(1815) with East India Company after her war with the Company which then ruled over the Indian states.
Nepali troops, under the command of able Generals like Amar Singh Thapa, had conquered north Indian kingdoms. In the east, Nepal’s territories extended up to Sikkim, up to Allahabad in the south and exactly reached Sutlej River in the west.
That was a huge territory!
The British attacked. Although Nepal fought back bravely, she incurred a heavy loss. That resulted in the Sugauli Treaty being signed despite the unwillingness of some of the Generals who had spent their lives expanding Nepal’s territory.
Nepal had to return back the won territories to the East India Company. This episode of Nepal annexing some Indian kingdoms and returning them back happened within duration of around twenty years.
And, the lost territories are what some Nepalese claim are rightfully ours.
The straight forward logic that can rule over our sentiment of defeat is that the territories weren’t ours at all. We won them and returned them back to their rightful owners (?).
Remember, it was just around 20 years we had been the masters of those areas.
Some naive and shrewd politicians still preach Greater Nepal. Instead of chasing those dreams and wasting our time, we should be focusing more on the development of healthier relationship with India and her people.
We should be proud that we helped India (our neighbour) to be a stronger country. If Nepal hadn’t conquered some of her states, the unity among her northern kingdoms wouldn’t have occurred. An example is the Kangra War when Nepal was repulsed by Sikh troops which had arrived to help the Kangra King.
But in the overall view, the credit for the unification of India goes to the East India Company. If not for them, Indian kingdoms would still be fighting with each other.
2. Border encroachment by the Indian government
True, and happening in the present and the future.
We have an open border and our territories are marked by rivers in some places and stone pillars in others.
It might be lengthy to quote all the instances of border encroachment but India has been practicing this all the time. The funny part is, sometimes they just uproot the stone pillars and stake them far inside Nepal overnight.
Indo-Nepal border experts say that 37,000 hectares of Nepali land has been occupied illegally by India so far. Nepal has also occupied a little piece of India’s territory.
In the west where Mahakali River works as the border, Indian forces are continually camping further inside Nepal. The logic they put forward for their un-neighborly act is that Mahakali River continually changes her course and thus changes the shape of the borderline.
3. India has an unhealthy interest in Nepali politics and politicians
Every high school kid knows this because the Nepali politicians, whether hard left or hard right, lack diplomatic etiquette. The tabloids usually get filled with Nepali politicians resorting to their New Delhi ties for problem solving.
Then there’s RAW (India’s reputed intelligence service) which usually gets un-covertly active whenever there’s some political crisis in Nepal.
A little example of how India is very much the moulder of Nepali politics:
During the recent Constituent Assembly elections, Ajit Narayan Thapa was the nominated candidate from Nepali Congress for Dhankuta Election Area 2.
Then there’s the legendary Surya Bahadur Thapa from National Democratic Party, but he’s old. And, he wants his son Sunil Bahadur Thapa to continue his legacy.
And, there’s a guy called Rajendra Rai from Nepal Communist Party (UML). He has a list of sex scandals under his hat. But, UML is also the party which has the strongest hold over Area 2.
So, Surya along with the Indian Embassy cooks up a plan for the smooth victory of his son.
Under the Embassy’s request Ajit is replaced by someone ineffective. This ensures no clashes between the two strong Thapas. This also boldens the chances of Ajit’s well-wishers from Area 2 voting for Sunil since he is the most able candidate when Ajit is gone.
It becomes a win-win situation for Sunil.
And, he actually won.
That wouldn’t have happened if the Indian Embassy hadn’t intervened stealthily.
It was also heard that the winner had wanted to compensate Ajit’s election expenses after the victory.
But is the Indian Embassy at fault when most Nepali politicians pay homage to them as if they were the Messiah for Nepal’s political development?
No.
Disrespecting diplomatic etiquette, Nepal’s dignitaries visit the Indian Ambassador whereas actually the Ambassador should be arranging an appointment with the makers of Nepal.
But it doesn’t come down to only our politicians. India really wants to shape Nepal’s politics though almost all ambassadors vehemently refuse the fact. Instead, they claim that they have to lobby real hard in New Delhi to make their government pay attention to Nepal’s issues.
Let’s look at some examples of India being openly active in Nepali politics:
i) During the People’s Movement in 1989-90, India issued an economic sanction supporting the Movement. They helped the Nepali people regain democracy because the then PM openly advocated nationalism and anti-Indianism.
ii) During the Maoist insurgency, there were rumors that both Maoist guerillas and Royal Nepal Army were trained in India by Indian instructors. The heads of the Maoist Party operated from Indian soil.
The hard-core Maoist, known these days as Baidya Baa, was arrested from the Indian city of Siliguri but the other two heads Prachanda and Baburam were not. Coincidentally their 12 Point Alliance with other parties came into effect right after the arrest of the hard leftist.
iii) The chief priest in Pashupatinath temple is a South Indian and he can’t be changed. The Maoist government toppled when they tried to replace him with a Nepali priest.
iv)The Indian Ambassador issues directives for the ethnic based Terai parties. FYI, half of the Terai people look like Biharis from India.
v) India was the neighbour who rejected King Birendra’s proposal of Nepal as a Zone of Peace in 1975. The king’s proposal arose out of concerns over the atomic tests done by India. During the same time, China and India had annexed Tibet and Sikkim respectively.
India claimed that Nepal should follow the Sugauli Treaty (or the improvised 1950 Treaty) where it is signed that Nepal should help India strengthen her security.
4. Unfair river treaties between the two countries
We read Nepal ranks second in water resources. We could light up South Asia with hydro-electricity from our rivers and lakes.
In reality, we buy electricity from India. We have load-shedding up to 9 hours a day during the dry season.
Most Nepalese believe that the river treaties are a bit unfair where India gets more control and more benefits. They blame politicians for selling our rivers.
Nepalese also believe that Nepal can’t build bigger highways since India is afraid that China could use those free lanes to invade India.
5. India’s claim on the birthplace of Buddha
Especially, celebrities from Bollywood make controversial remarks on Buddha’s birthplace. That could be due to wrong history lessons they received at school, or for cheap publicity.
Recently, one renowned actor (Kabir Bedi) spoke on TV that Buddha was born in India. The Buddha related serial he was promoting got banned by Nepali cable network companies.
Nothing angers the common Nepali more than when an Indian claims that Buddha was born in India.
It may look stupid when Nepalese make a hullabaloo over some Indian actor (usually) saying that Buddha was born in India or in the northern part of India.
Some people have even died during the protests on the streets due to such remarks.
But the utter disgust Nepalese show is not to prove that Nepalese want Buddha to be born in Nepal or how ignorant some Indian celebrities are with history.
They freak out mainly because of India’s disrespect for Nepal’s pride and the dominating nature of Indian scholars and celebrities.
According to many Indian textbooks, it is not only Buddha who was born in India but Mt. Everest too lies in the Himalayan region of India. One famous actress was also caught unawares when she stated that Nepal is one of the Indian states; thus revealing her weakness in basic general knowledge.
Not only that, India was also involved in architectural and intellectual fraud when she tried to prove that Buddha’s birthplace was a few kilometers away from Lumbini, inside present day India precisely.
Or, even as far south as Orissa where there’s a place called Kapileswar, which sounds like Kapilvastu. You can download the pdf and go through the deep history logic. I wouldn’t name it fraud; it sure has some great logic on why Buddha was born in Orissa.
Wherever Buddha was born, matters not. What matters is your neighbor’s intentions and, of course, ignorance.
If Ved Vyas had started a religion, Nepalese would have another reason to vent their dissatisfaction at the Indians claiming that this creator of the Mahabharat was born in an island in the Yamuna river.
Some Nepalese scholars believe that he was born in Tanahu of present day Nepal.
6. Domination depicted on films, TV, books, magazines, internet, and in real life
India and most Indians usually take Nepal and Nepalese as second class. This can be noticed in how the Nepalese are depicted in their films, TV, books, magazines and the internet.
In most Hindi movies and TV, if there’s a Nepali character then he’s almost always a Bahadur. Bahadur is the Khukuri wielding watchman who is always full of stupidity and has a funny Hindi tongue.
If you happen to browse through Indian forums and Facebook groups and pages, the users will mostly be trolling about why Nepal should join the Indian Republic as its 29th state.
Some even hypothesize that Nepalese will prosper if we join the Great Indian Empire.
And the war of words goes on.
Nepalese are equally to be blamed for their childish retorts. It’s funny to watch the internet where citizens of two great countries start a meaningless war.
And, the hatred continues on both sides.
7. Indians are racists; Nepalese are racists
Most Indians think of Nepalese as Mongoloids with chinky eyes and snub noses. Similarly, most Nepalese think of Indians as dirty black immoral cheaters wearing dhotis (loincloths).
Both know that it isn’t so, but why undermine a good reason to hate?
Nepalese think of Indians as charlatans, frauds and cheats; they follow by the saying that a dead Indian can fool ten Nepalese.
Indians take Nepalese to be stupid hill dwellers who are always jealous of the progress they have made.
CONCLUSION
Hatred hasn’t helped any nation. There’s always a good reason to hate someone but no one should exploit that hatred and create tension between two entities.
Nepalese should be looking at the roots of their hatred and analyze whether our hatred for India is based on facts and really worthwhile.
The intention of this list is not to make Nepalese hate India. It’s not written to remind them the reasons to hate India.
The intention is also not to offend India and her people. Nor am I suggesting Indians to feel guilty.
7 Reasons some Nepalese hate India with a passion - Anuvav
More than half of the total Nepali population hates India and a huge portion of that group hates India and Indians with a passion. So, you might ask why do Nepalese hate India so much? Where does this hatred arise from?
And, where is this leading us?
Let’s go through the main reasons some Nepalese hate India with a passion.
To understand it better, you need to take a look at some historical events that have helped to shape the hatred of the Nepali people for her open-bordered neighbour.
1. Almost all literate Nepalese believe that India has taken away our land
That was Nepal’s loss in the Sugauli Treaty(1815) with East India Company after her war with the Company which then ruled over the Indian states.
Nepali troops, under the command of able Generals like Amar Singh Thapa, had conquered north Indian kingdoms. In the east, Nepal’s territories extended up to Sikkim, up to Allahabad in the south and exactly reached Sutlej River in the west.
That was a huge territory!
The British attacked. Although Nepal fought back bravely, she incurred a heavy loss. That resulted in the Sugauli Treaty being signed despite the unwillingness of some of the Generals who had spent their lives expanding Nepal’s territory.
Nepal had to return back the won territories to the East India Company. This episode of Nepal annexing some Indian kingdoms and returning them back happened within duration of around twenty years.
And, the lost territories are what some Nepalese claim are rightfully ours.
The straight forward logic that can rule over our sentiment of defeat is that the territories weren’t ours at all. We won them and returned them back to their rightful owners (?).
Remember, it was just around 20 years we had been the masters of those areas.
Some naive and shrewd politicians still preach Greater Nepal. Instead of chasing those dreams and wasting our time, we should be focusing more on the development of healthier relationship with India and her people.
We should be proud that we helped India (our neighbour) to be a stronger country. If Nepal hadn’t conquered some of her states, the unity among her northern kingdoms wouldn’t have occurred. An example is the Kangra War when Nepal was repulsed by Sikh troops which had arrived to help the Kangra King.
But in the overall view, the credit for the unification of India goes to the East India Company. If not for them, Indian kingdoms would still be fighting with each other.
2. Border encroachment by the Indian government
True, and happening in the present and the future.
We have an open border and our territories are marked by rivers in some places and stone pillars in others.
It might be lengthy to quote all the instances of border encroachment but India has been practicing this all the time. The funny part is, sometimes they just uproot the stone pillars and stake them far inside Nepal overnight.
Indo-Nepal border experts say that 37,000 hectares of Nepali land has been occupied illegally by India so far. Nepal has also occupied a little piece of India’s territory.
In the west where Mahakali River works as the border, Indian forces are continually camping further inside Nepal. The logic they put forward for their un-neighborly act is that Mahakali River continually changes her course and thus changes the shape of the borderline.
3. India has an unhealthy interest in Nepali politics and politicians
Every high school kid knows this because the Nepali politicians, whether hard left or hard right, lack diplomatic etiquette. The tabloids usually get filled with Nepali politicians resorting to their New Delhi ties for problem solving.
Then there’s RAW (India’s reputed intelligence service) which usually gets un-covertly active whenever there’s some political crisis in Nepal.
A little example of how India is very much the moulder of Nepali politics:
During the recent Constituent Assembly elections, Ajit Narayan Thapa was the nominated candidate from Nepali Congress for Dhankuta Election Area 2.
Then there’s the legendary Surya Bahadur Thapa from National Democratic Party, but he’s old. And, he wants his son Sunil Bahadur Thapa to continue his legacy.
And, there’s a guy called Rajendra Rai from Nepal Communist Party (UML). He has a list of sex scandals under his hat. But, UML is also the party which has the strongest hold over Area 2.
So, Surya along with the Indian Embassy cooks up a plan for the smooth victory of his son.
Under the Embassy’s request Ajit is replaced by someone ineffective. This ensures no clashes between the two strong Thapas. This also boldens the chances of Ajit’s well-wishers from Area 2 voting for Sunil since he is the most able candidate when Ajit is gone.
It becomes a win-win situation for Sunil.
And, he actually won.
That wouldn’t have happened if the Indian Embassy hadn’t intervened stealthily.
It was also heard that the winner had wanted to compensate Ajit’s election expenses after the victory.
But is the Indian Embassy at fault when most Nepali politicians pay homage to them as if they were the Messiah for Nepal’s political development?
No.
Disrespecting diplomatic etiquette, Nepal’s dignitaries visit the Indian Ambassador whereas actually the Ambassador should be arranging an appointment with the makers of Nepal.
But it doesn’t come down to only our politicians. India really wants to shape Nepal’s politics though almost all ambassadors vehemently refuse the fact. Instead, they claim that they have to lobby real hard in New Delhi to make their government pay attention to Nepal’s issues.
Let’s look at some examples of India being openly active in Nepali politics:
i) During the People’s Movement in 1989-90, India issued an economic sanction supporting the Movement. They helped the Nepali people regain democracy because the then PM openly advocated nationalism and anti-Indianism.
ii) During the Maoist insurgency, there were rumors that both Maoist guerillas and Royal Nepal Army were trained in India by Indian instructors. The heads of the Maoist Party operated from Indian soil.
The hard-core Maoist, known these days as Baidya Baa, was arrested from the Indian city of Siliguri but the other two heads Prachanda and Baburam were not. Coincidentally their 12 Point Alliance with other parties came into effect right after the arrest of the hard leftist.
iii) The chief priest in Pashupatinath temple is a South Indian and he can’t be changed. The Maoist government toppled when they tried to replace him with a Nepali priest.
iv)The Indian Ambassador issues directives for the ethnic based Terai parties. FYI, half of the Terai people look like Biharis from India.
v) India was the neighbour who rejected King Birendra’s proposal of Nepal as a Zone of Peace in 1975. The king’s proposal arose out of concerns over the atomic tests done by India. During the same time, China and India had annexed Tibet and Sikkim respectively.
India claimed that Nepal should follow the Sugauli Treaty (or the improvised 1950 Treaty) where it is signed that Nepal should help India strengthen her security.
4. Unfair river treaties between the two countries
We read Nepal ranks second in water resources. We could light up South Asia with hydro-electricity from our rivers and lakes.
In reality, we buy electricity from India. We have load-shedding up to 9 hours a day during the dry season.
Most Nepalese believe that the river treaties are a bit unfair where India gets more control and more benefits. They blame politicians for selling our rivers.
Nepalese also believe that Nepal can’t build bigger highways since India is afraid that China could use those free lanes to invade India.
5. India’s claim on the birthplace of Buddha
Especially, celebrities from Bollywood make controversial remarks on Buddha’s birthplace. That could be due to wrong history lessons they received at school, or for cheap publicity.
Recently, one renowned actor (Kabir Bedi) spoke on TV that Buddha was born in India. The Buddha related serial he was promoting got banned by Nepali cable network companies.
Nothing angers the common Nepali more than when an Indian claims that Buddha was born in India.
It may look stupid when Nepalese make a hullabaloo over some Indian actor (usually) saying that Buddha was born in India or in the northern part of India.
Some people have even died during the protests on the streets due to such remarks.
But the utter disgust Nepalese show is not to prove that Nepalese want Buddha to be born in Nepal or how ignorant some Indian celebrities are with history.
They freak out mainly because of India’s disrespect for Nepal’s pride and the dominating nature of Indian scholars and celebrities.
According to many Indian textbooks, it is not only Buddha who was born in India but Mt. Everest too lies in the Himalayan region of India. One famous actress was also caught unawares when she stated that Nepal is one of the Indian states; thus revealing her weakness in basic general knowledge.
Not only that, India was also involved in architectural and intellectual fraud when she tried to prove that Buddha’s birthplace was a few kilometers away from Lumbini, inside present day India precisely.
Or, even as far south as Orissa where there’s a place called Kapileswar, which sounds like Kapilvastu. You can download the pdf and go through the deep history logic. I wouldn’t name it fraud; it sure has some great logic on why Buddha was born in Orissa.
Wherever Buddha was born, matters not. What matters is your neighbor’s intentions and, of course, ignorance.
If Ved Vyas had started a religion, Nepalese would have another reason to vent their dissatisfaction at the Indians claiming that this creator of the Mahabharat was born in an island in the Yamuna river.
Some Nepalese scholars believe that he was born in Tanahu of present day Nepal.
6. Domination depicted on films, TV, books, magazines, internet, and in real life
India and most Indians usually take Nepal and Nepalese as second class. This can be noticed in how the Nepalese are depicted in their films, TV, books, magazines and the internet.
In most Hindi movies and TV, if there’s a Nepali character then he’s almost always a Bahadur. Bahadur is the Khukuri wielding watchman who is always full of stupidity and has a funny Hindi tongue.
If you happen to browse through Indian forums and Facebook groups and pages, the users will mostly be trolling about why Nepal should join the Indian Republic as its 29th state.
Some even hypothesize that Nepalese will prosper if we join the Great Indian Empire.
And the war of words goes on.
Nepalese are equally to be blamed for their childish retorts. It’s funny to watch the internet where citizens of two great countries start a meaningless war.
And, the hatred continues on both sides.
7. Indians are racists; Nepalese are racists
Most Indians think of Nepalese as Mongoloids with chinky eyes and snub noses. Similarly, most Nepalese think of Indians as dirty black immoral cheaters wearing dhotis (loincloths).
Both know that it isn’t so, but why undermine a good reason to hate?
Nepalese think of Indians as charlatans, frauds and cheats; they follow by the saying that a dead Indian can fool ten Nepalese.
Indians take Nepalese to be stupid hill dwellers who are always jealous of the progress they have made.
CONCLUSION
Hatred hasn’t helped any nation. There’s always a good reason to hate someone but no one should exploit that hatred and create tension between two entities.
Nepalese should be looking at the roots of their hatred and analyze whether our hatred for India is based on facts and really worthwhile.
The intention of this list is not to make Nepalese hate India. It’s not written to remind them the reasons to hate India.
The intention is also not to offend India and her people. Nor am I suggesting Indians to feel guilty.
7 Reasons some Nepalese hate India with a passion - Anuvav
