The Rising Nepal’s Journey Of 6 Decades

When The Rising Nepal was observing the third anniversary of its publication on Sunday, 15 December 1968, its founding Editor Barun Shumsher Rana had requested Professor Kamal Prakash Malla, a prominent figure in English literature, to write a critical evaluation on this newspaper, still in its infancy. 

In the critique written half century and 6 years ago and titled ‘FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS”, chief of TU’s Central English Department Malla had some disgusting view about The Rising Nepal’s typefaces and headlines. “The Rising Nepal is based on no logic. It satisfies neither the canon of the convenience of the reader, nor the canon of the aesthetic pleasure of a quick glancing reader,” Malla wrote. 

The harsh critique of an English literature professor was expressed thus, “I had The Rising Nepal on one hand and the morsel of boiled rice on the other. I suddenly lost my appetite and felt sick.” 

But I guess Professor Malla would have a different view and more positive outlook if he was evaluating this newspaper in today’s layout design, font and other display patterns. The standard of language and content quality is another matter where significant improvement in still wanting. 

Unprecedented critique

About this critical evaluation requested and published by founding editor Rana, senior journalist and former Chief Editor of The Rising Nepal P Kharel says, “There is no precedent in the last half century by any newspaper in Nepal having ever invited a critical commentary on itself.” The approximately 3,000-word commentary of Professor Malla was published without making any changes which spread from page 9 to page 10 of the paper’s third anniversary special issue. 

Professor Malla was cool and uncompromising to speak harsh about this newspaper including its very name baptizing. Equally bold and frank was Editor Barun Shumsher Rana to publish such a critical view about a newspaper that was the brainchild of a king of the time with absolute power. 

Here, let’s have a look at how Professor Malla had even questioned the appropriateness of the naming this newspaper The Rising Nepal “at a time when every taxpayer in Nepal was aware of nothing noticeably rising except the prices and the taxes on the one hand and the number of dry cleaning shops, seedy restaurants and imported vehicles, on the other.” 

Malla’s evaluation written after the publication of roughly 1,100 issues of The Rising Nepal, says, “In Nepal there are just about 7 per cent people who can read and write their names in Devanagari. The percentage of people who know English and who can read an English language daily is virtually microscopic.”

Malla’s further comments on The Rising Nepal’s bad writing style goes thus, “When an Active Voice would have done, they always prefer the Passive; when five words would have done they always affect ten; when an ordinary word would have done they always prefer a highly mixed metaphor.”

A newspaper that got such a harsh criticism over the relevance of its very existence at its childhood, is now entering the six decade of its proud journey, informing the people within the nation and worldwide. Here, we won’t want to make a claim that this paper has been free from shortcomings throughout such a long journey. Good medicines taste bitter and The Rising Nepal has an onerous legacy of patiently taking in the criticism, soft and harsh, that helps us to shine better in the journalistic path ahead.

As The Rising Nepal enters the 60th year of its publication today, we are on the threshold of New Year 2025.  We celebrate this Diamond Jubilee occasion with rare pride that we have the longest publication history as the first and foremost English broadsheet national daily of Nepal. But the true spirit of celebration should not stop here. We feel that this is the occasion to make an objective introspection and stronger commitment to further enhance its readability and readership. We also feel that we have a long way to go to upgrade its quality standard, content diversification, journalistic professionalism and keep updated with technological advancements. This is a moment to renew our commitment for true dedication and hard work towards making the nation’s longest publishing English broadsheet daily, also the best. 

Published by the Gorkhapatra Corporation, the first state media house of Nepal, The Rising Nepal was launched on Thursday, 16 December 1965. It is a sister publication of Gorkhapatra in Nepali language which has a long publication history of 124 years. Gorkhapatra was initially published as a weekly and later became a daily whereas The Rising Nepal was a daily newspaper in broadsheet size from the very beginning. 

This newspaper came into existence when Nepal was under absolute monarchy. But in the past half-century since its launching, epoch-making political and social transformations have taken place in the country. Following two major popular movements, the country is now governed under a federal republican democratic constitution. 

Its founders aimed to disseminate information about Nepal, especially the government policies, to the rest of the world. In those days, it served as an official source of information to the educated elite and the diplomatic missions based in Nepal. 

The founding vision of this newspaper was made clear in the launching issue editorial which says, “We shall give expression to those views that are national rather than sectional. But national views won’t be expressed through suppression of sectional elements but through their harmonization.”  Yet another point from the first editorial talks about the international objective of the paper, “We intensely believe in the ideals of the United Nations and such questions as understandings between East and West. Within such general outlook, we are interested in telling about our own country and the people.”

“….. Nepal has her own point of view, her own hopes and fears, her own likes and dislikes. The Rising Nepal is here to take up the task of expressing this point of view. If through our columns we are able in our own modest way to help those friends of Nepal all over the world supplement their knowledge about Nepal and her people we shall feel ourselves amply rewarded,” the first issue editorial says. 

The Rising Nepal was published after India visit of King Mahendra where he saw different broadsheet English language newspapers carrying news about him. The king had floated the idea of publishing such a newspaper in Nepal with the accompanying officials. Back home, high level officials discussed the matter with Gorkhapatra Corporation officials and an editorial team with command in English language and communication knowledge was readied.  

“The Rising Nepal was launched because Nepal had felt the need to give its voice to the world directly, and not through India,” former Chief Editor of The Rising Nepal Mana Ranjan Josse had shared with this author a few years ago. 

It has been the professional legacy of The Rising Nepal to stay away from biased news. During the National Referendum of early May 1980, it had adopted the policy of neutral news coverage by maintaining a balance between the multi-party and party-less sides. King Birendra had issued an instruction to give equal treatment to both sides, recalls senior journalist P Kharel, who joined this newspaper seven years after it was launched and worked with it for 20 years and resigned, only to return as its Editor-in-Chief in December 1994 and served in the post for two years.

The Rising Nepal also covered the news about the demise of BP Koirala in July 1982 with due priority and without any bias. Regarding this, then Chief Editor Josse said, “We covered Koirala’s death with deserving priority as a leader and I wrote an editorial on it.”

While the Gorkhapatra came into being in 1901 during the Rana rule, thanks to the pro-public initiative by reformist prime minister Dev Shumsher, The Rising Nepal was born during the direct rule of King Mahendra. “The palace faced a barrage of criticism abroad that it had suppressed freedom of expression. To counter them, it tried to appear tolerant of its opposition and promoting national interests. This paper was instrumental in this effort,” writes Aditya Man Shrestha, one of the members of the founding editorial team of this newspaper.  

Shrestha shared that there was a time when a person aspiring to become a Nepali ambassador abroad had to get his article published in The Rising Nepal. As the king read this paper every day, an aspirant envoy had to come in the monarch’s notice through his/her published article as a mandatory qualification. “For this reason, the editors would be under great pressure to publish such articles.”

The Rising Nepal has covered notable international events like the landing of the manned Apollo mission on the moon, break-up of the Soviet Union, and outstanding national events like the national referendum, Jana Aandolan I, restoration of democracy, re-entry and abolition of absolute monarchy, Maoist armed insurgency, Jana Andolan II, declaration of Federal Republic, Gorkha earthquake of April 2015, promulgation of the new constitution in 2015 and the COVID-19 pandemic.   

A striking feature of The Rising Nepal is its uninterrupted publication even during national crisis situations including the mega Gorkha earthquake of 2015 and the complete lockdown of human activities during the COVID-19 emergency in 2020. The number of pages were scaled down during such crisis time but publishing never halted. When protestors stormed and set Gorkhapatra Corporation office on fire in May 1979, this paper did not halt the publication. It was printed in tabloid size for some time from then HMG’s Printing Press in Singha Durbar.  

Editors in the helm 

Barun Shumsher Rana, a political science Master’s degree holder from India’s Allahabad University, was the founding Editor of The Rising Nepal who also headed two other English language weeklies, The Nepalese Perspective and Sunday Despatch published by the Gorkhapatra Corporation. He was also the longest serving chief editor of The Rising Nepal with his tenure spanning for 10 years, one month and 10 days. The first editorial team of The Rising Nepal headed by Rana comprised of Mana Ranjan Josse, Bharat Datta Koirala, Aditya Man Shrestha, Madan Regmi and Krishna Bhakta Shrestha. 

Chief Editor Barun Shumsher Rana was succeeded by Mana Ranjan Josse, Shyam Bahadur KC.  and Dr. Taranath Sharma. Dr. Sharma was only the Chief Editor of The Rising Nepal who was not an employee of the Gorkhapatra Corporation before taking up the post. Parsuram Kharel, Lok Deep Thapa and Bijay Lal Shrestha were the Chief Editors of The Rising Nepal who also headed the Sunday Despatch weekly. Jawahar Krishna Manandhar, Gyan Bahadur Rai, Ajay Shumsher Rana and Yuba Nath Lamsal have served two terms as the Chief Editor of this newspaper. Gopal Chandra Sharma served as its Chief Editor for the shortest tenure of 21 days followed by Pushkar Bhakta Mathema who served for three months and 10 days. So far, a total of 15 journalists have served as the Chief Editors of The Rising Nepal. Bhimsen Thapaliya is currently serving as its Editor-in-Chief. 

Now The Rising Nepal is published both in print and online versions. Its HTML content was first uploaded on the Internet on Sunday February 23, 1997 (12 Fagun 2053 BS) which was hosted by the site SOUTH/ASIA.COM of Mercantile Communications. The first online portal of The Rising Nepal and Gorkhapatra—www.gorkhapatra.org.np -- was launched on Tuesday May 7, 2002 (24 Baishakh 2059). This domain was converted into https://www.gorkhapatraonline.com in December 2012 . The Rising Nepal’s own web domain trnonline.org.np was created on Friday, 13 September 2013. The latest TRN domain with the name risingnepaldaily.com was introduced on 16 June 2019.

The Rising Nepal and Gorkhapatra adopted current new look on Thursday, 14 April 2022 (1st Baishakh 2079) to mark the Nepali New Year day. Initiative for this transformation in design, font and display was taken by current Executive Chairman of the Corporation Bishnu Prasad Subedi. This change has received encouraging feedback.

The Rising Nepal aims to stand out in today’s confusing and often misleading media scenario by catering the readers with factual, authentic and useful information rather than taking comfort in gaudy and short-lasting sensationalism.  

(The author is the Editor-in-Chief of The Rising Nepal.)