Dev Raj Dahal

The general propensity of humans and nations to actively perform helps them to keep away from vulnerabilities or extinction and take full advantage of the chances of self-preservation. National self-preservation is one of the powerful instincts that motivates the nation to fight for the quality of its lifelines’ continuity, survival, stability and progress. The natural instinct of self-preservation of Nepal animates a deep feeling of Nepalis to defend the identity of self as a sovereign nation and struggle to create a level playing field for them so that it does not get overwhelmed by outside powers’ manoeuvre leading to subordination to their shadow.

Several particulars are, however, critical for this: freedom from the steady pressure of people to satisfy their physical needs for survival, political need of leaders for mobility and moral need of nation to cooperate with other nations so that it is not caught off guard, unable to decide the independent manoeuvre. The last one legitimises one’s own actions and reciprocates many matters to compensate for the deficiency of each other's nations. When the people’s survival needs are well satisfied and they no longer fear the chronic scarcity and insecurity to their lives it provides solid ground to look for a secured national identity. This is the reason Prithvi Narayan Shah favoured economic mercantilism, native production in agriculture and industry and consumption of local goods and allowed the surplus for entrepôt trade across the borders in Tibet, Sikkim, Bhutan and northern India.

Suffocating dependency
Like Machiavelli, PN Shah feared the implication of suffocating dependence on outside powers on essential needs and was conscious of the squandering of a nation's wealth if outside traders and cultural entertainers are allowed their business in the nation. What current leaders are fostering is the diversification of dependence. It may provide a semblance of relative autonomy, not self-reliance and sovereign choice. The dignity and integrity of the nation grows with the enrichment of ecological, economic, cultural, intellectual and spiritual life and the consciousness arising from what Shah said, “unpolluted sacred spiritual space” of Nepal Mandala.

Political acculturation of Nepalis and their leaders in both historical memory and national consciousness is important to enable national culture to hold sub-cultures and sustain self-discipline and self-knowledge in matters of ancestral free spirit. It can motivate them to fight for national independence even if they have to survive under austere life, than being enamoured by the alchemy of glittering modernity and captivated by the imperial and hegemonic gleam looming in the national horizon and focusing their geopolitical gaze. Is it the spiritual sacredness of the nation, a return to its own source of enlightenment, blessing of geophysical features or national self-determination of leaders and people that set Nepal’s survival eternal even in turbulent times?

The unification of Nepal under the leadership of Gorkha King PN Shah, his son Bahadur Shah and bhardars (courtiers) grounded in military political culture, diplomacy and marriage alliance was a pivotal moment in Nepal’s history. The new state of Nepal grew in strength and significance for its strategic geography dominating most of the Himalayas, as a vital part of the Eurasian heartland, where great game then and even now is played. Other factors, such as trade, pilgrimage, site of spiritual retreat and sublime image of Shangri-La have shaped outsider’s imagination of Nepal. PN Shah knew well the importance of geography to the formulation of strategy to ward off foreign powers. He regarded them as potential foes, did not let them come closer and knew how to react to the self-obsessed British-Indian Empire then ruling the Indian subcontinent and keeping the Celestial Chinese Empire in good humour.

He crafted an active national self-defence policy based on critical resources — political will of leadership based on support of elites and people, financial strength of the state, military strategy, policies and long-term vision of adaptability.  Active self-defence is a positive approach for national survival while warding off outside powers through effective resistance is a negative one. The combination of both positive and negative strategies has a single political purpose that is to guarantee national integrity, viability, sovereignty and independence -- all are coalesced with the survival interest of Nepal.

The old geopolitical truth of Nepal spelled out by PN Shah “a yam between two huge boulders,” can find greater resonance and strategic pivot if current leaders learn from his political testament, the Dibya Upadesh and remain guided by its precepts. It defines Nepal’s place in the world, offers a coherent worldview and direction to shape foreign policies away from externally conditioned buffer status. It has also set overall domestic policies and obligations of the state to feed the people through the distribution of various categories of land to them, protect them and the nation and enlighten them through the spread of classical treaties written in poem, song, story and drama so that each is bound by the social discipline and duty to each other and remain loyal to the nation.

His consultative mode of decision making reflecting public opinion in the appointment of Prime Minister prevented polarised politics and the game of proxy played by external powers by drawing aspiring elites to their competing game and indulging in factious politics like now. The nation’s constant need to fend off the expanding external powers required multi-pronged policies, constant surveillance, anticipatory planning, marshalling of human and non-human resources and enriching the knowledge and social capital embedded in syncretic culture, the nation’s majestic natural and cultural beauty, Hindu-Buddhist religions and countless cults, Nepali language as a lingua franca and mountainous topography all providing muscle to centripetal forces of society and serving as a safety valve.

PN Shah feared the infection of instinctively aping alien knowledge, laws, culture and religion inverse to native dharma that narrated the interconnection of human life and various scales of accountability. Yet he was not averse in importing superior technology, arms and good practices of others. The orientation and cultural and spiritual consciousness of Nepali people grew steadily. Leaders, educators, poets, singers and artists began to spread the indomitable spirit of patriotism, imperative of national unity and pride in matribhumi, the motherland. Nepali language too played its part in enlarging national communicative space for oneness and greatness of the nation set up by him.

Nepal’s obsession with territorial integrity then and even now is not unreasonable given the vulnerability of its frontier regions and exposure of the centre to centrifugal forces of politics stoking “national liberation fronts,” stirring up “ancient grievances and perception of injustice,” and fomenting identity-crazy fundamentalism at class, ethnic, caste, religious, territorial and market level to catapult oneself to power. It is allowing geopolitical penetration without limits to the nation’s capacity to withstand and bridge the gap between “we” and “they,” not transforming mini identities of Nepalis into the meta identity of equal citizens.

The act of national self-preservation is obviously the art of national selfishness that aims to promote both public and national interests in times of peace and adversity. To do so Nepal followed a pro-active strategy in defining the destiny of the nation with its own raison d'être and cautiously building trust and improving relations with the neighbours on the basis of institutional memory and new needs of balancing, self-distancing, neutralism and nonalignment. The cultivation of internal consolidation and national consciousness and proper foreign policy has become indispensable means to improve national resilience. This is the reason PN Shah has well-defined the nation’s path for the future. All questions of foreign policy have linkages with keeping geophysical integrity, domestic social cohesion, protection of national culture, proper economic statecraft and leadership deftness.

The esprit de corps of Nepali people and leaders to defend national space as an elan vital, the vital impulse, for national self-preservation in unfavourable geopolitical circumstances allowed to uphold the tradition, ideals and constitutional vision and escape from the limitations imposed by landlockedness, claustrophobia and inferiority complex. The well-codified laws during King Ram Shah of Gorkha which later provided vital inputs to the drafting of national Muluki Ain (civil code) for Nepal became a common formation of law, regulation of life, public order and justice beyond dynastic interests. “If justice is denied, go to Gorkha '' captures the sanity of laws rooted in impartiality, justice and morality in those days beyond the legal sophistry of today.

The instinct of self-preservation of Nepal during PN Shah’s time and later also required it to become reactive in foreign policy and rebound the nation’s external freedom of manoeuvre, even withdrawing oneself to splendid isolation and retreat to the mountains to defend self while protecting the integrity of Terai, the fertile plain that together with several beautiful valleys have the potential to generate economic surplus for national survival and prosperity if economic policy is geared to production diversification, not revenue-based only. This means Nepal had redefined its security perimeter and remained vigilant of British-India’s manoeuvre. British-India’s imperial ambition to expand and PN Shah’s policy to pushback strategy aiming self-preservation prompted him to invoke selfish genes that are a basis of self-rule and national self-determination.

It is hard to define who are we Nepalis it the culture, spirituality, laws and genealogy of knowledge that gave national identity are discredited for materialistic determinism and allurements considering them traditional and new values are left unconsolidated leaving scholars unable to surmise what have we become. It is the history, memory and cultural aspirations and linguistic continuity that determine the continued existence of Nepali identity, more than geography and biology. As a result, attentive Nepalis continue to struggle to make a social mosaic of great complexity boom and recall national history for future coherence, unity, agility and eloquence in spite of critical odds created by power brokers now who see no end to transitional politics in the tumultuous geopolitical zone. It is reminiscent of how the struggle of outside powers to fill the power vacuum left by the death of King Bahadur Shah then and state restructuring now have turned Nepal wobbly.

Multi-polarity
Now the world has moved from imperial days to multi-polarity now. Yet, the geographical pivot of Nepal between two mega neighbours- India and China and their competitive aspirations driven by security concerns and global power status have not changed. It requires Nepal to deal warily with a precarious situation between regime affinity and economic and strategic imperatives and address their security dilemma. Technology has compressed geography and amplified the outreach of neighbours and their maturity to manage interdependence through cooperation and competition. It has offered Nepal certain leverage to carefully roll in the world stage without alienating either of them, even the nation’s development partners.

China’s ascent as global game-changer has rendered Nepal’s buffer status against it obsolete while landlinkedness, connectivity and strategic partnership require it new adaptation measures. Therefore, India is suggesting Nepal to look to the South and the East while the USA to the Indo-Pacific region. The regime change strategy of India and the West has expanded larger strategic space for them in Nepal glued by soft capital compatibility of democracy, human rights, laws, education, development policies and political acculturation of leaders. But they are in no way sufficiently critical to neutralise the lure of China for Nepalis as the scale of Chinese aid, investment, multi-sectoral cooperation, tourism and concerns in Nepal have amplified.

Nepal’s future between China and the USA plus India contesting the former's position demand it to balance the interests of both poles and shape shared interests. The lesson PN Shah has left on how to navigate this pluriverse state to nation-building, sail in the shifting balance of power and cautiously play diplomacy on all sides is instructive.  It is a lesson Nepali leaders must learn  on how to recover from the current foreign policy of immobility, keep self-preservation robust and vault again as a powerful actor because of its strategic geography linking India, China and other powers. 

(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)