Word: nepal
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most of the world's newly independent nations lack the traditions and the training to make democracy work. Yet such is the magic of the word that dictators use it to justify their own brand of one-man rule. Indonesia's Sukarno and Nepal's King Mahendra call it "guided democracy," Guinea's Touré has "total democracy," Egypt's Nasser his "presidential democracy." The strongman most entitled to claim "democracy" for an essentially undemocratic system may well be Pakistan's benevolent dictator, President Mohammed Ayub Khan. His catch phrase: "basic democracies...
...revered as a reincarnation of Vishnu and also known as King of Kings, Five Times Godly, Valorous Warrior, Divine Emperor, ascended his throne in 1955. It had been secured for him by his father, who four years earlier toppled the prolific and powerful Rana family, which had ruled Nepal for a century. The young King was filled with democratic good intentions. A poet as well as a pragmatic politician, he personally edited a constitution for his 9,000,000 people (91 % illiterate) and gave his consent to Nepal's first national election...
...Nepali Congress Party led by India-trained B. P. Koirala, who advocated the same vaguely socialistic ideas that animate India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Late in 1960, when Koirala pushed through legislation subjecting landlords to a property tax and expropriating large estates for the benefit of Nepal's millions of landless peasants, King Mahendra abruptly dissolved Parliament, jailed Koirala and as many of his Cabinet ministers as the inept Nepali police could lay hands on. After suppressing the nation's 15 political parties, the King has ruled through an appointed six-man Cabinet headed by brash...
Hasty Raids. Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress exiles gathered in Calcutta, where their grievances against the King won quick sympathy from Indian press and politicians. Though conceding that Nepal is a sovereign state, India has continued the practice of the British raj in trying to exercise control over the mountain kingdom. Nehru's government poured $56 million in economic aid into Nepal and supplied it with arms; in return, Nepal exports to India rice, timber, and the tough little Gurkha soldiers who make up India's crack regiments...
India's appeasement only encouraged the Chinese to go further. China is plainly working to put India into the jaws of a giant Himalayan nutcracker. Recently China concluded a road-building treaty with Nepal, is offering economic aid to the Himalayan kingdoms of Sikkim and Bhutan. The significance of the Chinese pincers movement finally occurred even to Menon. "A stab in the back," he com plained last month. "When did you realize this?" gibed Election Rival J. B. Kripalani in Parliament. "The day before yesterday?" But Menon still urged caution against "adventurism," said that the Chinese Communists should withdraw...