One of the most incredible journeys I undertook during the writing of All Roads Lead North was to Mustang, to the north of Pokhara. Until a decade ago, one…
From the 17th century till the 1960s, Newar traders from Kathmandu regularly crossed over into Tibet, where they set up trading establishments, lived for years at a stretch, and…
An essay-review of Dalit: A Quest for Dignity, and how caste has been central to the imagination of the Nepali state
In 1800, a monk who called himself Swami Nirgunanda arrived in Banaras. His name was Rana Bahadur Shah, king of Nepal, and he was ready to give the kingdom away.
In 1950, a bunch of Nepali revolutionaries decided to smuggle in guns from Burma to overthrow the Ranas. This is their story.
My columns mostly talk about Nepali history, culture and politics, with notes from some travels across the country.
Among all the princely states in South Asia, Nepal had the unique distinction of being ‘independent’ under British colonialism. Why?