A People's History of Nepal By Meena Ojha

A People’s History of Nepal is a ground-breaking treatise, bringing to light the epoch-making events that transformed the Himalayan nation from the darkness of Middle Ages to the modern-day republic. The author celebrates momentous contributions of the Nepalese people who played a heroic role in shaping the current face of the Nepalese polity.

Dr Ojha begins with the background of the 1950 Democratic Movement and moves on to analyze several key events including King Tribhuwan’s participation, King Mahendra’s Royal Takeover in 1960, and its aftermath in detail. In the following chapters, the key upheavals during one-party Panchayat regime and the building of 1990 People’s Movement that ushered multiparty democracy in Nepal are presented empirically. Subsequently, the author delves into the raging decade involving the People’s Movement and the role of the political parties in the restoration of a multiparty system followed by the Direct Rule of King on October 4, 2002. The last chapters analyze the Maoist War 1996-2006 and the People’s Movement-2007 and the emergence of the Constituent Assembly in 2008. Employing primary and secondary sources like newspapers, leaflets and pamphlets, interviews with the actors and the participants in the democratic struggle, Dr. Ojha brings alive the turbulent years of the Nepalese people’s struggle to usher freedom, justice and democracy in numerous shades and colors. She expresses grief that even after seven decades of political struggle the major task of national development remains a distant dream even today.. This monumental book by a distinguished Nepalese woman scholar is a must to scholars, political analysts, policy makers as well lay readers interested in understanding undercurrents of the contemporary Nepalese history and politics.