Jung Bahadur’s destitute descendants

"If it pleases your highness, please partake of your repast,” says a woman dressed in a frayed kurta, using the courtly language of Nepal’s royalty. 

The words seem completely out of place in the simple rented flat on the banks of the Manahara River in Kathmandu. Yamjit Pratap, 81, nods in assent, and sits on the dusty floor for his meal of dal, rice and vegetable curry.   

Few in this run-down neighbourhood know that Yamjit Pratap is a descendant of Jung Bahadur Rana, who took power in a bloody coup in 1847 and founded a dynasty that lasted till 1948. But unlike other flamboyant members of the Rana clan who carry the ‘Jung Bahadur’ as their middle names, he lives in penury with his wife, ‘queen’ Narayani. 

Yamjit Pratap is the sixth generation after Jung Bahadur, tracing his ancestry through his father Shiva Pratap and forebears Chandra Pratap, Yuddha Pratap and Jagat Jung, Jang Bahadur's oldest son. Jagat Jung was married to Tika Rajya Laxmi, the daughter of King Surendra Shah, which was how the Rana and Shah dynasties secured family ties in those days.

Read also: The Rana reign, Kunda Dixit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdDtv942quI&feature=youtu.be

When Jung Bahadur died in Bara in 1876, family infighting for succession soon broke up the clan. The Shumshers, descended from Jung’s brother Dhir Shumsher, chased Jung's family out of the Kathmandu Valley. Remnants of the Rana clan who are today found in Sindhuli, Dhankuta, Palpa and Nepalganj are also descendants of Jung Bahadur’s immediate family. 

Yamjit Pratap's own ancestors had settled in Parewa Danda of Sindhuli, and needed special visas to come to Kathmandu for family functions, festivals or medical treatment. Yamjit Pratap himself got a job in Biratnagar to support his family, and even bought some property. But he came to Kathmandu in the 1990s and filed a case in the Supreme Court to claim inheritance to Jung Bahadur’s property. 

The Supreme Court did decide in his favour, ruling that the property by the Manahara belonged to Jung Bahadur’s descendants. The family got back the land after 121 years but after dividing it among the many families, Yamjit Pratap got only a tiny plot, but even that plot has not been transferred to his name because of bureaucracy. He has filed three more cases, including for the land surrounding Jung Bahadur's property around Kalmochan Ghat in Teku.

Yamjit Pratap's son Nirakar works for an airline in Kathmandu, and can barely support the family of five. Despite this, the neighbours still call Yamjit Pratap by his royal appellation, ‘raja saheb’, which he finds quite natural. Yamjit Pratap is irritated that his children had to read history books in school that accuse their ancestors of plundering the country. 

Jung Bhahdur's descendants perform annual memorial ritual at Kalmochan ghat in Teku on Wednesday 25 September.

"We have a hard time paying for our basic necessities, if we fall sick we do not have money for treatment,” says Yamjit Pratap, who recounts family lore about Jung Bahadur, his brilliance and his meteoric rise in Nepali politics.

There is a large portrait of Jung Bahadur in the home, and even after so many generations Yamjit Pratap’s family still perform an annual memorial ritual for an ancestor who so dramatically changed the course of Nepali history.

Read also: Jung Bahadur's Tip, Subodh Rana