They say you can choose your enemies, but not your neighbours. This rings true especially for small nation states bordering much larger ones.
And that is also what Mao Zedong told King Mahendra in Beijing in 1967, and it is the message successive Chinese leaders have given to Nepal’s rulers ever since: be clever, don’t rock the boat, learn to live with India.&nbsp;
In Beijing in 1988, Deng Xiaoping and Rajiv Gandhi demarcated each other's &nbsp;spheres of influence: south of the Himalaya India calls the shots, and north of it (including Tibet) China does.&nbsp;
Lila Nyaichyai, who did her PhD on Chinese Public Diplomacy in Nepal from Yunnan University, says China’s main concern in Nepal is stability.
“As a country grows to become a global power, its aspirations do too,” she says. “But China hasn’t cared much about whether Nepal is a monarchy, a democracy, or a federal republic as long as it is politically stable for development.”
Nepal’s royal rulers navigated the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States successfully, getting both to contribute to the country’s development. But the dramatic rise of India and China as global powers, and the fact that they are rivals in Nepal’s immediate neighbourhood has made the need for balance much more critical now.&nbsp;
A template could be the way Finland survived the Cold War between next door Soviet Union and the West. It did not join the Warsaw Pact, but its reference group was the other Nordics. The country decided to keep Moscow at arms length by appeasing it — a strategy that came to be called ‘Finlandisation’.
“Finlandisation was this attitude of yielding to pressure from a big brother,” Finnish journalist and author Katri Merikallio explained to me during a recent visit to Helsinki. “Finland remained independent, but its sovereignty was narrowed. There was a price to pay. We must acknowledge the risks that such a balancing involves, both for the sovereignty of a nation but also for internal politics.”
It was a survival tactic that saved Finland from being arm-twisted by the Soviet Union, like Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But today with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ‘Finlandisation’ is not in vogue anymore and Finland has joined NATO.
Nepal’s strategy of ‘equidistance’ between New Delhi and Beijing is somewhat similar to how Finland survived the Cold War. But it is a little more complicated than that. Indian strategists do not like the term ‘neutrality’ to characterise Nepal’s dealings with its regional rivals China and Pakistan.&nbsp;
South Asia is now in America’s blindspot with Trump’s turbulent second term, and without Washington’s countervailing presence geopolitics has become much more slippery than Prithvi Narayan Shah’s yam analogy.&nbsp;
Back in Kathmandu, former Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal of the UML contends that despite their differences, bigger countries do come to an understanding, often at the expense of smaller neighbours. An example of this is China’s refusal to get involved in Nepal's Limiyadhura dispute with India.
“It will not be easy, but we must maintain our policy of equidistance in dealing with India and China,” Rai Paudyal told us. “We must assure both that we are not a security threat, and that Nepal’s prosperity and stability is in their national interest as well.”
Nepal is the oldest nation state in South Asia, and has survived invasions, expansionist empires, and neighbours who do not see eye to eye with each other thanks to master strategists like Jang Bahadur Rana, Chandra Shumsher and King Mahendra.
Today, Nepal is one of the few remaining open societies in Asia with a free press, and a fragile yet rambunctious democracy. Yet feckless governments with leaders unskilled to steer a safe course in a volatile region means Nepal has never been as vulnerable to outside interference as it is today (page 1).
Here in Helsinki, NATO membership has finally finished off Finlandisation. It is a lesson for Nepal about how quickly the geopolitical terrain can shift and upend a nation’s established foreign policy doctrine. &nbsp;
Nepal needs to be supple and agile, pragmatic and self-confident. This will require monumental political reform marked by greater accountability, transparency, and good governance at home.&nbsp;
In other words, secure relations with our two giant neighbours needs sturdier domestic politics.
Sonia Awale in Helsinki

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Love thy neighbours

<figure><img width="4032" height="3016" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a34e89c7e80680e048280jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: NAMRATA SHARMA</figcaption></figure> A Helsingin Sanomat <a href="https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/daily_modern-day_slavery_pervasive_in_nepalese_restaurants/10715495?fbclid=IwAR00MnqJ7bP6k2rj3IziE3b6Ln2VWwGgmJF9vqiHm76JGng3a5aEQ4zahpo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">follow-up series this week </a>of a human trafficking ring operated by some Nepali restaurant owners in Helsinki has created an uproar in Finland, recently named the happiest country in the world. The investigative story by Paavo Teittinen builds on an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-restaurateurs-fined-in-finland/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expose published in this newspaper in January</a> in which a Nepali cook, who uses the pseudonym Maila, mustered the courage to report injustices he faced to Finnish Police.  Maila is named ‘Suman’ in the Helsingin Sanomat story since he still wants his identity concealed because of threats after the Nepali Times story came out. Finland’s largest-circulation newspaper has now revealed widespread exploitation of Nepalis by Nepali employers in Finland.  The story in this paper had named four Nepalis (Basanta Adhikari, Purna Adhikari, Srijana Ghimire and Ava Pokhrel) who were found guilty by the North Sawo District Court in Finland. They had €227,199 confiscated, were fined for tax fraud and fake accounts, and forced to pay compensation to Maila, and co-workers Kancha and Saila. The main accused got a conditional sentence of one year eight months.  Helsingin Sanomat has now gone deeper into the story and exposed how a closely-knit circle of employers brought desperate Nepalis to Finland, and violated Finnish <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nepal-not-reforming-labour-laws,2687" target="_blank" rel="noopener">labour laws</a> by under-paying them and evading taxes.  <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepali-restaurateurs-fined-in-finland/" data-elementor-open-lightbox="" target="_blank"> <img width="640" height="547" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a34ec9c7e80680e048281jpeg.jpg" alt=""></a> After the Nepali Times story came out in January, Maila was threatened and this journalist was cautioned that powerful Nepalis named in the story could retaliate.  In fact, this reporter refrained from naming two others, Devi Sharma and Hemraj Sharma, who many Nepali workers had accused of being involved.   A Nepali woman brought to Finland as a maid was made to work 24 hours a day in the home and restaurants without proper salary. She complained to Finnish Police after being sexually abused. She had asked this reporter last year not to mention her case, fearing retaliation.   Now, Helsingin Sanomat has disclosed that after an investigating lasting two years Helsinki Police suspect the couple Devi and Manju Sharma of trafficking the woman.  Both are from Gulmi, and set up the first Nepali restaurants, of which there are now more than 70 all over Finland. Most of these are owned by a handful of Nepalis settled here, mainly from Gulmi.   The first Nepali restaurant, Himalaya, was established in Helsinki in 1993 by Devi Sharma who with his wife Manju now also own Lali Gurans, Gurkha and Yeti restaurants. Hemraj Sharma runs Mount Everest restaurant. Maila’s complaint to Police was against Purna Adhikary of another restaurant, Mount Sherpa.  During a visit to Helsinki in 2018, cooks and waiters told this reporter of exploitation, threats and slave-like working conditions. But they were afraid of being named  because the powerful restaurant owners could have them fired, or even deported. Despite meagre pay, they needed their jobs to pay back loans and send money home to families in Nepal. Many restaurant workers suffer depression, and some have attempted suicide. <figure><img width="640" height="479" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a34ee9c7e80680e048282jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>  Sources said up to 2,000 Nepalis have been brought to Finland on work visas in the past 20 years by restaurant owners. Besides flouting Finland’s labour laws, some Nepali restauranteurs are also involved in money laundering and tax evasion. Hemraj Sharma told this reporter during a visit to his Mount Everest restaurant in Helsinki in 2018 that Nepalis were doing well in Finland, and denied that they were involved in anything illegal.  However, the Helsingin Sanomat quotes the maid who used to work for Devi Sharma as telling police he under-reported earnings, evaded tax and stashed cash in his house which he regularly sent with Nepalis travelling to Kathmandu.  Juha Rekola, the International Ombudsman of the Union of Journalists in Finland, who has frequently visited Nepal to train journalists, says he often dined at the Nepali restaurants mentioned in the Helsingin Sanomat report, but did not notice signs of trafficking or tax evasion.   Said Rekola: “When I first read the piece in Nepali Times in January, I thought that it is good that the problem has been uncovered and brought to court. But when Helsingin Sanomat exposed just how widespread it was, I thought, oh no, it cannot be this bad, not in Finland. It hits you worse when you see it in your own language morning paper.” <img width="1500" height="1086" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a34f19c7e80680e048283jpeg.jpg" alt=""> Rekola considers himself a well-wisher of Nepal, and says the blame has to be shared with Finns who ignore warnings that a cheap meal is proof of a grey economy.  “Nepali lunches are much cheaper given their quality and size, but people still go there trusting that it is ok,” Rekola adds, “our government has not put enough safeguards in place, making tax evasion easy. Tightened immigration laws also put many people in a vulnerable position to such blackmail.”  As for Maila, he feels vindicated after Finland’s most prestigious newspaper printed the plight of workers like him. “The risk I took by reporting his case to the police has yielded results, and this will help me and other like me,” said Maila, who still has not received the compensation that the court ordered the restaurant owners to give him.  <img width="1241" height="1754" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a34f49c7e80680e048284jpeg.jpg" alt=""> The Helsingin Sanomat report has tarnished the image of Nepal, Nepalis and Nepali restaurants in Finland, and many Finns are said to be in a dilemma about whether to eat in Nepali-owned restaurants or not. On the one hand they want to help Nepal and do not want law-abiding Nepalis to suffer, and on the other they do not want to support traffickers. The Non-Resident Nepali Association of Finland has been accused on social media of protecting powerful restaurant owners, and not helping the exploited workers. In response, the Association’s National Coordination Council released a statement this week saying it had not protected anyone accused of wrong-doing.  Asked what is next, Rekola told Nepali Times: “I just hope the genuine Nepali restaurants do not suffer, and the customers return. There should also be closer contact between restaurant owners and their Finnish customers who love Nepal and Nepali food.”  Helsingin Sanomat will be putting up an English and Nepali translation of the series by Paavo Teittinen on its digital edition this weekend.   (The original text of this story was updated at 10:00 Nepal Time 3 April)

Finnish paper exposé on Nepali restaurants

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a23089c7e80680e0417c4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1133" height="720"/>Nepali restaurants in Finland have become so popular in the past 20 years that in many places they have started replacing Indian diners in Helsinki and other cities. It now looks like there was a dark side to this success: four Nepalis restauranteurs in Finland have been found guilty of human trafficking, discrimination and tax evasion.One of the Nepali migrant restaurant workers, Maila, was brought to Finland by an accused to work in Mount Sherpa restaurant in the town of Kuopio in Varkaus district court. Police started investigating the establishment after he filed a complaint, and found two more Nepalis were also underpaid.After the verdict, Maila has had to endure threatening messages from his former employers. “I was aware enough to know my rights, but most Nepalis who come here are not. I wanted to show fellow Nepalis that they have to be aware of the risks,” he says.There are a range of Nepalis in Finland from engineers and managers, teachers, as well as students who sometimes work on the side as cooks and waiters. Earnings are good, and Nepali restaurants have become popular in Finland with their modified menus that combine naan and curry combined with dal bhat and momos.But beneath the surface, there have been indications that all is not well. There was no problem if they worked in Finnish companies as the labour laws are clear and strict. But when workers are brought to Finland through personal connection, they have to accept the salary offered so they can pay back loans.  Few Nepali workers are not willing to talk for fear of losing even the jobs they have, but the Finnish press has reported on South Asian restaurants selling work visas, trafficking, and violating Finnish labour and tax laws.Last month, Finnish District Court Judge Minna Koskinen from North Sawo District Court found four Nepalis Basanta Adhikari, Purna Adhikari, Srijana Ghimire and Ava Pokhrel  guilty, fined them a total of € 227,199 and sentenced the main employer to prison for 1 year and eight months and another to six months. They also had to compensate Maila, Kancha and Saila with back pay.Maila has a masters degree in Business Management, but could not find a job so took cook training to work abroad. When a friend approached him to go as a cook to Finland where his brother owned a Nepali restaurant, he readily agreed to migrate.An agreement he signed with the owner set a full salary as per Finnish government rules, and working hours stipulated by local labour laws with weekends off. However, he was made to work round the clock with no weekends. The employer also opened two accounts in Maila’s name, one having salaries as per the contract to show the Finnish authorities. But he kept bank cards which he and his wife used for personal expenses. He deposited some money into Maila’s other account. Police used evidence from the two bank cards in their investigation, and presented it to the court.Maila says he learnt this was standard operating procedure in many Nepali restaurants in Finland. After a year-and-half, Maila filed a complaint, but first had to prepare to be ostracised by the Nepali community. He says he wanted to make his employers and other South Asians here accountable to their workers who were mostly not educated, not aware of their rights, or afraid to raise their voices against their employers.“As laws in Finland are very strict, we do not get involved in legal issues of Nepali workers here,” explains Basanta Gautam of the Non-resident Nepali (NRN) National Coordination Council of Finland, “however, we think there is a need of awareness to both employees and employers regarding employment rules and regulations in Finland.”As per Finnish law, since all five perpetrators admitted to their crimes and agreed to pay all financial obligations together with interest and taxes, they have been exempted from imprisonment, but will remain under probation.Another Nepali in Finland says many migrant workers have come to Finland on verbal agreement from a restaurant owner, but they are desperate to get a toe-hold in Europe. Employers think they are actually doing the workers a favour by bringing them over, and some restauranteurs say not all worker complaints are valid and they “play the victim card”.NRN CEO Hemant Dawadi says: “Safe Migration and respectable foreign employment concerns us, and we provide advice and counselling whenever approached.” He admitted that NRN had no figures for the number of Nepalis who work in establishments owned and managed by the diaspora. Although the organisation gets frequent complaints, Gautam says the NRN Associaton is not a policing authority.After the verdict, Maila has had to endure threatening messages from his former employers. “I was aware enough to know my rights, but most Nepalis who come here are not. I wanted to show fellow Nepalis that they have to be aware of the risks.”Some names have been changed.

Nepali restaurateurs fined in Finland

One aspect of colonial cartography of South Asia leaps out in this must-see exhibition – while the coastline of India, Ceylon, Burma are extraordinarily accurate in maps made more than 200 years ago, the Himalayan hinterland is wholly approximate and inexact. The accuracy improves as modern survey techniques are introduced by atlas-makers, but even then formidable terrain and forbidden lands thwart precision. Map aficionados will be fascinated by the 40 antique maps from The Rajbhandari Collection on display at the exhibition ‘Imaging South Asia: Nepal in the Making at Kathmandu Art Gallery’ at Baber Mahal Revisited from 13 February - 17 March.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_0cbeb88674a97c6292e2b43b2135df219257ca641cbd4723e9aabf5541c2b258.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260211090252_0cbeb88674a97c6292e2b43b2135df219257ca641cbd4723e9aabf5541c2b258" data-rendition-name="original" width="4160" height="3485" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  The first maps were made on clay tablets and cave paintings, but maps improved with Chinese maritime charts of Southeast Asia and beyond. Nautical maps created during the European Age of Exploration used geometry, latitude and longitude. Competition for colonial riches rested on the accuracy of these maps. The Portuguese had the lead in the 15th century, but were soon overtaken by the Spanish with Columbus voyaging to India but landing up in the Americas.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_1fb21d20cf29b408119f5279ce666e73dee089356e52277d753a27e3440364eb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260211090252_1fb21d20cf29b408119f5279ce666e73dee089356e52277d753a27e3440364eb" data-rendition-name="original" width="4030" height="3407" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  European mapping of the coastline of peninsular India &nbsp;began after Vasco de Gama sailed around the Horn of Africa to arrive at what is now Kerala in 1498. The British and French struggled for control of India, and the Carnatic Wars of the 19th century were extensions of their rivalry in Europe.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_0fb0969dc3e07c5a77123b4aa5eb0f11d2ffea73c108077f7e4d1892d6bd4bb6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260211090252_0fb0969dc3e07c5a77123b4aa5eb0f11d2ffea73c108077f7e4d1892d6bd4bb6" data-rendition-name="original" width="2842" height="4160" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  While most of the maps at this exhibition were commissioned by the East India Company and the Survey of India, there are quite a few made by Parisian cartographers and feature Pondicherry and the Danish trading outpost at Tranquebar. Followed chronologically, the maps show improvements in cartographic techniques. The earliest French map L’Inde of J D Barbié du Bocage from 1760 is a copper engraving with hand painted colours demarcating boundaries. ‘Napaul’, ‘Gorka’ and ‘Catmando’ are depicted. The rivers of India are precisely drawn, as is the Brahmaputra (Yarou Tsanpou) even though locations across the rest of Tibet are rough estimates.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_486dc1b12f391550516be164f27170d4702a69b5125c1b8c4b10f76fdae4c0b1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260211090252_486dc1b12f391550516be164f27170d4702a69b5125c1b8c4b10f76fdae4c0b1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1675" height="604" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  The 1781 map Carte des Indes en deçà et au-delà du Gange of Rigobert Bonne has slightly more detail about Nepal with even ‘Pattan’ and ‘Bagmally’ river marked. William Darton’s 1802 map has ‘Nogarcot’ and ‘Mocaumpour’ wrongly placed to the east of the valley of ‘Napaul’. Samuel Arrowsmith’s 1828 map ‘India and the Birman Empire’ has Nepal’s rough boundaries demarcated for the first time within a hand-coloured green border, with the mountain ‘Dholagiri’ and ‘Dhunchi’ appearing for the first time. The 1835 map by Boston-based American cartographer Thomas Bradford has a more precise ‘Burrampooter’ river with ‘Sgigatoe’, ‘Lassa’ and ‘Bootan’ marked. In Nepal, ‘Batgan’, ‘Macwampour’ and ‘Lelit Pattan’ appear near ‘Catmandu’.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_5509c8e043a74b3e34e399c0684ca8eef7fc79953ee0dd18aedc738e8189d552.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260211090252_5509c8e043a74b3e34e399c0684ca8eef7fc79953ee0dd18aedc738e8189d552" data-rendition-name="original" width="4094" height="3646" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  One striking landmark appears consistently through a century of map-making from 1760 onwards, and that is the sacred Yamdrok Tso near Lhasa. It is precisely located, although it is drawn as a circular lake called ‘Jamdro or Palto Lake’ till J Bartholomew’s lithographic map in 1893 Constable’s Hand Atlas of India. Bartholomew’s map is also where ‘Mt Everest’ appears for the first time with its altitude ’29,002ft’ after Peak XV was calculated to be the highest mountain in the world by the Survey of India. Meanwhile, ‘Kinchinjunga’ appears in some of the earlier maps from the mid-1800s, north of ‘Dorjeloo’. The maps did not only have locations of towns, rivers and mountains but also other interesting facts about places. History buffs will find much to pore over in these maps.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_8280c979b175946a2ac29e22b7a2b2427f7f36f22093c3456524f1f529311498.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260211090252_8280c979b175946a2ac29e22b7a2b2427f7f36f22093c3456524f1f529311498" data-rendition-name="original" width="4160" height="2762" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Many have sites of major British battles while conquering India. The ‘British India’ map by J Rapkin has dates and times of the ‘Principle Massacres’ during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The map also shows India’s growing railway network with completed lines and those ‘in progress’. Narrow gauge lines can be seen in successive maps snaking up to the Nepal border to haul sal logs for sleepers for India’s expanding railway network. Many maps were drawn by British military intelligence. One even has the Kuti route of the Nepal Army while invading Tibet in 1791, and the Chinese Army’s advance in hot pursuit through Kerung to Nuwakot.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_a41ff6a7453f95d1e83c12ed3f831911d65ebd4d2389e0e3b774252dfa037132.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260211090252_a41ff6a7453f95d1e83c12ed3f831911d65ebd4d2389e0e3b774252dfa037132" data-rendition-name="original" width="1173" height="679" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Pre-1857 maps show the western Tarai as a part of British India, but in later ones the Naya Muluk districts of Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur have reverted back to Nepal. The maps clearly mark Nepal as an independent nation, and represent it differently from Indian princely states. The Atlas of India of 1846 shows the ‘Dominion of the King of Nepal’.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260211090252_52132146d9ee8b922560b98e90d866149715d7f53ced408b5f3af8f3b142a07b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260211090252_52132146d9ee8b922560b98e90d866149715d7f53ced408b5f3af8f3b142a07b" data-rendition-name="original" width="4149" height="3682" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Visitors will be curious about Nepal's claim to Limpiyadhura and Lipu Lek. A map by Mason &amp; Payne from 1846 clearly shows the ‘Kallee River’ as being the border between Nepal and British India, with Kalapni within Nepal. The Lipu Gad tributary (which India claims is the border) is not marked. Some other maps, however, seem to show the border not following the Kali river to Limpiyadhura but the tributary up to Lipu Lek.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026021112024_9a1b6055a9fbecca7b64c3882c205efb336aac03e64ecf43a2044cb079cd699f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2026021112024_9a1b6055a9fbecca7b64c3882c205efb336aac03e64ecf43a2044cb079cd699f" data-rendition-name="original" width="875" height="1215" loading="lazy" alt="Map Land NT"> </figure>  Imaging South Asia: Nepal in the Making&nbsp; Kathmandu Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited&nbsp; 13 February – 17 March For guided walk-throughs and curatorial tours: +977 1-5318048 Panel discussions: -Cartographic Practices from the &nbsp;Gorkha Polity to the Present with Buddhi Narayan Shrestha and Kanak Mani Dixit&nbsp; Friday, 13 February, 4pm -Mapping Beyond Borders with Akhilesh Upadhyay and Amish Raj Mulmi Wednesday, 25 February, 4pm&nbsp;

Map land

The recent Nepali Times Substack post titled ‘Unresident Nepalis’ made me realise I also belong to the category of Nepalis who are technically Non-resident Nepali (NRN), but want to ‘permanently reside inside Nepal’.&nbsp;
Although this was meant as a joke, it is ironic that many of those who go abroad long to come back home, and those who have not emigrated cannot think of a good enough reason to stay back in Nepal.&nbsp;
As soon as the NRN Citizenship was officially introduced in late 2023, I had tried to apply for one but was shut down before even submitting my documents as the district administration office firmly told my then lawyer that I needed to prove “तिन पुस्ता” proof of three generations of Nepalis from my father’s side.&nbsp;
My late father was from Japan and relinquished his citizenship to become a Naturalised Nepali citizen in 2006. Three years ago, I dismissed the rejection with the thought that I will try again later when government officials would gain more experience with such applications.&nbsp;
Now, with an ailing mother and an energetic toddler, I felt the need to act soon and reached out to a law firm that specialises in NRN citizenship applications. To my surprise, they were positive after reviewing my documents, although they did warn me that we may need to overcome some obstacles.&nbsp;
In 2023, I had applied in the district office where my father had received his naturalised citizenship, but now the suggestion was to try from the district where my mother had received her Nepali ancestral origin “बंसागज” citizenship.&nbsp;
The lawyers pointed to the NRN citizenship mandate which clearly states that it can be acquired via a Nepali origin father, mother, grandfather or grandmother. The firm helped arrange the necessary documents required and the first step was to get a “सिफारिस” &nbsp;recommendation letter from my mother’s ward office.&nbsp;
This was the first hurdle as the ward office was unsure if they could issue such a letter, so they checked in with their head office, and luckily we received the go ahead. After persistent follow up from the law associates, they were able to provide us with a recommendation letter and we filled out the application forms.&nbsp;
The law firm wisely suggested that I take the paperwork myself to my mother’s district office while they stayed in the background in case I needed help explaining my situation.&nbsp;
With a big smile and cheerful tone, I dutifully followed the process and to my surprise, I found most of the officials ready to help without creating unnecessary hurdles. The application has to be signed off by the Chief District Officer (CDO) or Assistant CDO and just when I thought wow, I am going to breeze through this, one officer noticed that my father’s naturalised citizenship was from a different district and told me that I should apply for my NRN from there.&nbsp;
I explained that my father has already passed away and as he was not originally a Nepali, therefore it is not possible for me to get my NRN from his documents, as the requirement is ancestral “बंसागज” citizenship. The officer then went to check with their seniors and later told me that I would need police verification as an extra precaution.&nbsp;
Off I went to the police headquarters where they issued a sealed letter to be given to the police station that was in the same vicinity as my mother’s ward office. At the station I was told to get four people who are not my relatives to testify our documents are true.&nbsp;
This process happened to be more stressful than dealing with the government offices. At first, it turned out that most of my mother’s old neighbours had already passed away or had citizenship papers from another area. Others confirmed their availability, but later had conflicting schedules. Luckily, one very helpful old neighbour was able to arrange for enough people to verify the documents.&nbsp;
Encouraged that the end of the tunnel was in sight, I went back to the district office with all the requested documents, and after some initial pushback, I was finally referred to meet the official who signs off the documents before it goes to the CDO.&nbsp;
As luck would have it, the officials were in a meeting that lasted more than two hours, and I had to give my mother her insulin shot and noodles from the cafeteria in the waiting area.&nbsp;
When we were finally able to meet the officer, he didn’t even look at my papers properly and started questioning my lawyers whether they had even read the law, how could I apply for Nepali citizenship when I already had a Japanese passport, etc. He somehow assumed that I was looking to get a normal Nepali citizenship from my mother’s side, and we informed him that I was only looking to get an NRN citizenship, after which his tone became more apologetic and said that he would need to look into the law more closely.&nbsp;
It had already been three full days of working through each step of the process, and I had no problem waiting another day for the conclusion.&nbsp;
Perhaps because this NRN citizenship is a fairly new law and perhaps a lot of NRNs apply from the Nepal’s embassies in their country of domicile, throughout my experience, officials kept on telling me that a case such as mine has not been processed before.&nbsp;
My case being that I have never had a Nepali citizenship, my father having a naturalised Nepali citizenship and my mother being the only 100% Nepali in the family. I kept on saying that just because it has never been done before does not mean that it cannot be done, and sure enough, the next day the officer signed off on my documents, even kindly saying that they should have highly respected my application upon learning about my late father and his contributions to Nepal.&nbsp;
Although the intricacies of the NRN citizenship law have not been fully hacked out such as the transfer of land ownership, it is definitely a positive step in securing the rights and aspirations of fellow NRNs as many would agree that no matter where we go, “यो मन त मेरो नेपाली हो!”&nbsp;
Sonia Miyahara, Managing Director of Hotel Everest View, Trans Himalayan Tours &amp; Trekking Pvt Ltd &amp; Himalaya Kanko Kaihatsu Co. Ltd.

How I got my NRN Citizenship in Nepal

Besides being an election year in Nepal, 2026 is also the year of anniversaries. It is exactly 30 years since the Maoists launched their armed struggle on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/13-february">13 February 1996</a>, and it was on 27 April 2006 that the ceasefire came into effect after a month of massive pro-democracy protests.
Alas, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/not-ever-again">three decades on</a>, the decade-long conflict that claimed 17,000 lives has been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/ghosts-of-war">air brushed from our history</a>. For the survivors, and the families of those disappeared and killed, memories of loss and suffering are fading. The party that fought the war in Mao’s name has dropped it.
It is important on this day to remember not to forget that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3203">violent decade</a> -- so that it does not happen again, and so the youth movement that has led to this election will also not be in vain.
The 8 September 2025 rally, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-8-september-massacre">the massacre that followed</a>, and the nationwide mayhem and carnage the next day were largely a result of public anger boiling over. Nepalis had been let down repeatedly by rulers promising revolution in the name of the ‘people’: from the 1990 People’s Movement I, to the Maoist ‘People’s War’, and the 2006 People’s Movement II.
There are some positive residual effects of the insurgency. One-third of the Maoist militia was <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-sibling-war-juna-rai,731">composed of women</a>, this empowered not just the female guerrillas themselves, but indirectly made a whole generation of young women aware of their rights.&nbsp;
The peace process itself resulted in the Maoists entering the democratic mainstream, and the induction of many of the guerrillas into the national army – a rare occurrence after a conflict.
The ceasefire was followed by an interim government, and the first elected <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-letter-and-spirit">Constituent Assembly</a> abolished the monarchy in 2008. Deadlock over the model of federalism meant a second election had to be held in 2013, and the new Constitution <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/by-the-way/new-constitution-should-adopt-inclusive-democracy-with-federalism-republicanism-secularism,538">finally promulgated in 2015</a>.&nbsp;
That statute was supposed to devolve political decision-making away from Kathmandu to autonomous provinces, improve inclusive representation of women and hitherto excluded castes and ethnicities at all three levels of government, ensure accountability and good governance to generate jobs and lift living standards.
There were seven governments in ten years after 2015, and tottering coalitions one after another failed to fulfil any of those provisions in the Constitution. There were subliminal gains in representation of women thanks to affirmative action, but as this election shows, women candidates are still used as proxies by patriarchal parties.&nbsp;
Since the two warring sides of the Maoist war both became the state, sharing power in dozens of coalition cabinets since 2006, they colluded to bury the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-unpunished-war-crimes">transitional justice process</a>.
The former supreme commander of the Maoists Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) has become prime minister three times in the last 20 years. He is contesting this election from Rukum East, where he marked the 30th anniversary of the start of armed struggle on Friday.
The word ‘Maoist’ has been erased from the Nepali Communist Party which Dahal formed with more than a dozen other smaller leftist outfits. His main rival, Janardan Sharma, quit the Maoists and is standing for elections in Rukum West.
Both former comrades are competing for the hearts and minds of people of this former base area from where the Maoists went on warpath on 13 February 1996 by attacking a police station in Athbiskot, and simultaneously on targets in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7812">Holeri of Rolpa</a>, Sindhuli and Gorkha.
The former ideologue of the Maoist party, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/20-years-wasted-in-war,2850">Baburam Bhattarai</a>, was the architect of the revolution while Dahal was the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6369#.Y-XIii8w1KM">executor</a>. Bhattarai submitted a list of 40 demands to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/deubas-denouement">Sher Bahadur Deuba</a> (during his first tenure as prime minister in 1995) but did not wait for a reply before launching the armed struggle.
The Maoists felt that the constitutional monarchy after 1990 was too feudal, and a patronage-driven parliamentary system too slow to bring about change. Besides, the democratic parties were accused of using state security to prevent Maoist candidates from winning elections.
The Maoists followed Mao’s Red Book to the letter, attacking police stations, looting weapons and targeting local elected governments, eliminating ‘class enemies' with summary executions.&nbsp;
They destroyed telecommunication towers, highways, bridges and airfields in remote areas. Threats forced health posts, schools, post offices to be withdrawn from areas where people needed them the most. The country’s development was pushed back decades.
Nepal in the early 1990s was ripe for revolution. There was inequality, social injustice, exclusion, and the political parties in Kathmandu were too busy squabbling to do their job. The Maoists wanted an end to the monarchy, but in 2001 the monarchy imploded with the royal massacre.
ABSOLUTE POWER
King Gyanendra succeeded his <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8338">murdered brother</a> to the throne, and took the country back to absolute rule with a military-backed coup in 2005. Within a year, street protests forced him to step aside. And by 2008, it was too late to save the monarchy.
We can look back as far as we want to the roots of the Maoist conflict. It can be blamed on elected leaders post-1990 who abandoned the people once in power, the 30 years of partyless Panchayat system that stifled dissent and let social pressures build up, or even 100 years of Rana rule.&nbsp;
It was the prolonged indifference on the part of successive rulers in Kathmandu that fed public discontent. These accumulated grievances were also the reason for the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-gen-z-protest-turns-deadly">September 2025 events</a>.&nbsp;
During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong said: ‘The old has to be uprooted to be replaced with the new’, and that could almost be the anthem of the GenZ movement and this election.
The objective conditions that drove the Maoist insurgency 30 years ago are still evident today. And much will depend on the government(s) that will be formed after March.&nbsp;

Remembering not to forget

As Nepal mourned its dead in the September violence and public buildings smouldered, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was installed as prime minister to pull the country back from the brink.
She gave herself six months to conduct elections, and has gone about achieving that goal with a single-minded sense of purpose. Supporters praise her poise and decisiveness, while others fault her for not pursuing justice for the death and destruction, and postponing the release of the inquiry commission yet again.&nbsp;
But that also highlights her steadfastness to hold free, fair and peaceful elections on 5 March, and not allow it be derailed by distractions. It has not been easy for the 73-year-old — she has had to balance radical calls for scrapping the Constitution while appeasing entrenched leaders of established parties.&nbsp;
Karki has displayed patience, determination, foresight, and, above all, a deep love for country. It has been a lonely struggle, no doubt.
The very youth who voted for her on Discord demanded her resignation, &nbsp;she had to cajole discredited leaders to take part in polls, and she was not dismayed when her chosen ministers abandoned the government to contest polls. And this is not to mention geopolitical demands that must be happening behind the scenes.
This being Nepal, there is endless speculation about who is ‘pulling the strings’. Yet her record both as chief justice and interim prime minister offer ample evidence of integrity and principled leadership.
Regardless of geopolitical interpretations of her intentions, Karki is a Nepali leader through and through who has lifted herself from the highest judicial office to the highest executive position, adhering to both mandates.
Organising national elections within five months was a formidable task, which many doubted — and are still doubting — can be accomplished. Karki has worked closely with the Election Commission, security forces, and mainstream political parties to ensure participation.&nbsp;
In doing so, she has set an example not only for Nepal but for South Asia. Bangladesh, which went through its own GenZ protest in 2024 and held elections on Thursday offers a study in contrast. The Awami League and its exiled prime minister who was deposed have been banned from front contesting, there is growing influence of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance.
Her first address to the National Assembly on 2 February was characteristically candid. She laid out the facts sequentially and emphasised Nepal’s most urgent priority: holding elections on schedule and transferring authority to elected representatives. Timely election was the only constitutional path forward, she said.
She acknowledged that GenZ activists had pressured her to appoint certain individuals to her Cabinet. She had to personally persuade Kulman Ghising, Mahabir Pun, and Jagdish Kharel to join her Cabinet. Others she was advised to induct turned out to have controversial pasts, and she was forced to rescind the nominations. She admitted Pun resigned as education minister because he could not get legislative proposals passed.
Educated, professionally accomplished, known for her frugal lifestyle, Karki has distanced herself from the culture of excess often associated with power, and has turned down multiple invitations for foreign junkets.
Her meeting with editors at Baluwatar in December was a breath of fresh air for Nepal’s jaded journalists used to excessive displays of power and pomp. Her frankness about threats from the GenZ and pressures from disgraced party leaders drew gasps.
In the last five months, Karki has attempted to restore a sense of governance anchored in constitutional duty rather than partisan ambition. But Nepal’s problems have been decades in the making, and it would be unrealistic to expect an interim government to solve all of them at once.
Nepal now stands at a crucial juncture. Leadership alone cannot safeguard democracy, elections alone do not guarantee legitimacy. That must come from delivery, performance and accountability. Citizens casting informed votes on 5 March will determine whether Karki’s handover to leaders capable of placing national interest above party and personal agendas.
In a region where democratic transitions often falter, Nepal has another chance to demonstrate that home-grown movements, constitutional discipline, and principled leadership can coexist.&nbsp;
Whether this moment becomes a turning point depends not only on one leader, but on the collective resolve of the nation and polity.
Watch a timelapse video of how Anup Tamu drew this portrait of Sushila Karki, <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/tchdBwBZDJE?si=PD9Sd3__t-1-lILh">here</a>.&nbsp;