<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-last-of-the-kusunda">The Kusunda</a> are among the last remaining hunter-gatherer communities left in Nepal, and it has only one fluent speaker left of a language that is not related to any other language group in South Asia.&nbsp; The Kusunda call themselves the King of the Forests ((गेम्येहाक़ in Kusunda,वन राजा in Nepali) and used to have a nomadic lifestyle till recently. But decades of exclusion from mainstream society and modernity have forced the Kusunda to assimilate. &nbsp; Today, most Kusunda live across Nepal’s mid-hills and western plains, choosing to identify themselves as Thakuri and adopting names like Sen, Shahi, and Khan to avoid ostracisation. Over time, inter-ethnic marriages between the Kusunda and other communities became increasingly common.&nbsp; However, the assimilation with other communities also meant that almost no one from the Kusunda community can speak their mother tongue – considered by linguists to be a ‘language isolate’ not related to any other language group in the world, and lacking set rules of grammar that are foundational to other languages. There are no words for ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in Kusunda, nor are there words to signify direction. There are 23 languages with less than 1,000 speakers listed in Nepal's 2021 census, with Kusunda being the language with the least number of speakers. The number of people who identified as Kusunda has decreased with each subsequent census. Only 253 individuals identified themselves as Kusunda in the last National Census of 2021, down from 273 in 2011.&nbsp; <div class="embed-block"><iframe src="https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/raithane-bhakha/embed/episodes/Kusundas---the-last-of-the-forest-kings-e23ge6p/a-a9peei1" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div> The government’s decision to provide a social security stipend to the community for the past few years has prompted many from the Kusunda community to reclaim their identity and in the process, explore their culture and language. Kamala Sen Kusunda, who lives in Dang, is the only fluent native Kusunda speaker alive, although there are now other Kusunda and non-Kusunda people learning how to speak the language. By the time Kamala Sen Kusunda was born in 1975, her family had settled in a village in Rolpa. Although she did not experience the nomadic life of her forebears, she still roamed the forests freely as a child and many of the values and socio-cultural practices of her community were instilled in her and her siblings.&nbsp; This meant that Kamala grew up speaking Kusunda with her family. But by then, the Kusunda had increasingly begun to interact with people beyond their community, and inter-ethnic marriages had become a norm.&nbsp; Kamala herself married at 18 to a 52-year-old man from the Chhetri community. She would go on to have four children, but they were brought up with her husband’s culture and community rather than her own, and teaching them her mother tongue seemed impractical.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250628030648_afaa298bf8ea3b7086e2ed086b11eab463ef2b20a82a4aad74df3dd2e922a4c3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250628030648_afaa298bf8ea3b7086e2ed086b11eab463ef2b20a82a4aad74df3dd2e922a4c3" data-rendition-name="original" width="855" height="641" loading="lazy" alt="Kusunda NT"> <figcaption>Gyani Maiya Kusunda with Kusunda youth in 2015.</figcaption> </figure>  “If I had spoken my language to them when they were children, they would have learned,” she tells us ruefully. “But they were growing up in a different community, so I never pushed, and they never expressed interest.” At the time, she had other things to worry about, such as earning a livelihood and sustaining her family. To find work, Kamala and her family moved to Shimla in India, where she worked at an apple orchard for six years.&nbsp; Over the next years, Kamala and her family moved back and forth between India and Nepal for work, and Kamala was not actively conversing in the language of her people or being able to connect with members of her community now scattered across Nepal.&nbsp; Had she not forgotten her language after all those years? “How could I forget the language of my ancestors?” she replies. “Not speaking it did not mean that it ceased to be a part of me.”&nbsp; Kamala had been working at a brick kiln in Thimi seven years ago when the National Language Commission tracked her down, offered her a paid position as a Kusunda language consultant and source person for basic language training in Dang.&nbsp; It was there that Kamala met her cousin Gyani Maiya Sen Kusunda, the only other person able to speak Kusunda fluently, who had been working with the Commission to conserve Kusunda language and culture. It was also where Kamala met language researcher and lexicographer Uday Raj Ale. Ale had been in the middle of his research into the Tharu language and community 15 years ago when he met Gyani Maiya Kusunda’s son, who told him that his mother was one of the few people who spoke Kusunda, but that no one had shown an interest in studying and preserving the language and culture. Ale met Gyani Maiya, spending time with her learning and researching Kusunda. By 2017, Ale had collected enough words to put together a Kusunda dictionary. The Kusunda vocabulary currently comprises 2,000 words. His research into the Kusunda language and culture has taken him to every known Kusunda household in Nepal. Although the census puts the number of Kusunda at 253, Ale reckons there are only 158.&nbsp; “Kusunda language is endangered due to its lack of use in everyday life, literature, and religious and socio-cultural practices, as well as the prevalence of inter-ethnic marriages,” explains Ale. In 2019 the Language Commission began its language transfer programs for youth from indigenous communities. Since then, the Commission has completed multiple phases of Kusunda language classes in Dang facilitated by Uday Raj Ale. The classes have 20 students, not just from the Kusunda community, but also interested non-native students.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250626120632_c6c378bc00af450f2b7f0cf17af1c3b2b6f7b7226927c458c3e01ec389869d33.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250626120632_c6c378bc00af450f2b7f0cf17af1c3b2b6f7b7226927c458c3e01ec389869d33" data-rendition-name="original" width="1485" height="1535" loading="lazy" alt="Kusunda NT"> <figcaption>Students learning Kusunda with instructor Uday Raj Ale (second row, left)</figcaption> </figure>  Khamba Rokaya, who worked as a caretaker for young Kusunda children in Dang, became interested in learning the language as she sat in with the children during their lessons, and for the last few years has been among the few non-native Kusunda language learners in Dang. “I am not from the Kusunda community, but now that I have learned the language, I hope to do my part to carry on the work and share my knowledge with as many people as possible,” she says. “One way to ensure that we preserve this language is to extend its speaker base, both within the Kusunda and non-native communities.” Ale and Kamala have continued to work together since Gyani Maya’s passing in 2020, expanding the Kusunda vocabulary and creating appropriate curricula to fit the needs of the students as their knowledge of Kusunda expands.&nbsp; But without any documentation of Kusunda history, the community’s traditions, stories, values and language were at risk of being lost to time. “The loss of an ethnicity, language or culture in a country is akin to losing a vital organ, and a unique perspective of looking at the world,” says Ale. Which is why Archive Nepal in collaboration with the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund and the UK’s Department of Culture, Media, and Sport in February launched a book of creative writings in the Kusunda language titled पिन्डा (meaning ‘The First’ in Kusunda): A Compilation of Kusunda Literature. The book is a collection of informative essays about the Kusunda language and culture, short stories that explore themes from nomadic life to universal Nepali experiences of poverty and migration, letters to loved ones, as well as conversational pieces by five Kusunda students ranging from ages 16 to 30. The works in the Kusunda language are also translated into Nepali and English.&nbsp; “Language is an important part of ethnic identity, and our indigenous languages cannot evolve or be conserved unless they are spoken or taught,” said Ale during the launch of the book earlier this year. “But most importantly, language exists as long as there exists literature in that language.” Kamala was in Kathmandu for the launch of the book, and smiled proudly as she looked at the young writers who had contributed to the collection. She said: “I’m glad the young people have chosen to learn and preserve Kusunda. Otherwise, our language would have died with me.” &nbsp;

Shristi Karki

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Saving the Kusunda language from extinction

The Kusunda are one of the two last remaining hunter-gatherer societies left in Nepal, the other being the nomadic Raute. The 2011 Census showed that there were only 273 Kusunda individuals remaining, and there are probably even fewer today.&nbsp; The Kusunda language is not related to any other language group in South Asia, and has only one native speaker still alive: Kamala Khatri Sen in Dang district. Decades of social exclusion has nearly obliterated this ethnic group.&nbsp; One of the earliest mentions of Kusunda comes from Brian Houghton Hodgson, the British Resident to Nepal in 1833, who extensively documented Nepal’s human and natural diversity.&nbsp; ‘Amid the dense forests of the central region of Nepal, to the westward of the great valley, dwell, in scanty numbers and nearly in a state of nature, two broken tribes having no apparent affinity with the civilized races of the country, and seeming like the fragments of an earlier population,’ Hodgson wrote of the Kusunda and Chepang. <div class="embed-block"><iframe src="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raithane-bhakha/embed/episodes/Kusundas---the-last-of-the-forest-kings-e23ge6p/a-a9peei1" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>Listen to this podcast with spoken Kusunda, a language isolate with no other language in its category, one of the rarest in the world with just one native speaker alive. Sewa Bhattarai brings excerpts from this audiobook, and speaks to Kusunda language teacher Uday Raj Ale and one of his students Hima Kusunda. </div> More than 150 years ago, Hodgson was already calling the Kusunda 'a broken tribe'. Today, they are even fewer in number with a few scattered between Gorkha and Dang, as the groups migrated westwards.&nbsp; Researcher Narayan Prasad Adhikari writes that the Kusunda believe their ancestors lived originally in Arghakhanchi, and Palpa, wandering to Tiram of Pyuthan and Ambapur of Dang. &nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/lost-in-translation">Lost in Translation,</a> Alisha Sijapati Hodgson noted in 1870 that the Chepang, Kusunda, and Hayu are of the same lineage, and Adhikari notes that there are indeed some similarities in their physical structure and language. Hodgson conjectured that the Kusunda migrated from even further east, and are a branch of the Lhopa of Bhutan.&nbsp; Of their lifestyle, Hodgson wrote: ‘They toil not, neither do they spin, they pay no taxes, acknowledge no allegiance, but, living entirely upon wild fruits and the produce of the chase, are wont to say that the Rajah is the lord of the cultivated country as they are of the unredeemed waste. They have bows and arrows, of which the arrow-heads are procured from their neighbours, but almost no other implement of civilization. And it is in the very skillful snaring of the beasts in the field and the fowls of the air that all their little intelligence is manifested.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230512110512_1252a7572aad0a92f8197902b9a7d9fcd228957a711bf93f9471c210a4c0bb89.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230512110512_1252a7572aad0a92f8197902b9a7d9fcd228957a711bf93f9471c210a4c0bb89" data-rendition-name="original" width="1053" height="802" loading="lazy" alt="Kusunda house and prayer "> <figcaption>A model Kusunda house (left) and the place of ritual worship of Kusundas (right). Photo: Johan Reinhard</figcaption> </figure>  Kusunda language and grammar cannot be categorised under any regional language family, although some researchers say it is derived from Tibeto-Burman roots because of the similarity of some words.&nbsp; “There is no other community like the Kusunda in the whole world,” says linguist Madhab Prasad Pokharel. “They do not drink running water, and only drink spring water. They do not touch cows, or drink cow milk. They hunt and eat monitor lizards and weasels. Their DNA shows some links to the eastern Pacific.”&nbsp; Pokharel says Kusunda language has many unique features. For example, although they live in the forest, they have no word for the colour green. The way they create pronouns is different from other languages. My hand is 'tawei', your hand is 'nawai' and his/her hand is 'ginawai'.&nbsp; Uday Raj Ale and Tim Bodt note in a 2020 article in the journal Babel, that spoken Kusunda has sounds not found elsewhere. ‘The voiced uvular and the uvular nasal have now basically disappeared from the language, but we can still recognise that they were once pronounced,” they wrote. Uvular stops are relatively common in Caucasian, Semitic, and Pacific Northwest languages, but are absent in South Asia. Read Also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Mind-your-languages,133">Mind your languages</a>, Mark Turin The Kusunda could be a branch of some early migration streams out of Africa en route to the Subcontinent, East Asia and Australasia. The Babel article says: ‘They may have inhabited a much larger geographical area, but were gradually replaced or absorbed by speakers of other languages.’&nbsp; Can we find these stories in the origin stories of the Kusundas? Can their myths trace the path of the primitive humans who had wandered through the earth? Is it possible to find their relationships with the indigenous people of East Pacific Ocean through their folklore? One is curious to know whether the oral history of one of the world's most unique communities can answer these questions. Sadly, we find that the history, mythology, and folklore of the Kusundas have already disappeared a few generations ago. Imposed mythology  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051211058_a99bb08817c66baef34b720e3cc9c093e156aa2de0859e1545b25fa2dc62f11f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2023051211058_a99bb08817c66baef34b720e3cc9c093e156aa2de0859e1545b25fa2dc62f11f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1228" loading="lazy" alt="Kusunda ritual sacrifice "> <figcaption>Two Kusunda men engaging in ritual sacrifice. Photo: Johan Reinhard</figcaption> </figure>  Uday Raj Ale has researched and documented the Kusunda extensively, and has collected some of their origin stories in his book Gemjehaq. The Chepang chapter of Dor Bahadur Bista’s book Sabai Jat ko Phulbari traces the origin myths of Kusunda history to the Ramayana.&nbsp; Sita gave birth to a son named Lohori at the Valmiki Ashram. She took the baby out of its crib to play with it, and when Valmiki saw an empty crib, he panicked. He created a baby from the kush grass and put it in the crib. When she returned, Sita was surprised to see another baby in the crib. She raised the second baby as her own. The baby which was made from kush was called Kushari. Kushari's descendants became Kusundas and Lohori's descendants became Chepang. Interestingly, an aboriginal forest-dwelling community with distinct lifestyle and language unconnected to mainstream Nepali culture has a Hindu story for its origin myth. Elderly Kusunda reject this story, however, as Ale writes in his book. Dhan Bahadur Kusunda, president of Kusunda Development Society, states that the Sita story has no resonance in his community.&nbsp; Even the very word 'Kusunda' seems to have been imposed on the community. Ale says that word does not even exist in Kusunda language, and the people call themselves Myak or Gemyehak. He speculates that people who were familiar with Hindu mythology manufactured this lore for the Kusundas.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230512110544_355425e25289a3cea76d509374a4550783da988417e80c6722c4a70e9b9f3756.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20230512110544_355425e25289a3cea76d509374a4550783da988417e80c6722c4a70e9b9f3756" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1287" loading="lazy" alt="the last of the kusunda"> <figcaption>Jhankri attending to a patient. Photo: Johan Reinhard(Photo: aaram)</figcaption> </figure>  But the question remains: how is a community that calls itself 'Gemyehak' come to be called 'Kusunda' in the first place. The answer may be found in the popular meanings of the word Kusunda. In rural Nepal, the word 'Kusundo' is derogatory and and means 'uncivilised' 'barbarian', or 'stupid.' In the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/ghatu-dance-of-lamjung">Ghatu dance </a>performed in Gurung and Magar communities in Central Nepal, there is a section called 'Kusunda Ghatu,' where the protagonist King Pashramu wanders into the jungle as a mendicant, hunts deer, and begs for alms. The 2001 movie Darpan Chhaya also has an episode where the hero is marooned in a jungle, forced to wear leaf-skirts, and expresses his anger by saying he became a Kusunda. Many folklore researchers, like Dharmaraj Thapa and Mukunda Sharma, have documented the use of the word ‘Kusunda’ to mean ‘uncivilised’ in Nepali songs. The tenth edition of Nepali Brihat Shabdakosh dictionary gives the first meaning as 'a nomadic tribe that lives in the jungles south-west of Kathmandu, and is presently declining' but establishes gives the secondary meaning of Kusunda as असभ्य (uncivilised).&nbsp; Overshadowed 'Gemyehak' It is not clear whether the existing word 'Kusunda' was used to describe the Gemyehak, or whether the lifestyle of the Gemyehak was the reason this word was created. Whatever the reason, the Kusunda today feel insulted that a derogatory word is used to label their community in the country's most respected dictionary. The Kusunda name for themselves, Gemyehak, has a much more exalted meaning. ‘Ge’ means forest and ‘Myak’ means tiger. Hima Kusunda, 20, from Pyuthan says: “So Gemyehak means tiger, king of the forest. Even today, we call ourselves वनराजा or king of the forest.&nbsp; In Pyuthan the Kusunda are called 'Ban Raja, substantiating the claim that Kusunda ancestors were indeed kings of the forest, writes Narayan Prasad Adhikari. Hodgson himself noted that the Kusunda ‘had clearly once known a condition far superior to the present one or to any that has been theirs for ages.’ How did a community that called itself kings of the forest look at nature, life, and mainstream village life? Their perspective was probably quite different from that of social animals in villages and settlements. But today, we can only imagine what it was like, because the myth of 'Kushari' has overshadowed all these earlier narratives.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230512110540_603a3a2ce6337c319c87b8c2ee89649c10b0ee62f49f63ca9a3f191967f40ef3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20230512110540_603a3a2ce6337c319c87b8c2ee89649c10b0ee62f49f63ca9a3f191967f40ef3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1363" loading="lazy" alt="the last of the kusunda"> <figcaption>Gyani Maiya Sen and Kamala Khatri Sen leafing through a Kusunda dictionary. Photo: Johan Reinhard</figcaption> </figure>  Although Gyani Maiya and other elderly Kusunda reject the story of Kushari, they have no story of their own to replace it, and are also unable to remember any songs or dances in their language.&nbsp; “I believe songs existed in the Kusunda language, because they have words for 'song' and 'dance'. They also remember singing and dancing to celebrate some events in their nomadic past, but when asked to sing, they only sing in the Nepali language,” explains Ale. Extinction is forever&nbsp; The Kusunda language and culture has gone into decline because the community is scattered and not unified. Kusunda society started fragmenting when their nomadic lifestyle became threatened by modernity.&nbsp; But when the government started strictly regulating forest use, the Kusunda found it impossible to sustain their traditional lifestyle. They could not find people of their own tribe to marry, and started assimilating with villagers and settled down. Hima Kusunda’s grandfather and his younger brother lived in the forests as nomads even after their parents died when they were young. But one day, his brother ate a snake egg, believing it to be a lizard egg, and died.&nbsp; Hima says, “Then my grandfather had no option but to come live in a village to be near people. Also, there was no Kusunda woman for him to marry so he married a Kawar woman.” The pace of development, the changing times, socialisation, deforestation, difficulties in livelihood, exogamous marriage system, lack of unity among Kusundas, their reluctance to develop, and their traditional viewpoints were found to be the reasons why Kusunda language and culture are near extinction, writes researcher Adhikari. ‘When Kusundas started marrying villagers and dispersing instead of living together, their language and culture disappeared. They stopped practicing their language and culture in order to assimilate with modern society.’ The Kusunda have been further pushed out of their forest homes by societal exclusion, population pressure and competition for resources. Community forests, national parks and nature reserves have also driven them away.&nbsp; The Kusunda started hiding their identity when they inter-married non-Kusunda villagers, and that is also one reason for the decrease in their numbers, says Hima. When her father married a Dalit woman, he was teased and harassed by the villagers. He did not like the Kusunda label, and started calling himself a Thakuri. Ale says that the drive to identify themselves as Thakuri is widespread among Kusunda, and many have adopted the surnames Sen, Shahi, or Khan. When Kusunda married members of Magar, Kumal, or other communities, their children adopted those names instead of Kusunda. Saving what is left  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051211058_2ca8520dd328f8b7bcb765e5a3d781b18a1eb228cde58390dbac670559d40322.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="2023051211058_2ca8520dd328f8b7bcb765e5a3d781b18a1eb228cde58390dbac670559d40322" data-rendition-name="original" width="4860" height="3121" loading="lazy" alt="the last of the kusunda"> <figcaption>Hima Kusunda (left) and Uday Raj Ale (right)</figcaption> </figure>  There have been some efforts by the government to save what is left of the Kusunda people, culture and language. With Gyani Maiya Sen and Kamala Khatri as source persons, the Language Commission has already completed three phases of Kusunda language classes. These are facilitated by Uday Ale and have 20 students, most of them Kusunda. Hima Kusunda, a student of class 12, and her younger sister, are among them. “As a child, when I heard people from other communities like Tharus of Dang and Magars of Pyuthan speak their language, I wished I could speak in my own language too,” Hima recalls. “So, when the opportunity to learn the language came up, I signed up eagerly. The language class has extended the life of the language, but we need to do more.” &nbsp; Hima's father and grandfather have died, and she and her sister are the only ones who know the language in their family. The two teach the language to elders at home, and Hima has even written a song in Kusunda which she sings at events. The lyrics are about living with wild animals in the forest and surviving on foraged food, stories she heard from her father and grandfather. “The next phase of language classes should be held at the family level. Otherwise, the language will not survive past this generation,” Ale says. “Students who have learnt it cannot converse at home, and the language is unable to flourish.” The government has also been providing social security stipend to the community for the past few years. As soon as a Kusunda baby is born and registered, the family gets a stipend of Rs4,000 per month.&nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/International/Endangered-language-preserved-through-technology,977">The internet's rescue act</a>, Mark Turin “I have not faced any harassment for being Kusunda, but my father did,” says Hima. “The government's incentive has made us less embarrassed about our identity.” Indeed, people who had adopted surnames like Sen, Shahi and Thakuri in the past are now reverting back to Kusunda. The language classes also help extend the lifespan of the language, its corpus and preserve the history and culture of the Kusunda people.&nbsp; Says researcher Uday Raj Ale: “Since they lived in the jungle, they had vast knowledge of the forest, wildlife, plants, and nature. When they hunted, they rarely killed, instead skillfully snaring animals. Gyani Maiya Sen used herbs to remedy minor illnesses. But she believed that sharing it would reduce its efficacy. So now all of that knowledge is lost.&nbsp; Sewa Bhattarai is a freelance journalist. Her series, On The Margins, will focus on folk music, folklore, and mythology of Nepal's marginalised communities.

Sewa Bhattarai

The last of the Kusunda

<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Nepal’s newly-installed Prime Minister Balendra Shah</a> unveiled his Council of Ministers after taking the oath of office on Friday in Kathmandu.&nbsp; Besides Nepal's pre-existing problems, his team will immediately have to deal with the fallout of the West Asia conflict to satisfy an electorate impatient for change. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won a majority in the 5 March election and capped the Cabinet size at 15. Shah, a structural engineer and musician, himself has taken charge of the Defence and Industry Ministries. There has been an attempt to make the Cabinet inclusive with women in five of the new portfolios.&nbsp; After much negotiation, the powerful Home Ministry, a bone of contention between Shah and RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane, has gone to Sudan Gurung, a hitherto little-known figure who <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/who-or-what-is-hami-nepal">rose to prominence after the September GenZ protest</a> and won the election from Gorkha-2.&nbsp; Gurung will be in charge of Nepal’s internal security apparatus and maintaining law and order. And with Gurung, a close ally of the Prime Minister, in charge, some note the Home Ministry will be a hook for Shah if Lamichhane, with his share of controversies, steps out line.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_c7725ea5fb9ffbf96df25a7b3122520b7ae3ee10548aed3f37781a7e5440e51a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260327090324_c7725ea5fb9ffbf96df25a7b3122520b7ae3ee10548aed3f37781a7e5440e51a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Notable RSP leaders, including vice-chair DP Aryal, were said to have been vying for the portfolio.&nbsp; Gurung is the founder of the non-profit Hami Nepal, which worked primarily in earthquake relief in 2015, and emerged onto the national stage during negotiations to appoint Sushila Karki as interim PM after the unrest. He was also involved in key negotiations that cemented Balendra Shah and Rabi Lamichhane’s political partnership in the runup to the election.&nbsp; Most new Cabinet members are not just first-time ministers, but are also freshmen lawmakers. Many are experts in their fields. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle is an <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-needs-to-rebrand-itself">economist </a>with degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard, and was previously Chief Economic Advisor at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, and also served in Nepal’s National Planning Commission.&nbsp; Previously a member of Nepali Congress, Wagle exited the party in 2023 following differences with top leadership, and joined the RSP. Wagle won a by-election from Tanahu-1 in 2023 and won again from the same constituency in this month’s election.&nbsp; Shishir Khanal, who heads RSP’s foreign affairs department, has been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. &nbsp;Khanal is co-founder of Teach For Nepal, was briefly Education Minister when the RSP was part of the the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led coalition government in 2023.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_b1a670bac12e2bf4df955134f58c8de7718d48f6be4e1f2df7c7c52f82e36e42.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260327090324_b1a670bac12e2bf4df955134f58c8de7718d48f6be4e1f2df7c7c52f82e36e42" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Law Minister Sobita Gautam is a lawyer by profession and worked in governance and public policy before she was elected as the youngest MP in the 2022 election.&nbsp; Health Minister Nisha Mehta is a nurse and became a lawmaker under the Proportional Representation system in this election which swept the RSP to power with a near two-third majority.&nbsp; Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel, a first-time MP elected from Kathmandu-5, served as an aide to Balendra Shah when he was mayor of Kathmandu and a was member of the KMC City Planning Commission.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_5ed794d7bf0cac2844277521810225c4355746b9c3f7369f70cacc878c94641f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260327090324_5ed794d7bf0cac2844277521810225c4355746b9c3f7369f70cacc878c94641f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Biraj Bhakta Shrestha is Energy Minister, and also served as the Minister for Youth and Sports in the Dahal-led coalition government in 2024. Before joining RSP, Shrestha was elected to the Bagmati Provincial Assembly in the 2017 elections representing the r<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rsp-s-activist-dna">eformist Bibeksheel Sajha Party</a>. He will immediately face the challenge of addressing the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rough-road-ahead-for-new-nepal-rulers">impact of the West Asia war,</a> including rising petroleum prices and a shortage of cooking gas. Sita Badi, who was elected through the PR system, is Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens. She was born and brought up in the underserved and marginalised Badi community in Surkhet and has been advocating for the rights and welfare of women, children, and minority communities. Other ministers include RSP spokesperson Pratibha Rawal as Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration as well as Land Management, and Gita Chaudhary as Minister for Agriculture, Sunil Lamsal is Physical Infrastrucutre, Transport, and Urban Development Minister, Khadka Raj (Ganesh) Paudel as Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister. Dipak Sah is the Labour and Employment Minister, and Bikram Timilsina is Communication Minister.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_b67c2d199d4897031583a5b7ec7ce43e88771167696e6161665eeb5fca25d3ed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20260327090324_b67c2d199d4897031583a5b7ec7ce43e88771167696e6161665eeb5fca25d3ed" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Meanwhile, RSP vice-chair DP Aryal, who many thought would be home minister because of his proximity with Rabi Lamichhane has been proposed as Speaker of the House.&nbsp; Aryal previously served two brief stints as the Minister of Labour when RSP was part of the RSP’s coalition governments in 2023 and 2024. As minister Aryal came <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/skeletons-in-the-cabinet-k5x6py1v">under scrutiny </a>for his involvement in an employment agency that was investigated for illegal acquisition of wealth in 2020. If appointed House Speaker, Aryal will be expected to play a neutral and non-partisan role in Parliamentary affairs. &nbsp; With the full Cabinet announced on Friday, Prime Minister Shah and his team now have their work cut out for them. &nbsp;The government’s first priority will be ensuring the safety and long-term security of the almost two million <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/migrant-workers-in-wartime">Nepalis living and working in the Gulf</a> amid the ongoing conflict in the region, and taking steps to cushion Nepal’s economy from the Israel-US war on Iran. The new leaders will also be tasked with implementing the findings of the Karki Commission report on the September violence that paved the way for the election and the rise of the RSP. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> <figcaption>Snapshots from PM Balen Shah's swearing-in ceremony</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_8646d490883154f696bcdc6e2375084419f2eefaaf0ef0c7e2710aa6e2d94a8a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20260327090324_8646d490883154f696bcdc6e2375084419f2eefaaf0ef0c7e2710aa6e2d94a8a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_89d17d6584593be1eb23eb1d4872c3b7c600e1620f3aca48dbff4838364a1e3c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20260327090324_89d17d6584593be1eb23eb1d4872c3b7c600e1620f3aca48dbff4838364a1e3c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;Full list of ministers: Prime Minsiter: Balendra Shah Home Minister: Sudan Gurung Finance Minister: Swarnim Wagle Foreign Affairs Minister: Shishir Khanal Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry: Sobita Gautam Energy, Water and Irrigation Minister: Biraj Bhakta Shrestha Education Minister: Sasmit Pokharel Physical Infrastrucutre, Transport, and Urban Development Minister: Sunil Lamsal Communication and Information Ministry: Bikram Timilsina General Administration Minister: Pratibha Rawal Women, Children and Senior Citizens Minister: Sita Badi Health and Population Minister: Nisha Mehta Agriculture Minister: Gita Chaudhary Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister: Khadka Raj (Ganesh) Paudel&nbsp; Labour Minister: Dipak Sah

Nepal swears in new Cabinet

Rivers have been the lifelines of civilisations with their dynamic ecosystems providing vital services for human survival and ecological balance through the ages.&nbsp; But accelerating anthropocentric footprints are causing severe, and often irreversible, damage to river systems across the world, including those across High Asia, a region that sustains nearly a fourth of the global population downstream. An example is the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-the-bagmati-civilisation-is-becoming-uncivilised" target="_blank">Bagmati River</a> that courses through Kathmandu, crosses the Himalayan foothills to join the Ganga in India. A river that once shaped the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/when-it-comes-to-water-pollution,3196" target="_blank">Kathmandu Valley Civilisation </a>is now a polluted and biologically dead water body constricted by urban sprawl, choked by construction debris, chemical waste and untreated sewage.&nbsp; The loss of a sacred river is tragic enough, but its hazards related to health, life and livelihoods are not limited to the Valley, nor is its enormity fully gauged by the metrics of fatality, income loss, flood return periods, runoffs, embankment failure.&nbsp; It is a systemic collapse of ecological integrity, socio-economic stability and cultural heritage, affecting its downstream users as well. The death of Bagmati is a peril for a population size way bigger than circa 5 million residents of Kathmandu Valley. The degradation started in the 1980s and has accelerated. Why has not enough been done to save this iconic river that runs through Nepal’s capital?&nbsp; The Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project (BRBIP) was designed to make headway in restoring the river with a sewage treatment plant, dams for storing water to support dry-season runoff, recharge groundwater, creation of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/resurrecting-bagmati-the-river" target="_blank">green biodiversity corridors</a> along the river bank to also serve as recreation areas, reduce the urban heat island effect, and also provide cultural continuity. The project also envisages collection of hydrological data for managing Bagmati multipurposewater systems and providing flood forecasts and early warnings aimed at protecting lives and property, among other things. Most importantly, the project takes the integrated water resource management approach, which, in principle, is a holistic and collaborative way of managing all elements of the water cycle to ensure water security, public and environmental health and amenity.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260329040336_9605240fa8c7d649ce49fbe43565130e3187e979338ccf959c4e9b8c581b7a4c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260329040336_9605240fa8c7d649ce49fbe43565130e3187e979338ccf959c4e9b8c581b7a4c" data-rendition-name="original" width="2126" height="1577" loading="lazy" alt="Bagmati NT"> </figure>  This should pave the way for managing a river as a connected ecological, social, and economic system by enabling coordination across agencies and disciplines, stimulating technological innovation and financial investment. The success of this approach depends on long-term political will and commitment that transcend political cycles, but also needs strong community and civil society in defining issues and proposing solutions, creating and sharing knowledge, taking independent action to inform practice, monitoring and evaluating policies, and participating in public decision-making. Civil society, especially, in making the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/encounter-with-bagmati-river" target="_blank">revival of the Bagmati River</a> a pressing governance issue. The Bagmati Action Plan 2009, a precursor to the BRBIP, was designed in response to lawsuits filed in 2000 and 2004 by an independent legal practitioner of Kathmandu against waste dumping in the river.&nbsp; It took him almost two decades of legal battle for Nepal’s Supreme Court to pass orders for mandatory septic tanks in all homes in Kathmandu Valley, relocation of squatters from Bagmati river banks to government-built houses, and embargo on dumping and burying garbage on the banks of the river and its tributaries. Despite court orders, however, actual results have been unsatisfactory. Restoration of Bagmati barely made it to any political debate or electoral manifesto this time. Treatment plants have not been operational for years, yet no one is held accountable. The population ignores waste segregation or single-use plastic rules to check littering.&nbsp; The current condition of the river therefore seems to have more to do with the lack of public awareness and behaviour change than the failure of various master plans. Why does the deep danger of a dead river fail to arouse widespread civil society concern, let alone action? The apathy is perhaps underlined by an innately anthropocentric understanding of the river as a mere resource to be exploited, rather than the backbone of existence.&nbsp; Such a paradigm shift is possible when river or river systems are understood to be necessary for &nbsp;a harmonious coexistence with human populations. The more pertinent question is not whether a dead river can be restored because there are many examples from around the world where that has been successfully achieved. It is whether we choose to restore our rivers for intergenerational equity. This would require a holistic perspective and political will to revive reverence for a river system so that its symbiotic relationship with human settlements can be restored. Roshni Gurung is Research Assistant, River Basins at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

A lifeline becomes liability

On Friday, Balendra Shah is taking his oath of office as Nepal's prime minister in a capital city of which he was a mayor till six months ago.
At 35, he will be among Nepal’s youngest prime ministers. His reticence and reclusiveness have reinforced his brand as a doer rather than a talker. This was a persona he cultivated as mayor of someone who cleaned up the city by managing garbage. But he also chased off sidewalk vendors in an effort to ‘beautify’ the city.&nbsp;
After being elected, Shah did not attend RSP events in official capacity, and he was absent at an MP orientation last week.&nbsp;
His refusal to engage with the press, and even stopping to post on social media, have added to the air of reclusiveness. But as prime minister, he may have to communicate more even if it just to stop conspiracy theories and intrigue.&nbsp;
The people he will now represent would like to know, and have a right to know, what he is up to. Otherwise the feeling will grow that Nepal is entering uncharted territory. Governance, the economy and investment do not like uncertainty.
Political scientist Pyakuryal notes that calling Balen a 'man of few words' may serve as a useful epithet if he governs with quiet efficiency rather than fanfare. "But as Prime Minister, he must engage the nation’s will, not simply manage from above," she says.
She adds: "The real test lies in his choice of style: will he lead exclusively, keeping decisions close, or inclusively, opening space for dialogue and shared ownership of governance?"
Nepal's newly-elected lawmakers were sworn in on Thursday. And once sworn in as PM on Friday, Balendra Shah is set to appoint a ‘minimalist’ Cabinet. Although the Constitution caps the size of the Council of Ministers at 25, the party has decided to stick to maximum 18 and not split ministries to accommodate loyalists as was done in the past.&nbsp;
&nbsp;"The Cabinet must support the leadership of the Prime Minister while ensuring accountability to the Parliament,” notes political scientist Sucheta Pyakuryal. “But the questions that come to mind are: will the RSP MPs readily submit to Balen’s leadership and is Balen’s absence from the party’s official events an unwillingness or hesitation to submit to the party?”
Prime Minister Sushila Karki and her ministers ended their interim tenures this week, and she was lauded for upholding her commitment to hold a free, fair and peaceful election. But her image was tarnished for her reluctance to release the investigation report on the September violence, as well as recommending her Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal for a National Assembly seat, and her personal secretary to the National Trust for Nature Conservation. President Ram Chandra Poudel has put Aryal’s nomination on hold. &nbsp;
The Investigation Commission report leaked on Wednesday said the state failed to stop the firing on protestors by Police on 8 September and blamed the Army for not preventing the arson next day. It recommended the prosecution of prime minister KP Oli, home minister Ramesh Lekhak, and Police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung.
Notable names said to be in consideration for the Cabinet include many who are experts in their fields, and RSP wants a young lawmaker as Speaker. The new government will plunge headlong into the economic fallout of the West Asia war.
RSP, with its near two-third majority, does not have to placate any coalition partner, so Nepal is at long last expected to have a stable government after 35 years. Despite hopes that there will not be the usual horse-trading this time, there is tension between supporters of RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane and Balendra Shah. The two have been negotiating in hotel rooms for Cabinet posts for loyalists.&nbsp;
Shah’s larger-than-life online persona and nationwide appeal delivered the RSP its overwhelming electoral victory this month, and this makes the party’s core leadership beholden to him. To what extent is Shah willing to meet Lamichhane’s demands is the critical question, and we will know the answer by this weekend.
Says Pyakuryal: “Because this election showcased personality politics rather than the regular party politics, the dangers of ego-clashes, power-tussles and intraparty realpolitik become very real and this kind of equation can greatly hamper the spirit of democracy, representation and collective good."

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 <figcaption>Animation: ANUP TAMU</figcaption>
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Ball in Balen’s court

Nepal’s new government hit the ground running with the arrests of former Prime Minister K P Oli and home Minister Ramesh Lekhak early Saturday morning.&nbsp;
Their dramatic detentions followed an inquiry commission report recommending that Lekhak, Oli, and former Police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung be investigated and prosecuted for negligence in failing to stop the killing of 19 young protesters by security forces during the protests on 8 September.&nbsp;
Interim PM Sushila Karki’s government faced considerable criticism from GenZ activists at the end of her 7-month tenure for failing to release the report and hold the previous UML-NC coalition to account.&nbsp;
Karki had left any decision on the report’s findings to new RSP government, but her government released it after the content was leaked earlier this week, a day before Nepal’s newly elected lawmakers took their oath of office.
By making the arrests of Oli and Lekhak as its first order of business, the new government, and especially Home Minister Sudan Gurung and Prime Minister Balendra Shah, have tried to show that they are decisive and mean business.&nbsp;
It has been hailed by many as signalling that Nepal’s new and young leadership will back up its pledges with action. However, others including the UML and some constitutional experts, say that the arrests have not followed legal procedures. The UML has mobilised its affiliated groups to start nationwide street protests.&nbsp;
The main divide seems to be over the perception that the new government is only interested in justice for the perpetrators of the 8 September Parliament massacre, and not against those who organised arson and vandalism of government buildings, homes of politicians, businesses and the media the next day.&nbsp;
While some celebrate what they see as the beginning of justice for the victims and survivors of the September violence, political analysts and legal experts express alarm over a lack of adherence to the rule of law.&nbsp;
K P Oli has a lot of experience being behind bars. He was jailed a dozen times in 1970s by the Panchayat regime for his extreme left activism and then spent 14 years in prison between 1974-1988.
Critics argue that the former leaders were denied due process and label their arrest a “political vendetta."
RSP supporters had made similar arguments in October 2024 and April 2025 that the arrest of party chair Rabi Lamichhane over misappropriation of funds from numerous cooperatives were &nbsp;politically motivated.
‘What is happening is unacceptable,’ wrote former minister and diplomat Nilamber Acharya wrote on Saturday morning. ‘Such acts of revenge and crackdowns do not bode well.’
In response to accusations of the arrests being partisan and politically-motivated, Home Minister Sudan Gurung took to social media, saying that the new government is fulfilling its promises: ‘No one is above the law,’ he wrote. ‘This is not revenge, it is the beginning of justice. I believe now that the nation will now take a new direction.’
There is also concern the new leadership has jumped the gun to implement the findings of the inquiry commission, which has itself been criticised in some quarters for concentrating on the events of 8 September rather than investigating the perpetrators of the anarchy on 9 September.&nbsp;
The first meeting of the Council of Ministers made the immediate implementation of the GenZ Movement Inquiry Report its first priority.
But there are questions as to whether the execution of the report will be impartial. Home Minister Gurung will now dictate how the recommendations &nbsp;will be conducted, since he is himself referenced in the report in connection with the unrest on 9 September.&nbsp;
In fact, the report also outlines how supporters stormed Nakhu Prison on 9 September to organise Rabi Lamichhane’s jailbreak. Will Minister Gurung also go after his own party's leadership? &nbsp;
With the UML already calling for nationwide protests against the detention of its leaders, there is concern that Nepal is plunging straight into turmoil instead of stability.
The UML leadership has been unrepentant about the 8 September events. Oli has defiantly blamed infiltration and outside forces for the killings, and unlike the Nepali Congress the UML has not managed its own leadership changeover.&nbsp;
The NC under Gagan Thapa as well as the Nepali Communist Party of Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal have so far been silent about the detentions even though former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak is from the NC.
Oli and Lekhak’s arrests will now be challenged in the courts. But their detention also signals to Nepal’s political old guard that the tables have turned: legacy leaders cannot be complacent and assume they will disappear from national consciousness for past deeds without being held accountable for what happened during their watch.
The RSP government under Prime Minister Balendra Shah seems determined not to let bygones be bygones. But while that is all and well, it remains to be see whether the party can deliver on the need of the electorate for tangible governance reform.
The danger is that the new rulers may be defined by the same tactics of political revenge as its predecessors in the name of meting out justice.

kusunda

Saving the Kusunda language from extinction

The last of the Kusunda

Nepal swears in new Cabinet

A lifeline becomes liability

Ball in Balen’s court

New Nepal government signals action