Gurkha Soldiers
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EXTERNAL RELATIONS:
Prithvi Narayan Shah (reigned 1742-75) and his successors established a unified state
in the central Himalayas and launched an ambitious and remarkably vigorous program
of expansion, seeking to bring the entire hill area, from Bhutan to Kashmir, under their
authority. They made considerable progress, but successive setbacks in wars with
China and Tibet (1788-92), with the Sikh kingdom in the Punjab (1809), with British
India (1814-16), and again with Tibet (1854-56) frustrated Nepal and set the present
boundaries of the kingdom.
The British conquest of India in the 19th century posed a serious threat to Nepal--which expected to be another
victim--and left the country with no real alternative but to seek an accommodation with the British to preserve its
independence. This was accomplished by the Rana family regime after 1860 on terms that were mutually
acceptable, if occasionally irritating, to both. Under this de facto alliance, Kathmandu permitted the recruitment of
Nepalese for the highly valued Gurkha units in the British Indian Army and also accepted British "guidance" on
foreign policy; in exchange, the British guaranteed the Rana regime against both foreign and domestic enemies
and allowed it virtual autonomy in domestic affairs. Nepal, however, was also careful to maintain a friendly
relationship with China and Tibet, both for economic reasons and to counterbalance British predominance in
South Asia.
The British withdrawal from India in 1947 deprived the Ranas of a vital external source of support and exposed the
regime to new dangers. Anti-Rana forces, composed mainly of Nepalese residents in India who had served their
political apprenticeship in the Indian nationalist movement, formed an alliance with the Nepalese royal family, led
by King Tribhuvan (reigned 1911-55), and launched a revolution in November 1950. With strong diplomatic support
from New Delhi, the rebels accepted a settlement with the Ranas under which the sovereignty of the crown was
restored and the revolutionary forces, led by the Nepali Congress Party, gained an ascendant position in the
administration.
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