Thapa and Pande conflict and the Rise of Junga Bahadur Rana

Thapa and Pande conflict and the Rise of Junga Bahadur Rana

Introduction

Rana regime was the period of 104 years  ruled by hereditary Rana prime ministers from 1903 B.S to 2007 B.S. The fortune for the Rana family was established by Jung Bahadur Kunwar through series of conspiracies, murders and various other factors. The subsequent kings after King Prithivi Narayan Shah didn’t have stronghold in the politics of the country either due to minority or lack of qualities to rule. The state politics or authority was monopolized by the regents or noble Chettri families which included, Basnyat, Pande, Thapa and Shah/Chautariya families.The families plotted against each other and provoked the rulers against each other which inturn resulted in murder of prominent leaders like Damodar Pande, Bhimsen Thapa, Rana Jung Pande and Mathbar Singh Thapa. The internal palace clash between the courtiers, groupism and the bitter struggle for power resulted in the century long Rana regime. One of the main reason for the rise of Junga Bahadur Rana was the never ending family struggle for power and revenge between Pande and Thapa family of Nepal.

Earlier years

During the reign of King Prithivi Narayan Shah there, there were little internal palace conflicts as he maintained order and concerned all the power factions towards the unification campaign. It was during his rule that murder of any courtiers had stopped. In order to maintain harmony between his courtiers Prithivi Narayan Shah intermarried the sons and daughters of Thapas, Pandes, Basnyats and later the Kunwar (Ranas). In this way all the noble courtiers were mostlty related and linked by marriage but none of these families came together while exercising the power and plotted against each other until 1903 B.S.The old palace order soon broke out after the death  of king  Prithivi Narayan Shah. His son Pratap Singh Shah was unable to control all the power factions and make them work as one. After 2 years and 10 months of his reign, he passed away leaving his 2 and a half year old son Rana Bahadur Shah on the throne to rule.From here onwards there had been an everlasting political instability until 1903 B.S. Jung Bahadur Kunwar then took over the power and established an authoritarian regime.

Start of Palace conspiracies

Prince Bahadur Shah who was the uncle of the baby king and Rajendra Laxmi who was the Queen mother were working as co-regents but had their own differences. Both the political actors capable in their own ways were over ambitious and wanted to rule independently without each other’s intervention. The suspicious Queen mother always distrusted Bahadur Shah. Due to this the palace courtiers were divided into two party. One being the supporter of Rajendra Laxmi who were Kaji Swaroopsingh Karki, Pundit Bajranath Poudyal, Kaji Sarwajit Rana and Parashuram Thapa. The other being the supporter of Bahadur Shah, who were Dewan Kaji Bansaraj Pande, Kaji Damodar Pande, Kaji Abhimansingh Basnyat and Guru Gajraj Mishra. The two parties persuaded the regents against each other and spread unnecessary rumors about amorous relation between the queen and Sarwajit Rana and Bahadur Shah in other hand trying to take over his nephews throne for himself. In course of time Bahadur Shah went into a self-exile to Benares seeing no chance of his regent ship in presence of the queen. Swaroopsingh Karki persuaded the queen to execute Kaji Bansaraj Pande who was a loyal supporter of Bahadur Shah. The execution of Kaji Bansaraj Pande marked the beginning of the killing of able courtiers in different conspiracies as the part of the struggle for power. Later Swaroopsingh Karki also met with same fate when Bahadur Shah came in power and executed him in Kaski. Bahadur Shah came back from Benares and took over the regency soon after the death of the queen in Shrawan 4 1832 B.S. He tried to bring all the courtiers and focus them towards the unification as so as his father did and succeeded to some extent.

After the Nepal -China war, it brought in its wake serious challenge to Bahadur Shah’s previously unrivaled at the Kathmandu Durbar. The party opposing to the regents rule was not strong enough to bring about his downfall immediately, for he still enjoyed substantial support from various factions in Nepal whose personal interest were tied to his. Rajendra Laxmi’s earlier supporters moved to persuade Rana Bahadur Shah against his uncle’s regency. Rana Bahadur’s supporter were the Thapa family led by Kaji Amar Singh Thapa and group of Brahmins like Ranganath Poudyal while Bahadur Shah’s supporter were the Pande family led by Kaji Damodar Pande, Guru Gajraj Mishra and the royal family of Palpa who had an important position at that time as a semiautonomous vassal. After Rana Bahadur Shah came of age his supporter’s prompted him against the regent accusing him of twelve crimes out of which eleven were false. Bahadur Shah was arrested and killed in jail after 4 months in Asar 1854 B.S.

Death of Damodar Pande and the rise of Bhimsen Thapa

The reign of Rana Bahadur Shah is known as the period of murder of various able courtiers along with political instability and irresponsible nature of the king. Rana Bahadur Shah himself was forced to flee the country, but came back later on and wrested power from his second wife and killed dozens of her loyal courtiers, before he was himself killed, possibly in a family feud. The courtiers had many difficulties to run the state in presence of Rana Bahadur Shah who became traumatized after the death of his beloved mistress Kantivati. According to Kantivati’s wish Rana Bahadur abdicated in favour of the illegitimate child born to Kantivati as the king. Due to the irrational behavior of the king, it was hard for the bhardars to conduct daily administration. Mulkaji Damodar Pande and the Bhardars took the infant Girwanyuddha Bikram Shah to nuwakot and set up court there. Mulkaji Damodar Pande and other Bhardars conducted the business of state from Nuwakot in th name of the infant king while Maharani Rajrajeswori and Rana Bahadur Shah did so from patan. A virtual dual monarchy came into vogue creating a war situation of civil strife. Later Rana Bahadur Shah decided to move to kashi as an ascetic with name of swami Nirvanananda. On return of Rana Bahadur Shah he arrested his own queen Rajrajeswori and popular Kaji Damodar Pande. Damodar Pande was beheaded in Bhadrakali along with his son without any reason. Pande’s believed the killing of Damodar Pande was instigated by Bhimsen Thapa. At that period of time collective punishment system was practiced where all the family members were punished. The daughters of the family were married to the untouchables and all family exiled. The members of Pande family couldn’t bear such humiliation and thus developed the feeling of baapbairi or the family enemity began. In this way Pande’s and Thapa’s became arch rivals throughout the history of Nepal and struggled against each other for power which ultimately promoted for the rise of Rana regime.

The period of rule of Bhimsen Thapa saw a thirty yearlong stability in politics and some reforms but an autocratic regime. Though considered as a staunch nationalist and fierce fighter his image of being a power hungry conspirator couldn’t be hidden as he was later doomed because of his own doings. After continuous dissatisfaction, Bhimsen Thapa called back the ousted sons of Damodar Pande and gave them some governmental posts fearing they would team up with the east India Company and plot against him. But this was the dawn of Bhimsen Thapa’s end as his rivals had started gaining prominence in the palace and Rana Jung Pande who was a son of Damodar Pande wanted to avenge his father. Death of Bhimsen Thapa’s strong supporter Queen Regent Lalit Tripura Sundari and the infamous poison case of the prince Devendra son of King Rajendra Bikram Shah brought in the fall of three decade long autocratic rule. Rana Jung Pande, Karbir Pande and Ranadal Pande who were the sons of Damodar Pande re-emerged powerful as a result of patronage of Jethi Maharani Samrajya Laxmi, the senior wife of King Rajendra Bikram Shah. Death of Bhimsen Thapa by a suicide in prison declined the Thapa family from the power and Rana Jung Pande became the most powerful person in the court. The nephew of Bhimsen Thapa, Mathbarsingh Thapa also fled the city hoping to avenge the pande’s someday.

Period of Instability

From 1894 B.S to 1900 B.S there were five different government formed under Ranganath Poudyal, Chautariya Puskar Shah, Chautariya Fatte Jung Shah and Kaji Rana Jung Pande but Kaji Rana Jung was the core power throughout this period. The period of 1897 B.S to 1900 B.S was marked by disastrous internal instability in Nepal as the various contending factors struggled for power. The Pande’s were incapable of wielding power, and the Chautaria-Brahmin group were considered too subservient to the British residence. Death of Elder queen Samrajya Laxmi brought the decline of Mukhtiyar Kaji Rana Jung Pande from power and Junior Queen Rajya Laxmi who hated the Pande’s came in power. Junior Queen Rajya Laxmi had her own regal ambitions of making own son Prince Ranendra the heir in place of her step son Surendra. To accomplish her ambitions she called back Mathbar Singh Thapa assuring him to give the next premiership. Mathbarsingh Thapa who wanted to avenge his uncle’s death ordered all the Pande’s to be executed including Kaji Rana Jung and his brothers. Mathbarsingh said that he would meet a normal death rather than his predecessor all of whom were killed while in office. But he mate with the similar fate as his predecessors and killed by his own nephew who came to power in Nepalese court because of him.

The decimation of the Pande family in 1900 B.S and the assassination of Mathbar Singh Thapa in 1902 B.S eliminated two principle factions in Nepal and opened way for several new contenders for power. The year following Mathbar Singh’s death was one of political near-chaos, marked by bitter struggle for the mantle of authority formerly monopolized by the Thapas and Pandes.  Junga Bahadur Kunwar came to power after murdering his uncle Mukhtiyar Mathbar Singh Thapa. In the following year in 31^st Bhadra 1903 B.S a crisis was reached, with the assassination of Gagan Singh who shared power with Jung Bahadur Kunwar and was the Junior Queens principle supporter and a rumored paramour.The junior Queen Rajya Laxmi summoned all the nobles in courtyard which saw the gruesome murder of more than thirty important officials including Fateh Jung Shah the Mukhtiyar. The murder was masterminded by Jung Bahadur Kunwar where all the major rivals were either killed or expelled from shortly thereafter, and he was appointed the Mukhtiyar by King Rajendra.

Conclusion

Nepal hasn’t seen a stable political scenario after the death of King Prithivi Narayan Shah. The struggle for power among various groups had caused a long political deadlock not only until the Rise of Ranas but the legacy is seen even during Panchayat Era, Multiparty Democracy Era after 2047 B.S. Even today after the establishment of Republic we see the unstable politics in the country and infightings between various political ideologies. Before the power politics were exploited in family basis by leading families like Pandes, Thapas, Basnyats and Shahs but now it is exploited by political parties.

Reasons for the Rise of Ranas can be traced back to thte death of King Pratap Singh Shah and internal conflicts between Rajendra Laxmi and Bahadur Shah. The irrational behavior of Rana Bahadur Shah and continued killings of notable leaders like Damodar Pande, Bhimsen Thapa, Rana Jung Pande and Mathbar Singh Thapa. The continued political instability and deadlock finally led to the rise of Rana tyrants.

Jung Bahadur Rana was a requirement or need of time. Long lasting instability gave birth to an ambitious character like Damodar Pande who challenged the monarch and established dual ruling in the same country. It also gave birth to Bhimsen Thapa who launched three decade long autocratic regime and finally Jung Bahadur Kunwar who eventually went along to establish a century of autocratic regime. The instable politics would have led this country in a disaster if such ambitious characters wouldn’t have come in play. But the tool of every leaders to come to power was murder. The politics throughout the history of our country is stained with blood. The most fearsome bloodbath occurred in 1903 B.S called kot parva which eventually led to the rise of the Ranas and removed all other nobles families such as Thapa, Pande and Basnyat from political scenario.

(the information in this article are from different books on history which I have read over the time. I have not provided the citations in this article.)