NepalNEPAL: National Security
World War I vintage kukri, the Gurkha knife,
with its distinctive notch above the hilt, and two soldiers
NEPAL IS RENOWNED for its fighting men, the fabled
Gurkhas. The
worldwide reputation of Nepalese soldiers as a superior
fighting
force can be attributed mainly to the qualities of the
troops of
Nepalese origin who have fought as contingents in the
British Army
since the early nineteenth century and for the Indian Army
since
its formation in 1947. With their long record of martial
prowess
and battlefield heroics, the Gurkhas provide one of the
more
colorful chapters of modern military history.
The history of the Royal Nepal Army is intertwined with
that of the Rana Dynasty and its Shah predecessors
(see Rana Rule
, ch. 1). In the post-World War II era, the army served as a
bastion
of support for King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and his
heir, King
Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, Nepal's reigning monarch in
mid-1991.
Many Nepalese opponents of the monarchy complained that
the
military was a reactionary institution bent on defending a
quasifeudal system of government in the face of mounting
popular
calls for democratization. More conservative Nepalese,
however,
regarded a strong king and a traditional military beholden
to royal
patronage as essential elements of political stability and
national
independence. During the 1990 Movement for the Restoration
of
Democracy, or prodemocracy movement, which transformed
Nepal's
political system into a broad-based constitutional
monarchy with
elected civilian leaders, the army was used as a
stabilizing force.
Nepal's military establishment in 1991 consisted of an
army of
35,000 personnel. Organized largely along British lines,
the force
included fourteen infantry brigades, an airborne
battalion, an air
defense regiment, a small air services wing, and a variety
of
independent infantry companies and supporting units.
Service in the
army, an all-volunteer force, generally was held in high
esteem by
the general public; benefits and terms of service were
attractive
by local standards. Although its soldiers generally were
welltrained and highly motivated, Nepal lacked the resources
to equip
its army with anything beyond obsolete imported weapons.
The
officer corps had no political ambitions and invariably
carried out
the orders of the king and civilian authorities.
Although the military's stated mission was the classic
one of
defending the nation against hostile external attack,
internal
security--assisting the police, patrolling remote areas,
and
protecting the monarchy--constituted the military's
primary
mission. The country's precarious geopolitical position
between two
giant neighbors, India and China, made anything more than
a token
conventional defense impractical. In order to ensure the
country's
survival, Nepalese leaders have traditionally sought to
maintain
good relations with both neighbors and to obtain
international
recognition of Nepal's de jure status as an independent
buffer
state. The protracted trade and transit dispute that
poisoned IndoNepalese relations in 1989, although eventually resolved
amicably
in 1990, reinforced the common Nepalese perception of an
overbearing Indian government willing to use its economic
and
military advantages to intimidate its small Himalayan
neighbor.
Most Nepalese regarded China as a more distant but benign
power
that served as a strategic counterweight to India's
supposed
hegemonistic ambitions in the region.
Under the 1990 constitution, control over the nation's
military
is vested in the king, although the elected civilian
government
acquired new authority over military affairs and national
defense.
The 28,000-strong Nepalese Police Force, regarded by many
observers
as corrupt and inefficient, became a focus of the Nepali
Congress
Party government that came to power in 1991. The new
government
promised to reform the police system, overhaul the
judiciary, and
improve the country's deteriorating law-and-order
situation. The
constitution instituted significant reforms in human
rights and
judicial practices, both of which were the objects of
considerable
domestic and foreign criticism.
Data as of September 1991
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