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NepalThe Kot Massacre
After three months of squabbling, a coalition ministry
was
formed in September 1845, again headed by Fateh Jang
Chautaria. The
real power behind the throne was the favorite of Queen
Lakshmidevi,
Gagan Singh, who controlled seven regiments in the army
compared to
the three under the prime minister. Abhiman Singh and Jang
Bahadur
also served as commanders, each with three regiments.
Plots and
counterplots continued until Gagan Singh was found
murdered during
the night of September 14, 1846. The queen was beside
herself at
the death of her favorite, whom she had hoped to use to
elevate her
own son to the monarchy. She commanded Abhiman Singh to
assemble
the entire military and administrative establishment of
Kathmandu
immediately at the courtyard of the palace armory
(kot).
Emotions ran high among the assembled bands of notables
and
their followers, who listened to the queen give an
emotional
harangue blaming the Pandes and demanding that the prime
minister
execute the Pande leader whom she suspected of the murder.
While
Abhiman Singh hesitated, fighting broke out in the crowd,
and he
was wounded. During the free-for-all that followed, swords
and
knives were used on all sides to dispatch opponents.
Through some
scheme that has never been explained adequately, the only
leader
with organized bodies of troops in the kot area was
Jang
Bahadur, whose troops suppressed the fighting, killing
many of his
opponents in the process. When the struggle subsided, the
courtyard
was strewn with the bodies of dozens of leading nobles and
an
unknown number of their followers--the cream of the
Nepalese
aristocracy. The Pande and Thapa families in particular
were
devastated during this slaughter.
Why the Kot Massacre took place has never been
established,
although the queen herself was obviously at fault for
calling the
assembly and whipping it into a frenzy. It has always
seemed
suspicious that the king was notably absent when the
fighting began
and that Jang Bahadur was the only leader who was ready
for
trouble. The extent of the carnage was apparently
unexpected. Jang
Bahadur was the only true beneficiary of the massacre and
became
the only military leader in a position of strength in the
capital.
The next day, he became prime minister and immediately
launched a
purge that killed many of his aristocratic competitors and
drove
6,000 people into exile in India.
Data as of September 1991
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