With the recent devastating earthquake in Nepal claiming thousands of lives, the Nepalese
government has admitted that they are “ill-prepared” to deal with rescue efforts.
We wanted to examine the political crisis leading up to this natural disaster.
So what’s been going on in Nepal?
Nepal’s entire history has been tumultuous, to say the least.
For the past few centuries, multiple attempts at democracy have failed and depleted Nepal’s
ability to develop as a country, despite a historically resilient population.
But let’s start around the 1815 Anglo-Nepalese war, in which Nepal lost a third of their
territory to the British.
Thirty years later came the Kot massacre, in which a political rival murdered a large
portion of the monarchy, and took over as king, beginning the Rana Lineage.
The next hundred years of rule were marked by tyranny, religious persecution, and a drained
economy.
In the 1950s, attempts at democratization ended the Rana lineage but only lasted about
a decade.
For the next thirty years, Nepal was governed under the quasi-monarchy Panchayat political
system, which was marred by corruption, censorship, and human rights abuses.
This lasted until about 1990 when the Nepalese people again tried to instate a democracy.
However in 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal attempted a violent coup, which started the
Nepal Civil War.
The conflict lasted until 2006, and left some 15,000 dead and over a hundred thousand displaced.
The war only ended when the new King finally agreed to cede power.
The next few years saw several back and forth struggles between the communist party and
the majority parties.
This struggle finally culminated in the dissolution of the existing government in 2012 after it
was unable to draft a constitution.
It took until 2014 for a new Prime Minister to be elected.
So what was the result of hundreds of years of political instability?
Well, Nepal is one of the poorest, and most underdeveloped countries in the world.
With an extremely low income economy, remittances sent back by family members working outside
the country make up nearly a fourth of Nepal’s GDP.
They are also ranked in the bottom quarter of countries on the Human Development Index.
Nepal holds “least developed country” status, meaning they are amongst the worst
in terms of poverty, human resource weakness, and economic vulnerability.
With next to no resources available to deal with infrastructure or building codes, Nepal’s
capital, Kathmandu, has been called one of the worst earthquake-prepared cities in the
world.
And with a lack of local elections in the past decade, the worst-affected villages are
governed by unprepared, unelected committees.
The deadly aftermath of this disaster can largely be attributed to the country’s erratic
political and social history.
Many aid and humanitarian organizations have mobilized to provide much needed support,
but they need help.
If you're looking for a worthy cause to donate to, we’ve put a link to the GlobalGiving
fundraising campaign in the description below.
And for any of you that are on the hunt for exciting new videos, please join me on our
new Seeker Stories channel.
We’ve got a lot of really great stuff coming out, and we’d love for you to see it.
Click here to watch, and don’t forget to subscribe!