SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This is a study of the political relations between British India and Nepal from the death of the first Rana prime minister of Nepal, Maharaja Jang Bahadur, in 1877 to the Anglo-Nepalese treaty of 1923. It seeks to show the interaction of the British and Nepalese diplomacy, of the challenge of the one and the reaction of the other, leading finally to the evolution of a spirit of compromise and adjustment of mutual interests for the sake of the mutual benefit of the two governments. The first Chapter, a prologue, contains a brief survey of the land and the peoples of Nepal and the main trends of their government's relations with British India between 1767 and 1877. The next two chapters deal with three main issues: Nepal's policy of restricting the movements of the British Resident, the question of the recruitment of Gurkhas in the British Indian Army, and the British policy of supplying arms to Nepal to facilitate Gurkha recruitment. Nepal's relations with China and Tibet and how they influenced the British attitude to Nepal and their policy in Tibet have been studied in the three following chapters. The circumstances leading to the Treaty of 1923 and its importance from the Nepalese and British points of view form the subject of the next-the seventh-chapter. Finally, I have attempted in the last chapter an assessment of the British influence on Nepal, its extent and intensity. In writing the thesis, extensive use has been made of unpublished materials in the United Kingdom, India and Nepal, a full list of which has been provided in the bibliography.