This, it seems, is how history goes. Individual actions do shape collective events. Now Prithvi Narayan Shah’s statue stands damaged, in front of Singha Durbar, the seat of the parliament in Kathmandu, with a chipped-off crown and a broken sword: an accurate enough symbol for the disgraced state in which the monarchy ended.

Now we must get on with the task of nation-building again, rebuilding from the ground up a just, equitable, inclusive state: the federal republic of Nepal. There is so much to do, so much lost time to make up for. The next two years will be decisive, as our Constituent Assembly — large and unwieldy, but heartening in its diversity — drafts a new constitution. It will be up to the political parties to not let people down from now on. The Maoists are yet to give up their army, or effect a full transition to nonviolent politics. The Nepal army remains unreformed. The prosecution of war crimes remains to be done.

Ending the monarchy was easy by comparison to all this. The difficult work begins now.

The writer is the Kathmandu-based author of ‘Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy’express@expressindia.com