As Nepal transits from over two centuries of monarchy to a new republic, what should our thoughts be? Here is a landlocked country spread largely over the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas, with a population of approximately 29 million people, strategically sandwiched between India and China, two rising economic giants with contrasting political systems, wanting to distance itself from its feudal past and daring to believe that its future lies in the institutions and politics of a parliamentary democracy. Here is a country that has experienced a ten year Maoist insurgency, that has experimented with some form of panchayat democracy, that wants to embark on the road to a new Nepal through the significant and bold historical gesture of abolishing its monarchy in the first act of its constituent assembly. How, then, should we see this moment?

Firstly, we must see it as a defining moment in the history of Nepal. A ‘defining moment’ or a ‘new dawn’? A ‘new dawn’ suggests that the path to the future is already set. The day breaks with the sun slowly tracing its fixed path across the sky. There are no uncertainties, we know its trajectory. A ‘defining moment’, in contrast, is a moment of hesitation, a pause at the fork in the road. Nepal is at one such defining moment where it has to make important choices which have great relevance for many of the big issues of today.

How does a society of very limited resources move from a conflict situation to a post-conflict situation, peacefully? What should its institutional framework look like if it is to accommodate and address the many claims that are being, and will be made? What are the policy instruments that need to be framed to reinforce its plurality and still make it inclusive? And, of course, what redistributive strategy should it follow to meet the heightened aspirations of its marginalised and impoverished groups who constitute the bulk of the population? And it must do all this when most of the world’s economies are interlinked, limiting the choices that are available.

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