Greater Nepal is anirredentist concept inNepal,[1] which claims currentIndian andBangladeshi territories beyond Nepal's present-day boundaries.[2] These claims typically include the areas controlled by Nepal between 1791 and 1816, a period that ended with theAnglo-Nepalese War and the signing ofSugauli Treaty.[3] In addition, extensive territories in the present-day Indian states ofUttarakhand,Himanchal Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh,Bihar,West Bengal and some parts of Bangladesh are also included in the claims of the activist organisation Greater Nepal Nationalist Front, which demands the "return" of these territories to Nepal.[2][4] A map similar to theirs was displayed by the mayor ofKathmandu in his office in June 2023, in reaction to an alleged "Akhand Bharat" map in the Indian Parliament building.[5][6]
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Nepal was originally the name of the Kathmadu valley, and, in this sense, the term had been in existence for 2000 years.[7][8] In the 18th century, the king of theGorkha Kingdom,Prithvi Narayan Shah, started a process of expansion, conquering Kathmandu in 1768 and making it his new capital.[9] The expanded state continued to be called "Gorkha" or "Gorkhali" until the early 20th century,[10]with the term "Nepal" being officially adopted as the name only in the 1930s.[11]
After the death of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Gorkha state continued to expand, conquering the Gandaki and Karnali basins, and thenKumaon andGarhwal (1792), halting at theSutlej River where theSikh Empire exerted its influence (1809–10).[12] In the east, the Gorkhas occupied the western half ofSikkim up to theTeesta River.[13][a]
Even though all of this was a straightforward military conquest with no national feelings of any kind, the modern Nepalese narrative retroactively treats it as the "unification" of a Nepalese "nation".[16][17]Some of these extended conquests came unstuck in 1815, when during theAnglo-Nepalese War, the British General Ochterloney compelled the Gorkhali commander Amar Singh Thapa to withdraw from Garhwal and Kumaon across theSharda River (or Mahakali River).[18] Negotiations for a general settlement took place atSugauli in Bihar and agreed in December 1815, but ratified only after Ochterlony advanced toMakwanpur, thirty miles short of Kathmandu.[18] Among the terms of theTreaty of Sugauli was also the Nepalese withdrawal from the territory ofSikkim east of the Mechi river, which was a British ally in the war.
The Gorkha rule over this "historical Greater Nepal" fromSutlej toTeesta was brief. The duration of Gorkhali presence inGarhwal was 12 years,Kumaon 24 years, andSikkim 33 years.[19] It has been claimed that the Treaty of Sugauli caused Nepal's rulers to lose about 176,000 km2 of territory and left the country with only 147,516 km2 total area.[20][better source needed]
The Greater Nepal Nationalist Front (GNNF, formerly "Unified Nepal National Front")[4][21] is a NepaleseNGO headed by Phanindra Nepal, which champions the cause of Greater Nepal. The organisation disowns the 1810Sugauli Treaty and the 1950Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India. It demands the return of the land that belonged to Nepal before the signing of the Sugauli Treaty. This involves land up to theSutlej River in the west, theTeesta River in the east ("Shimla toDarjeeling" in the organisation's parlance) and extending up toVaranasi in the south.[4]
Scholars Mishra and Haque state that the organisation is rhetorically very powerful. The map of Greater Nepal produced by the organisation provides power to the movement by building "meanings and nostalgic longings". The movement has a web page in theNepali language, a Facebook page and blog sites.[4]
An even more grandiose movement is said to talk about "Unified Gorkha-States of India Sub-Continent", which restructures the Indian subcontinent into five autonomous states, the largest of which is the so-called "Arya Autonomous State".[4]
A Maoist movement has published a 260-page Nepali book titled "Nepal: Teesta Dekhi Satlej Samma" ("Nepal: From Teesta to the Sutlej") which, while repeating similar demands to the GNNF, also provides copious references to alleged historical facts. Among others, it claims that the Indian prime ministerJawaharlal Nehru supported the idea of "Greater Nepal".[3]Their map includes the Indian towns ofVaranasi,Ballia,Bahraich,Pilibhit andJaunpur within Greater Nepal.[22]The Maoist leaderPrachanda dismissed the claims in an interview with theTimes of India as a "media-created stunt". But according to theTimes of India the book was readily available in and around the Maoist camps along the Indo-Nepal border in 2005.[3] The Maoist-affiliated Indian Nepalis advocacy groupAkhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj is also supportive of the greater Nepali ideal according to some sources.[23]
Scholars and retired officials such asBuddhi Narayan Shrestha (former Director of the Survey Department) andDwarika Nath Dhungel (former secretary of Water Resources) have published scholarly articles with maps labelled "Greater Nepal".[24][25][26]Shrestha has also spoken in Greater Nepal gatherings[27][28]and made media comments in its favour, declaring "The land we lost to the East India Company should not belong to India. It is ours."[29]
Shreshta narrates that, before the Sugauli Treaty, Nepal extended up to the confluence ofGandak andGanges Rivers in the south, and toShigatse andTashilhunpo in the north. "It wascalled the 'Greater Nepal'", he states, without mentioning who called it so.[30] British India apparently "did not like" Greater Nepal as a unified country and therefore dismembered it.[31] He alleges that the British wanted to expand trade into Tibet but, since Nepal stood in the way, they needed to cut it down.[32]
No king of Nepal has ever discussed or approved of the concept of "Greater Nepal".[citation needed] However, upon forming a coalition government after the2008 Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, the leader of theCommunist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and then-prime ministerPushpa Kamal Dahal (popularly known as "Prachanda") stated that the1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship would be "scrapped".[33] However, the matter was pursued no further. He resigned nine months later for other reasons. Late Nepali Prime MinisterGirija Prasad Koirala called the idea of Greater Nepal "a product of unstable minds". According toKanak Mani Dixit, as of 1993, the mainstream Left of Nepal appears ambivalent: "They like the concept but are unwilling to do anything about it."[34]
In 2023 when theMauryan Empire mural in India's new Parliament building appeared in the newspapers, some politicians of the rulingBharatiya Janata Party started branding it anAkhand Bharat map. The fact that included some Nepalese towns such asLumbini andKapilavastu produced consternation in Nepal. The mayor of Kathmandu,Balen Shah placed a map ofGreater Nepal in his office as a protest.[35][36]
The growing concept of "Greater Nepal" is an irredentist notion which visualises to include several areas of India which were occupied by Gorkha army after conquering the neighbouring states between 1791 to 1804.
The nationalist history of today styles him [Prithvi Narayan Shah] 'the Great': he is the Father of the Nation, and his conquests are referred to as the 'unification' of Nepal.