Saturday 12 July 2014

Greater Nepal

Greater Nepal is a nascent concept of Nepal extending beyond its present boundaries to include current Indian territories controlled briefly by the Gurkha army after defeating some Indian kingdoms in wars fought from 1791 to 1804 but ceded to the East India Company under the Sugauli Treaty after the Gurkha king was defeated in the 1814–16 Anglo-Nepalese War. The concept of "Greater Nepal" does not include those parts of Tibet that the Gurkha army occupied very briefly after defeating
Tibetans in wars fought from 1789 to 1791 but from where the Gurkha army was ejected by Chinese army which defeated the Gurkha king in 1792 Sino-Nepalese War. In 1813, this historical Greater Nepal extended from the Sutlej to the Tista, spanning 1500 kilometres. Rule over this expanse was brief, however, and in the aftermath of the 1814-1815 war with the East India Company the Gorkhali realm was whittled down considerably. The real time Gorkhali presence in Garhwal was for a little over a decade; Kumaon for 25 years; and Sikkim for 33 years. The Treaty of Sugauli, between the Gorkhali king and the Company, was ratified in 1816. It caused Nepal's rulers to lose about 105,000 km2 of territory and left Nepal as she is today, with 147,181 km2 of present total area. Former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said in a 2005 interview with Times of India that Greater Nepal was a "media-created stunt".

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