Bhimsen Thapa

Bhimsen Thapa (Nepali: भीमसेन थापा 1775 - July 28, 1839) was the Prime Minister of Nepal from 1806 to 1837. After his initial rise to power during the reign of Rana Bahadur, the immature age of Girvan Yuddha Shah and Rajendra Bikram Shah, coupled with the support from Rani Tripurasundari (the junior queen), who was also his niece, allowed him to continue to stay in power. During his prime ministership, the Gurkha empire had already reached its greatest expanse from Sutlej river in the west to the Teesta river in the east. Nepal entered into a disastrous Anglo-Nepalese War with the East India Company lasting from 1814–16, which was concluded with the Treaty of Sugauli, by which Nepal lost almost one-third of its land. The death of Queen Tripurasundari in 1832, his strongest supporter, and the adulthood of king Rajendra, weakened his hold on power. The conspiracies and infighting with rival courtiers finally led to his imprisonment and dead by suicide. He is regarded as one of the National heroes of Nepal.

Early Years

Bhimsen Thapa was born in the small district of Gorkha. His father, Major Amar Singh Thapa (not to be confused with the commander of Gorkhali forces in the Gurkha War), was a faithful soldier of King Prithvi Narayan Shah. At the age of 11, Bhimsen Thapa came into contact with the Nepalese Royal Palace when his bratabandha ceremony was held together with the Crown Prince Rana Bahadur's. Thapa and the Crown Prince soon developed a friendship with Thapa eventually serving as King Rana Bahadur's personal secretary at the age of 22 in Varanasi, India.

Rise to Power

The premature death of Pratap Singh Shah (reigned 1775–77), the eldest son of Prithvi Narayan Shah, left a huge power vacuum that remained unfilled for decades, seriously debilitating the emerging Nepalese state. Pratap Singh Shah's successor was his son, Rana Bahadur Shah (reigned 1777–99), aged two and one-half years at his accession. The acting regent until 1785 was Queen Rajendralakshmi, followed by Bahadur Shah (reigned 1785–94), the second son of Prithvi Narayan Shah. Court life was consumed by rivalry centered on alignments with these two regents rather than on issues of national administration. In 1794 the king came of age, and in 1797 he began to exercise power on his own. Rana Bahadur's youth had been spent in pampered luxury amid deadly intrigue and had made him incapable of running either his own life or the country. He became infatuated with a Maithili Brahman widow, Kantavati, and cleared the way to the throne for their illegitimate son, Girvan Yuddha Shah. Disconsolate after the death of his mistress in 1799, Rana Bahadur began to engage in such irrational behavior that leading citizens demanded his abdication. He was forced to turn his throne over to Girvan Yuddha Shah, aged one and one-half years, and retired to Banaras.

During the minority of the king, Damodar Pande took over the administration as mukhtiyar, or prime minister (1799–1804), with complete control over administration and the power to conduct foreign affairs. He set a significant precedent for later Nepalese history, which has seen a recurring struggle for effective power between king and prime minister. The main policy of Damodar Pande was to protect the young king by keeping his unpredictable father in Banaras and to play off against each other the schemes of the retired king's wives. By 1804 this policy had failed. The former king engineered his return and took over as mukhtiyar. Damodar Pande was executed and replaced by Bhimsen Thapa as chief administrator (kaji). In a bizarre turn of events on April 25, 1806, Rana Bahadur Shah quarreled in open court with his half-brother, Sher Bahadur. The latter drew his sword and killed Rana Bahadur Shah before being cut down by a nearby courtier. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bhimsen Thapa became prime minister (1806–37), and the junior queen, Tripurasundari, became regent (1806–32). The junior queen was the daughter of Bhimsen Thapa's brother Kaji Nayan Singh Thapa. Together they cooperated to liquidate ninety-three of their enemies. The death of Girvan Yuddha Shah in 1816 and the accession of his infant son, Rajendra Bikram Shah, meant the retention of the regency.

Anglo-Nepalese War

The Anglo–Nepalese War (1814–1816), sometimes called the Gorkha War, was fought between Nepal and the British East India Company as a result of border tensions and ambitious expansionism of both the belligerent parties. While the immediate reason for the war was the border dispute in the terai region, the war-like preliminary had been going on for more than a decade. Considering the many successes that the Gurkha army had seen during the unification campaign of Nepal, Bhimsen Thapa was one of the main proponents of the war with the British, which was against the better advice of the likes of Kaji Amar Singh Thapa, who actually did the fighting and knew about the hardships of war.

Hold on Power

On 20 Nov, 1816, King Girvan Yuddha died of small pox, aged twenty-one, and was succeeded by his only son, Rajindra Bikram Shah, an infant of two years old. Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa, in collusion with the queen regent, Tripurasundari, remained in power despite the defeat of Nepal in the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. After the war, he used all his influence in favor of peace with the British, "a Power," as he said, "that crushed thrones like potsherds." He faced constant opposition at court from factions centered around leading members of other families, notably the Pandes, who decried what they felt was his craven submission to the British. Bhimsen Thapa managed to keep his opposition under control by maintaining a large army and modernizing its equipment and by convincing the suspicious British that he had no intention of using the army. During the minority of King Rajendra Bikram Shah (reigned 1816–47), the prime minister kept the king in isolation—he did not even have the freedom to leave the palace without permission. Bhimsen Thapa appointed members of his own family to the highest positions at court and in the army, giving his brother, Ranbir Singh Thapa, control over the western provinces and his nephew, Mathbar Singh Thapa, control over the eastern provinces. The Pandes and other opponents were frozen out of power.

Downfall

The power balance began to change after the king came of age and Queen Tripurasundari died in 1832. The prime minister lost his main support at a time when the young ruler was coming under greater influence from the Pande faction at court. In 1833 Brian Hodgson became British resident and began a more aggressive campaign to increase British influence and trading opportunities; because Bhimsen Thapa opposed him, Hodgson openly favored Bhimsen Thapa's opponents. In 1837 the king announced his intention to rule independently, deprived both Bhimsen Thapa and Mathbar Singh of their military powers, and promoted some members of the Pande faction.

In July 1837, King Rajendra Bikram Shah's youngest son, an infant of one year, died suddenly; and it was at once given out that the child had died of poison, intended for its mother the Maharani (elder queen), and given at the instigation of Bhim Sen, or someone of his party. On this charge, Bhim Sen, his brother Ranbir Singh, his nephew Mathbir Singh, their families, the court physician and his deputy, with a number more of the nearest relations of the Thapas, were incarcerated, proclaimed outcasts, and their property confisticated. They were fearfully tortured to induce them to confess, but not a syllable to criminalize anyone was elicited.

Ranjang Pande was suddenly appointed as the Prime Minister. Fearful, from this appointment, of the establishment of the Pandes in power, Fatte Jang Chautaria, Raghunath Pandit, and the junior Rani obtained from the king the liberation of Bhim Sen, Mathabir, and the rest of the party. Pardon was given to Bhim Sen, who fell on his face at the king's feet, in full Durbar. Their confiscated property was also returned. Ranjung, the leader of the powerful Pande party, was removed from the office of Prime Minister and Raghunath Pandit, who was favorably inclined towards the Thapas was elected Premier.

However, Raghunath Pandit, finding himself unsupported by the king, resigned the Premiership, which was conferred nominally on Chautariya Pushkar Shah, but actually upon his colleague, Ranjang Pande, in whom all real authority was vested. The Pandes were now in full possession of power; they had gained over the king to their side by flattering his weaknesses. The Maharani had been a firm supporter of their party; and they endeavored to secure popularity in the army by promises of war and plunder.

Suicide

At the beginning of 1839, Ranjang Pande was made the sole Prime Minister. The accusation of poisoning the young prince in 1837 was revived against Bhim Sen Thapa and his party, and forged papers and evidence were produced professing to criminate him. Bhim Sen, by then an old man, defended himself in open Durbar with great spirit, asking why, if this evidence were really true, it had not been produced in 1837; and denouncing the papers as forgeries, he demanded to be confronted with his accusers. His appeal was of no use; he was surrounded by enemies. The few chiefs who were in his favor, or convinced of his innocence, sat by in silence and in fear. The king denounced him as a traitor, and sent him back in chains to prison.[10] Threats of every indignity to himself and the female members of his house were constantly made to him, with a view to induce him to commit suicide. The court physician, who attended the child (a Brahman, and whose life was sacred), was burnt on the forehead and cheeks till his brain and jaws were exposed. The under-physician, a Newar, was impaled alive, and his heart extracted while he was yet living. Still no evidence against Bhim Sen or any of the accused could be extorted even by these horrible atrocities, which were perpetrated not only by the order, but in the presence of the king.[11]

On the 20th of July 1839, driven to desperation, Bhim Sen attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a kukri, of which wound he died nine days afterwards. His enemies refused even to his corpse the ordinary funeral rites; it was dismembered and exposed about the city, and afterwards the manged remains were thrown on the river-side as food for vultures and jackals. His very bones were not allowed to be removed that they might be buried. His family and relatives were imprisoned, and their property confiscated. A decree was also issued that none of the Thapa class should receive public employ for seven generations.

It is believed that he killed himself when he was told that his wife would be dragged through the streets naked.

After Math

The fall of Bhimsen Thapa did nothing to solve the factional fighting at court. The Pandes were dismissed, and Fateh Jang Chautaria was appointed prime minister in November 1840. His ministry was unable to control renewed competition between a resurgent Thapa coalition and the disgraced Pandes, who preferred the abdication of the king in favor of the heir apparent. The king became increasingly attentive to the advice of his wives. Under intense pressure from the aristocracy, the king decreed in January 1843 that he would rule the country only with advice and agreement of his junior queen, Lakshmidevi, and commanded his subjects to obey her even over his own son, Surendra. The queen, seeking support of her own son's claims to the throne over those of Surendra Bikram Shah, invited back from exile Mathbar Singh Thapa, who was popular in army circles. Upon his arrival in Kathmandu, an investigation of his uncle's death took place, and a number of his Pande enemies were executed. By December 1843, Mathbar Singh was appointed prime minister, but he proved no more capable of extinguishing court intrigues than had his predecessors. Against the wishes of the queen, he supported heir apparent Surendra. Once Mathbar Singh had alienated the person who officially wielded state authority, his days were numbered. On May 17, 1845, he was killed, most likely on the queen's orders. The assassin apparently was Jang Bahadur Kunwar, his nephew, then a minor but rising star in court politics.

The death of Mathbar Singh set the stage for one of the crucial sequences of events in modern Nepalese history—the destruction of the old aristocracy and the establishment of a dictatorship of the prime minister. These events provided the long period of stability the country needed but at the cost of political and economic development.

Achievements

Thapa served for 31 years under three kings. Support from Queen Tripurasundari as well as the long minority of the successive kings allowed him to stay in power for a long time. He appealed all South Asian states to fight collectively against the British and declared war on the English East India Company in 1816 as the commander of the army and as the Prime Minister. However due to the ill preparation, long standing internal unification campaign, lack of foreign assistance, as well as previous military confrontation with China, Nepal lost the war which precipitated his downfall. However it was his skill as a diplomat that saved Nepal from complete annexation by the British. Despite the defeat in Anglo-Nepalese war, he continued to rule for another 13 years whence he brought about several military, judicial, social and economic reforms in Nepal. The army was modernized in European style. He arranged facilities for guns and other explosives for the army. He also gave the army of Nepal more salary and training. His view was that the stronger the army of a country, the stronger will be the country. Several ill social practices were abolished, unused land were brought under cultivation and the administration was updated. The Dharahara and Sundhara of Kathmandu, the Bagdurbar and Teku bridge were constructed by him.

King Rana Bahadur Shah said of him "If I die the nation will not die, but if Bhimsen Thapa dies the nation will collapse". Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab said of him "If I had Bhimsen on my service, I know what many things I would have achieved". Karl Marx praised Bhimsen Thapa by referring him the only man in Asia who braved to protest submission to the colonists.

Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa was the maternal grandfather of Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana who was driven to kill the Pandeys and the Basnets to avenge Bhimsen Thapa. This brought the chapter of Nepalese history known as the Ranas.

From : www.wikipedia.org