Nepal: Contemporary Affairs

Since 2007, when Nepal abolished its monarchy and officially adopted a secular constitution, the Nepalese government has worked to balance its commitment to secular governance with the demands of a religious population. In 2008, the Maoist government attempted to replace the head Indian priests at the Pashupatinath Temple with sympathetic Nepalese priests. Local backlash prompted the Supreme Court to intervene and issue a stay. The government relented and in 2009 Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal again appointed Indian priests to oversee the temple. In 2009, a Catholic Church was bombed by a Hindu nationalist group killing three parishioners and wounding 13. The government arrested the head of radical Nepal Defense Army in connection with the bombing. In May 2010 violence erupted between Christians and Hindus in the Hindu majority Rahatkot village in the Kapilvastu district. The local authorities held the Christian responsible for the violence, though observers reported that that local Hindu’s demanded donations from the Christian community and that at the violence was most likely a form of reprisal. The Nepalese government cooperates with the Chinese in the repression of traditional Tibetan Buddhists. In 2009, authorities detained over 70 Tibetans protesting outside the Chinese embassy in Katmandu in commemoration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In June 2010, Nepal deported three Tibetan Buddhist activists back to China at the request of Beijing.