Nepal thereby became an intriguing anomaly in the post-Cold War world and the first Asian nation to be governed by democratically elected communists. Yet, despite the obvious popularity of radical politics in one of the poorest nations on earth, Nepali society, paradoxically, remains deeply conservative and many Nepalis continue to revere the king as an incarnation of the god Vishnu.
Undermined by a bitter intra-party struggle and by its inability to tackle the country's economic crisis, Nepal's first democratic government for thirty years disintegrated amidst allegations of incompetence and corruption.
Many people have aided me in this task and I have benefited immeasurably from discussions with countless Nepalis some well known, but most of them ordinary men and women who gave me their time and their interpretations of their country's history and politics with unfailing generosity. |
