By developer The visuals from Kathmandu are as awe inspiring as they are terrifying. The unforgiving violence of the young workers of Nepal has manifested in the streets, and it is directed against the false revolutionaries who had wasted the potential of 2006, the leaders of the Maoist movement of Nepal. The former Prime Minister was chased around and beaten on the streets, the Finance Minister was chased and humiliated like a common thief, and the former Prime Minister’s house was burned, following in the lines of the Sri Lankan protesters.
As of writing this article, it has been four days since the uprising in Nepal unfolded. The world’s media has framed it as a “Gen Z revolution” emphasizing the youth participation of the uprising. It is a narrative that masks the class lines of the struggle and draws attention away from the material conditions of the masses that drove them to this point. In truth, the uprising has the support of every generation of the working class and peasantry of Nepal, who have all been victims of the corruption and greed of the Nepali ruling elite, its capitalist class, and world imperialism.
Nepal is a landlocked mountain kingdom, which geography has doomed to be dependent on its much larger Southern neighbour for most if not all of its external trade. This vulnerability has stunted Nepal’s development, and created the conditions for autocracy, first under the Nepali monarchy, and now under a new oligarchical rule managed by traitorous Maoists who had come to power by riding on the back of the 2006 revolution.
Nepal was the first country of the 21st century to undergo a revolutionary process. The Nepali revolution was in the first instance bourgeois democratic, but led and consummated as it was by the workers and peasants of the country, it had the natural quality of advancing to the Socialist revolution. Regardless, even the bourgeois democratic goals of land reforms and secularism were too much for the Maoists who came to lead this process.
Though monarchy was abolished, most of the programme for a democratic revolution was left to gather dust, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) consolidated itself as the main manager of Nepali capitalism. In the 19 years that they ran the country, capitalism has thrived in Nepal. For the first time in its history, Nepal has a capitalist billionaire. At the same time, Nepal remains trapped as an exporter of labour, providing cheap immigrant labour for India, Europe, the Gulf countries, and South East Asia. The exploitation of the Nepali working class, both at home and abroad, went on unabated, while the rulers of Nepal accumulated wealth shamelessly.
While Nepali workers toiled in single bedroom hovels in foreign lands, their families struggled for the most basic necessities, Nepal’s oligarchy adorned their homes with Christmas trees made of branded shoes!
Nepal was the first country to have witnessed a democratic revolution in this century, but it has been the latest in the line of South Asian countries, to witness a revolutionary process. Much like Bangladesh last year, and Sri Lanka before that, the police and army have been paralyzed into mute spectators while the crowds of angry young workers have taken over police stations, administrative buildings, and effectively control the streets.
How imperialism exploits Nepal :
Nepal was never colonized by British imperialism, but it fell under its imperial influence. The Nepali kingdom was invaded and subjugated to an unequal treaty with the East India Company in 1816, under the treaty of Sugauli. Territories were ceded to the British, and the Gorkha regiments was formed where Nepali soldiers would be recruited to fight in Britain’s imperial wars. The regiments still exist in both Britain and India.
This treaty would set in motion the pattern of imperial exploitation of Nepal, which still benefits from the exploitation of Nepali labour. The treaty of Sugauli[i] became the basis of the Indo-Nepali treaty of friendship in 1950, thus handing over hegemony from the British to India. British imperialism had ended the militarization of the Nepali state, leaving it weak and vulnerable. Its landlocked nature further hindered its development. In essence, capitalist growth remained slow and moribund.
India was Nepal’s window to the outside world, its capitalist development closely intertwined with Indian capitalist development. India held sway over its trade, and eventually would become one of the main exploiter of its hydel resources. Maintaining the exploitation of Nepal’s resources and labour was the Nepali monarchy, an outdated reactionary autocracy that crushed any hopes the Nepali people had for democracy. The institution of the Monarchy presided over the world’s only Hindu state that kept its people chained in the grip of Casteism and some of the most extreme gender oppression.
The people of Nepal, having seen the Indian struggle against imperialism and the emergence of a bourgeois democratic republic, fought for the same in Nepal. In 1950, they achieved their first victory in establishing a constitutional monarchy, but without changing the material conditions at the core of Nepal’s backwardness, this victory would be soon lost as the monarchy clawed back power under the so-called Panchayat system. Then again, in 1990 the Nepali people fought again to end the Panchayat system and introduce multi-party democracy. However, the monarchy still wielded enormous power behind the scenes, rendering the multi-party system moot. Political reforms failed to change the material conditions of the country, the oppressive social structures remained largely intact, the forces keeping Nepal impoverished and backward remained in place.
Capitalist development in Nepal took place on the periphery of Indian capital, with India cross border trade being a major factor in Nepal’s economy. Much of the rest, was powered by so-called developmental assistance’ from imperialist financial organizations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. About half of Nepal’s public debt is external debt, most of which is held by the ADB. In return, the World Bank and ADB ensure the fuller exploitation of Nepal’s resources, particularly its agricultural and water resources[ii].
Nepal remained backwards, there were little prospects for its people but to find work in foreign shores as easily exploitable immigrant labour. Nepali workers filled the ranks of plantation labour, domestic work, household security, and other low skilled manual labour. Some find employment in factories and workshops in the more industrial states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana. Large farms in the Punjab and Haryana employ migrant Nepali workers as low paid labour. There are 3.5 million Nepali workers scattered across the world, with more than half a million in India, this accounts for 14% of the Nepali population. Their remittances make up a quarter of Nepal’s GDP[iii].
In recent years, China has emerged as the main trading partner and source of foreign investment into Nepal. In the year 2019 China accounted for 90% of investments, almost half of which went into the hydro-power sector[iv]. Today, India and China are locked in a scramble for the exploitation of Himalayan water resources, Indian power companies have now joined the race in a big way, becoming another major investor in Nepal’s power sector.
The Nepali revolution of 2006 came as a culmination of a decades long insurgency rooted in the Nepali countryside. In the last decade of that war, capitalism in Nepal grew with greater speed, fuelled by neo-liberal turn of the monarchy, the rise of Indian capital after its opening up, and the entry of Western capital, largely led by American and European investments. The Nepali working class, long used to finding its sole employment in foreign shores, now had roots in Nepal itself. The final chapter of the Nepali revolution was not decided by any great military victory of the Maoist insurgents, but by a workers led general strike that crippled the capital.
This happened around the same time as the Monarchy entered a crisis, following the massacre of the royal family. The monarchy was toppled with King Gyanendra, the last monarch of Nepal abdicating. One of the great victories of the Nepali revolution of 2006 was the abolition of the Nepali monarchy. The Maoists came to power with a programme of land reform and secularization. These two critical goals would not be met. On the contrary, the Maoists now filled the vacuum left by the fleeing monarchy, they became the new managers of Nepal’s imperialist exploitation.
There was much hue and cry about Nepal becoming a “Chinese puppet” after the Maoists took power. Quite the opposite happened, Nepal remained locked in with Indian capital, and opened up its economy to investments and loans from imperialist capital across the world. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, all of which only adds to its indebtedness[v]. Not only is India the largest recipient of Nepali immigrant labour, but it’s also the largest trader nation with Nepal. Up to 25% of all currency in circulation in Nepal is the Indian rupee.
Despite being in power for 19 years since the 2006 revolution, the Nepali Maoists have barely made a difference in Nepal’s continued exploitation at the hands of imperialism. Nepali workers remained among the most exploited and abused workforces in the world, Nepal’s economy remains trapped in imperialist loans, and a slave to Indian hegemony. On the contrary, the Maoists have undertaken policies which consciously encouraged the growth of a private sector and a Nepali bourgeois class.
The 2006 revolution:
The 2006 Nepali revolution was the first of a wave of bourgeois democratic revolutions that gripped the world. Nepal seemed like the last country in the world to undergo such a revolutionary process, landlocked, Himalayan, locked in moribund social relations, with barely any industry and an overwhelmingly rural population. Yet, Nepal was the first country to smash the mythology of the end of history.
Not only did Nepal have a revolution, but it was a process led by Maoists who had been fighting an insurgency since the 1990s! This was during the peak of the ‘End of history mythology. The ‘Jan Andolan’ of 1990 was fought against the creeping autocracy of the monarchy and saw the Maoists make an alliance with the Nepali Congress party, a party of the Nepali petty bourgeois and a liberal section of the Nepali bourgeoisie, modelled on the Indian Congress Party. Their alliance eventually succeeded in establishing a parliamentary system in 1990, but the influence of the monarchy over the parliament remained as did the crushing weight of social reaction which had weighed down Nepal through the ages.
Though the immediate trigger for the revolutionary insurrection in Nepal was the royalist coup of 2005 which saw King Gyanendra seize absolute power, the revolution was in reality the culmination of a movement against absolutism. The culmination was the revolution of 2006 and the abolition of Monarchy that followed suit. The revolution ushered in an era of a new republic, the people’s hopes were pinned on the new state which would finally deliver Nepal out of its apparently doomed backwardness and dependency on India.
Since the new regime came to power, one of the main achievements has been the overthrow of the monarchy and the transformation of Nepal into a bourgeois democratic country. Despite this, the new Maoist led government refrained from expropriating capitalism or building the basis for a socialist economic transition. On the contrary, capitalism and particularly imperialist capital is thriving in Nepal. Having lessened India’s direct political influence, the new government have invited Chinese investments and secured trade with China. This has not however, ended India’s economic dominance which has been secured through Nepal’s geographic disadvantage, being landlocked and surrounded by the Himalayas in the North.
Nepal subsisted on tourism, agriculture, and the export of labour through the migrant workers diaspora. This put Nepal in a particularly vulnerable economic position when the COVID pandemic hit. The Nepali Maoists had nearly 20 years to build up the Nepali economy, pursue a Socialist agenda, nationalizing foreign capital, and abrogating one sided treaties with India like the 1950 ‘friendship’ treaty. Instead, following the theory of stagism, the Nepali Maoists have let reactionary forces regroup and build back up. While the pandemic has wrecked much of Nepal’s economy, the Nepali leadership finds more ways of subjugating the Himalayan kingdom to imperialism, the latest being the World Bank funded Arun hydel power project.
Nepal was the first South Asian nation to undergo a revolution in what would become a worldwide revolutionary wave. Nepal had undergone a bourgeois democratic revolution, but one that only achieved part of its goals. The abolition of the monarchy, securing a parliamentary democratic system, creating a secular state, were all praiseworthy achievements and undoubtedly progressive. However, Casteism remains in Nepal, gender oppression remains largely unchanged, and while Nepal’s workers remained trapped in a cycle of oppression and exploitation its aristocracy and bourgeoisie have increased their wealth manifold.
Perhaps the most visible manifestation of the failure of the Maoists was the re-emergence of a monarchist movement, one which could mobilize in force on the streets and gather enough support to sustain itself. The pro-monarchist protests were like a blight and a reminder of the unresolved social questions in Nepal, one that the Maoists failed despite having the mandate of the people, the support of the working class and arms in hand to push through a revolutionary programme.
Today Nepal’s revolt is not just against the persisting exploitation at the hands of its own bourgeoisie and of imperialism, not simply against the backwardness that imperialism has condemned Nepal to, but also against the failures and betrayals of the Maoists themselves. Thanks to their betrayals, the revolutionary spirit of 2006 now lies in the gutter.
The dead end of Maoism:
One of the core tenets of Maoism is the theory of stages and the block of classes. This is no different from the Stalinist formulation of the popular front. We have seen this programme play out in Nepal as well, with the Maoists making an alliance with the bourgeois Nepali Congress to fight the monarchy. Following on the footsteps of Mao, they preferred building up a block of classes with the supposedly progressive bourgeoisie in the form of the Nepali Congress.
The Maoists were not wrong in identifying Nepal as an underdeveloped and backward semi-colonial country, but the conclusion they draw is that it was necessary for a period of capitalist development before a socialist revolution could come about. This is justification for the alliance with capitalist parties, and justification for the Maoists integrating with the bourgeois state. The former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, was open in stating the need for private sector investment in Nepal.
Throughout the time the Maoists ruled Nepal, they encouraged capitalist development in the country. They have encouraged foreign investment, especially in the tourism and power sector, and further pushed Nepal into indebtedness. All the while, their programme for land reform gathered dust.
Some gains such as secularism and the abolition of monarchy cannot be denied. However, land reforms and the nationalization of foreign assets, destroying the iron grip of foreign capital over Nepal, remain unfulfilled. The condition of the Nepali working class, many of whom have to flee the country to work as immigrant labour in the worst possible conditions, remained largely unchanged. On the contrary, the former rebels who lived a rugged life fighting in the mountains and forests of the Himalayas, now have children who flaunt their wealth in the most shameless way possible.
The Nepali Maoists tried and failed to mimic the Chinese. They did not expropriate the capitalist class nor did they drive out foreign capital like Mao had in 1949, nor did they manage to stay in power by promoting the most brazenly pro-capitalist policies. It is not enough to simply have Communist in the party name and having Communist symbols on the party flag, the party is ultimately judged by its policies and actions. The youth of Nepal have seen for themselves the hypocrisy and corruption of the Maoist parties of Nepal. The long march to selling themselves to capitalism began in the 90’s and ended soon after the Nepali revolution of 2006.
At the core of this failure is the Maoist programme itself which puts the necessity of capitalist growth and keeps searching for sections of the supposedly progressive national bourgeoisie to align with. Everywhere outside of China, wherever the Maoist movement spread, it has resulted in failure and corruption. Nepal was the one country where the Maoists had the most political success outside of China, and today it lies in shambles.
Sri Lanka – Bangladesh – Nepal – India?
In 2022, the Sri Lankans erupted in revolt against a collapsing economy and the corrupt autocratic rule of entrenched oligarchs, led by the Rajapakse family. Sri Lanka had been reeling under a debt burden worsened by loans from the Asian Development Bank, Japan, India and especially China. The economic collapse created conditions for that first eruption in the post – COVID Pandemic period of South Asia. What began in Sri Lanka did not end there, it continues to spread.
Two years after the Sri Lankan uprising, we have seen the revolutionary situation emerge in Bangladesh, there the autocratic regime of Sheik Hasina was overthrown by youth and working class protests. Now, we have come to Nepal, where much of the same dynamics have been repeated. Just like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Nepal was undergoing an economic and social crisis caused by the COVID pandemic, exacerbated by the Russo-Ukrainian war. Much like Bangladesh and Sri lanka, the government in power became corrupt and autocratic, relying increasingly on state violence to maintain itself.
Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh follow an economic pattern similar to semi-colonies, whose economies are dependent on certain key sectors, and the crudest exploitation of their working class, relying on the exploitation of cheap labour at home, the export of labour through immigrant labour, and allowing foreign capital to exploit their resources. In case of Nepal, the exploitation of hydel resources, the export of labour, and the exploitation of cheap labour especially in the tourism and plantation sector was of particular importance.
India does not follow this pattern entirely. It has a large and sophisticated manufacturing sector, a diversified economy, and is able to export capital to a substantial degree. These features, coupled with the comparatively sophisticated system of bourgeois democracy in place, has allowed India to survive the revolutionary wave in South Asia. This does not mean that it is immune.
In the period between 2021 and 2024, India has witnessed several powerful national and regional struggles. The Doctors movement in West Bengal drew inspiration from the students uprising in Bangladesh, the tea plantations of North Bengal have a sizeable Nepali population who have links with Nepal. The farmer’s protests reverberated throughout the country and caused the BJP to lose its absolute majority in parliament. India today is surrounded by potentially pre-revolutionary situations and actively pre-revolutionary situations in its neighbourhood. All the while, the revolutionary struggle in Myanmar has yet to play out.
It is not impossible to imagine that India can also become another domino to fall to this wave, one that would take the whole of Asia with it! So far, one of the critical reasons for India’s bourgeoisie surviving is because of its role as the foremost agent of reaction in South Asia. Whenever a revolutionary threat can emerge in South Asia, India intervenes overtly or covertly to ensure that threat is neutralized. It is in the interest of India’s bourgeoisie to ensure that revolutionary movements in South Asia fails, so that a revolutionary movement in India remains isolated and weakened.
It is therefore of vital importance for revolutionaries in South Asia to support and protect any revolutionary process in South Asia. The first struggle, is the struggle for programme, for Nepal it must hinge on a programme that radically transforms Nepali society, and frees it from the clutches of imperialism.
NATIONALIZE THE BANKS!
NATIONALIZE FOREIGN CAPITAL!
REPUDIATE THE DEBT!
FOR RADICAL LAND REFORMS!
EXPROPRIATE THE BILLIONNAIRES!
EXPROPRIATE THE CORRUPT!
NO MORE STOOGES! NO TO MONARCHY! NO TO THE MAOIST TRAITORS!
ALL POWER TO THE WORKERS AND YOUTH!
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sugauli
[ii]https://theannapurnaexpress.com/story/56542/#:~:text=Nepal’s%20public%20debt%20is%20now,debt%20was%20Rs%20243.8bn.
[iii] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15kzx99qevo
[iv] https://www.ibanet.org/article/081e7cfa-bebf-4f75-bd27-933d3ba2beaf
[v] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2025/06/01/nepal-world-bank-approves-257-million-to-improve-electricity-and-irrigation-services