Past, Present, and Future of Nepal

Past

Nepal’s past starts out with the legendary traditions of the Newar people. These people were part of the indigenous community of the Nepal Valley. There is archaeological evidence that there was an early Buddhist influence on Nepal. The 10th-18th century Nepal was ruled by the Malla dynasty. The leader of the Malla dynasty named Jaya Sthiti created and introduced the very first legal social code that was very strongly influenced by Hindu principles. This was a problem because lots of the population was a mix of Buddhists and Hindus. He then divided the valley up into three different parts among his sons creating Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur. From 1775 to 1951 Nepalese politics started to be categorized between the royal family and some noble families. Then in the 19th century the British conquest of India created a serious threat to Nepal. Nepal came to no other conclusion than having to seek accommodation with the British in order to preserve its independence. The British then withdrew from India in 1947.

Present

Nepal has recently been it by a 7.8 earthquake in April 2015 and a 7.3 magnitude aftershock in may 2015. The World Bank has priced the damage of this to be around $7 billion. This earthquake also caused 9,000, injured 22,000 and caused hundreds of thousands of Nepalis to become homeless. After these earthquakes, Nepal's leader vowed to “fast-track” a new draft of the constitution and that finally completed the peace process that had started in 2006. The constitution was published on September 20, 2015, but it had some controversial features including unequal citizenship and gender discrimination, ban on religious conversion, a weakening of the judiciary. Later in October 2015, Prime Minister Koirala resigned from office and UML leader K.P. Oli was elected. In 2016 Oli lost votes and and Pushpa Kamal Dahal became the leader of Nepal. Currently though the leader of Nepal is Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

Future

The future for Nepal looks bright, within the last decade Nepal's economy has had tremendous poverty reduction. Between 2005 and 2014 Nepal's poverty rate has gone down from 80% of the population to 57%. Nepal within the past decade has also has also had some significant improvements within the are of education. Primary enrollment increased from 79% in 2005 to 98% in 2013. Secondary enrollment increased from 46% to 76%. From this I do believe that Nepal's economy, along with education, is only heading uphill. However we do have to think about the damage that was caused from the earthquakes and how that will affect Nepal in the future.