Ritu Raj Subedi
All’s fair in love and war, goes a popular adage. But, this saying does not apply to all situations. Particularly, the great statesmen observed a sense of justice and ethics as they waged wars with a vision to build a new nation and unite the people. Except for some unavoidable circumstances, they wanted to ensure that there would be minimum losses of life and property, and innocent people caught in the crossfire must not be harmed or killed.
Nepal’s unifier Prithvi Narayan Shah was one of the few statesmen, successful military strategists and great warriors, who strictly observed sense righteousness in the midst of ferocious fighting and instructed his commanders to follow it.
The commanders, who won the battles following his moral instruction, were entitled the military honour but those went berserk destroying the innocent lives were subject to stringent punishment. PN Shah rose above nepotism and evaluated the true fighters before bestowing state honour upon them.
PN Shah demonstrated a sense of ethics during his battle in Bhaktapur. He had already brought Kirtipur, Kantipur (now Kathmandu) and Lalitpur to his fold. Winning Bhaktapur was crucial to lay the foundation of modern Nepal. Defeated kings of Kantipur and Lalitpur- Jaya Prakash Malla and Tej Narshing Malla- were also taking a shelter in Bhaktapur. PN Shah had dispatched two separate battalions under his own brother Surpratap Shah and Bansaraj Pandey respectively to conquer the last fort of the Kathmandu Valley. Gorkhali soldiers had already encircled beyond the wall of the Bhaktapur palace. A large number of troops were mobilised.
Army chief Kehar Singh Basnet, his brothers- Nahar Singh and Abhiman Singh Basnet, and military officers such as Ram Krishna Kunwar, Jay Krishna Kunwar, Kalidahs Khadka and Shreeharsha Pantha were already sweating in the battlefield that began on November 10, 1769 and lasted for two days. PN Shah was mobilising the war from Kathmandu and became update on it every one hour. Following 24 hours of fighting, Bhaktapur king Ranjit Malla surrendered to Gorkhalis. Unlike the fighting in Kantipur and Lalitpur, the Bhaktapur battles claimed more lives, including the innocent people.
The total casualties from Bhaktapur side stood 2,001while only 50 Gorkha soldiers lost their life. Pramans of Tej Narshing Malla had run amok, setting fire to houses at Belkha Tole. Over 501 houses were gutted. Many locals were burnt to death. The residents of these houses fled to the chowk of palace, weeping and wailing. Unfortunately, some of the innocent lots were killed in the crossfire.
PN Shah came to Bhaktapur one hour after it fell to his soldiers. Even if Jaya Prakash Malla was a foe in war, he was PN Shah’s mit (special friend). They had an emotional hugging. Likewise, Ranjit Malla was his mit ba (father through special rituals). PN Shah greeted him with honour. Both the dethroned Malla kings were treated with respect and offered good meals. Jaya Prakash Malla was wounded in the battle but Ranjit Malla was unhurt. The latter had a wish to go to Banaras for pilgrimage and PN Shah fulfilled his wish. But, Tej Narshing Malla’s fate was already sealed because of the wicked acts of his ministers. They had committed crime probably under his instruction. PN Shah ordered his men to flog him and put him under lifelong house arrest inside the Bhaktapur palace.
Following the victory of Bhaktapur, there surfaced a dispute- which commander- Surpratap Shah or Bansa Raj Pandey- deserved siropau (special honour for victory). Surpratap claimed that he played a central role to clinch the decisive win and thus he merited the credit. Not only this, he insisted he be appointed chief of Bhaktapur.
However, PN Shah conducted a thorough examination and found that Surpratap was foolhardy in carrying out his mission. No doubt, he was audacious and wanted to end deadlock soon through swift military operation but his adventure led to the death of some innocent people. The panicked public, who came to shelter at the palace, were shot to death by the bullets of his soldiers. He even opened fire on King Ranjit Malla. This was against the ethics of PN Shah. This daredevil act upset him. Unlike Surpratap, Bansaraj Pandey took utmost care to avoid the loss of innocent life. Pandey wanted to catch three kings without wounding them.
His judicious war strategy finally won the heart of PN Shah and siropau. This particular incident showed that nothing influenced PN Shah when it came to granting justice to his people. However, Surpratap was disappointed by this decision and left Kathmandu in a fit of anger. He finally landed in an enemy kingdom of Tanahu. PN Shah spied on his strayed brother to prevent any treasonous act. Misfortune continues to haunt him. Tanahu king suspected him as spy and killed. This tragic news hurt PN Shah too much.
Before succeeding to the throne, PN Shah had spied out the land in the Kathmandu Valley and vowed to launch a unification campaign before the East Indian Company made inroad into the divided Nepali territory. After coming to the throne, he was determined to start his state expansion drive but he did not sufficient money needed to buy arms and meet logistic requirement.
Gorkha was not a rich state but Gorkhalis were patriotic people. Every household donated to the new king as per their capacity to succeed his Banaras trip. There he purchased guns and other necessary items. He first wanted to win Nuwakot. He again bumped up against financial difficulty. For this, he borrowed Rs 10,000-12,000 from Kamal On, a local businessman of Bhaktapur. He had entered into a deal with Ranjit Malla to secure this loan. It would have been against his ethics to accumulate money through unscrupulous means.
Sad to say, this higher sense of fiscal morality of PN Shah went missing in the political parties- be they are democrat or leftist. For example, Nepali Congress had hijacked a plane carrying over Rs 3 million to fund the party. Likewise, the then CPN-Maoist looted oodles of money from banks and individuals during their insurgency. Couldn’t they take a leaf from PN Shah’s book to pull their socks up?
