Nepal’s political parties in drafting a new constitution: guardians of political tolerance and minority rights
This article is basically a comparative study of the positions of Nepal’s elites and major political parties with regard to the opinion of the general public in the context of the recent transformation of Nepal’s political system to the adoption of republicanism, secularism, multilingualism and fede...
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| Xuất bản năm: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebhr, |
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| Tác giả chính: | |
| Định dạng: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Ngôn ngữ: | Anglais |
| Được phát hành: |
European Bulletin of Himalayan Research
2026
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| Những chủ đề: | |
| Truy cập trực tuyến: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Tóm tắt: | This article is basically a comparative study of the positions of Nepal’s elites and major political parties with regard to the opinion of the general public in the context of the recent transformation of Nepal’s political system to the adoption of republicanism, secularism, multilingualism and federalism. The promulgation of the 2015 Constitution of Nepal formally concluded the most radical transformations of a political system in recent history: from a monarchy to a republic, from a Hindu state to a secular state, from a unitary state to a federal state, and from a unilingual state (Nepali-only) to a multilingual state. Though, taken together, these four reforms constituted the transformation that was eventually codified into the new constitution, the general Nepali public opinions did not form a coherent package in every respect. A series of nationwide public opinion polls conducted between 2004 and 2012 revealed that public opinion had not rallied behind all four reforms. Despite the fact that the majority of Nepalis still wanted Nepal to be a Hindu state, still preferred a unilingual policy (the Nepali language as the only official language), and were still unaware of the issue of federalism, the elected Constitutional Assembly formally abolished the unitary form of governance, Hindu state identity and unilingualism when it endorsed the new constitution on 20 September 2015. This revealed that the political elites from the major political parties played a role in the transformation of the country’s political system. Overall, the promulgation of the 2015 constitution formally proved that the political elites of Nepal were the benevolent guardians of political tolerance and minority rights. |
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