Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala (8 September 1914 – 21 July 1982), was a Nepalese revolutionary, statesman, politician, novelist, and one of the founding leaders of the Nepali Congress. He was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal, serving from 1959 to 1960, until the royal coup of 1960 led by King Mahendra. He played a leading role in Nepal’s democratic movements, particularly the 1950–1951 revolution, which brought an end to the 104-year-long Rana rule of Nepal. He was the brother of former prime ministers Matrika Prasad Koirala and Girija Prasad Koirala. He was also the grandfather of Bollywood actors Manisha Koirala and Siddharth Koirala.
B. P. Koirala was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal. He held the office for 18 months before being deposed and imprisoned on the orders of King Mahendra. He spent the rest of his life largely in imprisonment and exile, during which his health steadily deteriorated.
B. P. Koirala is widely regarded as one of the greatest political personalities in Nepal. He was a strong advocate of democracy and argued that in a poor country like Nepal, political freedoms alone were not sufficient without socio-economic transformation. He promoted the idea of democratic socialism as a solution to Nepal's underdevelopment.
Early life The second son of Krishna Prasad Koirala, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala was raised in Banaras. Until the age of 14, he attended a school established by his father. Afterwards he joined the Harishchandra School in the city. He began writing when he was in the ninth grade.
The British Raj charged him and his brother, Matrika Prasad Koirala, with having contacts with terrorists in 1930. They were arrested and set free after three months. Because of this, Bishweshwar began to study at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta as per his father's wishes. Towards the end of 1930, he left college and returned to Banaras. In 1932, he completed his intermediate level of studies. His father again insisted that his son join Scottish Church College in Calcutta. So for the second time, he joined the college, but left it soon afterwards. In 1934, he completed his bachelor's degree in Economics and Politics from Banaras Hindu University. He also earned a degree in law from the University of Calcutta in 1937, and practised for several years in Darjeeling.
While still a student, he became involved in the Indian nationalist movement. In 1934, he joined the Indian National Congress. During World War II, he was interned by the British in Dhanbad for two years (1942–1944).
Political career
Following his release, with Indian independence imminent, he set about trying to bring change to Nepal. In 1947 he founded in India the socialist Nepali National Congress, which in 1950 became the Nepali Congress Party. On 9 March 1947, Koirala crossed over to Nepal to help his brother Girija Prasad Koirala instigate the Biratnagar jute mill strike. He was arrested along with Girija Prasad Koirala and four other National Congress leaders and taken with his fellow agitators to Kathmandu via a 21-day long, slow walk across the hills. The prisoners' march attracted much attention and helped to radicalise the peasants whose villages lay en route. The Koiralas along with other detainees were kept in a Kathmandu bungalow but were soon released after a 27-day hunger strike, popular protests, and at the request of Mahatma Gandhi in August 1947. In 1990, Prime Minister Judha Shamsher had deported Mahatma Baundas and Mahatma Sonai Das on the issue of untouchability. He started the movement by staying at the house of Mahatma Sonai Das Yadav, currently in Sunsari, Rajganj, Morang. After meeting Mahatma Baundas Yadav in Banaras, Mahatma Sonai Das helped B.P. Koirala with 51 rupees on Guru Purnima day in 1990 to end the Rana rule of Nepal. Later, Nepali Congress was formed. In 2015, B.P. Koirala won the election by sitting at the house of Mahatma Sonai Das Yadav at booth number 32, Rajganj, Morang. Mahatma Sonai Das made his disciple Suryanath Das Yadav a minister from Siraha.
Koirala went back to India, and began looking for arms to storm Kathmandu. Finally, Koirala led the Revolution of 1951, which overthrew Nepal's 104-year-old Rana regime. The last Rana prime minister was dismissed in October 1951 when the Rana-Congress coalition cabinet (in which Koirala served for nine months as the Home minister) broke apart. Koirala then concentrated on developing the Nepali political structure. King Mahendra responded with a new constitution enabling free parliamentary elections to take place in 1959. Only a fragmented parliament was expected, but Koirala's Nepali Congress scored a landslide, taking more than two-thirds of the seats in the lower house. After several weeks of significant hesitation, Mahendra asked Koirala to form a government, which took office in May 1959.
Koirala led his country's delegation to the United Nations and made carefully poised visits to China and India, then increasingly at odds over territorial disputes. Yet, he was in trouble at home almost from the beginning. His land reform measures, especially the revision of the tenancy laws so easily passed by parliament, deeply offended the landed aristocracy which had long dominated the army. King Mahendra, on 15 December 1960, suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, dismissed the cabinet, imposed direct rule, and for good measure imprisoned Koirala and his closest government colleagues. Many of them were released after a few months, but Koirala, though he was suffering from throat cancer, was kept imprisoned without trial until 1968.
In 1968, the then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, played a significant role in releasing Koirala from prison, but he was the main actor for also making sure that Koirala stayed out of the country in self-exile for the rest of his life. Koirala was in self-exile in Banaras, India until December 1976. After his return from almost a decade of self-exile in Banaras, he was kept under house arrest at his Chabahil residence. During that time, King Birendra asked the then Prime Minister Dr Tulsi Giri, a tough political rival of Koirala to recommend to him by the joint meeting of the Council of Ministers and Back to the Village National Campaign Central Committee, whether Koirala should be freed for medical treatment in the USA or not. Accordingly, the joint meeting recommended King Birendra to release Koirala and provide him with the necessary expense for medical treatment in the USA. The passport and necessary visa were arranged by the government of Nepal for Koirala and his wife Sushila Koirala, a doctor and an assistant. The then Royal Nepalese Embassy in the Washington DC, was instructed to provide all support to the Koirala family for the medical treatment.A commentary prepared by Bhola Chatterjee, a close friend of B. P. Koirala and renowned Indian journalist from Kolkata, India
King Birendra, educated in England and the United States, succeeded his father in 1972 when the political climate was believed to be gradually improving. Koirala, however, was arrested immediately upon his return from exile in 1976 and charged with the capital offence of attempting armed revolution. Finally, in March 1978, he was cleared of all treason and sedition charges. Then, in 1981, he was cleared to travel to the United States for medical treatment. The Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa convinced the king to allow Koirala to proceed to the US for treatment as per recommendation from the royal physician Dr. M. R. Pandey. The government of Nepal bore a portion of the cost of his medical treatment in the US, while the rest was arranged by his nephew Shail Updhaya, Dr. Shukdev Shah, family and friends.
After returning from a further medical visit to the United States, he had a series of audiences with King Birendra, as he tried for a "national reconciliation". During the student demonstrations in 1979, he was under house arrest. However, he welcomed King Birendra's call for a national referendum on the question of the political system for Nepal. The referendum results were announced to be in favour of retaining the political system led by the B. P. Koirala was the first leader to welcome the result of the national referendum and accepted the people verdict and claimed that the referendum was fair and free. However, owing to differences in the electoral process to seek membership of class organization as mandatory, Koirala demanded a boycott of the 1981 elections.
Despite obviously failing health and political strength, Koirala could still draw great popular support. He addressed one of Nepal's largest public meetings in recent years in Kathmandu's Ratna Park in January 1982. He died on 21 July 1982, in Kathmandu. An estimated half a million people attended his funeral.
Literature
While B. P. Koirala is considered one of the most charismatic political leaders of Nepal, he was also one of the most well-read and thoughtful writers of Nepalese literature. He wrote short stories and novels, and some poems. Koirala began writing short stories in Hindi.
His first stories were published in Banaras in Hansa, a Hindi literary magazine edited by Prem Chand (India's Tolstoy). His first Nepali short story "Chandrabadan" was published in Sharada, a Nepali literary magazine in 1935. Koirala was very good at depicting the character and mind of women. Four other stories of Koirala were included in Katha Kusum (an anthology of Nepali stories), published in 1938 in Darjeeling. As a social realist, with good psychological insight as he was first writer to write stories and novels based on human psychology in history of Nepalese literature, Koirala had established himself as one of the most important Nepali short story writers by 1938. Doshi Chashma, Koirala's anthology of sixteen short stories, was published in 1949. He was one of the greatest writer to contribute to the Nepali literature.
Koirala was very busy in the 1950s as he was often found amidst the political situations of Nepal. He was, however, able to write an incomplete novel Hitlar ra Yahudi (Hitler and the Jews) in the form of travelogue. The 1960s were very productive for Koirala in terms of his literary output. He wrote many novels and short stories in jail during 1960–68. They include: Teen Ghumti (Three Turns), 1968; Narendra Dai (Brother Narendra), 1969; Sumnima (A story of the first Kirata woman), 1969; Modiain (The Grocer's Wife), 1980; Shweta Bhairavi (The White Goddess of Terror), 1983; Babu Ama ra chora (Father, mother and sons), 1989; and an incomplete autobiography Mero Katha (My Story), 1983, and many more yet to be published.
Koirala also has dozens of political essays including the following: "Rajatantra ra Lokatantra" ("Monarchy and Democracy"), 1960; "Thichieka Janata Jagisake" ("The Oppressed People Rise"), 1969; "Rastriyata Nepalko Sandarbhama" ("Nationalism in the Context of Nepal"), 1970; "Kranti: Ek Anivaryata" ("Revolution: An Absolute Necessity"), 1970; "Panchayati Vyavastha Prajatantrik Chaina" ("The Panchayat System is not Democratic"), 1978; "Prajatantra ra Samajvad" ("Democracy and Socialism"), 1979; and "Rastriya Ekata ko Nimti Ahwan" ("A Call for National Reconciliation"), 1980.
Koirala's writings (both political and literary) were banned until recently. Nepalese youths spent several years of imprisonment just on the charges of possessing Koirala's writings. Another problem is that his rare and important writings have been scattered all over. Old newspapers and magazines (including the underground publications) have to be researched. Libraries, museums, and archives in Kathmandu, Banaras, Calcutta, New Delhi, London, Paris, Berkeley, Stanford, and many other places have to be visited to collect the materials on Koirala. As a result, one can hope to produce volumes of his political writings and literary works.