Mahendra

Mahendra, 1958

Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (महेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाहदेव) (born June 11, 1920 in Narayanhity Palace, Kathmandu ; † January 31, 1972 in Dialo Bangala, Bharatpur (Nepal) ) was King of Nepal from 1955 until his death .

Life

King Mahendra and Queen Ratna of Nepal around 1957

At the beginning of his life, Mahendra was effectively a prisoner with his father in the Narayanhity Palace. In 1940 he married Indra Rajya Laxmi Devi, daughter of General Hari Shamsher Rana. After her death in 1950, he married her sister Ratna Rajya Laxmi Devi in 1952 . His coronation took place on May 2, 1956 after the death of his father Tribhuvan , who after years as a puppet of the ruling Rana family was able to break their more than a hundred years of power over the country. The Nepalese Congress Party , the former Rana rulers and the king formed a transitional triumvirate. 1959 saw the first free parliamentary elections. Unlike his father, Mahendra was not a supporter of parliamentary democracy, and in 1960 he banned political parties. He introduced the Panchayat system in Nepal, a kind of village self-government by local councils. Land reform took place in Nepal. Parliament continued to be elected, with 112 members directly elected by the people and 28 others appointed by the king. This parliament in turn elected the Prime Minister.

Formally, the king was now only the head of the executive , but with his right of veto he could make all relevant decisions alone. His foreign policy was directed principally towards India and China, and he obtained economic aid from Beijing of £ 7.5 million . After his sudden death in 1972, he was succeeded by his son Birendra .

A younger son, Gyanendra , was reigning king as a young child from 1950 to 1951, when Tribhuvan, Mahendra and Birendra were forced to flee the country before the Rana family. After 50 years, Gyanendra ascended the throne again when his brother Birendra was murdered in 2001.

Honors

• Field Marshal (United Kingdom)
• Bearer of the Chrysanthemum Order (Grand Cross with Order Chain)
• Bearer of the Order of St. Jacob of the Sword (Grand Cross)
• Bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit (special level of the Grand Cross)
• Bearer of the Elephant Order
• Holder of the Finnish Order of the White Rose
• Bearer of the Order of the Dutch Lion (Grand Cross)
• Member of the Legion of Honor (Grand Cross)

literature

• Thomas Benedikter: War in the Himalayas: Background to the Maoist uprising in Nepal; a political geography , LIT Verlag Münster, 2003. ISBN 3825868958

predecessor	Office	successor
Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah	King of Nepal 1955–1972	Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev