Today, Nepal is in the midst of a bizarre situation where the country’s political leadership has seemingly failed its own, and is paying the inevitable price for attempting to suppress a proud and unforgiving race

Military cantonments across the country with the fearsome Gorkha troops are littered with bold hoardings exhorting “ Banda Kafir Honu Marnu Raamro ” (it’s better to die than to become a coward or infidel). While the word “kafir” has Arabic roots, which literally means a person who covers the truth and is thus a “non-believer”, it has entered the sub-continental lexicon through the ravages and intermingling of civilisations. It has a natural resonance in the martial traditions of the soldierly Gorkha (Nepali) context to imply someone who has betrayed their own values, is dishon

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