BISHWESHWAR PRASAD KOIRALA

Introduction

B.P. KOIRALA

 

Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala was a political figure, author, and revolutionary from Nepal. From 1959 to 1960, he served as Nepal's prime minister. He served as the leader of the social democratic Nepali Congress.

Koirala was the 22nd and first democratically elected prime minister of Nepal. On King Mahendra's orders, he was dismissed from office and imprisoned after 18 months. He spent the most of the remaining years of his life in prison or exile, and his health deteriorated. Koirala, regarded as one of Nepal's greatest political personalities, was a staunch supporter of democracy. He asserted that democratic socialism was the solution to Nepal's underdevelopment, and that guarantees of individual liberty, civil and political rights were insufficient in such an impoverished country.

Personal Life

As the second child of Krishna Prasad Koirala, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala was brought up in Banaras. He attended a father-founded school till he was fourteen. He then registered at the Harishchandra School in the city. In his ninth grade year, he began writing.

In 1930, the British Raj accused him and his brother Matrika Prasad Koirala of interacting with terrorists. After being detained for three months, they were released. As a result, Bishweshwar started attending the Scottish Church College in Calcutta, as instructed by his father. He left college toward the end of 1930 and went back to Banaras. He finished his intermediate-level coursework in 1932.

 His father persuaded once more that he enroll in Calcutta's Scottish Church College. He so enrolled in the college for a second time but soon quit. He graduated from Banaras Hindu University with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Politics in 1934.

In 1937, he got a law degree from the University of Calcutta and practiced for several years in Darjeeling. He became interested in the Indian nationalist movement while still a student. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1934. During World War II, he was incarcerated in Dhanbad by the British for two years (1942-1944).

Political Life

Home Minister B. P. Koirala in Delhi in 1951. With Indian independence nearing, he began striving to restructure Nepal after his release. From India, he founded the communist Nepali National Congress in 1947, which eventually changed its name to the Nepali Congress Party in 1950. On March 9, Koirala invaded Nepal in reprisal for assisting his brother Girija Prasad Koirala in initiating the Biratnagar jute mill strike. He was detained together with four other National Congress leaders, including Girija Prasad Koirala, and carried to Kathmandu with other agitators after a 21-day walk across the hills. The convicts' march received a lot of attention, which helped radicalize the farmers whose villages were in the road.

His land reform measures deeply offended the landed aristocracy which had long dominated the army. King Mahendra suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament and dismissed the cabinet, imposed direct rule. Nepal's then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, played a significant role in releasing Koirala from prison. He also ensured that he stays out of the country in self-exile for the rest of his life. After his return from almost a decade of self exile, he was kept under house arrest.

King Birendra, who was educated in England and the United States, succeeded his father in 1972, at a time when the political situation was thought to be steadily improving. However, upon his return from exile in 1976[10], Koirala was arrested and accused with the capital penalty of attempting violent revolt. Finally, in March 1978, he was found not guilty of any treason or sedition accusations. In 1981, he was given permission to fly to the United States for medical treatment. Surya Bahadur Thapa, Prime Minister, persuaded the king to allow Koirala to travel to the United States for treatment, as recommended by the royal physician Dr. M. R. Pandey.

Cabinets

May-June 1959

Portfolio	Ministers	Date
Cabinet Ministers
Prime Minister Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Defense	Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala	27 May 1959
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Finance Minister of Planning and Development	Subarna SJB Rana	27 May 1959
Minister for public Works and Canals Minister for Communicationns	Ganesh Man Singh	27 May 1959
MInister of Home Affairs Minister for law	Surya Prasad Upadhyaya	27 May 1959
Minister for Industry and Commerce	Ram Narayan Mishra	27 May 1959
Minister of Health Minister for Local Autonomous Administration	Kashi Nath Gautam	27 May 1959
Minister for Education	Parshu Narayan Chaudhary	27 May 1959
Minister for Forest Department	Shiva Raj Panta	27 May 1959
Deputy Ministers
Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture	Prem Raj Angdembe	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs	Surya Nath Das	27 May 1959
Deputy minister for Public Works and Canals Deputy Minister for Communications	Lalit Chand	27 May 1959
Deputy minister for Health Deputy Minister for Local Autonomous Administration	Dwarika Devi Thakurani	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister of Defence	Min Bahadur Gurung	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Land Revenue	Jaman Singh Gurung	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Rural Development	Yogendra Man Sherchan	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture Deputy Minister for Forest Department	Nev Bahadur Malla	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Rural Development	Dr. Tulsi Giri	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister of Finance and Income Tax	Shiva Prasad Shah	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Home Affairs	Diwan Singh Rai	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Law	Hora Prasad Joshi	27 May 1959
Deputy Minister for Planning and Development	Triveni Prasad Pradhan	27 May 1959

 

literature

Koirala was one of the most well-read and thoughtful writers of Nepalese literature. He wrote short stories and novels, and some poems. His first stories were published in Banaras in a Hindi literary magazine in 1935. Doshi Chashma [Guilty Glasses], Koirala's anthology of sixteen short stories, was published in 1949. In the 1960s he wrote many novels and short stories in jail during 1960–68.

Koirala was the focus of Nepalese politics during the 1950s, 1960s, and the 1970s. As a politician, Koirala struggled throughout his life for the establishment of a multi-party democracy in his country. In literature he was an existentialist especially in his novel Tin Ghumti (Three Turns) He believed that only socialism could guarantee political freedom and equal economic opportunities to the people. In Modiaain (The Grocer's wife) Koirala looks at the Mahabharata war from the point of view of a young woman who loses her husband to the war. He presents a passionate plea against the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, which assumes that the world is but an illusion and makes life and death a meaningless phenomena. By looking at the Vedanta philosophy and the issue of war from a war widow's point-of- view, he once again shakes the conscience of the Nepali readers.