Kathmandu Dilemma: Resetting India-Nepal Ties

T he book Kathmandu Dilemma: Resetting India-Nepal Ties by Ranjit Rae, a former Indian Ambassador to Nepal (September 2013 to February 2017), is timely, given that bilateral relations have been marred by numerous controversies in the recent past. Nepal has sent two diplomatic notes—September 2021 and November 2019—to India in the last few years. Accusations in Nepal of India meddling in its internal affairs during the 2021 constitutional crisis, have further vitiated the atmosphere. The India-Nepal relationship has been in perpetual controversy since the formation of the Gorkha Empire in 1768 by Prithvi Narayan Shah, who advised his subjects to have limited interactions with the southerners. The Nepalese perception of India has been driven by the need of rulers in Nepal to manage their political insecurities. These perceptions were gradually validated by negligence from the Indian side to respect the sensitivities in the relationship. Over the last 70 years, the policymakers and academia in both countries have been trying to understand whether the perceptions added complexity in the relationship or the contentious issues shaped perceptions. Ambassador Rae is eminently qualified to traverse through the landscape of the relationship given his vast experience when the Himalayan country was at the peak of its political turmoil. A large portion of the book—except two chapters that deal with boundaries and treaties—is based on the author’s experiences in Nepal while handling complex bilateral issues. Therefore, at the outset, the author has clarified that the book is based on experiences and assessments of someone who has had a ringside view of some of the major developments in Nepal over the last decade. The book is well-structured with ten chapters. Primarily, it deals with three issues —perceptions of each other, unaddressed contentious issues, and growing Chinese footprints in Nepal. It starts with one of the unresolved questions in bilateral relations—why don’t the Nepalese like India or Indians? The book examines growing Chinese influence in Nepal and offers some recommendations as the way forward, to make the Indo-Nepal relationship beneficial to both countries. The author should be commended for providing details about emotional outbursts and illogical arguments of certain sections of Nepalese media, civil society and political class towards India. Even India’s humanitarian assistance during the 2015 Strategic Analysis, 2022 Vol. 46, No. 3, 342–344, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2022.2081433