Nepal

AuthorGeorge Kurian
Pages670-672

Page 670

Official country name: Kingdom of Nepal

Capital: Kathmandu

Geographic description: Landlocked rectangular-shaped country in the southern foothills of the Himalayan mountain range, bordered by China to the north and India to the west, south, and east

Population: 27,676,547 (est. 2005)

Nepal
LAW ENFORCEMENT
History

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, police and judicial functions were in the hands of the local princes or rajas who were virtual autocrats. Outside the capital, the local governors appointed headmen and village councils to maintain order, but the scope of police activity varied with local customs. Generally, justice was capricious and punishments harsh. Torture by fire and water or mutilation were not abolished until 1851. Court sentences and police powers were influenced by the caste and social standing of the offenders. Brahmans and women were exempted from capital punishment.

Because of the relative isolation of most communities, law and order were maintained by small detachments of the civil police force supplemented by a few locally recruited policemen. In the mountain areas, there was no effort to enforce central government authority, and local communities maintained their traditional autonomy.

The Ranas, who controlled the government at the turn of the twentieth century, made the first effort to establish a modern police system. Prime minister Dev Shamsher Rana, who ruled from 1901 to 1929, modernized the police forces in the capital. Villages, however, still policed themselves. The militia exercised some police functions, although their main mission was to protect the people from bands of bandits, known as dacoits, common in the Tarai border areas.

In 1950–1951, the Ranas were overthrown. The Nepali Congress, which then rose to power, had a paramilitary arm of some five thousand men known as the Raksha Dal. This group was invested with police powers. The new government created four more distinct police organizations: the Civil Police, of 2,000 men; the Randal or Kathmandu Police, of 500 men; the militia, of 15,000; and military detachments attached to police posts of 1,000 men, all under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Within two years, the police department was...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT