Nepal’s former king, King Gyanendra Shah, was welcomed by thousands of his supporters in capital Kathmandu on Sunday, amidst calls for the reinstatement of monarchy and Hinduism as a state religion. An estimated 10,000 supporters of Gyanendra blocked the main entrance to Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport as he arrived from a tour of western Nepal. Reports suggest that members and workers of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) formed the crowd. The RPP, which was founded in 1990s, is now leading the call for restoring the monarchy. The RPP, backed by allies in the monarchy, has 14 out of 275 seats in Nepal’s Parliament, up from a single seat in the previous election. The next Nepalese election is in 2027. Let us understand Nepal’s current political situation, how Gyanendra Shah was ousted and why the country is seeing a churn for Hindu monarchy. When Former King Gyanendra Shah Was Ousted Gyanendra, 77, became king in 2022 after his elder brother Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were massacred in the palace. He ruled as the constitutional head of state without executive or political powers until 2005, when he seized absolute power, saying he was acting to defeat anti-monarchy Maoist rebels. The king disbanded the government and parliament, jailed politicians and journalists and cut off communications, declaring a state of emergency and using the army to rule the country. The moves triggered huge street protests, forcing Gyanendra to hand power to a multi-party government in 2006. The government signed a peace deal with the Maoists, ending a decade-long civil war that caused thousands of deaths. In 2008, Gyanendra stepped down from the throne after parliament voted to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy, transforming the country into a secular republic. Since then, Nepal has seen 13 governments, and many people in the country have grown frustrated with the republic. They say it has failed to bring about political stability and blame governments for Nepal’s flagging economy and widespread corruption. Why People Want Monarchy Back Those who participated in the rally to welcome Gyanendra said they were hoping for a change in the political system to stop the country from further deteriorating. “We are here to give the king our full support and to rally behind him all the way to reinstating him in the royal throne,” Thir Bahadur Bhandari, 72, told The Associated Press. Analysts say “this turn towards the monarchy” in Nepal politics represents the deep dissatisfaction against corrupt governments and a yearning to return to the past before the monarchy was abolished formally in 2008, following a people’s movement. Will Gyanendra Shah Make A Comeback? Despite being dethroned, Gyanendra did not leave the country. On February 18, on the eve of Nepal’s National Democracy Day, he gave a speech urging Nepalis to unite for the “the defence, progress and prosperity of the country,” issuing an appeal to the country to move towards a “path of progress.” “Politics that adopt a prohibitive approach does not strengthen democracy,” he said, quoted by ThePrint. “The arrogance, personal interests and dogmatism of the parties and the opposition cannot make democracy dynamic.” An editorial in The Kathmandu post had forewarned against eulogizing the monarchy. Many believe it would be an exaggeration to say most Nepalis want to restore the institution as the monarchists claim. “In a democracy, the best measure of the popularity of a political party or a political ideology is the support it gets at the ballot box,” the editorial says, pointing out that the RPP is by no means a political heavyweight yet. Former PM and chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal(CPN)-Unified Socialist Madhav Kumar Nepal had on March 7 ruled out any possibility of reinstatement of monarchy. If former king Gyanendra did “foolish things in the name of returning monarchy, it would be costly for him”, warned CPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda, according to a PTI report. The challenge to the monarch has been offset by the trouble within parliament, as the Maoists led by former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda have been protesting against the corruption of the current KP Oli government. What Is Nepal’s Current Political Situation? KP Oli – leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN (UML) is leading the country’s government for the fourth time since 2015. He replaced former Maoist guerrilla “Lider Maximo” Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who was at the helm since 2009. Oli and the Nepali Congress party’s president Sher Bahadur Deuba, 78, will rotate in holding the prime minister’s post until the next general election in 2027. Recently, after the so-called support for Gyanendra Shah increase in the last few weeks, PM Oli challenged the former king to return to mainstream politics. “He doesn’t mention about the constitution, nor about the law, nothing about Loktantra (democracy), nothing about the system, process… what has happened to the country? This kind of activity would invite instability; chaotic activities,” he said while addressing Sudurpaschim Province Assembly. Nepal follows proportional representation (PR). The other electoral system is the first-past-the-post (FPTP), under which whoever wins more votes gets elected, to elect the Federal Parliament and Provincial Assemblies. In Nepal’s 275-member House of Representatives, 165 members are elected under FPTP and the remaining 110 under the PR system. This mixed system makes it extremely difficult for a single party to win a majority, hence the last two elections since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2015 have resulted in hung parliaments, and multiple governments. Experts believe the tendency to blame others for political instability stems from successive governments’ quest for power. Nepal has not seen any government complete its full term ever since the restoration of democracy in 1990. However, it’s not for the lack of a majority for any party in the last three and a half decades. The 1991 and 1999 elections gave the mandate to one party or the other to form a majority government, but the parties’ failure led to the dissolution of the House on both occasions, as per The Hindu report. Why Nepal Had A Hindu Monarchy Unlike European monarchies, which were deeply connected to Christianity, Nepal’s monarchy is Hindu. The king of Nepal needs to be born into a Hindu family, and he needs to marry a Hindu woman. He also needs to have close relationships with Brahmin priests. The king needed to honour major Hindu holidays. He surveyed the army on Shiva Ratri, and blessed government leaders during the Hindu festival of Vijaya Dasami. He received a blessing from his patron goddess Kumari, a young girl believed to be the manifestation of the Hindu goddess Taleju, during the festival of Indra Jatra, as per The Conversation. For centuries, Nepal had been divided into principalities. In the 1760s, a minor local king conquered all his neighbours, relocated his capital to Kathmandu and set his dynasty. By 1800, the country was being governed in the king’s name by regents and self-appointed prime ministers. In 1950, King Tribhuvan Shah, who had been serving a purely ceremonial role since 1922, formed an alliance with a democracy movement in order to step into more direct political power. From King Tribhuvan onward, Nepal’s kings would actively lead the government. Monarchy became much more centralised and consolidated under the rule of Tribhuvan’s son King Mahendra, who ruled the country from 1955 to 1972. King Mahendra passed the throne to his eldest son, Birendra. But in June 2001, King Birendra was murdered in the palace, allegedly by his own son, along with his wife and children and half a dozen other members of the royal family. In the tumultuous aftermath, Mahendra’s second son, Gyanendra Shah, succeeded the throne. While Gyanendra Shah was taking the reins, an armed Maoist insurgency was threatening Nepal and while the multiparty Parliament bickered in the capital. Thus, Gyanendra declared a state of emergency and took direct control of the government in 2005. In spring 2006, people took to the streets to protest the monarchy, which brought Nepal to a standstill. King Gyanendra capitulated to the insurgency. At the time, he was so unpopular that the interim government decided to dissolve the monarchy completely. They stripped Gyanendra of royal duties and religious activities. The country was declared a democracy and the royal palace was turned into a museum. King Gyanendra was moved out of the palace in June 2008.