Bhimsen Thapa - Hold On Power

Hold On Power

On 20 Nov, 1816, King Girvan Yuddha died of small pox, aged twenty-one, and was succeeded by his only son, Rajindra Bikram Shah, an infant of two years old. Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa, in collusion with the queen regent, Tripurasundari, remained in power despite the defeat of Nepal in the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. After the war, he used all his influence in favor of peace with the British, "a Power," as he said, "that crushed thrones like potsherds." He faced constant opposition at court from factions centered around leading members of other families, notably the Pandes, who decried what they felt was his craven submission to the British. Bhimsen Thapa managed to keep his opposition under control by maintaining a large army and modernizing its equipment and by convincing the suspicious British that he had no intention of using the army. During the minority of King Rajendra Bikram Shah (reigned 1816–47), the prime minister kept the king in isolation—he did not even have the freedom to leave the palace without permission. Bhimsen Thapa appointed members of his own family to the highest positions at court and in the army, giving his brother, Ranbir Singh Thapa, control over the western provinces and his nephew, Mathbar Singh Thapa, control over the eastern provinces. The Pandes and other opponents were frozen out of power.

However Oldfield notes that:

The Nipal chiefs might, and may, quarrel among themselves for the possession of official dignities under the Crown, but there is not an instance on record of a Gorkha chief setting himself in open defiance of the Crown for the purpose of establishing independent authority. Nor is there an instance of a Nipal chief taking bribes from, or selling himself for money to, the British or any other foreign State. In 1801 Captain Knox wished to take Damudar Pandi and some of his colleagues into our pay ; but they would not listen to the proposal. In 1816, as before in 1801, our Government offered pensions to certain Nipalese sirdars, but the Darbar had foresight enough to reject the offer.

Aside from the army and some attention to increasing trade, little effort could be expended on issues of national development.