A Nation at a Crossroads
The air in Kathmandu this past May was thick with more than just the pre-monsoon humidity; it was charged with the palpable tension of a nation at a crossroads. Tens of thousands of demonstrators, waving the crimson and blue of the national flag, choked the capital’s streets, their chants a unified roar: “Bring king back to the throne and save the country.” Kept at a careful distance by cordons of riot police, pro-republic rallies celebrated the very system these protesters sought to dismantle. These scenes of a divided populace are not merely a nostalgic yearning for a bygone era. They are a desperate cry from a people profoundly disillusioned by the promises of the post-2008 republic—a system that has failed to deliver stability, prosperity, or justice.
The Rise of the Pro-Monarchy Movement
The pro-monarchy movement, once a fringe element of Nepali politics, has surged back into the national consciousness with remarkable force. Throughout 2025, a series of large-scale demonstrations rocked the country, escalating through violent clashes and massive rallies in Kathmandu. While police estimated crowds in the tens of thousands, organizers claimed numbers as high as 400,000. The demands are unambiguous: the reinstatement of former King Gyanendra Shah and the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion. By May 2025, a coalition of 44 pro-monarchy groups had announced an “indefinite agitation,” and the protests turned violent, resulting in at least two deaths and significant damage to property.
This royalist resurgence is not fueled by a sudden appreciation for monarchical rule, but by a profound and justified frustration with the current political establishment. Since the monarchy was abolished in 2008, Nepal has cycled through 13 different governments in 17 years, a relentless “game of musical chairs” that has crippled policy continuity and prevented meaningful reform. This chronic instability has bred economic malaise, with stagnant growth and a mass exodus of its youth—up to 80,000 people leave for foreign employment every month. Public confidence in essential domestic systems has plummeted. The story of Kulraj Shrestha, a carpenter who protested against the king in 2006 but now supports his return, encapsulates the widespread disillusionment.
The Historical Context
While the former king serves as a convenient symbol, the historical record presents a sobering counter-narrative. The monarchy was abolished after massive 2006 street protests forced King Gyanendra to relinquish the authoritarian power he had seized a year earlier, when he dissolved parliament and jailed opponents. The current protests are therefore a wholesale rejection of the current political system, not a genuine desire for an autocrat. A royal restoration remains politically improbable, as the main royalist party holds only 13 of 275 parliamentary seats.
Corruption and Political Instability
The political instability is inextricably linked to a pandemic of corruption that has hollowed out state institutions. According to Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Nepal scored a dismal 34 out of 100, a rank of 107th that places it firmly among nations with serious systemic corruption. This is reinforced by public opinion, with 84% of citizens believing government corruption is a “big problem”. This symbiotic relationship between instability and corruption creates a vicious cycle: short-lived coalition governments incentivize rapid looting, which erodes public trust and fuels further instability.
Corruption in Nepal is pervasive, extending to every corner of the state, with the judiciary, police, and public procurement all deemed “very high risk” sectors. This rot manifests in high-profile scandals like the Bhutanese refugee scam and the wide-body aircraft purchase scandal. For the average citizen, this translates into daily hardship, with a culture of petty bribery required for basic government services. It is widely believed that only 35% of the government’s capital budget is ever used for its intended purpose, with the rest devoured by corrupt officials. The consequences are visible everywhere: collapsing roads, dysfunctional hospitals, and deteriorating schools.
Embracing Technological Innovation
Faced with a system that incentivizes graft, looking to past models is a step backward. A more promising path lies in leveraging technology to build a new foundation of trust. Blockchain, the technology underpinning crypto currencies, offers a powerful, apolitical tool to enforce transparency and accountability. At its core, a blockchain is a shared, immutable digital ledger that establishes trust in environments where it is absent. While crypto currencies are its most famous application, the technology can be adapted for public governance, creating a system of “verify it yourself” instead of “trust us”.
Potential Applications of Blockchain Technology
The potential applications for Nepal are numerous. Imagine if the national budget was managed on a blockchain, where every rupee could be tracked in real-time, and “smart contracts” automatically released payments only when verifiable milestones were met, making embezzlement in public procurement nearly impossible. A blockchain-based land registry would create a secure, immutable record of property ownership, protecting citizens from fraud. The technology could also modernize remittances, the lifeblood of Nepal’s economy. According to the World Bank, migrants pay an average of 6.35% in transaction fees to send money home; digital currencies can facilitate near-instantaneous, low-cost payments, putting more money into the pockets of Nepali families.
Challenges and Opportunities
While the potential is immense, implementation faces significant hurdles. The most immediate barrier is legal. All forms of crypto currency are currently banned in Nepal under laws like the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Act, with severe penalties for violations. This creates a paradox: by banning a technology that could be used for radical transparency, the state inadvertently protects the opaque traditional system where grand corruption flourishes. Beyond legal challenges lie practical ones, including a significant digital divide between urban and rural areas, with many regions suffering from unreliable electricity and internet connectivity.
The Nepali government is exploring a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a digital version of the Nepali rupee, with a potential rollout by 2026. A CBDC could improve financial access and reduce cash management costs. However, it is fundamentally different from the decentralized systems that offer the greatest anti-corruption potential. A CBDC is fully centralized and controlled by the central bank, keeping power in the hands of the same state institutions that have lost public trust. A truly decentralized, public blockchain offers maximum resistance to state-level corruption but requires a government to voluntarily cede some control.
A New Path Forward
The clamor for a king on the streets of Kathmandu is a vote of no-confidence in a republic hollowed out by corruption. The choice facing Nepal is not between a flawed republic and a defunct monarchy, but between continued stagnation and bold innovation. Blockchain technology offers a tangible set of tools to enforce the transparency and accountability that generations of politicians have failed to provide. Embracing this technological path is more than an economic decision; it is a profound political act. It is an opportunity to forge a new, transparent social contract and finally build the prosperous, just, and accountable federal democratic republic that its people were promised and so rightfully deserve.
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