DefinePK

Abstract

India and Nepal share religious, historical, cultural, and linguistic affinities and they both are highly connected with each other geographically and economically. Both of them are predominantly Hindu states though they both profess secularism. There also exist huge disparities between the two states that pose various challenges for them and also provide them with opportunities to establish friendly and harmonious ties. The nature of their bilateral relations largely depends on India’s policy and behaviour towards Nepal. The history of the past 70 years shows that India generally strived to exploit the inherent weakness of Nepal by supporting anti-state and/or anti-government elements including democratic movements, political dissidents, rebels, terrorists, insurgents and agitators. India intermittently manoeuvered events in Nepal by persistent intervention in the country. The paper aims to explore how and why India intervened in the domestic affairs of Nepal. It also investigates the overt and covert motives that New Delhi intended to pursue by undermining different governments in Kathmandu.