Unleashing the Vajra: Nepal's Journey Between India and China

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Nepal’s great advantage is its location between India and China, particularly now as these two Asian giants are set to be the world’s leading economies in 2050. Nepal has historically been at its most prosperous when it has leveraged this geographical position. Today, this opportunity emerges again-and in order to take advantage of the growth of India and China, Nepal needs to hitch its wagon to the fast-moving engines to its north and south.

Sujeev Shakya argues that it is imperative to understand history and learn from it to shape events for a better future. He analyses the social, political and cultural aspects underlying the current state of Nepal to strategize the recalibrations required to capitalize on its location. Economic transformations cannot be realized through money and management skills alone; they have to be driven by societal transformation. Unleashing the Vajra outlines the factors that will determine Nepal’s destiny in the years to come.

Sujeev Shakya is a thought leader who traverses many worlds. He earned the title of Nepal's CEO, 'chief eternal optimist', for the optimism he projected in his book Unleashing Nepal (2009). He writes and speaks extensively on business, development, economy and leadership. In 2008, after spending two decades in one of Nepal's leading business groups, he founded Beed Management, an international management consulting and advisory firm based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is also the founder and chair of the Nepal Economic Forum.

A chartered accountant, he has a diploma in international marketing from Boston University and a certification in coaching from Columbia University. He was awarded the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship by the US State Department in 2002.

By 2040, it is projected that China will be the largest economy in the world, followed by India. The two put together will have nearly a third of the world's population and GDP. This is similar to the glories of Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when India and China accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the global GDP. Nepal, till the seventeenth century, was known for being a trade link between China and India. The wealth accumulated by the Malla rulers of that time helped to create great architectural marvels with superb handcrafting skills, as well as trade with both nations. Now, there exists an opportunity for Nepal to unleash its potential and return to the time when it had the advantage of being in between two prospering neighbours. This book tries to understand the past in order to learn how to get the future right-Nepal now has just two decades to relive its glorious past.

Writings on Nepal began with the British arriving in the subcontinent, and these were supplemented with accounts in the English language written by explorers. Together, this literature provides the background to Nepal's history. Little is known about Nepal in the period before the Shah dynasty was established in 1776. The Newa language was then the lingua franca, and much of the history was transmitted orally. Archiving systems were poor and interest in history was limited. With the ban on the Newa language, the Shahs, and later the Ranas, decided what the narrative should be, and how it would be taught in schools. However, with the advent of multiparty democracy in 1990, the history recounted by the Shah kings began to be questioned and new narratives emerged.

After the fall of the Shah dynasty in 2008, with the extensive penetration of the Internet and the emergence of social media platforms, many new narratives came to the fore. Historians like 100-year-old Satya Mohan Joshi, who has seen major events in Nepal occur in his lifetime, started to openly talk about the past. His descriptions' of the Newa craftsman Arniko who went to China and built temples and cities in Lhasa and Beijing spread far and wide and were not censored. The growing numbers of young and educated Nepalis were curious, and more stories started to emerge in Nepali magazines, books and online portals. In this book, I attempt to look at Nepali history from the year the Nepal era, popularly called the Nepal Sambat, began, in 879 cz. I try to piece together information from different sources, including the stories that we inherited from our ancestors.

Knowledge of the state of Nepal's economy and society is understood from reports written by various development partners. including multilateral and bilateral agencies. These served a specific purpose and had a limited scope; very few explored history, culture and societal contexts. With the late development of the private sector and the concept of corporations, there was limited investment in research by business concerns as the core occupation remained trading, which was basically taking an arbitrage position on either taxes or the open border with India. The presence of only a few professional companies with foreign investment and the fact that Nepal was not a after investment destination were further hindrances in conducting sought studies on the impact of history, culture and consumer behaviour on business. This is in contrast to other countries, where it has become a major staple for consulting companies to produce reports.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages