ABSTRACT
For 104 years after 1846 Nepal was ruled by the Rana dynasty, by means of a hereditary Prime Ministership. During this period Nepal was effectively isolated from modernizing influences in agriculture, in industry and in society. Rana administration was largely limited to the collection of taxes from the peasantry and to internal security. Large parts of the country were owned directly by members of the Rana family. The revenues of the state were not distinguished from the Rana’s personal fortunes. In fact, up to half the total state revenues were appropriated by successive Rana Prime Ministers during this period. The administrative system, such as it was, was based on patronage and corruption. The Prime Minister personally appointed the District Governors and administrative posts were filled, not on the basis of qualifications or efficiency, but by personal influence. The political system centred upon the extraction of surplus from the peasantry to maintain a conspicuously high life style for the small, high-caste, Kathmandu-based ruling aristocracy. Economic and social development was not considered to be a function of government. Up to the middle of the twentieth century Nepalese society was essentially feudalistic: entrepreneurship was actively discouraged and industry was inhibited as the ruling elite recognized that the development of manufacturing would probably have been accompanied by an increase in both the political awareness and the economic independence of the people. 1
