Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

His Highness Highness (abbreviation HH, oral address Your Highness) is a formal style (manner of address), style used to address (in grammatical person, second person) or refer to (in grammatical person, third person) certain members of a reigning or formerl ...

Shree Shree Shree

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Padma Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana ( ne, पद्म शम्शेर जङ्गबहादुर राणा) (5 December 1882 –

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, 11 April 1961) was the hereditary

prime minister of Nepal The Prime Minister of Nepal ( ne, नेपालको प्रधानमन्त्री) is the head of government of Nepal. The Prime Minister is the head of the Council of Ministers of Nepal and the chief adviser to the President of N ...

and

Lamjung Lamjung District ( ne, लमजुङ जिल्ला ), a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal. The district, with Besisahar as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population of 167,724. Lamjun ...

and Kaski from 29 November 1945 to 30 April 1948 as the head of the

Rana dynasty Rana dynasty ( ne, राणा वंश, IAST=Rāṇā vaṃśa , ) is a Chhetri dynasty that imposed totalitarianism in the Kingdom of Nepal from 1846 until 1951, reducing the Shah monarch to a figurehead and making Prime Minister and other ...

. He was one of the first prime ministers of Nepal in over a century to advocate for social development, and even proclaimed himself to be "A servant of the nation".

Reforms

In his short tenure as the Prime minister, he performed numerous reforms in Nepal including: - # He began construction of the first east-west highway in Nepal. The highway was mainly intended to expedite the transport of mail and is also sometimes called Postal Highway. # Citing the lack of proper education in Nepal, he sent several teachers to various countries abroad to train. In addition, he also established several schools and college including Padmodaya high school and Padma Kanya multiple campus, which was also the first college to be established in Nepal for women. # He held the first ever election in the history of Nepal in the form of a municipal election. # He introduced the Government Act of Nepal in 26, January, 1948, although it was never fully implemented.

Retirement

His liberal views and acts of reformation had led him to be threatened by his own family and hence, fearing for his life, he left for India on March 1, 1948 under the pretext of having a medical examination. There he met Indian president

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, who encouraged him to establish democracy in Nepal, but he decided to stay in India and not risk himself by returning to Nepal. He officially resigned from his position on 28 April, 1948. Only after the fall of the Rana regime in 1951, did he occasionally visit Nepal. He remained in Calcutta until his death in 1961.

Works

References

, - 1882 births 1961 deaths Chief Commanders of the Legion of Merit Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire Prime ministers of Nepal Rana dynasty Rana regime Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Tripod 20th-century prime ministers of Nepal 19th-century Nepalese nobility 20th-century Nepalese nobility Children of prime ministers of Nepal Nepalese Hindus {{Nepal-politician-stub