Prem Bahadur Kansakar ( ne, प्रेमबहादुर कंसाकार) (1918–1991) was a Nepalese fighter for democracy and linguistic rights, author and scholar of

Nepal Bhasa Newar (), or Newari and known officially in Nepal as Nepal Bhasa, is a Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newar people, the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala, which consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surro ...

. His main contributions were promoting

mainly by collecting and preserving ancient manuscripts. He was the founder of Asa Archives, the only public archive in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Early life

Kansakar Kansakār () or Kasāh (कसाः) is a Nepalese caste group belonging to the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. In Sanskrit, Kansakar means bronze worker, and their traditional occupation has been metal working and trading. Toda ...

(alternative name: Prem Bahadur Kasāh; Devanagari: प्रेम बहादुर कसाः) was born in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

to a family of merchants. He received his primary education in Kathmandu at Jagat Lal Master's school, Masjid Imambara (where he learned

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

) and

Durbar High School Durbar High School () or Bhanu Higher Secondary School, opened in 1854 is the oldest modern school in Nepal located near Rani Pokhari, Kathmandu. The school was originally built to teach sons of Ranas exclusively but was opened to public citizens i ...

. After passing Class 8 from Durbar High, he went to

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, India to join Class 9. In 1940, he passed the

Matric Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

exams and enrolled in

Patna College Patna College is a constituent state aided College of Patna University which is established in 1863 during the British Raj, is one of the oldest colleges in the state of Bihar, India. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in science, ...

Political career

In Kathmandu during his college holidays, he came into contact with Ganga Lal Shrestha through

Dharma Ratna Yami Dharma Ratna Tuladhar, popularly known as Dharma Ratna Yami ( ne, धर्मरत्न यमी) was a Nepalese government deputy minister, activist and Newa language writer While serving eighteen years jail term, he changed his surname fr ...

, and was greatly impressed by the young revolutionary. Kansakar went back to Patna to continue his studies, and in 1941 was informed by Yami that Ganga Lal had been martyred. In 1942, moved by Ganga Lal's death, Kansakar became a member of the Radical Democratic Party founded by Indian nationalist

M. N. Roy Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy ...

. Returning to Kathmandu, he got involved in the underground struggle against the autocratic

Rana regime 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 ...

to bring democracy in Nepal. In 1944, he formed the Nepal Democratic Association (नेपाल प्रजातन्त्र संघ) which organized a civil disobedience movement across the

Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley ( ne, काठमाडौं उपत्यका; also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley ( ne, नेपाः उपत्यका, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः)), ...

in 1948. Kansakar also worked to develop education, and helped to establish a library Pradipta Pustakalaya in 1946, Shanti Nikunja School and Padmodaya School, where he also taught. He left his teaching job to travel to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India to join other Nepalese democracy fighters, but was stopped on the way and confined to Kathmandu. In 1947, he slipped out of the country and went to

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

to attend a convention of the Nepal Rastriya Congress, a political party of Nepalese freedom fighters. In 1948 in Kolkata, Mahendra Bikram Shah and Kansakar established the Nepali Democratic Congress as president and general secretary respectively. In 1950, the party merged with the Nepali Rastriya Congress founded by

Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala ( ne, विश्वेश्वरप्रसाद कोइराला; 8 September 1914 – 21 July 1982), (Nepali: 1971 B.S. Bhadra 24 - 2039 B.S Shrawan 6)better known as B. P. Koirala ( ne, बीपी ...

to become the

Nepali Congress The Nepali Congress ( ne, नेपाली कांग्रेस ; abbr. NC) is the largest social democratic political party in Nepal. As per the results of recent local election, ''Nepali Congress'' stands as the single largest party o ...

which decided to launch an armed struggle against the Ranas. In 1951, the Rana regime was overthrown and democracy established in Nepal. Kansakar became the leader of a new political party, Janavadi Prajatantra Sangh ("People's Democratic Union"), which was formed subsequently. The Ranas ruled Nepal from 1846 until 1951. During this time, the Shah king was reduced to a figurehead and the prime minister and other government positions were hereditary.

Jang Bahadur Rana Maharaja Jung Bahadur Kunwar Ranaji, (born Bir Narsingh Kunwar ( ne, वीर नरसिंह कुँवर), 18 June 1817; popularly known as Jung Bahadur Rana (JBR, ne, जङ्गबहादुर राणा)) () belonging to the ...

established the Rana dynasty in 1846 by masterminding the

Kot massacre The Kot massacre ( ne, कोत पर्व) took place on 14 September 1846 when then Kaji Jang Bahadur Kunwar and his brothers killed about 30-40 civil, military officers and palace guards of the Nepalese palace court including the Prime Mi ...

in which about 40 members of the nobility including the prime minister and a relative of the king were murdered. Tyranny, debauchery, economic exploitation and religious persecution characterized Rana rule.

Language activist

In 1950, Kansakar and a fellow writer Madan Lochan Singh established a literary society named Chwasa Pasa (meaning "Pen Friend") in Kolkata. Its objective was to bring together Nepal Bhasa writers living in exile in India and bring out publications in the language as it was forbidden to do so in Nepal. In 1951, after 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 ...

was overthrown and democracy established in Nepal, the ban on publishing in Nepal Bhasa ended and Kansakar returned to Kathmandu. Chwasa Pasa also moved to Kathmandu and devoted itself to publishing books and magazines in Nepal Bhasa. In 1956, Kansakar helped to set up Nasa Khala, a cultural organization. Its objective was to research, present and preserve Nepal's classical and folk dance and music. Nasa Khala provided training in dance and music and performed stage shows. He was also the founder of the Nepal Bhasa Dictionary Committee which started worked on a dictionary of the classical language in 1980. The dictionary was published in 2000, and the committee received the Nikkei Asia Prize in 2001. In 1987, Asa Archives was established. Named after Kansakar's father Asha Man Singh Kansakar, it preserves ancient manuscripts, palm leaf documents and books collected from private sources. Kansakar donated his personal collection to the archives to which donations from other people were later added. Most of the collections are in Nepal Bhasa and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

languages.

Publications

Kansakar was also a story writer and essayist. He has been credited with bringing a transformation in Nepal Bhasa essays. ''Nhupukhu'' (a collection of essays) and ''Swanma'' (children's stories) are two of his notable works. He collected old songs and ballads and has published ''Matenaya mye'' ("Love songs") and ''Bakham-mye'' ("Narrative Poems").Lienhard, Siegfried (1992). ''Songs of Nepal: An Anthology of Nevar Folksongs and Hymns.'' New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas. . Pages 12-13. Kansakar was the chief editor of ''Situ'' (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

: सितु) (meaning "Holy Grass"), a bimonthly literary magazine in Nepal Bhasa. It was published by Chwasa Pasa and was in publication from 1964-1991.

References

External links

Asa Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kansakar, Prem Bahadur 1918 births 1991 deaths Newar people Nepalese male poets Nepalese journalists Nepalese politicians Newar-language writers Nepalese male short story writers Nepalese short story writers Folklore writers Nepali-language writers Newar studies scholars Nepal Bhasa movement Nepalese exiles Nepalese revolutionaries Political party founders 20th-century Nepalese poets 20th-century short story writers 20th-century male writers 20th-century journalists 20th-century Nepalese male writers Durbar High School alumni Nepalese folklorists