12 A. Long-term causes

1. The oligarchy's exhaustion — a century of closed politics; the "reform" Ranas (Chandra's abolition of slavery/sati; Padma's schools) had bought time but not legitimacy; a narrow elite consumed the nation's land and youth (Gurkha recruitment). 2. The exposure of Nepalis to the world — soldiers in the World Wars (Nepalis fought in Europe, North Africa, Burma); students and merchants in India; the returning veteran with a ballot-box imagination. 3. The Praja Parishad (1936–41) — the first organised anti-Rana party; the martyrdom of its leaders (1941 — Shukraraj Shastri, Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Dashrath Chand, Gangalal Shrestha) turned conspiracy into memory and martyrs into a mass symbol (Martyrs' Day, Magh 10). 4. Organised party politics — the Nepali National Congress (1947) and the Nepal Democratic Congress merging into the Nepali Congress (April 1950) under the Koirala leadership; the left's forces gathering; the parties-in-exile ready for armed struggle. 5. The Indian independence (1947) revolution in geopolitics — the Ranas' British patron vanished; the new Indian republic's leaders sympathised with democratic movements — the external guarantee had flipped. 6. King Tribhuvan's alignment — the palace, nursing a century of humiliation, became the movement's constitutional centre: November 1950 the king took asylum in the Indian Embassy and flew to Delhi — a royal coup of legitimacy: the Ranas crowned the child Gyanendra in reply,…