7 C. The Rana settlement (the oligarchy's architecture)

1. The Sanad of 1856 — King Surendra formally granted Janga Bahadur (now Jung BahadurRana) and his brothers the hereditary office of Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief, with royal titles (Shri 3) and a Roll of Succession (brothers before sons — revised in practice by the 1885 Shumsher coup, when the nephews eliminated Ranodip Singh and the Shamsherline took the succession) — constitutional monarchy inverted: a hereditary executivewith a hereditary figurehead king.2. Instruments of control: kinship-office monopoly (all key posts to Ranas); the army's personal loyalty; censorship and surveillance (bhardari informers); exile of rivals; the king's isolation from politics.3. Foreign policy — the British connection: Janga Bahadur's European tour (1850–51) — the first South Asian head of government in London and Paris — and decisive military aid to Britain in 1857, rewarded with the return of the western tarai (1860) and the Gurkha- recruitment relationship.4. Select modernisation: the Muluki Ain (1854, 5.4) — his monument; the postal and Hulaki systems; early printing; Tri-Chandra College (1918); the abolition of slavery (1924) and of sati (1920) under Chandra Shamsher — reforms from above, designed to preserve power, not share it.5. The oligarchy's social base: birta/jagir concentration in Rana hands; a service aristocracy; export of grain and forest wealth; the mass of the people outside politics — the "sleeping kingdom" the 20th century would…