Hidden Flames of Nationhood: Polyphonic Vernacular Nationalism and Poetic Resistance in Rana-Era Nepal

Abstract

Located between India and China, Nepal has experienced several uprisings over democracy especially against the autocratic Rana regime (1846-1951). This paper examines how the nationalism, rebellion and freedom were negotiated in mid-twentieth-century Nepali poetry by three leading Nepali poets: Lekhanath Paudyal, Laxmi Prasad Devkota and Siddhicharan Shrestha. It states that their poetry promotes a polyphonic nationalism beyond the state ideology and appeals to ethical, existential, and agrarian aspects of freedom. Using the concepts of Imagined communities by Benedict Anderson, Third space by Homi Bhabha and Hidden transcripts by James C. Scott and the recent South Asian vernacular modernity and poetic of resistance scholarship, the paper places Nepali poetry within the global postcolonial discourses. Paudyal’s Tarun Tapasi, Devkota’s “Pagal”, and Shrestha’s” Mero Pyaro Okhaldhunga” are an allegorical expression of moral nationalism, humanist rebellion, and agrarian sovereignty respectively. The current analysis underscores poetry as a cultural depository and political instrument, which adds to the rigor of inclusive South Asian literary study by specifying the transformative images of equality and imagination.