Bhadrakali Mishra

1950–1960

Sometime in 1948 or 1949, Bhadrakali Mishra returned to Nepal and in 1950, established Lok Sewak Sangh along Gandhian lines (translation: Association of the Servants of the People) in Janakpurdham. The Sangh organised prayer meetings, cleaned temples and other public places, and worked to provide relief to people affected by natural disasters, such as fires. The organisation was also successful in raising the general level of awareness of the local population in Mahottari.

In April or May 1950, while organising a relief programme for victims of the fire, Bhadrakali Mishra, along with his cousin Ram Narayan Mishra and other Sangh workers were arrested and imprisoned. This incident sparked protests which far-flung and ill-staffed police posts could not contain and the local administration capitulated and released those who were arrested, including Mishra. After his release, Bhadrakali Mishra moved to Kathmandu.

Bhadrakali Mishra's arrival in Kathmandu coincided with the popular movement against the Rana regime, a system hereditary Prime Ministers hailing from the Rana dynasty, that had reduced the ruling Shah monarchy to nominal figureheads and consolidated all powers within the office of the Prime Minister. A number of factors that included Mishra's closeness to the prominent leaders of the Indian Freedom Struggle, an Indian ambassador who knew of his history with the struggle, King Tribhuvan's strong inclination and belief in democracy, and Mishra's presence in Kathmandu propelled him to a central position and a key figure in the movement.

Meanwhile, as the movement against the Rana grew in strength, relations between BP Koirala, brother of Matrika Prasad Koirala—who would become the first Prime Minister of Nepal after the overthrow of the Ranas, and Mishra started to strain. In his autobiography, Atmabrittanta, BP Koirala wrote of his disagreements with Bhadrakali Mishra due to the latter's opposition to Nepali Congress starting an armed struggle for overthrowing the Rana Regime. Koirala added that Mishra continuously insisted that the struggle should fully be along Gandhian lines, including at formal party meetings. The King, assisted by Mishra and other close confidants, held a number of meetings with very senior and influential people and garnered overwhelming support for his efforts to establish democracy in Nepal.

and Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (second right), and BP Koirala (second left) at Delhi Airport, 1951

With full support of the Indian political and military leadership, and absolute popular support back home for democracy in Nepal, King Tribhuvan returned to the country. Shortly thereafter, on 18 February 1951, he proclaimed an end to the Rana dynasty and announced the establishment of democracy in Nepal.

alt=A group photograph of the Rana-Congress coalition cabinet of ministers. Bhadrakali Mishra is seated in the first row, wearing the traditional dhoti-kurta dress and the Gandhian cap. To the right of Mishra is Prime Minister Mohan Shamsher. Also in the photograph are other ministers and other senior administrative and security officials. Bhadrakali Mishra (first row, third from the right) seated with Prime Minister Mohan Shamsher to his right, in this group photograph of the Rana-Congress coalition Cabinet.

As the Minister of Transport, Mishra played a key role in the response and relief work following massive floods in the Terai region in 1951, personally visiting the affected districts and overseeing rescue efforts and disbursement of relief material and cash. He also met with senior political leaders to secure their cooperation with government agencies for relief operations irrespective of political differences.

He also undertook official trips to China, India and East Pakistan (now: Bangladesh) to explore avenues of strengthening Nepal's connectivity with its neighbours.

In the meantime, relations between BP Koirala and Bhadrakali Mishra did not warm considerably. In a defining moment at the party's Fifth General Convention in Janakpur in 1952, where Koirala was campaigning strongly for being elected the party's President as well as posturing himself as the next prime minister, Mishra spoke out very strongly and critically against Koirala's proposal and stressed that the same person should not be both the Prime Minister and the chief of a political party. Tensions overflow and culminated in Mishra, along with some other leaders of the Nepali Congress walking out of the meeting venue, boycotting the Convention and announcing a new political party, called the Terai Congress.

Historians believe that despite the differences Koirala maintained a "deep respect" for Mishra. Behind the scenes, many senior leaders worked to reconcile the differences between the two. These efforts ultimately led to the reunification of Terai Congress and Nepali Congress a few years later.

Following differences with the Nepali Congress, Bhadrakali Mishra and Tanka Prasad Acharya split from the party and reactivated the Nepal Praja Parishad (translation: Nepal People's Council) that was established circa 1945 against the Rana regime. However, in 1959, Tanka Prasad and Bhadrakali contested the elections separately, as duly recognised as national parties by the Election Commission of Nepal. Bhadrakali Mishra's party, Nepal Praja Parishad (Mishra fraction), contesting 36 seats won 1 while the Acharya faction, contesting 46, won 2.

Following the developments back home, Nepali political leaders in exile in India started to raise attention to the situation in Nepal and started gathering together. On 25 January 1961, the Nepali Congress, then in exile, held a general convention in Patna, Bihar and Subarna Shamsher, its senior leader, formally announced a struggle against the autocratic King and his regime. The convention also elected Rana as the President of Nepali Congress-in exile. About a month later, on 26 February 1961, Bhadrakali Mishra formally merged his own party, the Nepal Praja Praishad with the Nepali Congress. Shortly thereafter, he was also appointed the General Secretary of the Nepali Congress. Other political parties, such as Samyukta Prajatantra Party, Nationalist Gorkha Parishad, Gorkha Parishad, Nepal Terai Congress, and Terai Congress also merged with the Nepali Congress in due course.

Mishra undertook a number of activities to protest the situation in Nepal. In one such protest, held in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Mishra spoke about the role of media that had also sided with the King. In the years that followed, Mishra gave a number of interviews and wrote a number of opinion pieces in major Indian newspapers on political repression and curtailment of civil rights in Nepal.

In December 1976, King Birendra decreed that Mishra, along with 11 other senior political leaders, all in exile in India, will be pardoned. In doing so, he reiterated that the pardon and any subsequent participation in the panchayat system was possible for those who accepted the basic rules of the system. Following the pardon, Mishra briefly visited his hometown, Pipra, to perform some religious services on the death of a family member and thereafter returned.

However, despite the 1976 royal pardon, a single member bench of the Supreme Court of Nepal, in February 1977 passed death sentences on a number of senior political leaders, including Bhadrakali Mishra, Girija Prasad Koirala and Ganesh Man Singh for their involvement in an attack on the district of Okhaldhunga. On this verdict, B.P. Koirala, who was at the time imprisoned at the Sundarijal Prison, wrote in his memoirs Pheri Sundarijal (Jail Diary 2033-34): It remained unclear whether the 1976 royal pardon to Mishra applied to this case. But as a result of the 1980 general amnesty announced by the King, Mishra and other leaders were exonerated of the charge of attack on Okhaldhunga.

"Today's Rising Nepal carried the news of confirmation by the Supreme Court of death sentences passed by one man tribunal. What is intriguing is that BK Mishra was also involved in the statement of Capt Yagya Bahadur Thapa. This news says that Captain has made the statement before the trial court that by a joint direction of Girija, GM and BK, he was made the leader of the group that went to capture Okhaldhunga and set up a parallel govt there. I can understand GM and GP but why BK? What is the purpose of the govt in getting this statement from Capt Thapa? BK has recently been given amnesty and had only less than 2 months ago come to Kathmandu to test the validity of the amnesty. He has been pardoned-does amnesty granted to him extend to this case also in which he has been involved?" — B.P. Koirala, Pheri Sundarijal (Jail Diary 2033-34) The issue of citizenship was largely not addressed and the referendum was ultimately held on 2 May 1980 with a voter turnout of 66.9%. The panchayat system received a slim majority of 54.8%.

On 13 April 1980, King Birendra announced a general amnesty to all political prisoners and exiles. A few days later, it was confirmed by the Home Ministry that Mishra was one of the political exiles to be granted amnesty. This paved way for him to freely return to Nepal although he was still barred from any political activates in the country. (See also People's Movement I (1990))

Bhadrakali Mishra (right), with Ganesh Man Singh at Mishra's home "Vijay Printing Press" in Kathmandu. Singh visited Mishra to welcome him back to Nepal, a few days after Mishra's full-time return to Nepal following the restoration of democracy in the country. (August 1990)

In late December 1990, Mishra was granted an audience by King Birendra at the Narayanhiti Palace where the two reportedly discussed the establishment of democracy and transition from an absolute to constitutional monarchy. It was at this meeting that the King reportedly asked Mishra if he would be willing to serve as the Chairman of his Raj Parishad (Privy Council). Bhadrakali Mishra agreed and, on 17 February 1991, was appointed to the position. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by the King on the morning of 19 February 1991, Nepal's Prajatantra Diwas (Democracy Day).

The Raj Parishad was a body bestowed with a lot of power by the Constitution of Nepal (1990). According to the constitution (Article 34), chairman of the Raj Parishad had the authority to convene a meeting of the council to run matters of the state in the event of the demise of the king, should the king proclaim his abdication, or the king be mentally or physically unable to perform his functions.

In May 1991, Mishra travelled as the personal representative of King Birendra to pay respects on the death of former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. The official Nepalese delegation was led by Prime Minister Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand.

In late January and early February 1992, Bhadrakali Mishra undertook an official visit to the United States of America as the personal representative of King Birendra to meet with President George H. W. Bush, senior officials of the US Government, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and other officials and dignitaries at Washington, D.C. During this visit he also attended the National Prayer Breakfast on 30 January 1992.

In early July 1992, Bhadrakali Mishra travelled to Thailand at the invitation of Sanya Dharmasakti, the then president of the Privy Council of Thailand. During this visit he undertook discussions with his counterpart at the Privy Council of Thailand and with other senior Thai Government officials on strengthening relations between Nepal and Thailand as well as the development of Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha.

In 1994, Bhadrakali Mishra travelled to various parts of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, visiting many border crossings that could be developed to strengthen trade and transit between Nepal and China. During this trip, in addition to meeting with border, customs and trade officials, Mishra also met with senior officials of both the Region's administration as well as with senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. He also visited the Consulate of Nepal in Lhasa. Mishra's was the first official visit to any part of Tibet Autonomous Region of China by a senior Nepalese dignitary since the establishment of democracy in Nepal (in 1990).

1996–2006

Following the end of his term as the Chairman of the Royal Privy Council Standing Committee, Bhadrakali Mishra returned to his village Pipra in the Terai. He engaged in a number of local and small-scale social initiatives. He financed, from his personal accounts, repair and preventative maintenance of the Pipra high-school and its Dwarika-Vijay-Lilawati Chhatrawas (hostel). He also reactivated the Basahiya village-based Gandhi Sewa Ashram started a number of programmes aimed at social upliftment, education and women empowerment (Bhadrakali Mishra, Pundit Ramakant Jha, Ram Narayan Mishra and Mahendra Narayan Nidhi had established the Ashram in 1953).

He strongly advocated the need for and importance of women's empowerment, effective social security structures for widows and orphans, meaningful and remunerated employment for women, and proper education of girls. He financed tuition scholarship for one girl and one boy in Pipra village, each year, for the duration of their school years on condition that they continue formal schooling until they graduated high school. He also accompanied local NGO workers to rural Terai villages to speak to parents and impress upon them the need to educate their children, particularly their daughters.

Bhadrakali Mishra died in Ranchi on 1 June 2006 due to old age. As per his wishes, his last rites were performed as per the Arya Samaj rituals and his ashes were immersed in the Ganges in Varanasi, India.

He was also often cited as one of the only representatives of the marginalised and impoverished Terai/Madhesh community in the Governance and political structures in Kathmandu.

On the eve of the promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal-2015, Nepali civil society leaders including Sushil Pyakurel, Kapil Shrestha, Dharmendra Jha, Charan Prasai, Dinesh Tripathi, and many others issued a statement recalling the contributions of and paying homage to Bhadrakali Mishra, along with leaders including B.P. Koirala, Tanka Prasad Acharya, Pushpalal Shrestha, Madan Bhandari, Mahendra Narayan Nidhi and Gajendra Narayan Singh as "dreamers of a democratic Nepal."

Personal life

Bhadrakali Mishra was born on 6 February 1920 to Dwarika Parshad Mishra and Ram Ratan Kuwari in the village of Pipra in Mahottari District, located in the southern plains.

Mishra did not subscribe to the notions of the caste hierarchy. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, he actively advocated for an end to caste system, in particular the practice of untouchability. Upon his retirement from public life, Mishra often visited the homes of the so called "lower castes" in and around his village, and shared meals with them. 70px Birendra Rajat Jayanti Padak (King Birendra Silvery Jubilee Medal), special coronation medal for services rendered to the nation during the reign of His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, 1997. Birendra-Aishwarya Sewa Padak (King Birendra-Queen Aishwarya Service Medal) for dedicated and trustworthy services rendered to King Birendra and the monarchy during his reign, 2002.