India & Nepal

Story hook

It is 20 May 2020. In Kathmandu, the K.P. Sharma Oli government releases a new political map of Nepal. The map includes three previously contested but never-officially- mapped slivers in the western Himalayan frontier — Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh — within Nepal's national territory. On 18 June 2020, the House of Representatives unanimously passes the Second Constitutional Amendment Bill adopting this new map. It then passes the National Assembly. The map becomes part of Nepal's official emblem — printed on passports, currency, school textbooks.

The trigger: India inaugurates an 80-km Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage road through the Lipulekh Pass on 8 May 2020. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh cuts the ribbon. Lipulekh has been Indian-administered since the 1962 war; the road shortens the Mansarovar yatra by 3 days.

But Nepal calls it sovereignty violation. The relationship — once described as "Roti-Beti" (bread-and-daughter, in reference to centuries of cross-border marriage and trade) — enters its sharpest downturn in decades. India's response is measured. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visits Kathmandu November 2020. Army Chief General M.M. Naravane visits as Honorary General of the Nepali Army.

By 2024, K.P. Sharma Oli is back as Prime Minister (July 2024) for a fourth term. His first foreign visit is to New York (UN General Assembly), not Beijing or Delhi — a break from tradition. Nepal pivots toward balanced multi-alignment. India-Nepal continues — bound by open border, Hindu civilisational ties, ~8 million Nepalis in India, and ~600,000+ Gorkha veterans of the Indian Army.

Why this matters for UPSC

India-Nepal is the most intimate Indian bilateral — open border, no visa, shared Hindu civilisational heritage. But also the most politically volatile in South Asia. For UPSC:

• Prelims: 1950 Treaty, Mahakali Treaty 1996, Kalapani- Limpiyadhura-Lipulekh, Pancheshwar Project, Gorkha recruitment, SAARC + BIMSTEC + BBIN.
• Mains GS-II: Open border, treaty modernisation, China factor, water cooperation, blockade (2015).
• Interview: "Has India lost Nepal to China?", "Should the 1950 Treaty be revised?", "What is the Kalapani dispute?"