Researching early twentieth-century lives

Historians have not paid sufficient attention to the influences and individuals at work in the frenetic decade.

In a famous essay first published in 1970 under the title “The Intellectual in Nepalese Society”, the scholar of literature and history, Kamal P Malla (1936-2018) wrote: “The post-1950 decade in Nepal is characterized…by an unprecedented expansion of intellectual and cultural opportunities. The decade can aptly be called a decade of extroversion. For it was a decade of explosion of all ideas, activities and organized efforts.” As Malla and many other commentators have noted, the political and civil freedoms that became available to Nepali citizens after the end of the Rana rule allowed for many experiments. As a result, during the 1950s, there was a noticeable growth of intermediate organisations, such as libraries, schools, colleges, political parties, women’s organisations, research collectives and many other entities.