Ramachandra Guha: In a book on Nepal, a reminder of why India should learn more about its neighbours

Indians of my background – middle-class, from professional families, and English-speaking – generally look Westwards when seeking information or understanding of countries other than one’s own. The United States of America and England are natural poles of attraction, but so also countries such as France and Italy.

As a young boy, I learnt about these countries, but fortunately the circumstances of my upbringing also fostered a curiosity in lands closer to me, and which Indians of my class are usually rather indifferent to. A country whose culture and history I was aware of from an early age was Nepal. Along with the rest of Uttarakhand, my hometown, Dehradun, had come under the rule of the Gurkha kingdom of Nepal in the late 18th century. The British, who succeeded the Gurkhas, located several army regiments in Dehradun which carried the word, “Gurkha”, in their name, since many of their soldiers had come originally from Nepal.

The Nepali influence on my boyhood was quite marked. The school I studied in was established by Rana aristocrats who had fled their homeland in the 1950s. The route from my home to school ran through a sprawling, Nepali-speaking settlement named Gadhi. My first sporting hero was the legendary East...

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