Lakhan Thapa Magar who had already started a movement against the Ranas in 1876 and therefore was subsequently hanged by Junga Bahadur Rana, then de-facto ruler, along with Ajakh Singh Chumi Magar and a number of other martyrs. Each year, the last week of January brings back fond memories of our beloved martyrs Jung Bahadur Kunwar who later declared himself a ‘Rana’ had been able to rise to power after killing hundreds of courtiers in the dreadful event of Kot Massacre in 1846. The gruesome killing of General Abhi Man Singh Rana Magar followed the Kot Massacre at the present Hanuman Dhoka area in Kathmandu, however, the courtiers were gathered there as the queen had ordered them to fall in so that she would know the killer of her paramour, General Gagan Singh, who was shot dead the day before by Jung himself as historians write. Jung Bahadur Rana ruled Nepal for almost 30 years. He began the Rana family rule of terror that lasted 104 years in the Himalayan country. The Rana regime was Black Days in the history of Nepal. People had suffered much from the Ranas and wanted to get rid of them. So Martyr Lakhan Thapa initiated peoples’ movement which can better be equated with ‘democratic movement’ in today’s terminology - for the first time in history from Gorkha by organizing peoples in his leadership. We believe his campaign for uprooting Rana tyranny was the first seed of democracy in Nepal that germinated from Gorkha, grew over time with martyrdom of hundreds of martyrs and flowered in 1950. Every one should prosper and enjoy the value and spirit of democracy that the martyrs had dreamt.
