State and Craft: Readings on the 1923 Nepal-Britain Friendship Treaty

Eurocentric historiography treats the Peace of Westphalia and its associated treaties as the birthing moment of the modern sovereign state. This volume asks what happens when that Western grammar of statehood meets a polity whose sovereignty was established through an entirely different trajectory.

The contributors seek to generate interest in the 1923 Nepal–UK Treaty of Friendship, a document that has not received adequate credit in the study of Nepal’s international relations and geopolitical standing. The essays introduce a variety of perspectives, showing how this agreement brought the pre-existing Nepali statehood into the slipstream of modern-day nation-states. They re-engage with Nepal’s sovereign status, which has deep indigenous roots based on geography, economy and demography, that predate the colonial encounters. The 1923 treaty can be considered as representing a Westphalian moment relocated to a distinct geography, a separate century, and a radically different balance of power.

Richly historical and theoretically sharp, this book is essential reading to understand how ancient polities helped shape the modern international system as much as they were shaped by it. The well-researched writings add texture to Nepal’s passage into the global order and explain the durability of its sovereignty into the modern era.