Nepal may have surprised many but it has not surprised those who are watching Nepal from the days of royal decimation and palace intrigues.For India unrest is Nepal must be a cause of concern as the two nations share religious and cultural affinity that dates back to Puranic period and as such its implications cannot be sidelined.Those who are suggesting to ignore the crisis in Nepal are ignorant about the political dynamics of Nepal and its implications on the security of India.This is because Nepal has been used as a launching pad to encircle India.It is an open secret that Nepal and India have enjoyed close relationship that can be understood by the open borders that the two neighbours have shared.Not only that many religious places that have scriptural significance for the Hindus are located in Nepal that includes the prominent Pashupati Nath Temple attracting Hindus of all hues.Kashmir too shares an important relation and bond with Nepal.Not many people know that Nepal has emerged as the seat of Tantric practices that are deep rooted in Kashmir Shaiva Trika Parampara. Kubjika tantra that holds a special significance among the Shaiva Sadaks is believed to have traveled from Kashmir to Nepal and then vice-versa.Kashmir’s Nepal connection is too old to be decoded as it is so organic that the Tantric practices are the same.It is a well known fact that Kashmir is an undisputed centre of Shiva system from times immemorial and to say that Shaiva Tantra in Kashmir came to the forefront in the 9th century is just falsification of the reality that suits the narrative of subversion.Acharya Abhinavagupta may have integralised the tantra corpus but there were many matchless scholars and practitioners that created the ground for the Acharya to work upon.There is a need to see the things incontinuity if we want to preserve and propagate the Tantric legacy.It is in this context that India must devise its policy to internalize the importance of relations with Nepal.All the Himalayan states down to the Brahmaputra valley have shaped the civilizational moorings and the definition of India frontiers.That is where the importance of Nepal for India must be underlined. Nepal in the Himalayas represents the cultural force that gives India a scope for synergy. Unfortunately, successive central governments have been misled on Nepal and thus we have a policy vacuum on Nepal that has resulted in weaning the Nepalese from India. India should have pitched for India-Nepal collaboration in at least the Tantra that we defined above in terms of Kashmir’s Trika Parampara. But we have missed that in policy making. This has weakened our presence in the Himalayas, resulting in catalyzing the De-Sanskritization of the Himalayas. Its impact can be seen in less impact of Indian influence in Nepal and its young generation.Now that the protests in Nepal are being orchestrated by the Gen-Z,India must not waste time and formulate its Nepal policy keeping in view the Chinese and the American interests in Nepal to strangulate India.There is a pincer movement to checkmate India not only militarily but culturally by injecting acculturation in the Nepalese youth so that they are easily taken away from the Sanskrit civilizational moorings that they share with India.There are reports that these protests though guided by the need to end corruption and nepotism in governance have been infiltrated by the forces that want to generate anti_india frenzy.Indian policy makers must put their ears to the ground and uphold the Indian national interest in Nepal by checkmating the international forces that want to weaken Indian influence in Nepal.
