Nepal has not fought a war since 1856. Of course, as Gurkhas (Gorkhas), hill people from Nepal have fought and died in other peoples´ wars. But, it has been a long time since they have been asked to march out for Nepal.
The Royal Nepalese Army, as it is formally known, was the outcome of Prithvi Narayan Shah´s sallying forth from his hilltop palace in Gorkha to conquer and unify what is present-day Nepal. It is this association with the creation of the nation that officers in the Nepali army are proud of, and one that is often forwarded in support of its continued maintenance.
For there are those in Nepal who feel the army may have outlived its purpose. They point to the futility of keeping an army to counter the Indian or Chinese juggernauts, and argue that a country that likes to flaunt its status as a "peace zone" cannot have it both ways. An expensive standing army, said an unusually candid economic column in The Kathmandu Post daily, is like a "white elephant wearing an olive-green outfit".
Sensitive to this criticism, the army top brass maintain that their role is somewhat larger than protecting the hill and tarai from aggression, for which the army is "prepared enough". They point to the contributions of the army during peacetime.