Hill Hinduism, monarchy and the Nepali language — the conventional symbols of a historically weak Nepali nationalism — are all presently under attack. A crisis of identity prevails among Nepal's educated.
Hidden among the advance sample tables from the 1991 Nepal Census is data that is politically significant. There has been a net decline of 5.14 percent among Nepalis who say that Nepali is their mother tongue — from 58.36 percent in 1981 to 53.22 percent today. Although preliminary findings for population distribution by religion have not been published so far, there are strong indications that the percentage of population reporting Hinduism as its religion will also decline significantly. If these findings are confirmed, they would constitute major reversals of national trends. Population percentages in both these categories had been on the rise in all previous counts.
To a large degree, nationalism is a matter of loyalties and emotions, which are charged with religion, language and other cultural elements. When a significant portion of the population shifts position on who they are or who they should be, the corporate 'self' of the nation will be affected accordingly.
In the case of Nepal, Hinduism, the Nepali language and monarchy have been considered the three pillars of nationalism. What does it mean, then, that all three are seen to be in decline? One cannot, of course, exaggerate the trends. There were those who had warned that the nation state of Nepal would collapse with democracy, but this did not happen. Probably the Nepali language and Hinduism are no weaker than they were, only the perception of how strong they are has changed. And after the initial phases of rejection, the position of monarchy too is probably heading towards equilibrium, albeit at a less exalted level.