The Khukri and the Saffron Flag: Reframing Gorkha Bravery for the Hindu Kingdom

This paper examines the Hindu nationalist rhetoric of Yogī Naraharināth (1913/15–2003), a key proponent of Nepal’s identity as the world’s last Hindu kingdom. Naraharināth reinterpreted Nepalese history to align with Hindutva ideology, casting Prithvi Narayan Shah as an anti-colonial defender of dharma and the Gorkhas as symbols of Hindu martial valor. His text Jaya Gorkhā reframes Nepal’s military conquests as religious victories, positioning the khukri (the traditional knife of the Gorkhali warriors) as an emblem of Hindu militancy and highlighting the protection of the cow as central to the ethos of the kingdom. Unlike India’s Hindutva discourse, which justifies its calls for violence as a reaction to a past of colonial subjugation that has defiled the nation, Nepal’s nationalist rhetoric proposed a narrative of invincibility and religious purity. This paper explores how Naraharināth’s vision adapts Hindutva to Nepal’s historical context, reinforcing a legitimization of Hindu violence in a nationalist perspective.