Agony of being a landlocked country: Nepal

Nepal is not only the country which is ill-fated and unfortunate for being a landlocked country. There are all together 49 countries in the world which are landlocked i.e enclosed completely by land or which has coastline with the closed sea. Majority of these countries falls in Least Developing countries and underdeveloped countries with exceptions like Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg. 9 out of 12 countries that has lowest Human Development Index (HDI) is a landlocked country.

Looking back to world history, many  big and small countries invested wealth, bloodshed to get access to open waters for trade purposes. And those who were successful. are among the wealthiest countries. Rulers and people knew that being a landlocked country handicaps you politically, socially and economically. Now let's think about our own history and scroll back to the time when King Prithvi Narayan Shah began conquering small states and his descendants completed unification process. Although the unification process had reached till Sikkim in the east and was put to halt and, focus was made more towards the unification of western states, was that decision to stop unification in the east responsible to the current handicapped situation of Nepal? Hypothetically, what would have been the current situation of Nepal if our ancestors had desired to gain access over open international waters of Bay of Bengal and had took decision to conquer southeast towards bay Bengal?

There might had been many factors for such decisions like lack of knowledge about geography being primary. They might not had any knowledge that open sea of Bay of Bengal was just few hundred kilometers away (644 kilometer/400 miles from current Nepal borders). And of course they did not have access to satellites or Google Maps like that of now. It was the time when people used to walk for months to reach one city from another, which now has been matter in fact of just few hours travel. So being judgmental at our ancestors might not be wise in this matter.

Being a landlocked country has been a disadvantageous  factor not only for Nepal’s development but for all other landlocked countries too. It cuts a nation from importing sea resources like sea foods, oil resources along with preventing sea based trade and  transportation. On top of that it adds more dependencies on neighboring countries of which neighboring countries can take full benefit of the situation as a bargaining chip. Paul Collier writer of book The Bottom Billion writes that being a landlocked country is one of the “traps” that holds back a country from development. He mentions “If you are coastal, you serve the world, if you are landlocked, you serve your neighbors.”

At the time of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepal was called “ dui dhunga bich ko tarul ” i.e yam root between two boulders(China and India). Till now we just took this for its  superficial meaning that Nepal is in between China and India. But lets us think about it deeply and relate it with the growth  and development. Biologically yam(root) has much difficulty to grow bigger between two rocks compared to loose soil. This signifies that Nepal being in between China and India faces similar difficulties to grow, trade and develop itself.

(WORK IN PROGRESS: Please do give feedback what do you think about it. I will appreciate it. Thanks)