The fate of Harihartirtha, a small village on the northeastern fringe of Kathmandu, and its people is inextricably linked to the one who sits on the gilded throne in Narayanhiti. Minor changes in power alignment at the centre and the decisions that proceed from it transform the political dynamic of the village, forcing the villagers to shift their allegiance and recalibrate their opinions accordingly. By and large, the village is helmed by two figures, Haribhakta Khadka and Jhakkad Prasad.

When the novel begins, it is Haribhakta Khadka, a devotee of the king and an ardent follower of the Panchayat regime, who is in power. By the grace of King Mahendra, he has become the Pradhan Pancha of the village. He is now the locus from which power and authority emanates in the village, a diminutive version of the king himself.  

But if Haribhakta is a reflection of the power and hubris that defines the regime, he is also a victim of the paranoia it suffers from. Aarastriya tatwa, or antinational forces, have been making rounds in the press recently. Even Gorkhapatra, the government mouthpiece, has given space to this issue; publishing a news report about the emergence of these forces in the country alongside a cartoon to better explain the issue to the public.

There is a general perception among Panchas that these forces are lurking in the shadow of the regime, working hard to sabotage the system and planning to topple the regime. Theirs is an imported idea, Panchas argue, that goes against the ethos of the country and would result in dire consequences if given a chance. Thus, they must be neutralised at any cost. Evil must be nipped in the bud.

It is in this context that we get to see our heroes Devendra Sharma and Dadhe Sadhe. Devendra, a schoolboy in his early teens and a village troublemaker, decides to disrupt a meeting organised by Haribhakta and his cronies. Angered by the fact that the Pradhan Pancha took all the credit for constructing a road in the village (it was the villagers who did the work for free), he drives the Dadhe Sadhe (literally translating to large bull) into the meeting, forcing everyone to flee for their lives.

At other times, this schoolboy prank would have caused a minor raucous and everyone would have forgotten about it after a while. At most, the juvenile mischief would have amounted to a minor infraction. But not so in a political climate saturated with fear and paranoia.  Given the purported reach of these antinational forces, especially among the youth, and the momentum they were said to have garnered in recent days, Haribhakta and his cronies conclude that it was an act of sedition. Suddenly, a schoolboy given to pranks and mischief becomes part of an antinational force while an old bull that has roamed the village for years and sired many offspring becomes his instrument of terror.

Dhakal’s rendition of the Panchayat regime owes its strength more to a brilliant use of dark humour and satire than to the observation of the inner turmoil of characters living under a despot. The unscrupulous nature, bloated self-image and extreme paranoia that define Haribhakta and his elk swell like a hot air balloon as the writer stretches the innocent caper of young Devendra into a full-blown crime.

By the end of the book, the Panchas of Haritirtha have successfully liquidated the antinational alliance of the Dadhe Sadhe and Devendra. The bull is killed by someone rumoured to be one of Haribhakta’s henchmen, while Devendra is taken to prison. There, after participating in a prison uprising, he is shot by the prison guards. He is just fifteen. The only consolation the novel provides for his death is in the form of a political awakening of the young boy. He finally realises why people struggle against tyranny.

Brishav Badh is probably one of the best political novel to have come out in recent times.  It makes no bones about the evils that defined the totalitarian Panchayat regime, neither does it try to hide its sympathies for the progressive, democratic forces that fought against it. But what makes the book even more endearing is the striking resemblance Harihartirtha of yore bears with the times we live in. Not much seems to have changed in this place. The players are different and the goalpost has shifted but the system remains the same.