Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

birta: Nepalese tax-free land tenure granted by the government primarily as a pension or as a reward to political supporters and family members, important especially during the Rana period; abolished 1959.; Source: Library of Congress
Colombo Plan for Cooperative, Economic, and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific (Colombo Plan): Founded in 1951, originally under a slightly different name, to coordinate and aid development among newly independent countries. Members include nations throughout the Asia-Pacific region (Nepal joined in 1952; Bhutan in 1962). Donor countries include Australia, Britain, Canada, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States. The organization’s headquarters are in Colombo, Sri Lanka.; Source: Library of Congress
Devanagari: Literally, ""the script of the city of the gods."" Script used in the written forms of Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and in some forms of Konkani. In use in North India throughout the second millennium A.D.
Gurkha: the British derivative of Gorkha evolved from the name Gorkha, which originally was applied to the soldiers of that region. The Gurkha soldiers of Nepal, who became famous for their service in the British and Indian armies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, principally were composed of members of the Magar, Gurung, Limbu, and Rai tribes, and were not a single ethnic group, tribe, clan, or caste.; Source: Library of Congress
jagir: A type of land tenure in Nepal granted primarily to military personnel, allowing them tax-free access to produce from the land in return for military service. This tenure was a basic feature of military service in northern India and in Nepal during late medieval times, and disappeared in Nepal only in the twentieth century.
Khasa: A term applied to the peoples and languages in the western parts of Nepal, closely related to the cultures of northern India.
Kirata: A Tibeto-Burman ethnic group inhabiting eastern Nepal since before the Licchavi Dynasty, just prior to and during the early years of the Christian era.
panchayat: In ancient times, a Nepalese public assembly, ideally comprised of the five (pancha) most important caste or occupational groups in the village. A pancha is a member of a panchayat. From 1962 until the 1990 constitution took effect, assemblies modeled on this ancient system formed the backbone of political structure in Nepal, at the village and district levels, and at the top in the National Panchayat, or Rashtriya Panchayat.; Source: Library of Congress
Protocol of Rio de janeiro (Rio Protocol): An agreement concluded in Rio de Janeiro on January 29, 1942, between Peru and Ecuador with the participation of the mediatory nations of Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. It was ratified by the congresses of both Peru and Ecuador on February 26, 1942, and it established the border between the two countries as internationally recognized today. Following the discovery of the Río Cenepa between the Zamora and Santiago rivers in the Cordillera del Cóndor in 1951, Ecuador disputed the treaty demarcation, which then stopped, leaving a stretch of the border uncharted. Ecuador repudiated the treaty in 1960, but the guarantor powers ruled this repudiation invalid.
Rana: Term, used as an honorific personal name, signified strength in battle in late medieval north India. It was adopted as a title by Jang Bahadur Kunwar in the 1850s, and by his heirs after him, and became the standard name used for this Nepalese dynasty of prime ministers and their families.; Source: Library of Congress
rupee: (Rs) or Nepalese rupee (NRs), the unit of currency, universal since the late 1960s. The Nepalese rupee is linked to the Indian rupee and is fully convertible although restrictions were imposed during the 1989-90 trade and transit dispute. The equivalency rate used in Chapter 1 is Rs2.1=US$1 in 1919. By 1973 the official exchange rate was Rs6.55=US$1; in 1991, Rs30.80=US$1. One Nepalese rupee = 100 paisa.; Source: Library of Congress
Scheduled Languages: Article 351 of the Indian constitution allows the government to compile a schedule (list) of languages recognized by the government for use in state legislatures. The Eighth Schedule, written in 1950, lists Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Sindhi was added to the schedule in 1967, and Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were added in 1992. Article 343 of the constitution designates Hindi written in Devanagari (q.v.) as the official language of India. Even though it was supposed to be phased out by 1965, English continues as India’s other official language for use in Parliament, the Supreme Court, and the high courts unless otherwise authorized by the president.
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): Comprises the seven nations of South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; headquartered in Kathmandu. Founded as South Asia Regional Cooperation (SARC) at a meeting for foreign ministers in New Delhi on August 1-2, 1983; the group was renamed when the 1983 agreement was ratified at the inaugural summit meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on December 7-8, 1985. SAARC’s goal is to effect economic, technical, and cultural cooperation, and to provide a forum for discussions of South Asia’s political problems.