Nepalese democracy movement
The Nepalese democracy movement was the combination of a series of political initiatives and movements from the 20th century to 2008 that advocated the establishment of representative democracy, a multi-party political system and the abolition of monarchy in Nepal. It has seen three major movements, the Revolution of 1951, Jana Andolan and Loktantra Andolan (Nepali: लोकतन्त्र आन्दोलन, romanized: Loktantra Āndolan) which ultimately abolished the Shah monarchy, transitioned Nepal towards a republic and reintroduced multi-party bicameral democracy. The beginning of a national movement for democracy in Nepal was the ousting of the Ranas, the long-established Nepalese royal family, in the mid-20th century which was influenced by ethnic and political developments from the Indian nationalist movement. However, this period of democracy ended in 1960 and the Panchayat system of government was introduced, abolishing recent democratic institutions, banning political parties and restricting some forms of freedom of speech. Student protests in 1979 led to a referendum on the direction of the political system resulted in minor adaptations to the existing party-less system, at times increasing executive control over the opposition. A period of economic disputes with India and mounting repression in Nepal led to the Jana Andolan popular movement resulting in the re-establishment