Spatial Changes in Kathmandu Valley: A review through political perspective

Kathmandu valley’s spatial characters are constantly changing, and as such, its urban morphology can be observed as a frequently altered palimpsest. Developing on the trade route of Tibet and India, settlements of Kathmandu valley can be traced back to more than three thousand years. The foundation of the earliest settlements were laid out by Kirats in 300 BC or before that. The settlements expanded first under the succeeding Lichchhavi ruling house who applied Vedic town planning principles and later the Mallas expanded the settlements further with Astamatrika and Dashmahavidya concepts affiliated to Shakti- cult. After the unification of Nepal in 1769, Kathmandu Valley became the capital of politics, economy and administration, however the political centralization can be vividly observed only after the 1950's. After the dethroning of the autocratic Rana Regime in 1951, the monarchical government had the authoritative grip in government and development. The political turmoil did not stop until the 1990s, which brought two big changes in Nepal, when the re-establishment of Democracy and wave of globalization brought unprecedented change in the urban form of Kathmandu Valley. However, the democratization of Nepal did not go well; the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) declared a civil war that lasted for a decade till 2006 jeopardizing the baby local government (Decentralization) and causing massive migration to urban core from rural regions, especially to Kathmandu Valley. The mass movement of April 2006 changed the governing landscape, turning a democratic monarchical nation into a federal republic, with an expectation to loosen valley’s centripetal grip of economy and administration, if not politics. The era of federal republic of Nepal has witnessed the political chaos of more than a decade, in terms of urban policy and development strategy. The paper reviews the spatial changes of Kathmandu Valley from the perspective of the political economy of Nepal till date. It is observed that the political system and social structure have defined the changes in the urban landscape of Kathmandu valley. The paper takes into account the regime changes over the period and the planning strategies carried out in the period along with the political economics behind it. The spatial changes of Kathmandu valley inferential to its political economy is also significant to understand the growth pattern of other growing cities in Nepal, which are largely influenced by political decisions in Nepal.