Images above: The Prime Minister of Nepal the Honourable Mr KP Sharma Oli, and HRH Prince Harry: UK – Nepal Bicentenary logo
The story of the in-the-UK dimension of the Nepali-British relationship, and establishment of the UK-British Nepali Diaspora begins initially with the then Prime Minister of Nepal (subsequently Founder of the Nepal Rana Dynasty) Jang Bahadur Kunwar (later ‘Rana’) who visited England and Europe/France in 1850, and preceding that visit, and subsequently after at increasingly substantial levels (especially in the early 20th Century to date) with the Gurkha British Army regiments creation and development. On the Gurkha dimension of the Nepali-British relationship, and establishment of the UK-British Nepali Diaspora subjects – that yet have a certain degree of interconnection – the information resource provides details in its extensive thematic topics Gurkha section.
Here though we note that through the research of Dr Krishna Adhikari of Oxford University and his colleagues at the Britain – Nepal Academic Council and Centre for Nepali Studies UK (please see links below) we note from Dr Adhikari that a former veteran of the Anglo-Nepal War of the mid 1810’s, Mr Motilal Singh, in fact made history as the first Nepali settler in the UK (he acted as English – Nepali interpreter to Prime Minister Kunwar during his visit). His story as recorded by Dr Adhikari (please see second link below), and key elements of Mr Singh’s experiences of early 19th Century British Colonial era Britain noted by the ground-breaking Migration Museum organisation (https://www.migrationmuseum.org/tag/motilal-singh/) form valuable reminders of the continuing journey of the UK at human rights, inclusion and race relations levels.
For detailed level information on the UK Nepali population, its composition, attributes, activities we commend most strongly the exceptional Nepal studies work of the Britain – Nepal Academic Council (BNAC) and the Centre for Nepal Studies UK (CNSUK) organisations, and the related ground-breaking academic research level work of Dr Krishna Adhikari, Dr Chandra Laksamba, and Dr Sondra Hausner, and Professor David Gellner, please see the links below:
Britain Nepal Academic Council (includes access to BNAC downloadable e-books on a number of important subjects): https://www.bnac.ac.uk/publications/
Regarding Motilal Singh: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:950b8ad7-1000-40e0-828e-a79d2705fef5/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=Adhikari.First%2BNepali.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article