Earlier this week, some agitated Nepalese youths poured onto streeets and burnt effigies of Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping – executive heads of two neighboring countries tiny Nepal is sandwiched between. Emotions ran high following media reports that both India and China had violated Nepal’s sovereign territory. An overwhelming majority in the Himalayan nation therefore presently harbour a strong resentment towards these intimidatingly giant neighbours.

One must understand while these allegations are new, the encroachment is not . These border disputes have been in existence for well over half a century.

What has caused the latest nationwide stir in Nepal?

After India released its new political map two weeks ago incorporating the newly-formed Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (as per the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution), Nepalese opposed claiming the new map placed a good chunk of their territories within India’s border.

Nepal’s Foreign Ministry issued a press release on November 6 saying “the Government of Nepal is clear about Kalapani region being a part of Nepal”. The very next day, India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by claiming that there was nothing new in the latest map so far as the Nepal-India border was concerned and that the Indian map “accurately shows the Indian territory”.

Please click here to read the full “Nepal’s border pains: burning effigies of Modi and Xi” article published at SouthAsia, written by Griffith Asia Institute PhD candidate, Bikram Timilsima.