Very few people would have imagined that after a tumultuous war between two "expansionary powers", Nepal and the East India Company, in 1814-16, the history of diplomatic relations between the two had started from an obscure corner of Kathmandu or "Catmandhoo". The Treaty of Sugauli signed after the war made a provision for the exchange of "accredited ministers to each other's court". The first British Residency was opened at a space where the British Embassy exists today. Edward Gardner and his deputy Robert Stuart were the two persons who were doing the pioneering work at the Residency. But Stuart suddenly died of "an inflammation of the lungs" on the evening of 1820. The superior Edward Gardner informed the "government in Calcutta" of this sudden death of his young talented deputy. But the point of importance here is the burial of the 27-year-old Stuart in a "hastily dug" grave "on the edge of a farmer's field just outside the boundaries of the Residency".

The story of the British cemetery begins from the lonely first grave of the young man. A book entitled Corner of a Foreign Field (2022) written by Mark F Watson and Andrew R Hall and published in Kathmandu by Vajra Publications begins with this humble story. Hall, an anthropologist and former British ambassador to the court of Nepal, is someone whom several of us knew personally. And I had a personal communication with Watson about this cemetery.

History of bravery

I was captured by this meta-history of the Nepal-Britain relationship that begins not with a bang, as could have been expected given the ferocity of the war, but with a few humble accoutrements in a corner of the capital city. Interestingly, the history of that humble beginning is also preserved by what is called the British cemetery on a ground behind the British Embassy. The burial of the young officer and several others makes up the early history of this space. Though small, this burial ground serves as the museum of a different order. The big two-year war between the East India Company and Nepal is written in the books of Nepali history as the history of the bravery of the Nepali fighters that culminated with the signing of the Treaty of Sugauli on March 4, 1816. Such is the bare outline of the history of the beginning of the diplomatic relationship between Nepal and Britain earlier represented by the East India Company. The book struck me for the following reasons.

First, the book presents a very unique and unusual perspective of the Nepal-Britain relationship. The perspective is humble, human, and by all standards, very cordial. The cemetery becomes a locus of that perception because it functions as a poetic ground, a theatrical corner and a minuscule history of a space that records the memories of the personas that were either buried there or were connected to the history of the people who were very close to them. Second, this small ground represents a history of the European people who were closely associated with Nepal in a number of ways. First and foremost, this being the cemetery of the British Embassy, we encounter some graves of Britons who worked in Nepal at different times.

What I find interesting is the dominant perspective of the writers who have written a history with the cemetery as the locus. I have a caveat here. The book presents the life of some Britons at the embassy as very isolated. The long incumbency of Brian Hodgson whom Charles Allen calls The Prisoner of Kathmandu (2015) is presented briefly. The vibrant atmosphere of Hodgson's embassy, his artistic activities and the architectural sites and cultural formations, and his collection of flora and fauna do not find space here. A book of 12 essays edited by David M Waterhouse entitled The Origins of Himalayan Studies (2005) presents the diversified picture of the Residency with all the above elements here. Hodgson's "de facto wife Meharunnisha Begum, a Kathmandu Muslim and their two sons, and the crowd around him that included Buddhist scholars and artist Rajman Chitrakar whose drawings are included in Hodgson's book Some Birds of Nepal constitute the texture.

The authors of Corner of a Foreign Field take a very intimate and human view of history by focussing on those who spent major parts of their lives here. The writers' style of writing and their description of different characters make this book highly readable. It is a remarkable history of the Western people who had to bury their dead in this khet or farmer's field at different times since the 19th century. But this became a space, which had to address sometimes the demands for burial of other Western people too. The place being very limited for that, this cemetery, this space in the heart of Kathmandu beginning with the burial of Stuart whose stone stands prominently and those of the infant son of the surgeon and artist Oldfield and another young girl marked clearly at the entrance, has become a museum of a different order. I could not put down this book written in 13 chapters without finishing it.

Thrilling moment

I first visited this cemetery not for any academic reason. A poet woman at one gathering in London way back in the 1970s had asked me, "Have you visited the grave of the wife of Poet Laureate John Betjeman in Kathmandu?" Back in Kathmandu after many years, I mentioned this to poet and friend Greta Rana and wondered if it was possible to find the lady's grave. We visited the cemetery together in 2015. That was a thrilling moment. Poet Greta Rana's narratives as we moved slowly around the cemetery were revealing, poetic and moving though we could not find the grave of Lady Penelope Valentine Hester Chetwode whose memorial, as the authors mention, is in Sarahan, Himachal Pradesh. They have mentioned my story in this book (page 246).

The writers have focussed on a very subtle aspect of the cemetery, which is a matter of its care and upkeep. Though taking care of the cemetery is not part of the embassy's responsibility, it is difficult for the mission to maintain a culture of indifference to that space that evokes the poetic, human and historic moments of the Britons with Nepal connections. As a student of English literature, I would like to end by recalling a stanza from the poem of the 18th century English poet Thomas Gray titled "Elegy written in a country churchyard": "On some fond breast the parting soul relies, /Some pious drops the closing eye requires; /Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, /Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires".